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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>0017 Sandy Claws, Avenger from the Ocean of Goodwill</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The tale I have to tell, children, <br>is not a pretty one – so, <br>PARENTAL SUPERVISION IS ADVISED; <br>though on the other hand, <br>as moral tales should, it has<br>a happy Dickensian ending, <br>where, as moral tales should tell, <br>the last state is infinitely better than the first; <br>and perhaps, who knows, your parents<br>may even benefit from the telling<br>though, naturally, without mentioning the fact.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">’Twas Christmas Eve. The Smugg family<br> were sitting around their fine dining table<br>made from wood from sustainable forests<br>in their photographable and photographed<br>Bahamas beach bungalow in its<br>gated enclave with 24-hour porterage and security, <br>about to tuck in to their Christmas Eve locally sourced<br>corn-fed free range hand-reared organic<br>turkey –<br>Dad, Mom, and their 2.4 children; <br>Point Four was attended by his personally recommended<br>Filipino nanny who it was understood<br>did not take part in the general conversation.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The Smugg family were feeling good in themselves<br>and let’s leave out the obvious wordplay here.<br>Since October 1, when the calendar in the main<br>restroom had been annotated ‘Start Thinking<br>About Christmas Presents! ’, they had each<br>in company with their Family LifeStyle Consultant devised<br>exactly the right present for each other<br>and their family (Dec 25 5-9 pm) <br>and friends (Dec 25,12 noon-3 pm) .</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Christmas night (the turkey was rich in vitamins and essential oils) <br>was a disturbed one for the Smugg family -<br>snug and smug as a bug in a rug yet<br>afflicted by nightmares which despite<br>24-hour security and panic button with<br>guaranteed five-minute guard attendance<br>all shared the same dreadful sound –<br>the sound of sandy claws… scraping… scraping…<br>at the locally constructed handcrafted<br>front door… scraping… scraping…<br>a sound so terrible that not a hand<br>reached out from the bugsnug Smuggs<br>to press the panic button… for how unSmugg<br>a false alarm on Christmas night…</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I need not tell you how<br>there were no marks on the handcrafted<br>front door – just the most horrible smell -<br>and… and… footprints of a hideous size<br>leading from the so-innocent blue morning Bahamian sea<br>with hand-raked foreshore sand (Christmas Day: afternoon only) <br>to the front door.. and back again…</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The Smuggs, after their fairtrade morning coffee<br>and non-biologically-enhanced cereals, <br>sat around, opening their predictable, expensive<br>presents with feigned surprise and delight but with<br>an overpowering sense of anti-climax, <br>despondency, and all that post-Christmas<br>jaded exhaustion without the Christmas bit before it..</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">However, their Family LifeStyle Consultant, <br>paid to be bright, and fearing for her job, <br>had the solution on hand – a Roman Style<br>Anti-Event in ancient traditional style, <br>a re-run where however the presents were to be<br>the worst and cheapest and most inappropriate; <br>the games, the ones they all dreaded..</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">never had shopping been more fun, <br>or games so merrily acted out.<br>New Year’s Eve that year at the Smuggs’<br>is still talked about; a riot of laughter, fun; <br>indeed, you could hardly distinguish<br>between the Smuggs, their family, and<br>their friends – and that, I needn’t tell you, <br>is Quite Something at this merry time..</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">There’s a moral here, somewhere buried in the sands of time; <br>the Smuggs’ Chrismas parties are renowned, <br>the gated enclave comes together, invites<br>the under privileged (from 2-6 pm, approx.) <br>but in their hearts – for in their hearts – they don’t forget, <br>know each, the deep significance, of<br>the footsteps in the sand, and at the door, <br>the scraping…scraping…scraping… of those sandy claws…</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=460451" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>(For Max Reif, who introduced me to Sandy Claws…)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Michael+Shepherd">Michael Shepherd</a></strong></div>