Bubba Does Christmas

By Lenell Newman

Santa’s sick and he needs help delivering toys Christmas Eve night. He chooses Bubba from Georgia to help. And oh boy does he help. Small town, redneck or good ole boy- who knows but Bubba, Santa and Santa’s village will never be the same. With a heart of gold, some Santa magic, Rudolph and 8 Christmas critters. He helps deliver the toys and he does it- Bubba Style.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781682894736

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Bubba

DOES

Christmas

Lenell Newman

Copyright © 2016 Lenell Newman

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2016

ISBN 978-1-68289-472-9 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68289-473-6 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Slamming his truck door, Bubba almost ran into Joe’s bar. Looking at his watch, it was 5:15 p.m. Gonna have to hurry. I can only stay fifteen minutes. That’s enough time for a beer and then go home. I promised Katie.

The waitress with an empty tray turned to the front door and called out, Hey, Bubba, have a seat. What’ll it be?

Pulling out a chair at a table with two guys, Bubba said, Connie, just one beer that’s all I have time for. Promised Katie I would be home early so we can go to the mall and Wal-Mart to finish up our Christmas shopping.

Hey, Cal, how long have you been here?

Cal looked up, saying, Oh, since about one o’clock.

Bubba said, Why so early?

Well, said Cal, the shop is closed two weeks during Christmas holidays. So that gives me more drinking time right here at the holidays. Well, I’ll have more time with the kids, less money, but who’s complaining.

Connie while walking up to the table and giving Bubba his beer said, It sounds like you were, Cal. Just be glad Brenda has most of her Christmas shopping already finished.

Cal looked puzzled as he asked her, How do you know that?

Connie, wiping off the table and emptying the ashtrays one more time said, I saw Brenda and the three boys down at Carson’s Service before I came on at noon. They were on their way to McDonald’s and then home. She told me she had all her gifts except her mother’s and yours. You’re not getting anything. That caused everybody at the table to roll with laughter. No, you know I’m just kidding, Cal.

Three loud guys that worked with Bubba came into the bar and shouted, Hello, everybody. They took off their jackets. The tall one wanted to know if the pool table was broken. No one was playing and that in itself was unusual.

Harry yelled back, No, we just felt like talking today. The pool table is all yours.

Connie asked, Anybody else want anything? What about you, Harry? You’ve been here about an hour, and that’s still your first beer.

Harry said, still holding the beer, Oh, Connie, you know I’m cutting down this December. The first was Linda’s birthday, and all she wanted was me. Drinking less and home more.

Laughing, Bubba said, She must be happy ’cause it’s working. Don’t see as much of you as we did. You seem happier and all. You know kind of more at peace with yourself. You’re looking better.

Harry, pleased and a little embarrassed, said, Well, thank you, Doctor Bubba for all that profound advice. Everyone was laughing and agreeing because they too could see the improvement in Harry. Harry was also laughing with them, glad his friends approved then he said, Sometimes, free advice is the best. It’s a lot cheaper to swallow. Laughing, everyone cheered and toasted to free advice, no matter how much it cost.

A man coming up quietly to the table said, Hi, guys, you started without me. Bubba and Cal looked up at the same time while laughing and said, George, if we waited for you, we would all be dead and buried, and you wouldn’t even know we were gone.

Bubba jumped up and yelled, Oh no, it’s half past six. Got to go. I promised Katie.

Cal stood up and said, Bubba, can you drop me off? I don’t want to drive after drinking all afternoon. And I’m just across the street.

Okay, Cal, said Bubba, come on. See ya’ll later.

George sat down in Bubba’s place and said, Hi, Bubba. Bye, Bubba.

Harry said, watching the two men leave, One of these days, he’s gonna keep one of those promises he keeps making to Katie.

George, giving his order to Connie, said quietly, Bubba and Katie are two of the nicest people around.

Connie said while leaving the table, Yeah, Bubba’s heart is in the right place. He loves Katie and those three kids. Being home every night and there every morning means a lot to a family these days. Not everybody has that.

Connie, a divorced mother with eight-year-old twin boys, knew how hard it was to make it on her own. If it weren’t for her parents, she wouldn’t know what she would do.

Every morning after getting up and getting the boys ready for school and seeing them off on the school bus, she went to work from Monday to Friday at 7:30 a.m. ’til 11:30 a.m. at the Breakfast Hut. Then she worked at Joe’s from 12 ’til 6 p.m. four days a week from Monday to Thursday.

Friday afternoons and weekends belonged to the boys. It was her special time with Brad and Chad, doing mother and boy things. It helped her while living next door to her parents. The twins, her parents’ only grandchildren, kept everybody on the ball. They were just alike and as different as day and night. Brad wanted to play baseball for the Atlanta Braves, and Chad wanted to race cars or anything else that moved.

For Christmas, one of the presents her parents had given the boys was a summer promise, a trip to Atlanta to make their summer vacation extra special. It would be a week when they were going to have a big car race, and the Braves were in Atlanta playing a home game.

The replay from the twins of the race and the game would probably take them right on up to next Christmas. What would she do for a whole week by herself? With her parents and the twins gone, it would be quiet. But all in all, she, the twins, and her parents were one big happy family.

Katie and the kids hurried to get into the van. That late in the evening, it was really cold, almost freezing, and