Santa in a Shopping Cart

By Josephine Heltemes

Shantay's winter vacation is beginning along with the holiday parties, caroling, and special times with family and friends. Unfortunately, instead of enjoying the season, she is focused on purchasing a tube of "Cinnabearry" flavored lip-gloss. When the girl learns the drugstore is out of her favorite flavor, her quest becomes an obsession.
Actually, the elusive lip-gloss is the least of her problems. After witnessing an accident, she becomes caretaker of a "bad" dog. She finds herself sad and lonely when her selfishness alienates her friends, Inez and Vanessa, and also her siblings, Ricci and Clarissa. On top of this, she is confronted with a moral decision when she discovers a box of presents. Will the mounting problems have Shantay yelling, "Bah! Humbug!", or will the magic in the season gift her something more precious than a shopping cart full of presents ?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Josephine Heltemes
• Release date: Dec 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311040329

Josephine Heltemes

Josephine Heltemes is the pen name used by Mary Trost on her series of children's books. Mary's inspiration for her stories comes from many years spent working with elementary students and her own rambunctious childhood as a middle-child in a family of eight children. She likens her method of story writing to home cooking: you open your mind, throw in a couple of ideas, put the concoction on the back-burner and wait for a story to form. Of course, disasters fit only for the trash are inevitable, but occasionally you get a tale worthy of sharing with friends. Mary lives in Vancouver, Washington. When she's not at the computer writing, she enjoys gardening, painting, bird watching and travel.

Book preview

Santa in a Shopping Cart

JOSEPHINE HELTEMES

SMASHWORDS EDITION

****

Copyright 2013-Josephine Heltemes

Cover illustration-Mary Trost

All rights reserved

Smashwords Edition

License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. It remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at their favorite authorized e-book retailer. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

-"You can have everything in life you want,

if you will just help other people get what they want."-

~Zig Ziglar

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1-A Holiday Invitation

Chapter 2-High Hopes

Chapter 3-Buying Time

Chapter 4-A Non-believer

Chapter 5-An Unfortunate Event

Chapter 6-A Home for the Holidays

Chapter 7-Holiday Spirits

Chapter 8-Party with Santa

Chapter 9-Seeing Red

Chapter 10-A Box of Presents

Chapter 11-A Sense of Wonder

Chapter 12-Magic in a Mitten

Chapter 13-Special Delivery

Chapter 14-Warm Memories

Chapter 15-Time for Friends

Chapter 16-Time for Family

Chapter 1

A Holiday Invitation

The bold white face of the school clock said there were still five minutes before last bell. Could that be true? thought Miss Lambert, tugging on the chalk-edged cuff of her pink blouse. Her watch read twenty after three. The bell should be ringing. It was only four months into the school year, but there were already stress lines on her fresh-out-of-college coating of optimism.

She pushed back her chair, cleared her throat and with a strained smile announced, Okay, class, you can start cleaning up. The room crackled with the noise of rustling construction paper. If the glue isn’t dry on the gingerbread people’s trim, don’t worry. Set them on the radiator. I’ll bring them with me to the retirement home. She picked up one of the brown paper creations from a front-row desk, placed it by the window, and wiped the sticky, paste residue from her fingers with a white Kleenex. I don’t remember telling anyone to line up, Miss Lambert snapped to a student edging toward the door.

Yeah, she hasn’t unlocked your cage yet, Beal, Dante Johnson quipped.

The class broke into peals of laughter.

Quiet down, so you can hear the announcements. Miss Lambert tapped a chubby, bespectacled boy on the shoulder. Stan, please collect the scissors. Then, in hushed tones directed at his ears alone, she added, Count them. Make sure there are twenty-three pairs. Redirecting her attention to the class, she continued, Don’t forget, for those of you who signed up to carol at Glen Meadows Nursing Home, it’s Sunday afternoon at one o’clock. Bring your best singing voices.

The students had taken the end of the announcements as the cue to gather their belongings. A few had begun their class jobs, but mostly the children turned to their tablemates and began to discuss their winter vacation plans. Miss Lambert’s words struggled to rise over the bedlam. Please remain seated. She waved three, green rectangles in the air. The office has asked that I give these out. The talking ceased as she began down an aisles of bright, upturned, expectant faces.

Here, Shantay, Miss Lambert said, as she paused to place a green envelope on the student’s desk. She circled the room dropping two more rectangles before seeking refuge behind her large, solid wood desk.

What you got there, Shantay? quizzed a prim, perky girl leaning in Shantay’s direction.

Shantay slapped a guarded hand over the paper, None of your beeswax, Rosalyn.

It’s something you don’t got, taunted the big-boned girl sitting to the left of Rosalyn. Her thick, short fingers fanning the mystery paper under Rosalyn’s nose. Shantay and I are special.

Shantay glanced sideways and saw Vanessa’s moon-shaped face, dimpled with a gapped-tooth guffaw, shining back at her. Right now, she could use an ally, but Vanessa was more often a liability.

Rosalyn, frantically waving her hand in the air, asked loudly, Miss Lambert, why didn’t I get one of those?

I don’t know, Miss Lambert said as she gripped the edge of her desk. That’s all Children’s Services provided.

That’s the welfare kids, informed know-it-all Brianne.

Oh, exclaimed Rosalyn with a hint of displeasure.

Shantay could feel her cheeks burn scarlet. She didn’t have to look to know that Rosalyn was wearing a smug grin. She wiped the offending green slip down onto her lap. Her hand slowly secreted it away in her jean’s pocket.

The bell clanged, and the classroom erupted with two dozen missile aimed at the exit door. Miss Lambert’s last plea, Don’t forget to put up your chairs! echoed in the now vacant room.

Shantay rammed through the roiling flood of students and