December 2, 2010

A Child's Christmas in Queens (part 6 - by Margaret Ullrich)

After Mass, when we were leaving the church, I saw a pale cloud in the sky.  It looked long and thin, with a sort of bump on one end.  For a moment I thought it looked like Santa and his sleigh with eight tiny reindeer.  

I kept looking at that cloud.  It seemed to follow us from St. Leo’s to Uncle Des’ house, where we had panettone.  

When we left, the cloud was still in the sky.  I watched it from the car.  The cloud followed us from Corona to College Point. 


I had never noticed clouds before.  Did clouds always follow people from one town to another?  Was it really a cloud?  Sister had told us that Santa had millions of helpers.  They were tiny people called elves.  Could that cloud have been an elf picking up the letter from La Befana?


Christmas morning, Pop was eating breakfast while Ma was cleaning Barbara.  Ma sent me to the basement to get some dry diapers that were hanging by the furnace.  


Being a big sister wasn’t much fun.
  
I pulled down two diapers.  

Then I noticed some lumps by the furnace.  

I thought some clothes had fallen off the line.  I walked toward the furnace to pick them up.  I hoped they hadn’t gotten dirty.  Ma was tired and wouldn’t want to wash them again. 


But the lumps weren’t clothes. 


They were boxes.
  
They were wrapped.

They were presents!

They were for me!!


Santa had found me. 

No comments:

Post a Comment