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Santa and an Adventure With Grandma

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma.

I was just a kid.

I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb:

"There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been.

I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me.

I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when

swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns.

I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so.

It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm.

Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me.

"No Santa Claus!" she snorted. "Ridiculous!

Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad.

Now, put on your coat, and let's go."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked.

I hadn't even finished my second world-famous, cinnamon bun.

"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything.

As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars.

That was a bundle in those days.

"Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it.

I'll wait for you in the car."

Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old.

I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself.

The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping.

For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten- dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker.

He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class.

Bobby Decker didn't have a coat.

I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter.

His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough, and he didn't have a coat.