I Wish I Were Santa

I was sitting in Tim Horton’s having a coffee and reading my book when I was jarred back into the real world by a chair slamming down on the floor at the next table. I looked up and there was a short (read wide), middle aged woman who had a sour look on her face and a disposition to match, judging by the way she arranged furniture.

She sat with her back to me and I noticed that she didn’t have a coffee. I looked over to see if someone was getting her a hot drink or perhaps was putting the divorce papers in order. I didn’t see anyone, but since her attitude or marital status had no interest to me, I went back to reading about Nazi Germany and starving people.

Just a few minutes later, a morose, young, dark haired woman in her mid twenties with a cute little two and a half year old in tow, sat down at the table with the sourpuss. She had two coffees for the adults and a small hot chocolate for the little girl. I kept trying to read, but my attention was being drawn to this threesome.

I couldn’t hear any conversation from them at all, which was odd because I was perhaps three feet from the older woman. The younger woman kept her eyes on the child and seemed to be avoiding any eye contact with the older woman at all costs. Normally, whenever there are small children in Tim’s while I am having coffee, they can’t take their eyes off of me. It isn’t often that you see Santa sitting at the next table with a coffee and book. This little one didn’t even give me a second look. I didn’t get the opportunity to smile, wave or make a funny face.

I finished my coffee, rolled the rim (no winners) and got out of my chair just after the young woman did. She gathered her little one and I passed her at the garbage bins by the exit. I held the door for her and the little girl and did the slow walk behind them on the sidewalk.

The next thing I heard was “What the Fuck was that?” It seems that her mother followed us out of the restaurant and was pretty pissed. “You just get up without telling me and leave? That’s not fucking cool!”

“Well, we were finished and it was time to go.” The young woman said, holding on to her daughters hand and trying to negotiate past the patches of ice on the sidewalk.

The older woman said once again just how fucking uncool it was to get up and leave without telling her, and her daughter just shrugged and kept walking and saying “What the fuck do you expect?” The little girl kept her head down and walked beside her mom.

I came to my car and unlocked the door and even though I really wanted to follow this threesome to see how everything would play out. I suppose the older woman and the younger woman will continue to have a strained relationship. The older woman didn’t seem to be the kind to let old hurts pass unmentioned, and the younger woman hadn’t yet reached the point where she tells her mom to stop being a bitch or stop seeing us. She will eventually.

The little girl is the one that I feel sorry for, she had to watch her mom and her grandmother fighting with each other when all she should be doing is having a fun time with the two people in the world that love her the most.

I wish I were Santa, because if anyone needs a magical figure in her life, it’s that little girl. I wish her well…