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“Imogen, where is August?” I heard her ask.
“He said he had to take a call. He’ll be back soon,” Imogen answered.
Good answer, Imogen. I wonder if she knows it’s him in there as me?
I knew my mother, and no one was going to open anything unless the whole family was in there. I pushed my hair up under the Santa hat, then casually walked into the room, pretending to hang up with August’s assistant.
“You’re back, just in time. Your brothers were trying to look in their stockings,” Mom teased.
“Mom, can I talk to you for a minute,” I asked as August, “before we open stockings?”
“August, I’m sure whatever it is it will be okay. To wait, that is. Let everyone open their stockings, then we can talk.” Mom smiled at me as August. “We’ve made everyone wait so long already.”
The group laughed and started going through their stockings, showing each other what they got. August must have grabbed the wrong stocking, because my mother corrected him.
“Let’s go, Ash. What’d ya get from Santa? Murphy joked with August as me.
“Just open your own stocking, creep,” August said. “You probably got coal.”
“He got a cell case. Why’d you get a cell phone case?” Murphy asked. “It’s one of your old ones, too.”
A cell phone case? I wonder if it’s the case from the cell phone I lost. It can’t be, Apple has it.
“How naughty were you this year that Santa gave you an old phone case?” Trey teased. “Or…perhaps there is a mystery afoot.”
“What are you talking about, Trey?” my mother asked. “The only mystery is why he got it. Do you know why?”
“I have no idea. What about you, Ash. You know why?” Trey coughed.
“I don’t know why either and, you’re right, it’s the case from the cell that I lost,” August said as me. “I don’t know what this means, but the note on it says ‘look toward the dining room’.”
I stepped into the room behind August. The whole family looked toward the dining room, but nothing was there. My cell chimed, startling the group.
“What does it say, Asher?” my mother asked me dressed as August.
August hadn’t figured out that Mom knew we had switched, so he answered as me. “I don’t know what all of this means.”
“Asher, what does it say?” Mom asked again.
The family now turned to look at my mother looking at me as August. I pulled the Santa hat off, letting my hair fall.
“What does what say?” Murphy asked. “I’m confused.”
“Asher, what does your cell say?” Mom persisted.
I looked down to my phone, then back up, to see the petite elf standing in the doorway. “It says “’I Do’.”
“I don’t understand any of this. I don’t know what that means.” Murphy demanded. “When did August grow his hair long?”
“It’s okay. I know what it means,” I said, looking back up into brilliant blue elf eyes. “And I do, too.”
* * *
