Absolutely flippin’ loved it.
When other people were turning their frowns back the proper way round, Tangles was giddy with delight.
Tinsel and bunting filled bins and boxes.
Baubles and decorations were unceremoniously returned to attics and spare rooms. Shut away to collect dust and be dragged back out some time in November.
Tommy had been a fairly adequate pupil but schooling simply didn’t suit him. When the kids were out playing football between walls and jumpers, Tangles was taking trinkets from the school bags and jackets left unattended in cloakrooms and under desks.
Tangles would, on occasion, during P.E (sports) tie his classmates shoelaces together. He would also revel in knotting school ties and scarves into dirty great material snakes.
If he got the chance, Tangles would fix together those mittens with the strings attaching the pair. He’d craft octopuses from mittens and then slink back in the shadows.
No one really knew it was Tommy. They’d have their suspicions, of course they would. There had been enough calls home from the headmaster, and his parents had had to come to the premises on several occasions but Tommy cared not one jot.
Tommy was amassing a box of trophies and could knot anything faster than anyone. He was very popular during conker season.
Tommy’s thumbs and forefingers were incredibly well-formed. They were a thing of wonder. Never still, they were a blur of perpetual motion.
When his buddies and pals drifted away fro the town where they loved to become bankers and accountants, dentists and marketing specialists, Tommy carved out a niche for himself that had far more worth than financial security.
Tommy would do odd jobs here and there and then, for the first 10 days between the weekend after New Year and mid-January, Tangles became a menace.
A hidden and secret scourge.
The reason so many people swore before Christmas.
Tangles is the sole cause of one blown bulb. Of a nest of wires and cables.
Tommy T had made a skill of breaking into people’s homes and taking any neatly folded roll of wires and mussing hem the hell up.
Tangles was a the perfect blend of ninja and cat burglar. So quiet is he that not one soul had ever disturbed him in the act.
Tangles is arguably better than Santa at getting in and out undetected.
How many kids swear blind they have seen good ol’ Father C? Loads. How many can honestly say that they have witnessed
the presence of Tangles?
Very, very few. Moreover, these are often passed off as the Boogieman, or shadows, monster from under the bed.
Tangles was sad at the brand association, but any press is better than no press - just ask Man Utd fans.
Tangles lived for that moment when people went to unpack their decorations and found a mess of cables. He absolutely feasted on the incredulous looks on the faces of the prim and proper planners, who could not believe their lights were not spooled onto the card.
Tangles would do this for as long as he could, as often as he could.
No one would stop him.
Tommy Tangles tangled, and tangling was his game.
