XMAS DRAMA

By Shirley Carolan

The Christmas holidays can be a stressful time for some people and this year I certainly felt the stress... Imagine Christmas Day answering a knock on your front door by two youthful looking police officers. But, I’m getting ahead of my story.

Actually, I’ve delayed writing about this because I felt embarrassed and then a bit ridiculous that these two policemen were seriously checking up on me when I’m sure they had more important things to do.

Two days before Christmas, December 23rd to be exact, I fell out of bed that morning, hit my head on a dresser and took a good punch in the left cheek from the edge of the dresser as I felt myself in slow motion going down for the count. Utterly dazed, and quite scared, I gradually pulled myself up, not an easy thing to do considering I have a pin in my right shoulder holding it together.

Was anything broken? Judging from the pain I wouldn’t be surprised. I hotfooted it to the bathroom to take a look at my face. From my left cheek to the jaw line was the beginning of a huge black and blue bruise. My heading was pounding as though I had a concussion. My right elbow had the beginnings of a huge bruise, and my left kneecap was bleeding and quite raw… It was obvious I’d done myself a mischief!

Once back on my feet, I blithely carried on as best I could reminding myself that the year would soon be over and hopefully all the illnesses would be behind me. At least I felt optimistic that this would be so.

On the Monday before Christmas, Dec. 23rd, I received a lovely gift from my twin brother and his family, which Fed Ex had been kind enough to leave at my door. It was from “The Fruit Company.” I immediately got off an email to thank them. Alas, unbeknownst to me, they never got the email!

Christmas Eve I ran out of eggnog and decided to hightail it to Ralph’s to get some more since they would be closed on Christmas Day. I also decided it might be the last time to take photos of some of the beautiful house decorations in my neighborhood since some folks take down their decorations early. So, I packed my Shih-Tzu in the car and with my digital camera took some photos as I circled my neighborhood, All told, I was probably gone less than an hour.

During this time, my answering machine took two phone messages: my nephew had called me from Newport Beach to wish me a Merry Christmas and half an hour later my twin brother called ditto. I was totally oblivious to this. Instead, I came home to enjoy my eggnog!. It was a little after 9 PM. Maybe you’re the kind who checks for messages frequently but I am not so I was to learn an important lesson.

Christmas Day I awoke to beautiful sunshine and took Krissy, my little Shih-Tzu, for her early morning walk. As I got to my front door I said to myself “I’d better check my phone messages and than get on with my day.” Lo and behold I saw the red light flashing indicating their were phone messages. I played them back for the first time. My brother sternly informed me that since they had not heard from me he felt he had no recourse but to ask the local police station if they would please check up on me to make sure I was OK.

Quickly, I got on my computer and emailed him that would not be necessary and I resent the email from December 21 to him. I am grateful that I’ve learned to keep copies of all my emails to my family…just in case. I thought that would be the end of it.

Then I heard the knocking on my front door. Everybody seems to miss the fact that I do have a chimer. Nevertheless, the policeman said to me “I guess you know why we’re here?” I nodded my head and told him what had happened. Then I noticed I’d left my dog’s leash on the outdoor rattan chair and my house key was still in the lock. And, of course I looked a dreadful sight with all my black and blue bruises. I couldn’t imagine what the police must have thought…perhaps some ol’ gal on the border of dementia? It was a comedie francais!

My brother never received my Monday email thanking him for the gift and I was unaware that I had two phone calls from them the night before while I was out shopping for eggnog! I apologized profusely and thanked the police for their courtesy. I even asked them if they’d like a copy of the resent email to my brother...

I guess the moral of the story is to always check to see if you have any messages from anyone especially if you have left your home however briefly!
Till next year, Happy Holidays everyone!

Shirley M. Carolan, ATMG
Writer● Speaker ● Artist
artistwithaflair@att.net
Phone/Fax: 760-732-0663
http://www.shirleycarolan.com
http://www.smcarolan.blogspot.com

Copyright© 2009 by Shirley M. Carolan. All rights reserved. To reprint any part of this article simply contact Shirley Carolan at artistwithaflair@att.net. Thank you.