A Christmas Story - Haszie's Christmas Gift (Part One)

For four weeks, every Saturday, a Christmas story, Haszie's Christmas Gift, will posted in parts on this site.  Part One is posted today, and subsequently, Parts Two, Three and Four will be posted on 6/12, 13/12 and 20/12 respectively.

 Hope you will find the Christmas Story an enjoyable read!

haszie's christmas gift

Part One

By Delfin

She skipped up and then, down the bright yellow mound; it was a stout hump in the ground that she loved to explore with her happy feet whenever she felt that the world was with her.  Once she was off the mound, she twirled herself round and round till she fell gleefully against her favourite tree, laughing between short breaths.  It was an interesting tree, a beautiful tree with red polka dots on its trunk and pink coloured inedible globs of tempting yield bobbing up and down in the mild breeze.  Ah yes, even the orchard seemed to be in a jolly mood as crystal leaves jingled its merry song to the bright amber sky.  She was happy.

Settling down and resting her hard back against the soft, rubbery bark, she reached into the depths of her pocket and drew out a green, boxed package.  She gripped it, stared excitedly at it and cried out to no one in particular, " I've got it!"

Her nervous fingers fumbled, just a bit, as she carefully pulled the ends of the crinkled wrapper apart.  She lifted the top of the box and peeped in, squinting expectantly against the glare of the setting sun.  There it was!  The pint-sized comet was a jewel indeed.  Its sky-blue surface was encrusted with minute diamonds on which the reflected light danced and twinkled.  Her thin, long fingers closed in on the jewel and soon, it found rest on her scaly palms.  Long and hard she looked at it, her lidless eyes rounding with a mixture of joy and disbelief.  "This is it, alright!" she whispered, almost reverently, to herself.

The comet-jewel was the envy of everyone at the Christmas Ball.  She first set eyes on it three years ago when Jemimiah attached it to a creamy ribbon, embossed with images of praying angels.  The angels were cute, but she didn't have eyes for those, no, she only saw the comet-jewel dangling from the ribbon which was tastefully wound around Jemimiah's shiny pate and secured with a velvety white bow.

There and then, she wanted it but she didn't think she would succeed, however hard she tried.  Gosh, what were you to do if you had a pesky sibling and irritating friends who would drive you nuts sometimes?  How was she ever to get that precious treasure if she was only allowed to commit sins that can be counted on her three little fingers?!

But she did succeed, and she smiled in satisfaction.  It took her three long years, years that seemed like an eternity, but she worked hard.  And it wasn't easy, but she bit her tongue and visualised the comet-jewel whenever she felt like committing a wrong.  Take the time her brother, Zibar, got on her nerves.  She yelled her lungs out till she felt she was going blue in the face; fortunately, that was as far as she went.  The image of the comet-jewel lying in a vision of a cottony-white cloud appeared just in time and she restrained herself from giving Zibar a taste of her clenched fist!  Finally, she had sins, relatively minor ones, mind you, that didn't add up to a significant number.  It was worth it, indeed, it was well worth the effort; as she gazed at the comet-jewel, she was in seventh heaven.

"Youuu-hooooo! Hasz!" Plasee's shrill voice cut through the air.  Haszie's head jerked up and she saw Plasee and Cereen making their way toward her.  Oh, no, not those darn girls!

Part Two - will be posted on 6/12/2014

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