Santa’s Last Hope S

• Ian Desouza, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2015

Christmas was coming quickly for the town of Astenburg; all the shopping malls were filled with music. The elves were working hard on the toys while Santa was working on his naughty and nice list. All the children were singing and laughing happily as they played in the in the soft white snow.

Except for a little girl named Mandy Quencheela. She was a young, thin poor girl, her mum and dad could not earn enough money for a proper living and had to live in a shack they built for themselves. Every day they ate half a piece of bread. Some days they were lucky and got a whole piece each. Despite their lack of money they somehow managed day to day.

Mandy always watched the children playing
This year’s Santa was Mr Longbottom. He had never been Santa before so he got straight to work. The first thing he did was learn to drive the sleigh. He practiced moving it and soon started flying it.

He wrote the names of all the naughty and nice children.
Naughty: Rick S Wally F
Nice: Marcus T Leo A and Mandy Q.

He organised every present. He checked his list until he was finally sure it was right.
Mandy had worked at her best this year, as she always did. On Christmas mornings she would wake up to the sound of children playing with their presents, but all she got was a little stone written To Mandy from Santa.

Mandy didn’t have a proper house or money and education, but she was very intelligent. She knew more than most kids her age. She never bragged about how smart she was, she always was quiet and calm, keeping to herself.

The night before Christmas crept up on Santa but he was prepared, ready as could ever be. He had trained all the reindeers, put all the presents in his sack and cleaned the sleigh, he was about to go when he just remembered that he had not put the suit on. He ran to his wardrobe and as quick as a flash was dressed in his bright, red, bulgy suit, and soon he was off, dropping presents into every house which had nice children. Soon, he finally reached the town of Astenburg.

He delivered all the presents except for one; Mandy’s. As she lived in a shack, she was hard to find. He snuck through door after door and finally spotted a little shack

When Mandy woke, expected her usual stone, she was astonished by the huge beautifully wrapped gift in the corner of the shack.
Inside was a card with one simple sentence written on it: ‘things will get better.’
Tears filled Mandy’s eyes as her father come rushing into the shack.

I just got a job! We will be able to move into a real house. Day after day their lives seemed to be getting better for the Quencheela family and soon they were living just the way they should.