“There is too a Christmas Squirrel!” Virginia shouted at Jacob. “Look! He’s right out there. See? He has red fur! And he’s watching us. So be nice.”
Jacob puffed out his chest. “Yeah, and the Easter Bunny really poops out plastic eggs.”
“I’m telling mom, you said a naughty word!”
Jacob laughed. “Go ahead. She’ll tell you how stupid you are.”
Virginia’s eyes welled up with tears. If her mom said Jacob was right, then she didn’t know what she would do. Jacob would get away with using the word “poop.” But when she looked back and saw the squirrel. She’d seen a grey squirrel and a brown squirrel, even a white squirrel. But a red one? It had to be a Christmas Squirrel. Christmas Squirrels were real.
Santa, of course, wasn’t. No way was a man of his size going to slide down her chimney. But squirrels? Well— they’d already gotten into the roof once, hadn’t they?
After she said her prayers and crawled into bed, she whispered to the Christmas Squirrel, “I believe in you.”
Christmas Day dawned with laughter and presents. When they all were opened, Virginia spied a pinecone near the trunk of the tree. She put on her coat and went to the back door where she threw it outside.
Her dad came up beside her and they watched together as the red squirrel came up and started chewing it apart to get at the sweet seeds inside.
“Daddy? Is there a Christmas Squirrel?”