Tuesday, June 13, 2006

I Dream of Small Grey Sheep

You may wonder about the small grey sheep. My screen saver is meant to be a 'magical Christmas scene' with LOADS of snow falling. But something has gone wrong and the falling snow just looks like grey sheep. It piles up at the bottom of the screen like a big sheep mountain-not very magical at all really.

'Happy Christmas, Wilf!' says Father Christmas and he turns to leave. 'I hope you get what you want!'
I panic. He can't go now, I have so many questions that need answering, questions like, 'how do you build an igloo big enough to fit an entire toy factory in?' and 'How do you manage to deliver billions of presents to billions of children in under 12 hours and where does Einstein fit into all that?'
But all I can manage is,
'Wait a mo! Where's your sack?'
He is quiet for a second and then he winks. 'Who needs a sack when you've got magic kiddo?'
And he waves a long, thin hand and white sparks appear all around him. They pop like bubbles and he is gone. Just like that. For a moment I cannot move. The room is back as it was, the tree, the lights, the cat licking her bottom. But nothing is normal, not now.
'I've just seen, Father Christmas, Serena. I'VE JUST SEEN FATHER CHRISTMAS!' Serena is disturbed mid-lick and stalks out of the room and I fly upstairs. I want to tell Mum and Dad, I want to tell Granpa Jack, I want to fling open my bedroom window and shout out the news! Father Christmas is alive! But Dad accidentally painted my window shut last summer so I have to just stare very hard out at the night sky, hoping for a glimpse of him.
'I've just seen, Father Christmas,' I say to Dexter, the computer.
'Does not com-pute,' says Dexter.
'Oh, yes it does,' I whisper.
And in my sleep, I dream of small, grey sheep falling from the sky.

6 comments:

Jude said...

Poor Wilf!
I wish I were a child at Christmas. Things were so much simpler back then. If only I had Wilf's worries things would be so easy :-)

Wilf said...

It's a tough life, Jude but someone's got to live it.
Wilf

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Hi Wilf, I find your posts very creative indeed and your own profile super-inventive. Of course, your novel is for adults???
You seem a first-class children's writer.
And I liked the picture underneath, about a vacumm cleaner.
Incidentally, this sounds crazy but I read somewhere that sometime in the 16th century or so, an English clerk was himself called a typewriter as his occupation, simply because he could type.
Here's looking to more of your great posts.

Wilf said...

Thanks, Susan
Actually, I write firmly for children! I love the idea of a type writer, it makes me think about other jobs in the past. I think there was a good series on the BBC with someone investigating disgusting and horrible jobs-I must check that out...
Addy

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Oops! Look how I spelt 'vacuum'

Wilf said...

What an interesting variation!
Addy