Ah, Christmas shopping. Why did I wait until a week before to start? Fortunately, the others all had something else to do. Man, Winfred-Louder is packed. They must have a santa for the kids to see. I smiled, then rounded the corner to find santa with his long line of kids. I shook my head and bit my lip. 'Poor guy. Well, atleast he's got some help,' I thought, noticing the two guys dressed as elves. One of them faced the line of kids, in my direction.
      "Oswald?" I said to myself. I stood there watching. 'Oh, dear, God, please don't let that be Lewis, too!' It was. I waited a bit to see if one of them would spot. They didn't.
      Finally, 'santa' needed a smoke, so they took a break. I wandered over to the guys.
      "I thought elves were supposed to be short," I commented.
      "Well..." OSwald said, then turned. "Lauren! What the hell are you doing here?" He smiled.
      I raised the bag I was holding. "I'm shopping." I got the idea Lewis was hoping I didn't recognize. I put a hand on his arm. "Nice tights, by the way."
      Lewis turned and I grinned at him. He gave me a pained expression back.
      "Why didn't you guys tell me?" I asked.
      "I think you answered yourself with the tights comment," Lewis replied.
      "Oh, come on! I think it's great!" I said.
      "Yeah, it would be if some of these kids weren't such brats," Oswald said.
      "That's true," I agreed. "Well, I guess I'll go finish my shopping. Oh, when do you guys get done? I'll wait for ya."
      "You'd wait another three hours?" Lewis asked.
      "Well, I've got a little more shopping to do and it might take me that long to finish buying everything," I said. "I'll meet you guys here. See you later." I turned to go.
      "Bye," Lewis said.
      "See ya," Oswald said.
      They stood there watching until I rounded the corner.
      "Boy, that was only half as humiliating as I thought it'd be," Oswald commented
      "yeah, well, atleast you two are related, so she wasn't checking out your butt," Lewis.
      "Cool!" Oswald said.
      Lewis shook hi head, then mumbled, "Idiot."

      Three hours later, I returned to "Santa Land," this time with one more bag. The guys were sitting on the landing. Oswald was chomping on a candy cane.
      "You guys look worn out!" I said.
      "It wasn't that bad," Oswald commented, then went back to his candy cane.
      "Yeah, it was awful!" Lewis said. "The only reason you didn't mind is because you were taking the pictures! I had to talk half of those kids into going up to santa. Geez. Then the one kid that kept running away..." He shook his head. "I'd rather chase the monkapotamus any day than do this again." He rested his chin in his hands and stared at the floor.
      "Wow. I didn't know..." I said, then paused. "So... should we get going?"
      "Stop at the Warsaw?" Oswald asked.
      I looked at Lewis.
      "We live over the Warsaw, you idiot," Lewis said, simply.
      "Someone's in a foul mood!" Oswald said.
      "Can we just go?" Lewis asked.
      We gathered our stuff and left.

      Oswald stayed downstairs at the bar. I followed Lewis upstairs.
      "Hey, I'm really sorry for ragging on you guys. If I'dknown it was so bad..." I said.
      "That's it, though, you didn't. Besides, it got worse after you saw us," Lewis said, grabbed a Buzz Beer, plopped down at the booth.
      I grabbed a soda and sat next to him. "I"m still sorry you had a rotten day, but I do think those outfits are cute." I smiled, hoping to atleast get a momentary grin out of Lewis. It didn't work.
      "You know, we do this for two weeks leading up to Christmas. We take turns taking the pictures and talking the kids into going up to see santa. Oswald never gets the brats. I just don't get it," Lewis expalined. "He always gets the kids who'll actually get toys, while I get the ones that'd get coal if the parents got them anything at all."
      I looked down at my soda. 'What can I say to that?' I thought.
      We satin silence... probably because I couldn't think of anything else to say.
      Lewis finished his beer. "I'm going to sleep. You can stay if you want." He got up and went into the bedroom, closing the door behind him.
      I watched the door for a bit, hoping he'd come back out. Nope. 'Well, this is uncomfortable. Now, what do I do? What can I do?' I sat a little while longer... then I got a cramp in my leg, so I got up. I went to the door and knocked on it. "Lewis?"
      "What?"
      "There's gotta be something else bothering you," I said, sort of baiting him. I backed up from the door a little and waited.
      The door opened.
      "You don't give up, do you?" Lewis asked.
      "No, I don't," I said, matter-of-factly. I paused. "Oswald didn't tell you something about me, did he?" I grinned.
      "No," he said.
      Now, all my patience was gone. "Then what is it?!" I may have said that just a tad too loud.
      "All right, all right... I sorta overheard something at DrugCo," Lewis said, cracking.
      Suddenly, my anger turned to worry. "Awe, no..."
      "Yeah, their way of saying 'Happy Holidays'... with pink slips and pay cuts," he said.
      "Well, they need someone to clean up the place, right?" I asked.
      "Someone... one being the possible key word," Lewis said.
      "Great. Just great," I said. "I'll get the shaft."
      "See why I didn't wanna say anything? Now, we're both unhappy," he said.
      "Im pretty sure I would've igured it out sooner or later, you know," I said.
      "Hey, I don't know for sure!" Lewis said.
      We stood in silence for a moment.
      "I wonder what's keeping Oswald," I said.
      "I'll go down later and drag him up here," he said.
      "Today's really turned out crappy," I commented.
      "Maybe I'm wrong!" Lewis said. "I hope I'm wrong." He went to the fridge and grabbed a soda. He sat back down at the booth.
      "I hope you're wrong, too," I said, then went over behind the booth. "This is awkward."
      "Why?" he asking, turning in my direction.
      "I don't know, it just sorta feels that way," I said, then leaned my forearms on the back of the booth.
      Oswald came in, holding the mail. "Mail's here." He plopped the pile on the table. "My work is done." He went into the bedroom.
      "Geez, he made it up here himself. Must've been too tred to pick up the beer mug," Lewis said, then started looking through the mail. "Damn..."
      "What?" I asked, cautiously.
      "An envelope from DrugCo," he replied, then started to open it. "Here goes..." He pulled out the contents. "A bonus!?" He paused. "You look at it."
      I took it. "It's a check... definitely a bonus." I paused. "Oh, man, you got a bonus and I got shafted."
      Lewis took the check back. "Don't say that..." He stared at the check and slowly began to smile. "Now, what could I do with this?"
      I got the feeling I was no longer in the room, so I took the 'opportunity' and left. I had to go check my mail.