It’s time for my next story in Finish the Story 2, a collaboration, organized by Tamnay Jain. This story is based on the prompt by Ritu Bhathal (please see below for her bio sketch), which is: I saw mummy kissing Santa Claus. I did. Well, not Santa, but some fat bearded dude, who wasn’t my dad…

Wife Stealer (83 words)

Just hearing the song makes me shudder. “I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus…”

That’s what I told my daddy when I was five: “Mommy kissed the jolly white-haired man next door,” who I, of course, believed was Santa Claus taking a holiday in our neighborhood.

I spend Christmas with my dad and his new family as I have for the past twenty years. Mom and Nick are too busy. I still can’t get beyond the fact that Santa Claus is a wife stealer.

end

Sascha Darlington

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Ritu Bhathal was born in Birmingham in the mid-1970’s to migrant parents, hailing from Kenya but with Indian origin. This colourful background has been a constant source of inspiration to her.

From childhood, she always enjoyed reading. This love of books is mostly credited to her mother.

The joy of reading spurred her on to become creative in her own writing, from fiction to poetry.

Winning little writing competitions at school and locally gave her the encouragement to continue writing.

As a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and teacher, she has drawn on inspiration from many avenues to create the poems that she writes.

A qualified teacher, having studied at Kingston University, she now deals with classes of children as a sideline to her writing!

Ritu also writes a blog, a mixture of life and creativity, thoughts and opinions, which was awarded first place in the Best Overall Blog Category at the 2017 Annual Bloggers Bash Awards.

Ritu is happily married, and living in Kent, with her Hubby Dearest, and two children, not forgetting the furbaby Sonu Singh.

Having published an anthology of poetry, Poetic RITUals, she is currently working on some short stories, and a novel, to be published in the near future.