Vernon Little's Christmas Letter

Hey Santa,

I've not written you since I was six when I never got that slot car racing set. Don't get worried or anything- it's not like I'm going to shoot you! Sorry, bad joke. The truth is my mum gets kinda funny around Christmas so she never gets the presents right. That's how I found out you didn't exist.

Still, I'm writing now. You're probably wondering why, right? Well, it's a learning I made about having faith. There was this guy in prison- Lasalle- and he made me realise you have to make your own success. Prison can change how you see things, you know? This guy was an axe murderer and what he said saved my life. Sometimes it's good to believe in things. Hell, if you're an axe murderer, you have to.

The thing is, I'm down in Mexico and I can't change anything back home from here. It turns out Ella is pregnant. That's right. Vernon 'Big Daddy' Little. You spend half your life playing with your boy and then he deals you the biggest hand of them all. Still, good things happen in Mexico. We've got the beach house and Ella's started a business. It feels good to earn a living. I go fishing in the morning with the local guys and she cooks up what we catch on a little barbecue we found. It's going pretty well- Pelayo showed her how to make this great sauce. In the afternoons, I'm teaching English to his kids. Who would have thought? Kids making learnings of their own from my dirty mouth.

Sorry Santa, don't get me wrong, I haven't gone back to cussing. Well, not in English anyway. I'm starting to understand more of Pelayo's jokes and boy, he should be going to confession or something.

Anyway, I've been thinking about home alot. I don't want to go back but I still think about what happened. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad about how it all turned out... I'm here aren't I? But when I was giving out my wants, I should have been thinking about someone else... Lally's mom, in Nacogdoches. She was kind of the victim of all of this, and what did she get? And then I think about the big flabby grin she would get if she got one of those big flatscreen TVs, or a new refrigerator like mom did. She probably needs something to brag about.

So can you do that? I mean, screw half the kids in Texas, this is someone who actually deserves a bit of happiness. Can you make that happen Santa?

I'm going to go now- Ella's cooking and I don't want to miss it. Thanks alot.

Vernon

Amazing Catch-22 essays

These essays by Juan Carlos Molina and Paula Santoyo are absolutely marvellous so I have posted them here on my Teaching in Mexico blog. Well done.