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Sarah Sues Santa – P.J. Leonard

Chapter Three: One More Letter

As always, the food was wonderful and Sarah had a lot of fun pulling crackers with her Mum and
Dad, but Sarah couldn’t help noticing that something was a little…off. Mum and Dad always laid
out enough food to feed a small army at Christmas time, and while there was certainly plenty of the
potatoes, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings and vegetables to go around, it was the first year that
Sarah could see gaps on the table. And the turkey they’d bought definitely seemed smaller than last
year. Mum and Dad seemed to be acting a bit weird too: they seemed to laugh a little bit too hard at
the bad jokes inside the crackers.
“Right, time to start clearing up!” Mum declared so suddenly that Sarah nearly dropped the last
chunk of potato down her front.
“I’ll help,” said Sarah through her mouthful, stacking the empty plates.
“Oh, don’t be silly, dear,” said Mum, taking the plates from her, “You should go and play, you’ve
got all of your new toys. And I think I can hear your friends playing outside too. Go and enjoy
yourself!”
Sarah stood with her arms still outstretched as Mum and Dad gathered the crockery and headed for
the kitchen sink. Sarah couldn’t remember a time when they had ever refused her help – and she
should know, she’d offered it a lot this year! Not helping now felt…weird. What was going on?
Without a word she stepped out of the kitchen and was halfway up the stairs when she heard a
strange noise.
Crying.
Sarah tiptoed up to the top step and peeked through the banisters and into the kitchen. Mum was sat
on a chair, with Dad kneeling next to her and holding her hands.
“It’s just…she’s been so good this year,” Mum sobbed, “And she couldn’t get what she wanted.
She…she must hate this Christmas…”
Dad held Mum in a hug, and Sarah crept up the last step and slipped into her bedroom. Her face felt
hot and her heart was beating fast. Why? Why did her parents feel bad? It wasn’t their fault she got
an old Uberwoman for Christmas, that was Santa!
In fact, now she came to think of it, what did her parents get for Christmas? Sarah remembered that
they got some nice little gifts last year – Dad got a watch and Mum got a necklace – but this year
she hadn’t seen any presents under the tree for them. And how about Christmas dinner? It was
definitely smaller than last year had been. Sarah wasn’t silly, though, she knew that things had been
tough for Mum and Dad at work, and money was really tight this year, but that made Sarah even
more suspicious. Mum and Dad have worked as hard as I have! Why couldn’t Santa give any of us
a good year? What did we all do so wrong to deserve this?
Sarah frowned, and she stomped over to her small desk and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.
Her hand shook because she was so angry, but she knew exactly what she wanted to write:

Dear Santa,
I hope you are enjoying your nice rest after all of your hard work delivering presents to all of the
SO-CALLED good boys and girls.
I am just writing to you again to let you know that I, Sarah Pebbleton Aged 7, will be sooing sueing
suing you for not doing your job properly and ruining our family’s Christmas. Me, my Mum and
my Dad have all worked so hard this year and you have just made us all feel really REALLY bad.
I will start doing all of the legal important things tomorrow, and I will be coming to the North Pole
in person to come and speak to you. Actually, I will start going to the North Pole TOMORROW so
you had better be ready, Mr. Claus! And no, I won’t bring you any cookies and milk!

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