Oops!

“Are you ready to go?” asked Daddy.

“We are ready!” I said.

It was Saturday morning. Daddy was driving Andrew and me downtown. Kristy was coming, too. She wanted to buy wrapping paper and ribbon at the card shop, since she was in charge of wrapping gifts with David Michael. The card shop was next door to the Connecticut Yankee Gift Shop.

When we reached the gift shop, I said, “We would like to go in by ourselves. We want our angel to be a surprise. No one is allowed to see her until Christmas Eve when we put her on the tree.”

“I do not like letting you and your brother go into a store alone,” said Daddy.

“It is a small store,” I replied. “We will not get lost or anything. Really.”

“Are you sure you do not need my help?” asked Daddy.

“We are sure,” I replied.

“All right. Just stay inside,” said Daddy. “We will come back to get you in ten minutes.”

“Thank you, Daddy!” I said. I opened the door to the store. Tiny bells tinkled above our heads when we walked inside.

“May I help you with something?” asked the store owner.

“No, thank you,” I replied.

I knew just where to find the angels. They were at the back of the store. I led Andrew there.

“I see her! I see our angel,” said Andrew, pointing to the shelf where she sat.

“She is the most beautiful angel of all,” I replied. I reached up and carefully carried her down. A price tag was hanging from her halo. Uh-oh. She was a little more expensive than I remembered. Ten dollars more, to be exact.

“What is wrong?” asked Andrew.

“I thought this angel cost nine dollars. But now I see there is a number one before the number nine. That means she is nineteen dollars. We do not have enough money to buy her,” I said. “We have to put her back.”

Andrew looked sad. “Let me just see her first,” he said. He held out his hands.

I am not sure what happened next. Either I let go too fast, or Andrew did not hold her tightly enough. All I know was the angel fell to the floor and broke into pieces.

Oops.

“What is going on back there?” called the store owner. He rushed to the back of the store where Andrew and I stood staring at what was left of the angel.

“We are sorry,” I said. “It was an accident.”

The store owner was red in the face.

“That may be,” he said. “But you will still have to pay for it.”

He pointed to a sign on the wall. It said: If you break it, you own it.

I reached into my pocket and handed over our money.

“That is all we have,” I said.

“Well, you will just have to owe me the rest,” said the store owner.

He told us exactly how much that would be.

“We cannot give it to you right away,” I said. “But I promise we will have the money for you by Christmas Eve.”

“I would like your parents’ names and their phone number. Just in case,” said the store owner.

We followed him to the counter where he wrote everything down. Andrew looked scared. I thought he was going to cry.

When the store owner was finished, we waited inside the entrance for Daddy and Kristy. As soon as we saw them coming, we rushed outside.

“Did you get it?” asked Kristy.

“No, we did not buy it after all,” I replied quickly. “Can we go home now, Daddy? I am hungry.”

I was not really hungry. I just wanted to get as far away from the Connecticut Yankee Gift Shop as I could.