Disclaimer: The characters of the Stephanie Plum series belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Note: This is in response to a Weekly Wednesday Challenge on the Perfectly Plum list.
Young Carlos Stands In Line
By TT
As carefully as possible, he shifted from one foot to the other even as his eyes continued to stare at neat pyramid of GI JOE Action figures a few feet away.
“Stand still, Carlos,” his mother admonished.
He suppressed a small sigh.
Yesterday had been wonderful. He has woken up to his mother making their big Christmas breakfast and had waited impatiently with his siblings until his parents were ready to open gifts.
None of them had gotten everything from their Christmas lists, but each of them had gotten at least one toy they had wanted along with the clothes they needed.
After all the gifts were opened, friends and family started arriving with food for the big Christmas Day gathering they had every year.
It was almost eight o’clock when the last of the people left. The kids had been put on clean-up duty.
Once that was finished, it was time to play with their toys again before their extra-late bedtime of 9:30. They only ever got to stay up that late on special holidays and, despite their fatigue, each of the children was determined to enjoy it.
After a good night’s sleep, the next morning would see things returning to normal. The clothes from the day before would be tried on and, if you were unfortunate enough to not fit what was gotten you, you would travel back to the stores with Mama to exchange them.
Carlos always hoped and prayed his clothes would fit. Unfortunately, he always seemed to grow faster than Santa and his parents figured so almost every year he ended up standing in line with his mother to return his ill-fitting clothes and get new ones.
This year was the worst he could remember. He and his mother had been waiting in the return line for an eternity – at least twenty whole minutes! He wondered if this counted as child cruelty.
“There’s only five more people in front of us, Carlos,” his mother informed. “We’re almost through.”
Carlos sighed.
Present
His eyes scanned the area, pausing briefly on the neat pyramid of Wii’s. Tank had picked one up a few months before and Ranger had discovered he actually enjoyed playing with it. Maybe he should get one for his and Steph’s apartment, he thought as he shifted from one foot to another, impatient to be done with this line.
“Stand still, Carlos,” Stephanie admonished again. “What is wrong with you today? You can sit for hours in a car on surveillance and never move a muscle, but twenty minutes in a return line has you fidgeting like a six-year-old.”
‘Babe,” Ranger replied with a wince. He knew it was true, but he had never had patience for shopping. In fact, he wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for the fact that Stephanie had talked him into exchanging the black cashmere sweater his parents had sent.
When she found out he was just going to give it away or let it languish in the back of his closet, she had insisted he return it for the proper size. Of course, he hadn’t really realized what he was agreeing to at the time. He had been rather distracted watching her shimmy out of her pants and strip off her top.
That, of course, made him wonder when he’d stopped being aware of his surroundings around her. Of course, they had been standing in the dressing area of their room, safely locked in for the night, so it only seemed reasonable he had let himself become distracted,
A smile flitted at the corner of his lips as he thought of how they had proceeded to distract each other last night shortly after he’d agreed to come to the store.
“Oh, look,” Stephanie said cheerily. “Only ten more people in front of us.”
Carlos sighed.
End