Kyle O’Quinn was enjoying his typical McDonald’s order – five Big Macs and five things of fries – when he was interrupted by a commotion in the booth next to him.
“Mom, look, it’s Santa!” yelled an excited little girl, pointing eagerly at the large beard that Kyle wore on his face. Then, her face turned sad. “Isn’t it too warm for you in Florida, Mr. Santa?”
Kyle laughed. His jolly face often sent small children into fits of hysteria. “No, Santa’s doing good, but I had to leave the elves at the North Pole. They really prefer the snow and cold.”
“I’m so sorry about my daughter,” the mom apologized. “She never stops thinking about Christmas.” She then addressed her daughter. “We have to go now, honey. Say bye-bye to Santa.”
“Bye-bye!” the girl yelled joyously, waving at him happily until she was out the door.
Kyle was just preparing to return to his meal when another voice interrupted him.
“Did I hear correctly? Santa’s in the house? I thought you were Kyle O’Quinn!”
Turning around, Kyle saw that the speaker was a twenty-something man clad in a Magic jersey. Seeing that he had Kyle’s attention, the man continued, “You wanna hear my Christmas wish?”
Sighing, Kyle put on a smile and responded, “Sure.”
“I want the Magic’s core of young talent to show appreciable improvement from one year to the next. This ‘OKC’ model of rebuilding doesn’t work if guys don’t get better, and it really doesn’t work if the players involved are only marginally talented to begin with,” the man said, clearly working himself up. “Being young does not equate to being good. If the Magic are serious about contending, I wish they would supplement their young talent with legitimate veterans who can show them that there’s more to the NBA than losing while carrying around the ‘potential’ label as a shield. And I wish that those veterans wouldn’t be the festering corpses of Jameer Nelson and Jason Maxiell. Oh yeah, and I wish they would start Nicholson and move a certain round-faced, bearded guy back to the bench where he belongs with the other scrubs.” Speech finished, the man smiled self-satisfiedly.
“Uh, cool. Santa can do that for you for sure,” Kyle answered.
“Santa!?” came the voice of a young boy. “Mommy, mommy, it’s Santa! It’s Santa!!!”
Kyle put his head his hands. Did this have to happen every time he went out?