Room at the Inn?

My four-year-old had one line, and he blew it

- LINDA BREEDEN

IT SEEMED LIKE a great idea for our church to put the youth group in charge of the annual Christmas pageant—until they asked my son, Charlie, to take part in it.

“Please let him be in the Christmas play,” begged Julie, the teenaged head of the youth group, when she cornered my family after church.

“Charlie just turned four,” I said. “That’s too young to be in a play.”

“But we really want him to be the innkeeper,” she said. “He would have only one line. We know he can do it. Don’t we, everybody?”

She turned to the crowd of young people hanging back in the foyer. They answered with a chorus of “Yes!” and “Charlie can do it!” and “Please, Mrs. Breeden?”

Charlie didn’t seem to understand what was going on, but he liked people shouting his name. My husband, Frank, shrugged. How could we disappoint the kids?

“As long as it’s one line,” I said. Julie swept Charlie up. “We can do it! We can do it!” She danced away with my son in her arms and the other children following Pied Piper–style, chanting with her.

“Are you sure?” Frank asked.

“Nope,” I said. “I’m not.” But I couldn’t blame the kids for thinking that Charlie was a natural. He did speak very well for his age, and he was already a hit with his James Cagney impressions. Still, going on stage was a big experience for a four-year-old. And I wondered if the innkeeper might wind up sounding like Cagney!