In the spirit of the holidays, Tony put together a very short story: A Viper Girl Christmas. Since, I've talked so much about Tony's work and Viper Girl in this blog, I thought I would share the story here. I hope you enjoy it! Happy Holidays!
A Viper Girl Christmas
It
was just like any other Christmas. My
parents were in Florida continuing their reptile research, and their 10-year
old daughter (aka “I”) was home alone, trying to decide on a good Christmas DVD
to watch with my pet red fox puppy, Logan.
Yeah, believe it or not, this was completely normal for my life at this
time of year. On the bright side, there
was always one thing I could count on around Christmas: All evil villains,
monsters, and lawyers would be too busy with holiday stuff to cause any mayhem
for me to clean up.
I
sipped my peppermint and gingerbread man milkshake as I poured through my DVD
collection. Logan flicked his tail back
and forth as he flopped on top of my head.
I was torn between Santa vs. the
Fruitcake of Fate, and Attila the Hun
Saves Hanukkah. Both were such
classics. I shifted my eyes up toward my
fox friend.
“Logan,
are you more in the mood for messed-up irony, or Attila the Hun saving
Hanukkah?”
Logan
pawed at his nose.
“Good
idea. Nothing says we can’t just watch
both!”
I
pulled the two movies off the shelf, and then plopped my pup and myself down in
front of the living room TV for some good-old-fashioned, holly-jolly film
festivities.
A
little over an hour later, right when the jolly fat guy was about to unleash
the Fruitcake of Fate against Santa, there was a knock on the front door. Now, I know it’s not smart for a little kid
to open the door when they’re home alone (especially when that little kid has
super-villain enemies), but you have to remember I’m usually home alone because of my neglectful parents. So, I paused my movie and went to see who it
was. When I looked through the peep
hole, it turned out nobody was there, anyway.
A package had just been dropped off.
I opened the door and took the package back to Logan in the living room,
before checking to see who sent it.
My
milkshake almost went down the wrong pipe when I found the answer. “Logan…it’s from Mom and Dad.”
Logan
jumped off the couch and walked over to my side as I set down the box and
started tearing it open. Sitting on top
of the mound of packing peanuts was a letter:
Viper Girl,
Sorry we couldn’t be home for Christmas…again. You know we care about you; it’s just that
our work is very important and we need to make a living. All the food and cookbooks we leave you with
don’t buy themselves, you know. Anyway,
here’s your present for this year. We
hope it helps you to forgive us for not being there with you. You should probably dig it out of the box
before you keep reading.
I
set the letter on the floor beside me and reached into the box. I couldn’t believe it! My parents had sent me a Tofu Sprite Battle
Plushy! I picked the letter back up and
kept reading.
It’s the green one.
Just like you wanted. Merry
Christmas.
-Mom and Dad
PS: There are also some chocolate-coated jelly beans in
there.
I
wiped a tear from my eye. “Y’know,
Logan, even our Mom and Dad have
their cool moments.”
Logan
wagged his tail.