It is January and Dan is fed up. Christmas has come and gone and there will be no presents until his birthday, ten months away in November. Dan does not count Easter as a present receiving opportunity as his family are just too traditional and all he gets is chocolate, some of it in the shape of rabbits. How old does his family think he is? Four years old? Five years old? Dan is seven years old and he wishes his family were more like his best pal Jacob’s. Jacob is already planning his Easter present list and will probably get things connected to Fortnite, his favourite computer game, or football boots or jazzy designer clothes. Oh how Dan wishes he was Jacob.
Christmas was sort of OK for presents. He got lots of Lego sets, all of which have now been completed and are proudly displayed on a shelf in his bedroom. Dan would like to say to his relatives, who he has to admit are very kind, that he would like Lego bricks, just bricks, not sets that you have to follow a complicated plan to assemble. These do not need imagination but a pile of bricks of assorted sizes and colours are a gift of total imagination and Dan would spend hours building things where the finished object would only be realised at the end. But Dan has been taught to be polite and he says very nicely on receipt of the various Lego building sets “Thank you so much; this is just what I wanted.” Dan can cope with these little white lies with but the kiss expected by the gift giver are things Dan would rather do without. Especially Great Aunt Martha who always smells of a combination of lavender and pee.
Uncle Philip, his dad’s brother, is an English teacher and every Christmas and birthday Dan gets a book, a hardback, usually a classic – “For you to enjoy later young man” says Uncle Philip usually with a wink and a grin revealing yellow teeth due to years of smoking. Thankfully Uncle Philip does not expect to give or receive a kiss. Dan has a growing shelf of Charles Dickens’ books which look as if they have far too many words for him to really enjoy – yet. Uncle Philip has also bought him The Hobbit and took him to the cinema to see the film. The film was OK but no matter how many times he starts the book he never gets past page three. Jacob has some books by Anthony Horowitz and he let Dan borrow one. It was great fun to read as were Jacob’s Ben Ten books – Oh how Dan wishes he was Jacob.
Dan’s main present from his mum and dad was a keyboard, a small piano without legs. His mum and dad have suggested he might like piano lessons and this is to get him used to a piano keyboard. Dan never asked for a keyboard, Dan has no interest in learning to play the piano and the keyboard is currently under his bed.
Then there are the friends and relatives who add to his train set. Dan’s dad has built in the spare room a huge track lay out where he, Dan’s dad, spends most evenings. New trains and extra track and houses and people are always met with great delight by Dan’s dad and Dan, of course, says, “Thank you so much; it is just what I wanted”. Dan really wasn’t bothered about the train set but he moves things around once or twice a week leaving the impression that he has a real interest in this unwanted and unasked for present.
Jacob, of course, is asked to write a list of what he would like for Christmas. When Dan made a small list of things he would really like for Christmas his mum and dad told him that a list would mean there were no surprises on Christmas morning – and Christmas was all about surprises. “Not in Jacob’s house” thinks Dan.
His godmother, Mum’s best friend Gaynor, was at their house when the unsuccessful conversation about a Christmas gift list took place. Gaynor, noticed only by Dan, sneakily hid the screwed up list up her sleeve and winked at her favourite godson. Her present was a box of pencils and felt-tips, of every colour under the sun, plus lots of good quality paper in all sizes. Dan loves drawing and this gift had been at the top of his list and he loved it. Dan’s thanks to Gaynor on Christmas day were real and meant, he was so pleased to open something he really liked and had wanted so very much. Dan loves his pens and pencils but part of him wishes that this gift had not been at the top of the list. The gift at the top of the list, drawing things, was not his number one wish. Dan wishes he had put Fortnite or a football strip of his favourite team at the top– then he would have been totally happy.
Dan is a football fan. He adores football and he plays Saturday morning football in a local team. Unfortunately Dan’s family are a rugby union family and relatives in the past have played professionally for various rugby teams. It is even believed that a second cousin once removed may have played for England. Dan knows that his mum and dad would prefer that he enjoyed the game with the oval shaped ball and he overheard a conversation where his mum and dad were discussing a school Dan might go to when he turns eleven, a school that specialises in rugby. That made Dan very sad. Jacob, of course, also loves football and has been spotted by scouts for a couple of professional teams. Oh how Dan wishes he was Jacob.
Oh how Dan wishes he could make a few, just a few, decisions about his life. At the very least, birthday and Christmas presents would be things he would be delighted to choose for himself. He would even put up stupid Easter rabbits as presents if he could have more say at birthdays and Christmases. As for the big things, like where he went to school, well, that might have to wait until he was older. Perhaps when he was ten.
No comments:
Post a Comment