Suspicious Christmas

Christmas morning, for some the most joyous time of the year, for others just a normal day, for the Mendoza family Christmas was about to take an unusual turn. With one brown paper box tucked under the tree, hidden beneath all the presents, waiting for Christmas morning to come.

May Mendoza, the youngest of the Mendoza family, always loved and awaited Christmas all year round. Not for the gifts that she would receive but for the gift she would handcraft and give to each member of her family, making extra special ones for her favorite family members, mainly Aunt Lucy. May and Lucy had a special unbreakable connection that May hadn’t found with any other family member, when May was little she and Aunt Lucy used to have tons of tea parties and go everywhere together, they were inseparable. This Christmas May had an extra special gift for Aunt Lucy, she had made her a special little necklace with a picture of them both together inside it, May was so excited to give it to her!

The Mendoza family would come together from all their different households every Christmas morning to their Grandma Fleur’s house. They would all drive to their house at 6 am sharp and gather in the living room while the little ones would bring all the gifts from under the tree to everyone so they could open them all together and see what everyone got.

May loved this tradition, her being the youngest one, she and her 1-minute older brother Jay would bring the gifts to everyone. May would bring all her gifts to everyone first. May had wrapped all her gifts months before Christmas and was so excited on Christmas morning to bring her big box of presents to her grandma’s house. Before she could get all that excitement out, her family was having a Christmas eve dinner at her Aunt Lucy’s house.

Kaitlyn, May’s mother, didn’t want to go to dinner as she had lots to wrap before tomorrow morning, so she stayed home as the rest of the family headed over to Aunt Lucy’s house across town. May was so excited to see Aunt Lucy as she hadn’t seen her in almost a week! To young May that feels like FOREVER, as she told her daddy in the car “Daddy, it’s been FOREVERRRR since I’ve seen Aunt Lucy! What if she doesn’t even recognize me!” her dad laughed and reminded May how she had just gone skating with Lucy last Friday and that she’s only grown an inch since. Before she knew it May saw Aunt Lucy’s house and as soon as her dad parked the car, and she heard the click of the doors unlocking she pushed open the car door and began to race her way to the front doors. But before she was even halfway there, she heard her dad yell “May Mendoza, come close the door!” in an instant May raced back to the door quickly said, “sorry daddy” and closed the door, and raced back to the front doors and jumped up to hit the little doorbell.

As soon as the door opened May screamed “AUNT LUCY!” and immediately jumped into her arms, “Hi Sweetie” Aunt Lucy responded as she put May down on the ground and welcomed Jay and her dad. May walked into the house towards the dining room because she was STARVINGGG, she reluctantly hugged each one of her family members on the way, SO MANY HUGS, May thought. Soon enough she was sitting on her little high chair at the dining room table right between daddy and Aunt Lucy. A little after dinner while everyone was drinking and chatting at the table Kaitlyn showed up, Aunt Lucy got up and went to the door to greet her, May began to walk over too but mommy sounded angry so she stopped hoping to listen in but mommy noticed her. “We’re going home sweetie,” Kaitlyn said to May as she walked over to her waving at Jay to come with them, “but what about daddy?” May said, “he’ll be home later sweetie, we’ve got to go get you guys to bed so we can wake up bright and early tomorrow morning” Kaitlyn responded “Okay! Goodnight Aunt Lucy” May said and began to run straight to the car.

Before May knew it Christmas morning had come, “May, Jay, time to go to grandma’s” her mom called out, in an instant May hoped out of bed, put on her reindeer slippers, grabbed her big box of presents, and walked down the stairs followed by her less excited brother. Her mom drove over to their grandma’s house, May hopped out of the vehicle and pounded her excited little hand on the door, her grandma opened it and welcomed them in. May could smell the delicious scones her grandma makes every year cascading through the house, she raced up the stairs and into the living room hoping she was the first one there but to her surprise, everyone was already there enjoying their scones. She looked all around the room, no aunt lucy, she ran to the kitchen, no aunt lucy, she went back to the staircase where her mom was still chatting with her grandma as she brought in the last box of presents, “Where’s Aunt Lucy!?” May yelled.

May stood at the top of the stairs waiting for a response from someone as to where Aunt Lucy was. Her grandma responded, “I don’t know babe, I’m sure she’ll be here soon,” “but she is always here before me on Christmas morning!” May said, “I’ll give her a ring Hun, don’t worry” her mom responded. May sat in the living room waiting and waiting for her Aunt Lucy, her mom walked in, “is she coming? Is she on her way?” May said, “I couldn’t reach her babe, your dad is on his way over there to see if she’s there but she might have gone away with one of her little boyfriends” May’s face grew sad as her mom said those words to her “but it’s Christmas...” May sighed.

7 am hit and Aunt Lucy still was nowhere to be found and couldn’t be reached, “we’re going to have to have Christmas without her this year babe,” May’s mom said, “Okay,” May said as she got up and began to hand out all the Christmas presents. One by one the presents went from under the tree, Aunt Lucy’s being put aside for later, until one present remained, May pulled it out curiously as none of the other presents looked like this one. Aunt Lucy was scribbled on top of the box in black Sharpie. May picked up the box, it was a little heavy compared to the rest, but she could lift it, she started to walk it to the spot in the living room with Aunt Lucy’s pile. As she was in the entryway to the living room she felt a drop on her barefoot, she looked down and saw a small red drop, blood? May thought. Another drop she watched go from the bottom of the box to her foot, she looked at the bottom of the box and saw a bunch of blood it was starting to cover her hands, May screamed and dropped the box. When she dropped the box it opened, she saw something roll out, “Aunt Lucy?” she said. Her mom ran to her and covered her eyes, she could hear her family rushing around. Her dad must’ve found a note in the box because she heard him whispering “Aunt Lucy’s been a bad girl this Christmas season, very bad indeed, who else wasn’t good this year? Signed Santa.” An uproar of conversations began between her family members that turned into yelling until all conversation was stopped when a big gust of wind came out of the fireplace putting the fire out, May could feel her hairs standing on end and her mom's hand went from covering her eyes to grabbing a little blanket to warm her up. A little toy dropped down from the chimney, a bobblehead bouncing back and forth playing Santa clause is coming to town, Santa clause is coming to town, Santa clause is comin-g to-tow-n, Sa-n-ta cl-aus-e i-s com-in-g t-o tow… it stopped bobbing and cut out. Every Mendoza’s eyes were glued to that fireplace, to that little bobblehead, in fear. A foot came down on that toy, a black boot, wearing red pants, May’s scared and shaky voice spoke “Santa Clause?”