Scooter and his Dataman

My little  punk brother was a bit of a nerd growing up. He was/is super incredibly smart. He's one of those people who speaks to you and all you can do is nod your head and try to look like you know what they're saying even though you don't have a clue. Lots of times, I tell him to dumb things down so I can understand him.

Anyway, when he was young he wanted a particular toy for Christmas. He wanted a Dataman which was a 1970s version of a handheld game. All we heard about for months was Dataman this and Dataman that. Of course, our folks got him a Dataman which Mom wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree for safe keeping. Because punklet knew he was superior to any of the minds in our household, he decided to be sneaky and peek inside his presents to find out if he got the coveted Dataman.

Even though he had been warned not to peek, I guess he thought he was such a

great brainiac, he could get away with cheating. Nope. My Mom was very canny and knew that punklet would cheat - it was in his sneaky nature. Mom did what any good mother would do...after he went to bed, she unwrapped his Dataman and removed it from the box. Then she refilled the box with colored shorty socks. On Christmas morning, everyone excitedly opened their presents but it was obvious that punklet was upset because the box that he had so carefully broken in to wasn't anywhere to be found. My mom let him stew about that all day long until finally, in the late afternoon she brought the package to him, claiming that it must have been lost in the shuffle. The punk was excited to no end and he was loudly proclaiming how he  had always wanted a...............a.......(unwrap, unwrap).....set of colored shorty socks!?!? He couldn't own up to the fact that he had cheated so he had to try and act excited about shorty socks.

Everyone knew that he had cheated but he thought he had gotten away with it. Until he got shorty socks that is. Mom let him stew over the shorty socks for another couple of hours before she gave him the Dataman. Everyone had a good laugh at his expense. In fact we still kid him about it. All anyone has to do is say "Dataman" out loud and he'll cringe. But you know what? He never cheated again.