A Gift for Emily

It was a few days until Christmas and Emily had yet to buy anything for her family. She wanted to get her mom and dad and baby henry something for Christmas. Her tenth birthday had been in October and she had a lot of money saved from that and allowances, nearly a hundred dollars. Her parents were at work, her grandma, who she was named after, was babysitting, and baby Henry lay sleeping on the floor. He wasn’t that much of a baby anymore though, he was two now and a terror. She needed to go shopping but she knew if she asked her grandma to take them she’d say ‘no’ since Henry was so hard to keep in line at home, let alone at the store. Then she had an idea.

“Grandma,” she said slowly, creeping into the sitting room where grandma sat reading a book.

“Yes dear,” her grandma replied.

“If I can convince the neighbor to watch Henry for a couple of hours will you take me to buy Christmas presents?” she asked.

Her grandma smiled at her over the book, “since it is for a good cause, I will.”

An hour later and they were walking into a department store in town. Grandma stopped walking at the jewelry counter.

“Oh my, that looks just like the ring my late husband got me in high school,” she told the sales lady, “I lost it a few years before he died.”

“Do you want me to take it out for you to look at?” the lady asked.

“Oh no it’s too expensive to even think about,” her grandma said.

Emily was done listening to the adults talk and started wandering toward the toy section even though she knew she should be shopping for her parents. Baby Henry would like a toy anyway so there was no harm in looking around. After she had looked around for what felt like forever she knew what she wanted to buy. But it would mean she couldn’t get anything for her mom or dad or even henry. But it was something she really wanted to get and it was her money after all. She knew if she got this, there would be a lot of arguing about bringing it back because it was a waste of money. But she just couldn’t resist buying it anyway. She snuck to the counter with the object in hand and the cashier raised an eyebrow at her.

“You sure this is what you want?” he asked as if he knew she was spending all her money on one thing and wouldn’t be able to buy anyone else any gifts.

“I’m sure,” she smiled. He let her pay and handed her a receipt, which she quickly tore into little pieces so no one could make her return it. She found her grandma, who eyed the small bag all the way to the car.

“You sure you got all the gifts you wanted to get?” her grandma asked.

“Well no, but I got something I really wanted to get,” Emily said. Her grandma looked disappointed but didn’t scold her. It was Christmas after all, and it was Emily’s money to buy what she wanted to. On the way home, they stopped for hot chocolate and drank it in the car.

Emily opened the bag and pulled out the box.

“You should wait until we get home to play with your toy,” her grandma said.

“Oh, it’s not a toy grandma,” Emily said, holding the box out to her, “it’s for you.”

Her grandma looked stunned, “for me?”

“Yep,” Emily grinned. Her grandma opened the box and looked inside, tears filled her eyes.

“It’s the ring like the one I lost, how did you know?” she asked.

“I heard you tell the sales lady, kids listen more than adults think they do,” Emily said.

Her grandma laughed but said, “I can’t accept this, it’s too expensive.”

“Too late, I tore up the receipt, besides I’m ten, I don’t think mom and dad expected much from me yet anyway, and henry is just two I have lots of Christmases to make it up to him, he just chews on toys anyway,” Emily said.

Her grandma chuckled and sighed, “alright I’ll keep it, and you know it makes me almost glad I lost the first one because now I have a ring that reminds me of my first love and my favorite granddaughter.”