Naughty

He crouched his back, walking ever so softly on the tip of his toes down the staircase. Just one creek on a step set him upright, with a quick glance behind him. With a breath he continued downstairs much more rapidly. He glanced at the Christmas tree and smiled, he then whizzed by and motored to the basement.

He had to find them! He grabbed for the flashlight to the left of the door and, in his excitement, clumsily knocked it down the stairs. He covered his ears, somehow hoping they wouldn’t hear it. Billy reluctantly turned the light on, ran downstairs, got the flashlight, fought to turn it on and then ran back up to turn the light off. Huh, out of breath.

“At least the police or Santa won’t see me now,” he said to himself. As he shut the basement door he thought, “Oh my God, it’s so dark!”

He tippy toed his way back down the stairs. He was pretty sure the presents were hidden on the big shelves where all the big dumb boxes were. Such a huge shelf. It’s too tall. So high up!

Billy, with all his might, pulled and pulled at the biggest heavy box on the lower shelf, hoping his presents were behind it. With a giant thud, the first box thumped on the floor. Nope!

“They won’t hear that. I’m all the way down in the basement!” He said quietly.

He yanked and pulled at the other two boxes. The last one must’a had some cool stuff in it because it jingled and smashed and made much more noise than the first box.

“I hope they didn’t hear that!” He thought. If they did he was ready to go hide behind the big metal box that daddy said heeded the house.

Billy looked way up at the shelves. There were lots more places to hide presents up there. They would never think that he would be able to find them there either!

Billy reached up as high as he could to the second shelf and pulled himself up, getting his feet onto the first empty self. He could do it. It wasn’t as easy as climbing the monkey bars at the park, but then again, there were no presents to be found at the monkey bars.

He reached up again, pushing himself up with his legs. He wrapped one leg along the side of the shelf. It didn’t feel right. It was jiggling and wiggling. Shelves are supposed to stay still if they are going to hold big boxes and Christmas presents.

The shelf. It moved. Billy jumped off just in time!

With a thunderous crash, it all came tumbling towards him. He scrambled back, just out of harm's way. A big noisy crash and there was a big, big pile of boxes. A lot of the stuff in the boxes as no longer in the boxes.

“Good thing I’m quick!” he thought when he realized he could have been under those boxes.

Billy heard footsteps above him. Mom and Dad were thumping down the stairs. He picked up his flashlight and ran to hide behind the huge metal heeder.

The light went on.

Mom said, “Oh my god! Honey!”

“What do you see?” Dad said.

“The shelves all fell, someone’s down here!” Mom said as she stood in the middle of the stairs.

“I’ll call the police. Don’t go down there,” Dad yelled at Mom.

“Oh no!” Billy said softly, “Santa will put me on his naughty list.”

Mom went all the way down stairs to look at the damage. She never listened to Dad either. She couldn’t believe her eyes. “What a mess!” she said. She looked around the little basement and that’s when she saw it - a light from behind the furnace.

“Billy, is that you?”

He crawled out slowly, with a sad look on his face. “ Please don’t tell Santa” he cried!

Linda Laforge is a contemporary celtic artist and creative writer. To see her portfolio and to read more visit her at: http://www.LindaLaforge.com

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