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Sarah Sues Santa – P.J. Leonard

before her, and Sarah licked her dry lips. This is it! At last!
She pulled at the ribbon and peeled the wrapping paper like the skin of an orange, savouring each
and every moment. Finally, the red corner of the box peeked into view and she couldn’t hold on any
longer: she tore away the wrapping to look at her Deluxe Uberwoman.
Except…it wasn’t a Deluxe Uberwoman. Not exactly. It was…the original one. The one that she’d
asked for last year.
“You’ve got it, darling!” Mum smiled, “Looks like you’ve been a properly good girl this year!”
Sarah stared at the figure through the see-through plastic, Uberwoman’s face staring back. Her heart
sank slowly. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt. But she could feel her parent’s eyes fixed on her,
and she quickly pulled what she hoped was a great big grin and said “Y-Yeah! This is great! I’d
better get all of this up to my room, I’ve got a lot of playing to do!”
Sarah couldn’t escape the living room fast enough. Uberwoman box in her hand, she closed her
bedroom door behind her and slid down it, throwing the action figure onto her bed as she felt hot
tears well in her eyes.
For the rest of Christmas morning, Sarah’s mood was very up and down. Sometimes she’d look at
her stack of presents and be very happy and grateful – it was a very good collection of gifts, and
definitely better than last year – but then she’d look at her diary of chores and her fists would
clench. After all the work she’d done this year, she couldn’t help but feel...disappointed.
She was sat in the window ledge again, Uberwoman figure in her hands and looking down at the
street. Some of the kids were outside now, building snowmen and pushing sledges around. Why had
Santa given her the old version of Uberwoman? Sure, it was basically the same thing: the figure
itself was exactly the same. The only difference were those extra costumes and the glow-in-the-dark
hair. But after spending all year being as nice as possible, why couldn’t Santa give her the one thing
she’d asked for? Loads of the other kids had gotten this old Uberwoman last year, so it wasn’t
exactly special anymore: Sarah had seen this old version of Uberwoman in a lot of half-price sales
this year.
She sighed, and steam shot across the glass.
“Sarah!” her Dad called from downstairs, “Dinner’s ready!”
Sarah peeled herself away from the window, and tossed the Uberwoman onto her bed. At the door,
though, she stopped herself: come on. Cheer up! A lot of kids out there would love to get even one
present for Christmas. You’re very lucky! Mum and Dad have put a lot of effort into dinner too: go
and put on your best smile for them.
And so Sarah put on a smile as she opened the door and went down the stairs.

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