The Moonlit Road - The Missing Cookies

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So our festive Christmas tradition was a welcome sight to our neighbors. But about a year after we moved into the house, I began to notice that one of our traditions had become conspicuously absent. My parents weren't leaving the plate of refreshments out for Santa and his reindeer. When I asked why not, my Mom quickly told me that since we had moved, we were now one of the first homes on Santa's route. So now he wasn't hungry when he came to our home. In fact, if we let him fill himself up with cookies, he'd be too full to bring toys to the other children around the world.

Well that excuse didn't fly with me. So the next Christmas, I asked Mom the same question - and she gave me the same answer. But by then I had begun to notice that I wasn't getting a lot of the gifts I really wanted. He never brought me the horse, or the rocket ship, or the baby sister I had specifically asked for. Was Santa getting mad because we weren't leaving him cookies anymore?

One night I eavesdropped on a whispered conversation in my parents' bedroom. I had gotten really upset at Mom that day for refusing to leave cookies out, and now I could hear her talking to my Dad about it. They talked about how when we first moved into the old house, someone or something had eaten the cookies we left by the fireplace. Maybe it was rats, or a hungry burglar. But nothing else in the house was touched! So since they couldn't figure out what happened, they did away with the tradition altogether.

I felt like screaming through the wall, "Of course someone ate the cookies! It was Santa!"

Stairs

So that Christmas Eve, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I wasn't about to miss out on the trip to Alaska that I had politely asked Santa for. So in the middle of the night, when my parents were fast asleep, I snuck downstairs and left a plate piled high with chocolate chip cookies by the fireplace. Mom had made plenty of them for friends that year, so I figured she wouldn't miss just a plate full. The fireplace was in the living room, about two doors down from where the Christmas tree was, so I couldn't tell if Santa had come and gone. But I hadn't heard noises from downstairs all night, so I was relatively certain that Santa hadn't arrived yet.

Well I went back to bed, but I was way too excited to sleep that night. So after an hour had passed, I decided to go downstairs and see if Santa had eaten his cookies. I tiptoed down the stairs, keenly aware of where each creaky board was located. As I got to the foot of the stairs and began creeping down the cold, dark hallway, I heard a sound that prickled my skin with excitement. It was the sound of a plate being lifted off of the fireplace, followed by ravenous munching noises. It crossed my mind to leave Santa alone - but how many kids have the opportunity to meet the man himself? So I crept up to the living room doorway and slowly peaked around the corner.

What I saw next froze me in my tracks. Santa wasn't in the room at all - but somebody else was.

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