FOR A FRIEND story

Like a flashlight beam, the moon shone across Colin’s face, reminding him Christmas Eve was almost over! Colin was so excited he did a couple of somersaults on his bed.

“Santa will be here soon,” Colin whispered to himself.

If only he bought a gift for his best friend, Jason. But, Colin didn’t have any money left from Christmas shopping. Now it was too late.

He worked hard to be good all year. “Yup,” he always answered when asked to do chores.

“Is the cat’s bowl of food full?” mom asked this morning.

“Yup,” Colin replied.

Later dad asked, “Is the garbage out, sport?”

“Yup, all by myself,” Colin said.

His family discovered other chores around the house. Maybe Santa might give him an extra present this year. Then Colin could give it to his pal.

The wall clock revealed it was now 2 AM. “Were those sounds on the roof?” Colin jumped out of bed.

“Could that be Santa?” He put on his favorite slippers, with friendly lion faces. Star Trek pajamas kept away the cold.

Colin crept down the hallway. Curtains flapped loudly from his sister’s room. Oh, Oh. Mom will be upset. Sis left the window open.

Colin almost stepped on Boots rubbing against his leg.

Were any monsters hiding in the darkness? Colin waited a few moments at the top of the stairs, just to make sure there were none.

Shivery shivers raced up and down his back.

Fingernails scraped against the wall! Oh good, they were only his stairs squeaking as each foot stepped down.

But, there were sounds coming from the living room.

His heart pounded. Is that…Santa? he dared to ask.

Colin moved silently as a bat. Maybe those were deer on the roof. And Santa was right here, in his house.

He reached up and turned on the living room lights.

Blackness disappeared from sudden brightness.

The odor of pine needles filled the air.

Colins’ eyes grew huge as he stared. Wrapped gifts in all sizes lay under spruce tree branches.

“OOHS“ and “AAAHS” were gasps of happiness. And Colin skidded on his knees like an out of control kitten, heading for the gifts.

His name was on so many! He must have been really good to get all this stuff.

Colin lifted each present carefully, especially the one with tiny silver bells on the outside. “I think I’ll give this gift to Jason,” he said, feeling satisfied.

It was not very large. But, Colin was a good friend. Hopefully he would like it, whatever it was. Colin didn’t mind having one less present. There were so many.

Surely his parents wouldn’t notice.

Drooping eyelids meant time to head back to bed. The stairs didn’t squeak so loudly. And mysterious shadows didn’t bother Colin either. He was too excited thinking about all his presents.

Even dad’s ZZZ’S sounded quieter. Except, the cat screeched when Colin stepped on his tail.

The boy hurried into his room and leaped under the covers. It turned out to be a very short sleep.

Soon, everyone was singing, “WAKEY…WAKEY.” “Sleeping in on Christmas morning?” his sister asked.

Colin jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. He was first in line to open boxes.

Presents were covered in green, with yellow ribbon. Others had white and purple bows.

Some gifts were wrapped with scenes of Santa and his reindeer. Others had mouse trains pulling different sizes of boxes. Snowmen and tree pictures soon joined the pile.

Then everything became quiet.

Did someone notice Colin’s missing present, safely tucked under his bed?

He planned to give it to Jason later today.

Mom and dad made hand signals to each other. Oh, Oh. They did know one was missing. Suddenly, so did Colin.

Now he remembered his special request from Santa at the Mall. In fact, it was at the very top of his Christmas list.

Colin asked for an “N” scale yellow Caboose. It was to add to his birthday gift train set.

“Oh no,” he whispered, looking up at his parents. The gift he picked for Jason must be that Caboose.

Maybe Colin could give Jason two other presents instead. Too late, he had opened them all. There was a red Fire Truck and a model jet plane.

Also he received a Disneyland puzzle, new crayons and a Canadian stamp book.

There were even gifts from grandma and grandpa, that came all the way from Nova Scotia.

But, no yellow Caboose was here for Colin.

He was sad after explaining what he did.

Then mom and dad gave Colin a special hug. It meant, “We love you twenty-five times!”

At breakfast he was slow eating his cereal. Colin knew what had to be done. He placed a new sticker on the nicely wrapped ‘caboose’ gift.

It now read, “For Jason, from Colin.”

Later, Colin’s mom and dad watched from the sidewalk as Jason answered his front door.

“Merry Christmas!” Colin said, as he gave his gift.

“Th…thanks,” Jason said. “Merry Christmas to you, too!”

Colin’s parents were proud to walk home with their son. Together they ate their best Christmas dinner ever!

* * *

(c) Richard L. Provencher 2007

Richard & Esther Provencher invite you to read their first of three novels ‘FOOTPRINTS” now available from www.synergebooks.com. “Someone’s
Son” and “Into The Fire” will also be available soon by the same company. These books were written during the first several years while Richard was recovering from his stroke, which felled him in 1999. He is still recovering.

The link to “FOOTPRINTS” is as follows: http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_footprints.html