Christmas Day in the Morning
Big Bertha brought her husband Little Mac tea and a present. The package took most of the space on the tray, leaving the steaming cup perilously close to the edge. She found Mac still in bed, in the very middle, propped up with pillows and surrounded by pillows on all sides. Along with his pajamas, he was wearing the tea cozy that served as his thinking cap when he waxed philosophical once or twice a year.
"My husband is increasingly peculiar," Bertha said to the room at large, as if she were alone in it.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and put the tray on the bedside table. "Here then," she said, handing the cup to Little Mac, "Merry Christmas! What's all this then? Looks like you've brought out every pillow in the house."
"It's poltergeists, is what it is," said Little Mac. "Every time I get up they start pushing me around. And always to the left. You will say it's only that I'm losing my balance. But I know when I'm being pushed around."
"No," said Big Bertha, "I believe you. If you say it's poltergeists, then that's what it is. In fact, I'll bet I know why they're doing it. It's your thinking cap."
"What?" He put the hand that wasn't holding his tea on the tea cozy on his head, as if to keep it from getting pulled off.
"Yes, it's too old and ratty and stained. It doesn't become you any more. They're making fun of you because they think you're a bum."
"Well, I never," said Little Mac. "But it's the only thinking cap I've got!"
"Not any more," said Big Bertha. She unwrapped the package and from the box produced two brand new tea cozies, one yellow and one red. "I've made you a thinking cap fit for a king."
"But there's two," said Little Mac.
"One's for me," said Big Bertha. "It's time you had company in the philosophical business." She put on the red cozy and handed the yellow one to him. "Yellow for you because yellow's like gold. And pure gold is the crown of the king."
Emptying his cup and passing it back to his wife, Little Mac changed out his ratty old cozy for the new yellow one. To Big Bertha, with tears in his eyes, he said, "Gee, Bertie, you'd do anything for me."
"I do," said Big Bertha. "I do. Now get rid of some of those pillows and make room for me. It's Christmas day in the morning and I've put my work aside. Let's you and me snuggle a while."
25 December 2017
Texas Jim
Prospect, Nova Scotia (photo from Peggy's Cove)
www.granitecoast.ca