Boo was exhausted, she had just got back from a crazy last-minute shopping expedition with Mommy’s Boyfriend and they had wrapped the final batch of presents together while eating a hot ham wrap. Hot ham wraps are Boo’s favourite and she always managed to eat one, regardless of wether or not she is hungry.
Once the presents were safety under the tree, she decided to see if her dragon was around.
‘I’m going to lie on my bed for a while, until Mommy gets home’.
‘OK Shortstuff’.
Mommy’s boyfriend was once more fiddling with his computer and he barely looked up, which was probably a good thing because Boo grabbed several bags of smokey bacon crisps and two granola bars on her way to her room.
As soon as Boo bounced into her room, she noticed her dragon. As usual he was sleeping on the floor, little puffs of smoke emanating from his nostrils as he snored lightly. Unlike most nine-year of girls, Boo was not only not afraid of dragons, be she was not even afraid of waking up a sleeping dragon. Well, not when she was armed with smokey bacon crisps at least.
Boo opened two bags of crisps and placed the open bags neat to his nostrils, Dragon sniffed, then sniffed again. His eyelids snapped open with a pop and he inhaled the crips, then grinned a hugely toothy grin at Boo. This grin always worried Boo a little, so she quickly passed him a granola bar too.
‘Ooh, thank you Boo, and Merry Yuletide greetings’.
‘Dragon, what do you want for Christmas ?’
Boo looked quizzically at her Dragon. She had been thinking about what to get him for weeks, but short of a case of smokey bacon crisps and some cheese, she had pretty much failed to think of anything at all.
Dragon looked at Boo, ‘I was just about to ask you the same thing’.
They looked at each other for a few moments.
‘You know’, said Dragon thoughtfully, ‘I have an idea, lets do a little people watching and see what other people are buying for each other and see if that gives us any ideas’.
Boo grabbed her backpack, pulled on the wooly hat and sunglasses that she had borrowed from Mommy and her nice new Parka jacket. She pulled her pigtails extra tight and jumped onto Dragon’s back. Within a few minutes they were flying at great speed towards London. Boo loved flying and they were flying very quickly, her pigtails streaming behind her and a little rain in the air battering her sunglasses. Behind her the sun was already setting.
All too soon they were landing in a bustling Oxford Street. As usual none of the shoppers even noticed, it seemed to Boo that if you do not believe in dragons, then you cannot see them, even when they are right in front off you. ‘Actually’, thought Boo, ‘they seem to actively ignore him and even move out of the way for him.’
Oxford Street was incredibly busy, so Dragon wrapped his wing around Boo as they made their way through the crowds. It seemed that everyone was shopping and they all had a look of desperate hunger on their faces. Remembering that Dragon was probably hungry again. She spotted a man selling hot roasted chestnuts and ran over and bought two bags. Dragon was delighted, he poured an entire bag into his mouth in one go.
Boo was not sure if he had ever had hot chestnuts.
It turns out that not only had Dragon not tried them, he was also not really prepared for the heat.
Despite being a Dragon, he was caught off guard.
‘Whoa !’
Well, that was what he meant to say, but what actually came out was a sheet of flame that singed almost half a mile of tinsel along Oxford Street.
‘Oops, I was not expecting them to be that hot’
Boo giggled, ‘Well, the clue was in the ‘roasted’.
Dragon rolled his eyes, ‘Are roasted peanuts hot’ ?
Boo thought, ‘No, not usually’
‘Or Roasted Chicken crisps, or roasted coffee beans or roasted….’
Boo kicked him, ‘Stop it, you are being silly.’
Eventually they found a bench and started to people-watch. It seemed that people were buying anything that they could imagine, ‘Do you want a TV for Christmas, Dragon?’
‘No thanks, I’m not a big fan of television.’
‘Phew, thats good, because I cannot afford to buy you one.
‘I know, lets go and see Santa’ said Boo. She had just spotted a ‘Santa’s Grotto’ sign outside of a huge department store. Dragon looked a little quizzical, but followed her regardless. Boo, following the signs and keeping her hand in Dragon’s paw made her way through the store to the grotto. Unfortunately it was closed due to illness. A very overstressed shop assistant, dressed as an elf explained to her that Santa had called in sick that morning and that hundreds of children had been disappointed.
‘I have an idea’, whispered Dragon in her ear, ‘I’ll be right back’. With barely a sound, he took to the air and rocketed out of the shop at extremely high speed.
Boo panicked slightly, she was a long way from home and suddenly all alone, her Mommy was due home in a couple of hours and surely Mommy’s Boyfriend would check up on her at some time.
A couple of minutes later though Dragon came hurtling back into the store, but this time he had a passenger, a small, jolly man dressed as Santa.
‘Ho, Ho, Ho, said the jolly little man, I hear you are missing a Santa’.
The elf-like shop assistant looked him up and down a couple of times.’I guess you will have to do, you are not really fat enough and your costume is a little bit worn, but quickly, get in the grotto.
She handed Boo an elf costume, ‘We are an elf short too, we pay £10 an hour’.
