Writers as Kids: and in the morning you will open presents

Story by Sasha Fletcher

Pictured: Olivia Cronk

FATHER

In the morning she was there and she was holding the Polaroid we’d given her and she was holding it and waving it around and she was screaming and we were laughing. Or, I was laughing and she was comforting her. My wife was. But listen it was funny. At some point there was no sound. Her mouth was just open wide.

LITTLE GIRL

I am going to find this man in red and I am going to take him down. Can you tell how I am feeling right now? Look at my eyes. I am going to find this man. My mouth is open wide. It is open as wide as it can be and what this means is that this is how far I am willing to go to deal with this. Can I help you? Are you being helped? I have nothing more to say about this. Will you put me in the stroller? Will we go for a stroll? Do you see how i am fuzzy? There is a reason for this and that reason is a tactical one. I will put the man in red in the stroller. I will take him for a ride. Do you know where we will go? I will tell you where we will go. Where we go will not be pretty. Where we go will be full of ice. And snow. And there will be people there as big as me and they will have hammers. What will we hammer there? Nothing. Not until it is time to hammer. The man in red will explain himself. 

SANTA CLAUS

I will rise again and when I rise again you will all be put in a bag and I will carry you away and bury you in the snow where you will all become snowmen and if it ever melts you will learn what it is that I have buried in you and then something will have to be done about that. In the morning I will be asleep. There are several sorts of cookies I want you to learn how to make. Please do this for me. I don’t know how else to say it. I will miss you.

Comments

[Catherine Lacey]

Good Stuff. I am a Fletcher fan.

[Kat]

Oh I love this!