G'day all fellow writers. I apologise for posting only half of my story- "I believe in Santa Claus" and to make amends I am posting the last half. I hope you like my story and if there be any book publisher/s who do please contact me for publishing rights at rvthyer@bigpond.com.au and I would really, really like to know if JPFolks like it too. best wishes, Ray Thyer down under.
Now the last half of "I believe in Santa Claus"...

I never saw my daddy look so sad and you know what? He picked up his little telephone and telephoned my mummy. I don’t know what he said but I was very happy indeed when my mummy came home to me. I love my mummy and she hugged and kissed me when she came home and she picked up Courtney and hugged and kissed her too and made me have a bath and then she said it was Courtney’s turn and put me in my bed and my daddy read a story to me. I didn’t mind that she put Courtney to bed in the nursery because it has a cot to use as a bed and Courtney would be safe in the nursery.

You know what? I heard my mummy crying and my daddy talking real loud and I crept out of my room and they didn’t see me as I hid on the top stair above the family room and I could hear my mummy crying and my daddy was talking about me.

“Rodney told me that his school friend’s mother and father have been evicted and a bank has changed the locks to their house and he wants them to come and live here in this house with him and Courtney too. I work seven days a week at the factory and you work every night at the hospital. I get out of bed to go to work and you come home and go to bed when I am not here and every night you work night shift and I am here alone with Rodney. I don’t like the way things are shaping up, we just manage to pay the mortgage on this big house every month and we never have any money left week after week. If there is another increase in the interest rate we have to pay on the mortgage of this house we won’t be able to meet the repayments”.

“Oh Darling, what are we going to do?” my mummy asked my daddy. I don’t know what daddy said because I feel asleep on top of the stairs.

Courtney came to live with me and my mummy and daddy for a little while and her and mummy and daddy lived with us too in our very big house and then they went away and when Courtney came to big school I gave her my sandwiches and apple every day to make her happy when she said she had left her lunch box at home.

Timothy was happy as can be with his new baby brother until one day he came to big school and he was crying and crying and I asked him, “Why are you crying, Timothy?”

“A bad bank has tossed my mummy and daddy and me out of our house and changed the locks on the doors and we can’t get in our house anymore and we have no where to sleep tonight” he told me.

“Don’t cry, Timothy you can come home with me and so can your family. My mummy and daddy have a very big house and you can live with me” I told Timothy.

My daddy came and picked me up from big school and I asked him if Timothy and his family could live with me and my daddy said, ‘Timothy, you can come home with Rodney and me” and he picked up his little telephone and my mummy came home to daddy and me.

“Rodney’s friend, Timothy and his mother, father and his baby brother have lost their home to a bank and they have no home anymore and I brought Timothy home with me”, I heard him tell my mummy as I sat at the top of the stairs over the family living room.

“It’s getting worse and worse. My friends at the hospital are behind in their repayments on their mortgages and don’t know what to do”, my mummy told my daddy and she cried and cried.

“I work seven days a week now and I will ask my boss for an extra shift at the factory. We will be alright, Darling. Don’t you worry” my daddy told my mummy.

Timothy is six years old just like me and I don’t want anything to happen to his family. Christmas is coming next week and I know what I should do to help our families. I am going to write a letter to Santa Claus…

“Dear Santa, I believe in you. My daddy works seven days every week and my mummy does too. My friend, Timothy and his mummy and daddy and his baby brother live with us too. Things are getting worse and if things get really, really worse a bad bank will change the locks on our doors and toss us all out of this house and we will have no where to sleep anymore. I have been a very, very good boy the whole year through and the thing I want to ask from you for this year is –Please don’t give me or Timothy or his baby brother any presents and don’t give any to our mummies or daddies too. All I want this Christmas is please give my daddy a winning ticket in the lottery”.

And you know what? On Christmas day I opened my eyes and crept down the stairs and only one thing was under the Christmas tree – a lottery ticket for my daddy!

I believe in Santa Claus, I really, really do!

The end.





















Ray Thyer