UNDER THE TREE

 

 

 

"It's Christmas Eve, Commander Robin," said the Spaceman. You better go to bed if you want Santa Claus to come.

"Exactly, Robin," said his mother. It's time to say good night.

The boy, dressed in his blue pajamas, nodded his head but made no move to get up.

"Give me a kiss," said Bear. Bear took a few awkward, graceful steps around the tree and put his arms around Robin. We have to go to bed. I'm going too. -It was what he said every night.

Robin's mother shook her head, somewhere between amused and desperate.

"Listen to them," he said. Look at it, Bertha. He looks like a little prince surrounded by her court. How is he going to feel when he grows up and can't have transistorized sycophants constantly coddling him?

Bertha, the robot maid, nodded her almost human head as she replaced the poker in its holder.

-Yes, that's true, Mrs. Jackson. Of course it is true.

The Dancing DollHe took Robin's hand and made an arabesque punch. Robin now stood up. His guards formed up and presented weapons.

"On the other hand," said Robin's mother, "they're only going to be children for a short time."

Bertha nodded again.

"You're only young once, Mrs. Jackson, of course." Is it okay if I ask these cute little toys to help me clean this up when the kid is asleep?

The Captain of the guards saluted with his silver saber. The Biggest Guard beat the chant on his drum, and the rest of the guards formed a double file.

"Sleep with Bear," said Robin's mother.

-I can do without Bear, there are many others.

The Spaceman touched the buckle of his antigravity belt and rose to a height of five feet like a graceful, broad-shouldered balloon. Withthe Dancing Dollon the left and Bear on the right, Robin set off unsteadily behind the guards. Robin's mother stubbed out her last cigarette of the night, winked at Bertha, and said:

-I guess I'd better retire too. You don't need to help me undress, just pick up my things in the morning.

-Yes ma'am. It's a pity that Mr. Jackson is not here, today it is Christmas Eve, these days...

-In a week he returns from Brazil: I have already told you. Bertha, you speak worse every day. Are you sure you wouldn't like to be a French maid for a while?

-No way, Mrs. Jackson. I have too much trouble answering men who knock on the door when I'm French.

"When Mr. Jackson gets promoted again, we're going to have a driver," Robin's mother said. He will be Italian, and always will be, you understand?

Bertha watched as the woman quickly left the room.

-Come on, lazy toys! Let's empty the ashtrays into the fire and leave nothing in the middle here. I'm going to disconnect, but the next time I walk into this room I want everything to be in its place or there's going to be a big mess of toys.

He was watching long enough to see

to the Gingham Dog to dump the contents of the largest ashtray on the crackling logs, to the Space Man to float to put the magazines on the coffee table right andthe Dancing Doll start sweeping the home.

"To your box," he said to the guards, and then he went off.

In the smallest bedroom, Bear lay in Robin's arms.

"Be still," Robin said.

"But I'm still," said Bear.

-Every time I'm about to fall asleep, you move.

"It's not true," said Bear.

-Yes.

-No.

-Yes. -. "Sometimes you have trouble sleeping too," said Bear.

"When I'm having a hard time is tonight," Robin answered pointedly.

Bear slipped out of the boy's arms.

-I want to see if it's snowing again.

He climbed from the bed to an open drawer and from the open drawer to the top of the dresser. She was snowing.

"Bear," said Robin, "you have a loose circuit." -It was what her mother sometimes said to Bertha. Bear did not answer. "I know, Bear," Robin said sleepily a moment later. I know why you are like this. Tomorrow is your birthday, and you think I won't have anything for you.

-Have something? -Bear asked.

"I'll have it," Robin answered. Mom is going to take me to the store.

A minute later, his breathing became the regular, heavy sigh of a sleeping child. Bear sat on the edge of the dresser and stared at it. Then, in a very low voice, he said:

-I know how to sing Christmas carols.

It was the first thing he had said to Robin, a year ago now. She spread her arms. Everything is calm, everything is

light. This made him think of the lights on the tree and the splendid fire in the living room. Spaceman was there, but since he was the only toy that could fly, none of the others liked him very much. Alsothe Dancing Doll It was there.The Dancing DollShe was smart, but well... she couldn't think of the word. She jumped into the drawer and landed on a pile of Robin's t-shirts. She then unhooked herself from the box and, stealthily, went down to the dark carpeted floor.

"Limited," he said to himself. The Dancing Doll It is very limited.

He thought again of the fire and the old toys. The Blocks that Robin had before him,the Dancing Dolland the others will arrive, and the Wooden Man riding a yellow bicycle, andthe Singing Top.

The door to Robin's room was ajar. A thin strip of light came through the opening, so that Robin would not be afraid. Bear closed it a little more each night. Now, he didn't want to open it. It had been a long time since Robin had asked about his Wooden Man, his Singing Top, and his "B" Block, with all its talk of apples, acorns, and alligators.

In the living room,the Dancing Doll He was posting the Guards under the watchful supervision of the Spaceman, standing on the mantelpiece.

"We can put three or four behind the bookcase," he shouted.

"They won't be able to see anything from there," grumbled Bear.

The Dancing DollHe did a pirouette and then a pompous bow.

"We were afraid you wouldn't come," he said.

