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."Only three of them?" I asked."It is wintertime, you know," the Prince said in his defense."Snakes are kind of sluggish now, and these were the only ones I could convince on short notice to waken from their hibernation.Better three than none!""Okay, okay," I said."Don't get mad about it--you did a great job!" Indeed, he had done a great job, for the elves and the bell-ringers (not to mention many of the shoppers) were deathly afraid of snakes, apparently, and tried to get away from them as quickly as possible."Lucy! Grab them before they escape!" I cried, and she and I chased after the four elves and Celeste splatted them with snowballs, heading them our way.We caught the elves and plopped them one-by-one into the basket, where they squirmed and thrashed and said naughty four-letter-words that no self-respecting elf should say.Prince Alphonse Saed used his flute again to call the snakes back to him.When the serpents responded to their summons, he grabbed them and put them into the nearest basket he could find--which just so happened to be the one containing the four elves, instead of the one he'd brought them in, which lay on its side a few yards away.The struggling and thrashing about inside the basket increased a hundredfold when the snakes plopped in.The elves didn't like their new traveling companions, and their combined efforts were too much for the basket.They broke out of it, and ran off as fast as their tiny legs could go, shouting: "No amount of money is worth getting treated like that!" and "One of those dogs was foaming at the mouth!"It's amazing what havoc a small tube of toothpaste can cause! And, I have minty-fresh breath, too! We had bested SNURFLES again, but I somehow doubted that it would be the last we'd meet before Christmas.At least I, Celeste, and the rest of PAWS had put an end to the visions of dancing scarlet SNURFLES that had been transforming my dreams into nightmares for the time being.Christmas was almost here, the season of giving! We made sure that the Scarlet and Green Marines would be doing no more taking, any time soon, and that the money that kind people wished to donate would now go to worthy causes, instead of to greedy evil elves and SNURFLES.I was proud of Celeste's role, and I knew it had not been a mistake when I had invited her to be an Honorary Member of PAWS and confided in her about my origins.Now, after the day's adventures, I could hardly wait to get home and relax.Celeste often asked me in the past why I seemed so tired and slept a lot.I don't think she really believed me when I told her that I was making the neighborhood a safer place, and flying around the world to turn back time, which I had done one more than one occasion, in order to prevent something terrible from happening.But, maybe now, having experienced a tiny taste of what it's like to live in my day-to-day reality, she would at least consider the possibility that what I had told her was true.Maybe not; Rome wasn't built in a day.Chapter ThirteenA Blue ChristmasI am a rock and roll kind of gal, but I do get into the blues sometimes, too.It is, after all, an American style of music, and is a large part of Rock's heritage.The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zep, and Cream are just a few of the many bands that started their careers playing blues, and were deeply influenced by the blues.Elvis Presley made a career out of singing old blues songs (well, and gospel and country standards), and giving them a rock beat and feel.Even though I'd heard Elvis singing "Blue Christmas" before, I had never really given the lyrics to the song much thought.I've felt sad, of course, in my life; but I don't believe I'd ever felt so down and low that I'd come close to approaching the feelings of loneliness and despair that many blues greats have sang about.What a strange combination, I thought: the blues and Christmas--though, unfortunately, not everyone around the world and in America always has a fantastic, joyous Christmas.To many people, it's either just another day, or they're going through a miserable part of their lives.Blah, I'm beginning to depress myself.All I need is a harmonica and a pair of lips to play it with, and I'd be ready to play the blues.But, one glance at the Christmas tree, with the beautiful decorations and multicolored lights, and the piles of presents underneath it, helped to bring back my Christmas cheer.Call me shallow, I guess.Still, I was rather proud that several of the presents under the tree were ones I bought for the Quinces.I was happy that they considered me to be a part of their family.Triple Q liked hip hop, rap, punk, classic rock; but he also liked the music of Johnny Cash, so one of the gifts I bought him was the complete Johnny Cash catalogue of CDs.Cash was an Arkansas native, which was another thing about him Triple Q liked.Clare enjoyed watching The Closer and Army Wives, so I had bought her the complete series of both of those programs.Celeste liked British comedies, so I bought her The Full Bouquet (which the complete collection of Keeping Up Appearances is called) and every season of the Mr.Bean series.Christmas was just a week away! Just six more shopping days left--I knew that Celeste's brother, Dexter, liked the Blue Man Group, and I would probably get him every DVD of theirs I could find, and probably throw in a XBox 360 game or two [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]