Yours Truly

December 24, 1995

Dear Santa,

I want you to know that you are my favorite thing person right now. The stories make you sound so jolly and I would like to ooze some of your good spirit into my muddied vibes.

You see, I feel very stressed out.

And not a little. A lot.

I feel stressed out because Uncle kind of yelled at me after watching the six o'clock news.

I guess it all started the night we got back home. My happiness from Vanessa faded as soon as we parked because I remembered that I would be on the news.

I mean, I was sorta excited and stuff because I would be famous, but I was mostly worried because of Uncle's punishment and I didn't want to get in trouble.

The other night when we got back I tried to grab the T.V. remote as fast as I could. I really didn't want to let Uncle see the news. I know that he would be so upset. So I started to go to the channel I wanted to watch. My avoidance didn't work.

Because you know what Uncle did? 

He said, "Isn't my turn to pick the station?" 

So he grabbed the remote right back, sat on the couch and scrolled to the news. The news!

I tried to get up secretly so I could go lock myself in the bathroom and hide from his angry face I knew was coming, but Uncle just put and arm around me. He was trying to be all positive and tell me how glad he was that I was safe, but I honestly didn't care about it that much. I just wanted to get away.

I mean don't get me wrong, Santa! I like that he can say those things about love and junk, but I knew he was about to get me in trouble!

My squirming didn't work either because he found the station, turned up the volume, and watched.

The news lady was just talking about the incident and how it started.

And then the worst part. The lady started talking about a mysterious man who saved a young girl from the burning school.

My cheeks got hot and everything as they showed a clip of me freezing and running away.

For a moment I actually forgot about Uncle because you know what the worst part was? I looked like a dork. I just stared and looked stupid. Especially when I ran away.

But then Uncle muted the T.V. and faced me.

I felt a little ashamed and scared. He started to go ballistic. He kept yelling about how I could of gotten hurt and how he could've of lost me and how stupid that was. He said that the news will be all over it and that I was grounded for a month.

A month.

I can't play my Gameboy any more and no T.V. and he's taking my stuffed Tiger away.

He's taking Tawny!

Uncle said that if I morph into the super guy again, then worse things would happen.

Please bring me some joy tomorrow Santa.

-Billy