I wrote this for the latest Art Garden (which is an oral-performance evening set up like a literary magazine). It had the theme "Shopping." I explained the rules of a "drabble" (100-word-exactly story), and said that hyphenated words were argued about, but that since this story was being told for the ear, I was counting the hyphened word as two words, instead of one.

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BAH HUMBUG! ...On the Other Hand...

Visiting the mall during the Holiday Season has always been, for me, an exercise in gauntlet-running: maneuvering my wheelchair through overcrowded aisles, warding off the elves at the Santa Station (who seem convinced that I am five years old), and maintaining my sanity after hearing "White Christmas" for the hundredth time that week.

But still, there have always been things that manage to raise my spirits: The exuberance of the garlands and the lights, the notion that people are all buying gifts for other people, and realizing, looking at all the opulant window displays, that I want for nothing.