Sensing my unease, Old Man Wither sank into his oversized recliner on the other side of the room, giving me the space I sought. I opened the present gently, taking care not to tear the paper since I planned on keeping it with a few items I had managed to slide past Lucinda over the years. The paper slowly gave away, revealing a rectangular-shaped box. My heart raced as I read the word “Kindle” across the carton. I had seen electronic book readers advertised on the TV but knew there was no way I would ever be able to get one.
“No way,” I whispered, holding the item with trembling hands.
“You don’t like it?” Old Man Wither asked worriedly. “Kevin told me you like to read.”
“I love it, but there’s no way I can accept it. It’s way too expensive.”
“Nah, the salesclerk said they’ve come way down in price since they were first released.”
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever gotten,” I said truthfully, thinking about all the books I had abandoned over the years and the possibility of never having to do that again. My eyes filled with unshed tears of happiness at the thought. Embarrassed at my sudden wet eyes, I pulled up the flap of the envelope and extracted a funny Christmas card with a dancing reindeer on the cover. Opening it up, I discovered a fifty-dollar gift card to Amazon taped to the inside.
Before I could protest that it was too much, he held up his hand. “Now, the salesclerk also said there’s a slew of books you can get for free, but I also wanted you to have a little money to get the books you want. No arguments, okay? You wouldn't want to deprive me of my first happy holiday in a long time, would you?”
“No,” I said, still uncomfortable with the expense.
“Trust me, my dear, I bet my Marge is smiling down on us with approval,” he said with sudden wet eyes.
“Well then, in that case, thank you so much. You’ll never know how much this means to me,” I said, hugging the carton close to my chest.
“How about a brownie?” Kevin asked in his typical exuberance.
“Sounds good to me,” Mr. Wither said with a laugh, pulling the plastic wrap off the ceramic plate.
Kevin and I spent several hours with Old Man Wither as Kevin taught him the finer art of playing a handheld game system. While they took turns playing Marvel Heroes, I sat by the wall while my Kindle charged surfing through the automated manual. By the time Mr. Wither volunteered to take us home, I had found a mess of books I wanted to read. I was thrilled to see that tons of them were priced as low as ninety-nine cents.
Lucinda was still in her room when we returned home at nine, so I allowed Kevin to pick a present he wanted to open after we had sorted through them all. I wasn’t surprised that Lucinda and Jim’s own piles were twice as large as Kevin's and mine, but I was pleased that Kevin had almost a dozen for him alone.
“Your pile is pretty small,” he said, looking at me worriedly.
“Hey, don’t worry about it, pal. I got the best gift ever tonight thanks to you. If you wouldn’t have told Old Man Wither I like to read, I would've never gotten this,” I said, holding up my treasured Kindle. "So, which one are you going to open?”
“I think this one,” he said, holding up a heavy, large rectangular box that had puzzled us for weeks.
“Okay,” I said, secretly pleased the mystery of the package would be solved.
Kevin tore through the wrapping and opened the large carton beneath the paper. I swore under my breath when I saw him extract a baseball bat. Damn her! Lucinda was so intent on keeping Kevin from his love of action figures and superheroes that she would stoop so low to buy him something he had absolutely no use for.
Kevin shocked me by bursting out in laughter. “Wow, she really wants me to play sports,” he said, looking at me with more understanding than someone his age should have.
“I guess so,” I said honestly, looking at him with concern.
“Do you find it funny Mr. Withers knows us better than our own mom?” Kevin asked seriously as we turned off the living room light and headed for our rooms.
“Yeah, I do,” I said, giving him a quick hug. “Merry Christmas Eve, bud.”
“Merry Christmas Eve, Katelyn. I love you.”
“I love you too, bud,” I said as he slowly closed his bedroom door.
***
Kevin woke me early the next morning, excited to be celebrating the first Christmas morning with gifts that he could remember. I pretended to grumble about wanting to sleep in, but willingly allowed him to drag me out of bed. Lucinda didn’t respond when we knocked on her bedroom door, so we headed to the living room without her.
“You open one first,” Kevin said, handing me one of my six presents.
“How about we do them at the same time?” I suggested, knowing he was anxious to open his.
“Okay, ready, set, go,” he said, tearing through the wrapping paper, making it fly everywhere.