“What are your names?” we asked. “Hi, I’m Marge,” said the elderly woman sitting in the wheelchair. We then looked at the man sitting next to her, and he smiled and said, “My name’s Goody, goody goody!” We all chuckled a bit, not knowing if he was joking or not. He was a little spacey, never fully aware of what was going on, and it didn’t help that he had no interest in making Santa’s sleigh.
Meanwhile, Goody was given a piece to decorate, but no one was helping him. By the time we looked up from assembling part of the sleigh, Goody was busy nibbling away at the gingerbread reindeer.
“You weren’t supposed to eat that, Goody,” Marge said sternly. Goody stared at Marge, looked around the room, and then glanced at me before continuing to eat his reindeer cookie. I reassured Goody, although he needed no reassurance, that the gingerbread sleigh was meant to be eaten (even though we all assumed we would assemble it first). “Goody with another cookie…surprise surprise,” yelled the supervisor sarcastically from across the room.
Soon the Christmas carols started and everyone was handed a song sheet so that they could sing along. Everyone was singing and having a good time, and there sat Goody speaking the words loudly to the tune of the song. About every word he spoke came a couple seconds behind the actual lyrics. He didn’t seem to notice that when we were on “bells” he was on “jingle”.
Apparently Goody had enough of the party, because the carols stopped and he announced that he would be “off to bed.” Bag of gumdrops in hand, Goody smiled and walked out of the room.
