Page 13 of The Scrooge Effect

“Yeah, you know…it makes me feel lighter.”

Harper tugged on my arm, pulling me away from the man. “Will you stop? You’re making a scene.”

“I’m making a scene? If anyone’s making a scene, it’s the fat man up there taking up the whole mall. Seriously, why do we all have to wait in line to see him? What makes him so special?”

“He’s Santa!” Eden cried out. “You’re nothing but a big jerk!”

She took off through the crowd, quickly disappearing.

“Eden!” I was about to take off after her when Harper handed me James.

“I’ll get her. You stay here and keep our place in line, and don’t scare off Gracie, too.”

“Oh, right, because staying in line for Santa is so important!”

Rolling her eyes at me, she took off after my kid sister.

“And remind her that it’s not safe to run away in a crowded place! That’s how people get kidnapped!”

The noise died down around me, leaving me surrounded by a hundred angry parents.

“What? I work in security. I know about this stuff.”

“What is wrong with you?” Harper snapped at me as soon as the kids were asleep.

“Me? You’re the one who’s yelling.”

“Because you were such an ass tonight! All those kids were so happy to meet Santa until you came along and opened your big mouth.”

“It was hot in there. That’ll make anyone grouchy. Haven’t they ever heard of air conditioning?”

“It’s winter, Edu. They don’t use air conditioning when it’s forty degrees outside.”

“Well, maybe they should. You’ve heard that the customer’s always right. I think I’ll bring this up to the mall…people and let them know I was not comfortable there.”

“The mall people? Seriously, do you even hear yourself?”

I did, and I knew I sounded like an idiot, but she was not going to convince me that normal people willingly stood in a line for over two hours just to see a fake Santa.

“Harper, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“You got us kicked out of the mall.” Thrusting her hand on her hip, she shook her head at me in disappointment.

“I did not get us kicked out. They asked us to leave. That’s a completely different thing. They were very polite about it.”

“Unlike you, who told everyone your sister was going to get kidnapped, and so would their kids if they wandered off.”

“I did not say that.”

“You might as well have. You scared everyone in that mall!”

“That’s just ridiculous. Everyone in that mall wasn’t close enough for me to scare.”

Slumping down on the bed, she finally gave up arguing with me. Which was only right. There was no way she would win this one. I wasn’t about to pretend to be holly and jolly over something as stupid as a made-up holiday.

“Edu, you’re ruining everything.”

“Not everything. I mean…we still have a roof over our heads,” I joked.