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"Leave that food alone!" Mum called
out to her two young children, David and Sara. "No sweets until after
Christmas supper tomorrow. You’ve had enough already."
"Mum, can’t we have just one bit of
fudge?" David begged.
"Please, Mum. Just one?" Sara
whined.
"No. You’ll get sick; besides that,
its time to go to bed. It’s Christmas Eve and you know what that means,"
Mum said with a smile. "Now off to bed with you."
Sara and David ran into the bedroom.
Sara jumped into her bed and pulled the pink blanket over her. David stood
at the window and looked outside. "Sara, come and look. There’s a bright
star out there. Do you think if I wish on it, that my wish will come
true?"
"Don’t be silly, David. You can’t
really wish upon a star," Sara replied.
"I’m going to wish on it anyway.
It’s Christmas Eve. I wish on the first star I see tonight that you and I
could shrink down really small and sneak into the kitchen and eat all the
sweets we want," David said, thinking about the fudge.
"That would be brilliant," Sara
said, "but you’d better get into bed. I know that wishes only come true
when you go to sleep first."
David climbed into his bed and
pulled his green blanket over him. Soon the two of them were asleep.
"It’s time to get up," Sara called.
David opened his eyes. He looked up
at the ceiling. It seemed so far away. He looked at his bed. "I’ve
shrunk!" he shouted, realizing that he was so small that his whole body
was lying in the middle of the pillow. "Sara!"
She stood up and saw that she too
had shrunk and was standing knee deep in her pillow. "David, your wish
came true. We shrunk. Now we can sneak into the kitchen and eat the
sweets."
David held on tightly to his blanket
and climbed down to the carpeted floor. Sara did the same. They landed on
the soft, shaggy carpet, which was as tall to them as walking through a
field of tall weeds. They made their way to the door, which luckily was
open enough for them to get through. As they walked down the hallway
toward the kitchen, they passed the sleeping kitten. "Shhhh, Sara. Don’t
wake Misty up. If she sees us she’ll think we’re mice and eat us," David
warned. Quietly they tiptoed past Misty and went into the kitchen. Sara
and David could smell the sweet aroma of gingerbread as they entered the
room.
"There’s the table, but how will we
get up there?" Sara wondered.
David looked up. Off to the side
dangled a long piece of red ribbon. It was tied around one of the plates
of cookies that a neighbor had delivered. "Let’s climb up the ribbon," he
suggested. It didn’t seem so far to climb. He and Sara were really good
climbers. David led the way up the ribbon; hand over hand, until they both
reached the tabletop. Before them lay a feast of sweets only the eye could
believe. Sara gasped in delight. David’s jaw dropped wide open. They could
eat all of the giant-sized sweets if they wanted to. There was plate after
plate lying on top of the green, red, and white checked tablecloth.
They each ran over to a different
plate. David ran right to the fudge. He stuck his hand out and scooped a
hole in a large piece of the cream, chocolaty sweet. It was soft and
smelled so good. He shoved it in his mouth. "Yum," he said. "Sara, come
and taste the fudge. It’s delicious. It’s got walnuts in it too."
"No thanks. I’m enjoying this creamy
divinity," she said. She was busy breaking chunks off and eating it.
When they had their fill of that,
they moved to the next plate. It was piled high with sugary biscuits
covered with thick, white, creamy icing. Little red and green sprinkles
were on top. "Mum would never have let us eat these," David said.
"But she’s not here, is she?" Sara
giggled and bit into the biscuit.
They explored some of the other
plates. There was peanut brittle, boiled sweets, chocolate Santa’s, bells,
and trees and a gingerbread house. "Look at all the things on this
gingerbread!" Sara squealed in delight. There were gumdrops, peppermint
sticks, jellied spearmint leaves, jawbreakers, lifesavers, wafers and
lemon drops. They sampled some of everything. By the time they were
finished, there was a sticky mess all over the tablecloth and on
themselves. "Mum’s not going to be happy with us." She rubbed her tummy.
"David. I feel sort of ill. I think I’ve had enough sweets," Sara
complained.
"Me too. Let’s go back to bed,"
David moaned. They climbed back down the red ribbon, snuck past Misty and
went into their bedroom. They were both too tired to try to climb onto the
bed so they fell asleep inside Sara’s fuzzy slippers.
"Wake up! Merry Christmas, David and
Sara," Mum called. She pulled the blankets off them. "Get up. It’s
Christmas morning. It’s time to open presents."
Sara jumped out of bed and ran into
the living room. David sat up and looked around. He was in his bed. He
hadn’t shrunk at all. It had been a dream. He ran into the kitchen and
looked on the table. He saw the red ribbon dangling there, all the sweets
and the gingerbread house. "Come and open your presents," Sara called to
her brother.
David took another look at the
fudge, divinity, and chocolate Santa’s. Smiling with relief, he went into
the living room to join his mother, father and sister. "Merry Christmas,"
he shouted and opened his gifts. |