"Put one behind each leg of the table," Bear told him. I had to wait until she fell asleep. Now listen to me, listen to me everyone. When I shout "Charge!", we all have to run at them. This is very important. If possible, we practice it before.

The Greatest Guard said:

-I'll hit the drum.

"You'll hit the enemy or you'll end up in the fire with the rest of us," replied Bear.

Robin was skating on the ice. His feet slid forward and rose into the air, he fell to the ground and suffered a tremendous blow that left him completely shocked. He raised his head, and saw that he was not in the frozen park pond. He was in his own bed, while the moon was shining through the window and it was the eve... no, it was already Christmas night, already... Santa Claus was going to come. Maybe he had come already. Robin strained his ears to see if he heard reindeer on the roof and did not hear the sound of his footsteps. Then he listened in case Santa Claus was eating the cupcakes his mother had left for him on the stone shelf by the fireplace. There was no sound of anyone chewing, no crunching. He now threw back the covers and slid over the edge of the bed until his feet touched the floor. The pleasant smells of the tree and the fire had reached his room. He left his room with great stealth and followed them into the hallway.

Santa Claus was in the living room, leaning by the tree! Robin's eyes widened until they were the size and roundness of pajama buttons. Immediately Santa Claus stood up, and it wasn't Santa Claus, mind you, but Robin's mother dressed in a new red bathrobe. Robin's mother was almost as fat as Santa Claus, and Robin couldn't help but put his fingers in her mouth to keep from laughing as he watched Mrs. Jackson huff and puff and hold her knees until she could stand upright.

But Santa Claus had come! There were toys, new toys, around the tree.

Robin's mother walked to the stone shelf where the cupcakes were and ate half of one of them. She then drank half the glass of milk, turned to return to her room and Robin retreated into the darkness of her own room until she had passed. When she peeked cautiously from behind the door frame, the toys—The New Toys—were beginning to move.

They moved, stirred and looked around. Maybe because it was Christmas Eve. Perhaps it was simply because the light from the fire had activated his circuits. But a clown straightened his clothes and stretched, and a ragged girl smoothed her ragged apron - which had a heart embroidered on it - and a monkey made a huge leap and hung from the second branch from the bottom of the Christmas tree. Robin saw them. And Bear, who was behind the foot cushion of Robin's father's chair, saw them too, Cowboys and North American Indians lifting the lid of their box while a gentleman opened a cardboard door - which looked like wood - located on the side. from another box - which looked like stone - and a dragon looked over his shoulder.

-Charge! -Bear ordered. Charge!

He came out from behind the cushion, on all fours like a real bear, running very stiffly but very quickly, and hit the Clown in the wide waist and knocked him down, and then picked him up and threw him near the fire.

The Spaceman had pounced on the Monkey: they were struggling, hesitating, on top of a polyethylene tricycle.

The fastest loading was the Dancing Doll, faster even than Bear, in an impressive series of gestures, butthe Ragged Girl He had lifted her off the ground and was now running with her towards the fire. As Bear hit the Clown again, he saw the North American Indians taking a guard - the Captain of the guards - also towards the fire. The Captain's saber had gone through one of the North American Indians, and he must have damaged some circuit because the North American Indian had problems walking. But the next moment the Captain was already burning, his red uniform in flames, his hands in the air like tongues of fire, his black eyes glassy and cracked while a river of shining metal fell from him as if it were sweat to harden among the ashes under the eyes. logs.

The Clown tried to fight Bear, but Bear knocked him down. The Dragon's teeth were digging into Bear's left heel, but Bear kicked away.The Spotted CatIt burned, it burned. The Gingham Dog tried to get her out, but the Monkey pushed him into the fire. For a moment, Bear thought about the basement stairs and the deep, dark basement, where there were boxes and packages and a thousand forgotten corners. If he ran away and hid, maybe the New Toys would never find him, maybe they wouldn't even try to look for him. In a few years Robin would discover it, covered in dust.

The loudest and sweetest cry was that ofthe Dancing Doll, and Bear turned and met the Knight's raised sword.

When Robin's mother woke up on Christmas morning, Robin was already awake, sitting under the tree with the Cowboys and watching the North American Indians dance the rain dance. The Monkey was perched on her shoulder,the Ragged Girl - programmed, the clerk had assured Robin's mother, to begin Robin's sexual education - on her lap, and the Knight and the Dragon at her feet.

-Do you like the toys that Santa Claus brought you, Robin? -her mother asked him.

-One of the North American Indians is not walking.

-It's the same honey, we will return it. Robin, I have something very important to tell you.

Bertha the robot arrived with cornflakes and milk and vitamins for Robin and coffee with milk for Robin's mother.

-Where are all those old toys? he -wanted to know-. Well, they have cleaned well.

-Robin, toys are nothing more than that, toys, naturally... -Robin nodded absently. A red calf emerged from the ramp while a cowboy followed on horseback, lasso in hand.

-But where are the old toys, Mrs. Jackson? -Bertha asked again.

"They're programmed to self-destruct, I understand," Robin's mother said. But, Robin,

Do you know how all these new toys, the Knight and the Dragon and all these Cowboys, got here? Almost by magic. Well, the same can happen with people. -Robin looked at her with terror reflected in her eyes-. The same wonder is going to happen here, in our home, my heaven.

 

END

 

2005 Story by Paya Frank @ Blogger