Practice what you preach

Joshua and Tess were in the attic of the house looking for the Christmas presents one Saturday afternoon when they heard a loud noise.

“Oh no!” whispered Tess to Joshua.

“I told you that we shouldn’t be up here, Tess, Dad will ground us for life for this”, replied Joshua just as quietly.

The noise got louder. It was someone was climbing the stairs to the attic. Tess, who had just celebrated her fifth birthday, thought that it might be the monster from a film she’d watched the day before. She hid behind a box of Christmas decorations. She peered out over the Christmas tree baubles and looked at Joshua who was partially hidden by an old overcoat.

Joshua, who was 8 and a half, had come up to the attic after over hearing his parents talk about their Christmas gifts. He convinced his sister that Santa lived up there so that he didn’t have to go up there alone and so that if he got caught he could blame it on her.

The door of the attic room swung open with a loud squeak. The kids curled up even further so that they couldn’t be seen. A middle-aged man with a receding hairline and a few wrinkles on his face entered. His moustache was starting to turn grey and his suit was crinkled as if he hadn’t ironed it for the previous three years. He was certainly not an intimidating sight but to the kids it could have been the scariest of horror movie villains. Their father, to them, was the ultimate in law enforcement. Except, of course, for their mother who even told their dad what to do.

Tess cowered behind the box. Their Dad, Martin, knew they were there but pretended that they weren’t. He waited for the perfect moment where he could surprise the pair of them. Joshua considered showing himself and blaming his sister. After all they would go easier on her since she was only five. He decided that he should have a quick look around for the presents first though. He looked round as best he could without showing his face.

By the window there were carrier bags that contained what looked like boxes. They were not covered in dust like everything else. He wanted to run over there and open the bags but with his dad in the room it would have to be carefully that he did it.

Martin watched as Joshua slowly pulled down the coat from the rack and covered himself in it. He stood there amused at what the kid was doing. Slowly the coat with Joshua underneath crawled towards the window. Martin suddenly realised what Joshua was doing.

Tess, safely tucked behind the Christmas decorations, had seen Joshua crawling along the floor towards the window and seeing her dad coming closer whispered, “ Josh, Dad… Dad is coming”. Joshua hadn’t heard her so she decided to crawl up along side him and tell him. She pulled down a curtain from above her head but unfortunately it knocked a row of books into the pile of board games one of which toppled down.

Joshua presuming that he was safe beneath the coat crawled along the floor. He was almost there. The window was just visible through the neck of the coat. He reached out to the carrier bag when an old board game toppled from the shelf above. It crashed down inches from his head. He jumped up.

Seeing what was happening with the board games, Martin ran towards them.

“Watch out!” he yelled, “Josh!”

“Aargrh!” screamed Josh as his cover fell to the ground and landed on the carrier bags.

“What are you doing?” he quizzed knowing full well what they were up to.

Joshua came to a decision. He was going to lie. Lie through his teeth.

“We was looking for a … um … reindeer,” said Joshua

“No we wasent we was looking for Santa Claus cos he lives in the attic” added Tess who helpfully corrected her brother.

“Really Tess?” asked Martin nicely. He knew that Josh was lying.

“Yep” said Tess cheerfully.

“Tess, He doesn’t live in our attic,” replied Martin

Tess frowned. She didn’t understand. Why had Joshua lied to her?

“No, He lives in the attic at the north pole”, continued Martin

Tess smiled again and then happily skipped off down the room to the door and then thumped down the stairs.

Once Tess had left the room Martin’s happy face turned to a frown. He sat Josh down and looked at him sternly.

Joshua knew what was coming next. He was going to get told off. His sister had ratted on him. He was in for it now. He would settle things with her later. Now he had to plead with his dad that he didn’t know what was going on.

“Dad … ”, he began

“Don’t even try, Josh, I’ve heard it all before”, Martin interrupted, “You were looking for the Christmas presents again weren’t you?”

“No” he said less than convincingly.

“Don’t lie to me Josh, I know, I did the same thing when I was your age, I used to sneak out the back to the shed where your grandparents used to keep all their presents”

Josh made a mental note of this thought so that next time he visited his grandma and grampy he could have a look.

“Are you listening, Josh?”

“Yes”

“If I find you doing this again I’ll get your Mum to take all your presents back to the shop”

“And Tess’”

“No, You lied to your sister and I want you to say sorry to her”

Could anything be worse than apologising to your own sister? Joshua doubted it but he had no choice. He got up and began to walk away.

Martin began to root around for the bathroom tiles. At least that’s what he wanted Joshua to think. As soon as Joshua was out of the room he headed for the coat, which now covered the carrier bags. He lifted the coat back onto the rack and picked up the carrier bags. He looked inside and saw a brand new set of power tools. Just the ones he wanted.

He looked up to see his wife standing in the doorway.

“I suppose I’ll have to take it back now”, she said.