Thomas gets a little more or is it a little less than he wanted for Christmas.

by Paula Dillon

---

 
It was a week before Christmas and Thomas Bingham found himself alone in the house. Adele, his Mom and Ronald, his Dad had gone to a company function and would be there all day. Jenny was home from college, but out with her boyfriend. Neither would be home for the next eight hours.

At eleven years of age Thomas was a master at lifting tape and refastening ribbons. He looked at all the presents underneath the Christmas trees and was itching to know just what he was getting. His parents in the past had threatened to take everything back and give him lumps of coal if he peeked, but he just couldn’t help himself, he just had to see.

He carefully went through the packages and noted the names on the labels. He was surprised at all the presents that bore his name on them. He had at least six packages and he knew that there would probably be more. His mom always hid the big items. He had already searched the house top to bottom, looked in the garage, inside the trunk of the car and the storage shed in the backyard. She was getting real good at hiding things.

Still she usually had some good things under the tree already. Thomas picked up one box and shook it carefully. Clothes, but there was something strange about the way the box felt, as he shook it. He shook the rest of the shakable things. One box was heavy and was unshakable, three more had clothes and the last had a sound he couldn’t attribute, as he shook it.

He took the unshakable box first, carefully slipping the ribbon to the side and peeling the small piece of tape on one end. ‘Mom was really slipping if she only used one small piece of tape to keep him out,’ he thought. He carefully opened one end of the package. He saw the stores original packaging and got it opened enough to read the side.

He nearly dropped the package as he read, ‘My first makeup kit,’ on the side of the box. He thought maybe it is a box mom used to package something else, but no he could see the clear shrink wrapping was still intact.

‘Maybe it is Sis’s present,’ he thought, but no, the pictures on the side were clearly juvenile. He didn’t think his Sis would appreciate something like that. He carefully rewrapped the present, because the shrink wrap was impenetrable with out detection.

He then opened the strange sounding box. This one was more like his mom’s work in wrapping. It would have been tough for any normal person to open without leaving any traces, but he was a master. Beneath the wrapping paper was a box with a lid. There was no tape holding the lid down, so he opened it. Inside the box were dozens of pierced earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Some looked cheap and some not so cheap.

He found a card in the box that read, ‘I hope you like these Thomas, I love you so very much, Love Mom.’ His Mom must have gone off the deep end. The rest of the packages contained; training bras, panties, pantyhose, slips, two skirts, four blouses, a go to church type dress and a pair of girls shoes.

Thomas was pretty dejected as he carefully rewrapped everything and then sulked back to his room to cry. He didn’t know why his mom and dad were doing this to him; he was going to have an embarrassing and crappy Christmas.

For the next week Thomas just mopped around the house. He didn’t go out with his friends. Mostly he just stayed in his room and played with his Xbox. Even his sister couldn’t get a rise out of him. They usually had at least one spat a week. He only spoke when he was spoken too. He ate without his old fervor; even his favorite foods couldn’t bring a smile to his face.

Christmas eve the family usually let the kids open one present. His Mom gave him the option about opening one tonight or waiting till Christmas morning to open all of them. He chose not to open any that night.

Christmas morning, Jenny, dressed as a Christmas elf, had to literally go and drag her brother out of his room, at half past nine.

Jenny and Dad went under the tree and passed out the presents. Everyone waited until all the presents were passed out to begin opening them. In thirty minutes all the presents were opened except the ten packages that sat in front of Thomas.

“Open your presents Thomas,” Adele said.

“No I don’t want them,” Thomas said.

“Thomas Williford Bingham, open those presents or you will never receive another present from any of us,” Adele said.

He stood and started to kick the whole pile over. His Mom jerked him back onto the couch.

“Thomas, we ought to just take all of those presents back to the store,” his Dad said to him. “You will open each and every one of those packages, NOW!”

Adele handed Thomas the box with the makeup kit in it. Thomas was crying as he ripped the paper and ribbon off the box. He nearly choked to death as he saw the iPod dock, clock radio, stereo system.

The family all shouted, “Gotcha.”

His mom hugged the crying Thomas, to her side, and said, “We all got tired of you opening your presents before Christmas. You were always happy when you unwrapped them, but you had no sense of wonder or excitement anymore. It became a chore, rather than a love to buy presents for you. We knew you opened everything you had under the tree last week. So we waited till this morning to bring your things home from your Dad’s office. It wasn’t easy for us to just let you mope around this last week but we needed to teach you a lesson.”

“I am sorry Mom; I guess I always looked at peeking as an adventure. I felt I just had to know.”

“We know, but you never let us have any fun with you. We loved to try to surprise you, but you wouldn’t let us. AND THOMAS WILLIFORD BINGHAM, IF YOU EVER TRY TO BREAK ANY PRESENTS, YOU WILL NEVER RECEIVE ANOTHER,” his mother said with emphasis. “DO YOU UNDERSTAND, YOUNG MAN!”

“Yes ma’am, I do,” Thomas said crying.

The boy couldn’t stop crying, giggling and laughing as he opened the rest of his presents. He would give the person who gave the gift a hug as he opened one after the other. He even hugged his sister tightly after she gave him a card to buy music for his new iPod.

Thomas couldn’t remember a better Christmas. He was ashamed at how he acted over the last week, and realized that he got what he deserved and less.

After he had opened everything, he said, “Mom, Dad, sister, I want to say that I am sorry. Can you guys forgive me?”

“Of course we forgive you. You are our son.”
 

*          *          *
 
The next day Ronald had to go into his office for a few minutes and Jenny went to spend the day with her boyfriend. Adele called her son over to her computer. She showed him a video of him opening his presents that fateful day and holding up a dress he had found in one of the packages.

“Thomas I am going to save this video and show it to you each Thanksgiving Day for the next few years. Hopefully we won’t have a repeat of this year.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t peek anymore.”

“I won’t worry, but you should. Tell me what did you think when you saw all that stuff.”

“I thought everybody lost their blooming minds.”

“Well I wouldn’t peek next year, if I was you. Your worst nightmare may come true.”

“That is one lesson that I will never forget.”

“You know we love you don’t you.”

“Yeah I know.”

Adele hugged her son tightly, “Although I wonder how that pretty dress would look on you,” she giggled.
 

*          *          *