How It All Goes Down
December 21, 1991
- It's time to head to Sam and Patrick's house for the final Secret Santa swap. Drumroll please…
- All the friends sit around and drink brandy and reveal who was whose Secret Santa.
- For Patrick's final gift, Charlie reads a poem. He doesn't know who wrote it. It's called "A Person, A Paper, A Promise," and you should definitely read it for yourself.
- Everyone else exchanges presents.
- Patrick reveals that he's Charlie's Secret Santa. His final gift? A suit coat. "All the great writers used to wear suits all the time" (2.10.12).
- Charlie gives everyone a gift, even though they didn't get him anything.
- His gift to Sam is the most special: a record of the Beatles' "Something" that his Aunt Helen had given him.
- In response, Sam tells him she loves him. (!)
- But wait! There's more! She also got him a typewriter.
- That clicking on the keys is the noise of Charlie typing to Sam on the blank page, "I love you, too" (2.10.30).
- Sam wants to know if Charlie has ever kissed a girl. When Charlie says he hasn't, Sam tells him that she wants his first kiss to be from someone who loves him.
- You'll never guess what happens next. She kisses him.
- Charlie says that "[i]t was the kind of kiss that made me know that I was never so happy in my whole life" (2.10.43).
- At the end of the letter, Charlie includes the poem he wrote to Patrick.