Chapter Two, Episode 113 - The Problem with Belief - Situationally Theirs

 The Problem with Belief

“Reindeer cannot fly!” Ben was frustrated with his little sister. “They do so. You told me a million times.” Abby was patient with her brother, most of the time. But he was being silly. Just because you’re almost 12 now doesn’t mean you know more than me.” Putting her head down to her work, she picked up the red marker and coloured in Rudolph’s nose. Their mother had brought the colouring kit so she could make a Christmas decoration. She bought them markers with lots of colours. “Isn’t there any gold, mom?” Wanting to put lots of sparkly gold on the sleigh and make the star gold, she was disappointed. But just a little. “You’ll just have to use the yellow, dear. Next time I get to the store, I’ll see if there’s some gold sparkles.” When Ben saw the cutouts he thought they were dumb, but decided to help her anyway. Because he thought that ‘reindeer don’t fly’ she wouldn’t let him colour them and told him to do the trees and the big deer. So quiet settled over the kitchen table as they worked, their mother finishing up the Christmas cookies. 

“What are we going to do for snow? There’s no white in the markers.” Putting the baking dishes in the sink, Martha's daughter, Joanie Richardson washed her hands. “Ben, go get my crocheting basket from the living room. I think I might have something in there for snow.” He groaned. “Where is it, mom?” Drying her hands, she smiled at her cranky son. “Beside my big chair, Ben. Where it always is. And get my white scarf from the coat hook by the front door.” With a sigh, he stood and slumped to the living room. “I don’t know where my pleasant boy went. The closer he gets to his birthday, the grumpier he gets.” Leaning over to Abby and her work, she praised her daughter. “You’ve thanked your brother for helping you?” Abby nodded, still examining her work. She looked up at her mom. “He told me reindeer don’t fly! That’s not true is it.” Joanie’s thoughts went back to the times when Ben had asked her the same questions. What had she told him? “Well, most reindeer can’t fly. Have you ever seen the real Santa Claus?” Her daughter screwed up her face, thinking hard. “Um, no I don’t think so. Those Santas at the mall are just his helpers, right?” Joanie let go a little sigh of relief. “Yes, honey. And I’ve never seen the real Santa. But I believe he’s real. I’ve never seen a real reindeer, except on the Nature Channel. But I believe that Santa has reindeer that fly.” Although that seemed to satisfy her daughter, her precious little face was still troubled. “There’s lots of things in this world that we’ll never see but we believe in them.” Abby brightened. “Like what mom?” There it was. A tougher question to answer. “Well…..” She was stumped. 

“Mom, here’s the basket and the scarf. What do you want me to do with them?” Saved! For now. Maybe Abby would forget the ‘belief’ question and whether reindeer could fly or not. Or, it would give her time to mull it over, talk with her dolls about it and then they could talk it over again. “Thanks Ben.” From the bottom of the crochet basket she took out a wad of white batting. She stacked up some books and spread the white scarf over it all. While she did that, Ben put the pieces of the Christmas display together. Joanie showed her daughter how to arrange the white batting in front of the little woodland scene.  “The cocoa’s ready, kids.” Three Christmas mugs on the cupboard, Joanie poured hot chocolate for them each. Marshmallows on top, cookies disappearing hand to mouth, the little family admired their handiwork. With her mouth full, and a marshmallow moustache, Abby said “Believing is a funny thing, isn’t mom? I guess Ben can believe what he wants.” She took another cookie and smiled knowingly at Ben.

”Grown-up people do not know that a child can give 

exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case.”

~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot