Hot Flash Holidays by Nancy Thayer

me know!” Shirley wondered what to do about the turkey. She didn’t want it to dry out, so she covered it and left it in the oven.
    At two fifteen, the door flew open and they all stomped in.
    Angel and Spring wore low-cut jeans with cropped sweaters. Spring’s hair was short, spiked, and blue. Angel’s was long and curly. Both girls wore glittering gold eye shadow and thick, frosted lipstick. Shirley tried to take that as a kind of compliment, that they’d dressed up to come to her place. Ben, only ten, hulked behind his half-sisters, looking sullen.
    Shirley chirped, “Merry Christmas, everyone!” Pushing a little switch, she turned on her necklace and earrings so they flashed.
    Spring, the most sophisticated at fifteen, rolled her eyes. But thirteen-year-old Angel said, “Cute!”
    Ben pulled off his down jacket, dropped it on the floor, and waded into the pile of presents. Grabbing one of the larger ones, he picked it up and shook it. “What’s in here?”
    “Well, let’s all get settled and you’ll find out! I thought your father could hand out—”
    Ben read the tag. “Mine.” With both hands, in one long, violent tear, he ripped the paper from the box. “Cool! A PlayStation 2!”
    “You got PlayStation?” Spring asked excitedly. “Wow! What did we get?”
    As if they operated with one brain, Spring and Angel, in sync, threw themselves at the presents, scanning the tags, tossing ones without their names over their shoulders in Ben’s general direction.
    “Kids, kids!” Shirley cried. “Slow down! I want to get pictures of you opening your presents!”
    But the three kids were like hounds digging for buried bones. They went at the presents in a frenzy, ripping the wrapping paper, shredding the beautiful bows without so much as a glance, tossing each present aside in their hurry to get to the next one.
    “We got a DVD player!” Angel trumpeted, sticking out her tongue at Ben.
    “
We
already have a DVD player, dummy,” Ben sneered.
    “We got the coats!” Spring screamed at Angel as she opened a large box. “I told you Shirley would get them for us.”
    Shirley perked up, waiting for them to thank her. When they didn’t, she told herself to be glad the girls assumed she would do something nice for them. That was a start, wasn’t it?
    “A skateboard! Awesome.” Ben jumped up. “I’m going to take this outside.”
    “Wait!” Shirley said. “Let’s have Christmas dinner first.”
    “Aw, crap,” Ben whined. “Dad! Come on!”
    “Why don’t you go try it out for just a few minutes,” Justin told his son. “While we get dinner on the table.”
    “
I’m
not helping set the table if
he
’s not helping!” Spring snarled.
    “No, kids, you don’t have to help,” Shirley hastily assured them. “Everything’s done; I just have to put the food on the table.”
    “I’ll just stay inside,” Ben decided, grabbing up his new PlayStation.
    “Well?” Spring demanded. “I thought you said dinner was ready. I’m starving.”
    Shirley was almost dizzy. The opening-presents event had been a free-for-all, over almost before it was begun. The girls were already ignoring their coats, DVDs, cosmetic kits, and other presents and sat on the sofa, fighting over the television remote control.
    “MTV!”
    “No, VH1!”
    Ben leaned against the sofa, fingers flying over his electronic game, already lost in another world.
    No one had brought her a present, Shirley realized, with a twinge of disappointment. But no one had given their father a present, either. That was just
mean.
    “I’ll help you put the food on,” Justin said.
    She gave him the best smile she could conjure up. “Thanks.”
    In the kitchen, she heated the creamed broccoli, the cauliflower au gratin, the marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes, the carrots simmered in brown sugar and butter. Justin’s kids all liked their veggies disguised by sauces, the sweeter the better. She dished them into serving bowls, and Justin carried