Easter Boy

• Neave Connors, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2020

Easter Boy
It’s Easter morning, with the icy air all around me. My parents are sleeping, on the frosty, filthy ground, suffering from all our problems. I am Samantha Good-Way but my parents call me Sammy. In my world, the Easter Bunny, Santa, Tooth Fairy and Sand Man only come to the kids who can afford the things that they need. Ten years ago, my parents were in a lovely house, on a welcoming street.

But ever since I came along, the bills for the doctors, school and the electricity started rolling in and my parents started to get paid less all until we had to sell our house and most of our belongings, just to take care of me. For my whole life, I have blamed myself for what our lives are, even though my parents have said that it was never my fault and that it was the people who they worked for but that didn't change what I thought.

But this Easter was different, there were chocolates under my feet, with little toys wrapped around me. “Well this is definitely not the Easter bunny,”I told myself but right around the corner, in a dark alley nearby, was a little boy, with sky blue eyes, and a smile on his face that was big enough to fill a whole town with delight and joy.
“Hello Sammy,” he whispered across the street. But before I could answer him, he was gone within one blink of an eye.

For hours, I stared at the chocolate, wondering why someone would know my name and why would they do something so nice, for a person like me? “This doesn’t make sense...Mum! Dad! Quick! Get up,” I said in a hushed tone.
“What is it?”
“Someone gave us Easter eggs and it definitely wasn’t the Easter Bunny. He knew my name and he ran away before I could even talk to him.”
“It’s probably one of those people who feel bad about us being homeless,”
But how did he know who I was? Why would he even do that?

Now I am 32 years old, not wondering any more, that was 22 years ago, and now, I live in a lovely house, on a welcoming street, next to my parents, my new friends and my family. That little chocolate basket started my parent’s life once again. Now, with life as a mother of two, a wife to Shawn Star-Day, the boy who delivered those eggs to me. Somehow and somewhere, the Easter Bunny doesn’t just deliver chocolate, it delivers hopes and dreams.