Christmas, Digging, Pens

Christmas was fast approaching and Oliver was filled with excitement. Much of this excitement was caused by Oliver's father telling him to get ready for the best gift he would ever receive.

The final few days before Christmas seemed to last forever, each one multiplying Oliver's excitement by the power of ten or maybe even twenty.

Christmas finally arrived on the 25th of December just as the calendar companies had predicted. Oliver rushed downstairs to find his father waiting with a small box in his hand. The box was unwrapped; perhaps from laziness, or maybe from a conscious effort to save a tiny fraction of the rain forest. Oliver was just glad that his receiving of the gift wouldn't be delayed by needless tearing of coloured paper.

Oliver took the box in his hands, inhaled deeply and then opened it. Light bounced off the silver metal within. It was a harmonica. Oliver immediately walked out into the garden, picking up a pen on the way. He got down on his knees and began to dig with his bare hands. Once a sizeable hole was created, Oliver used the pen to write the word "Treasure" on the harmonica's box. He then threw the box into the hole and filled it with earth.

Later that night, Oliver lay in bed thinking about the distant future when someone would uncover his buried box with the word treasure on it; he thought about how disappointed that person would be when they opened it and, in that moment, Oliver didn't feel quite so alone.