Special to the Chronicle

What do bored sisters do when Christmas presents are hiding in the house? While our parents were at work, we heard those presents calling our names, and we had to go find them! My sister and I, ages 9 and 7, were on a mission to find the mysterious spot mom had them for safekeeping. We searched her closet and dad’s, and the hall closet but found nothing. Then we had this brilliant idea to climb up to the attic. Up we went into the deep recesses of where mysterious bags and boxes lived. We rifled through large boxes but found nothing. I walked deeper in the attic. My sister stepped on a section of the insulation and her leg fell through. We panicked. We peeped through the newly formed hole and saw a room below we didn’t recognize and surmised that it was a secret room we didn’t know existed. We crawled down the stairs, and walked into the living room where the tree was, and to our horror, the hole was in the living room. We panicked again. It was a Wessinger “Oh crud, dad is going to kill us” moment. We decided to say nothing and act as if nothing happened. All went well when mom and dad came home and we were on our best behavior. We snuggled in our beds and held our breath. Then it happened. Dad burst in the room, turned on the light and was shouting incoherently. We hid under the covers. We all went into the living room where he pointed to the ceiling, and growled, “What happened!” Charlene and I told them we were looking for the presents and she accidentally fell through the ceiling, and we were very sorry. I remember nothing else about that Christmas. The ceiling was eventually fixed and all was well. I wish I could have heard our parent’s conversation that night. Dad is now in heaven laughing at this story, and we are laughing with him.

Leisha Huffstetler covers Chapin and Irmo and writes Good Ol’ Days features for the Chronicle and Lake Murray Fish Wrapper.