Boo giggled, ‘OK, lets do it’.
She hop-skipped-and-jumped to the changing room and put on the elf costume. All the while wondering where Dragon had got the stand-in Santa from.
The grotto was re-opened and a queue started to form, Boo took her place next to the Santa and was apparently in charge of checking off the names of the visitors on the naughty list, then handing Santa a present from the sack to give to the child.
The first visitor was a boy called ‘Nathan’, Boo looked for his name on the naughty list as instructed, but she could not find it. Nathan sat on Santa’s knee and his parents took photographs with their phones. Nathan explained that he wanted a radio controlled car for christmas and that he had been good all year. Boo reached into the sack of toys, and, as if by magic, a present appeared in her hand.
She handed the present to Santa, who winked at her and then handed it to Nathan. The wrapping was not the best, but Boo could not tell what it was, but she was sure that it was the right size and weight for a radio controlled car.
Within about half an hour, she had checked off Lucy (make-up set), Sarah (Book about spiders), Jenny (One-Direction CD) and several others that she could not remember.
All the time, Dragon had been snoozing lightly behind them.
Then, who should turn up but Emma, not just Emma, But Emma and James and they were holding hands again.
Emma pushed James out of the way and jumped on Santa’s knee ‘I want a Pony and a new computer and a big box of dolls’.
Santa looked at Emma and smiled. Well tell me, Emma, are you on the good list or the naughty list ?’.
Emma blinked, she was sure that she had not mentioned her name. Boo meanwhile realised that the naughty list was shaking in her hand, she unrolled it a little and found that Emma’s name was not only on the list, but it was highlighted in flashing orange marker pen. ‘Emma – VERY Naughty’. She reached into the sack and as she expected a present jumped into her hand. This time however it felt a bit squidgy. She handed it to Santa, who once more winked and smiled and she handed it on to Emma.
James then hopped onto Santa’s knee, pushing Emma out of the way. ‘I want a helicopter and an iPhone and a puppy’. Boo glanced at the still shaking naughty list ‘James – REALLY Naughty’. Boo grinned to herself as she once more handed over a squidgy present, Santa also winked and smiled.
After a couple of exhausting hours, the elf-like shop assistant came back. ‘The original santa is back and ready to take over’. She handed Boo four £10 notes and Boo, Dragon and the mysterious Santa made their way out of the store. As they did so they realised that there was a bit of a commotion being caused by Emma’s parents regarding ‘slimey gifts’ that their precious daughter had got from the Santa in the grotto.
Boo grinned.
‘Little girl’, began Santa, ‘as you have probably guessed, the naughty children all got a packet of dragon bogies, while the good ones got a little more than they expected.’
Boo smiled again, ‘Thank you Santa, you probably made their christmas extra special.’ ‘Tell me, Boo, what would you like for christmas ?’
Boo thought about it, they were walking along Oxford Street and despite looking extraordinarily out of place, everyone seemed to look straight past them or even straight through them. ‘Well,’ said Boo,’I have already got presents for Mommy, for her boyfriend, for Daddy and for his girlfriend.’, she thought a little more, ‘and I have presents for all of my friends, except Dragon.’
She paused, thinking.
‘So, the only thing I would like for Christmas is something for Dragon’.
Santa Grinned. ‘You are one of the most selfless child I have ever met, and trust me, I’ve met an awful lot of children in my job.’
He reached into his sack and presented her with a present that was not only beautifully wrapped, but it was also rather heavy for its size. One the tag it said ‘For Dragon, love Boo’.
Santa then turned on the spot and disappeared.
Boo boggled. ‘Where did he go ?’
‘Oh back to the North pole probably, or maybe to another grotto to fill in for a while’.
‘You mean, that he often does this, he fills in and hands out presents like this’
‘Oh yes, I would say that when you visit Santa’s grotto you have about a 50-50 chance of meeting the real santa.’
Dragon wrapped his wings around her. She loved it when he did this because it made her feel safe and invulnerable.
‘I have a present for you Dragon’
‘Oh goody, can you put it under your tree and I’ll make sure that I am there first thing in the morning to collect it.’
Boo realised it was Christmas eve-eve, she also realised that she had been gone for hours and that Mommy would probably be panicking by now.
‘Dragon, can you get me home please and do that time thingy so it is only just after we left ?’ ‘No problem’
They flew fast and low again, out of London, following the Thames and soon they were in site of the pier that marked her home town, she realised that is was light again, so once more she would not be missed. Seconds later they landed lightly in her room.
Pausing only for a quick snack of smokey bacon crisps and yet another granola bar, Dragon swiftly went to sleep beside her bed.
Boo snuck out of her room and placed the present under the tree. Mommies boyfriend was still fiddling with his computer and it was about half an hour before Mommy was due home. She put the TV on just in time to see the news. Apparently there had been an electrical fault in the Oxford Street lights and a lot of tinsel had been damaged, but shoppers were all unhurt. Also there were a couple of people had been arrested as a result of a fracas in a department store. But generally the christmas shopping season was going well.
to be continued……