A Christmas Truce

• Tara Shaw, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2017

“ Happy Birthday to me, Happy birthday dear James, happy birthday to me.”
The words drifted through the wet and muddy wasteland. The eerie song the only sound to be heard throughout the trench. 1:00am 25th December 1914.
James smiled faintly. He was now a man, 18 years of age , he could now make his own decisions, not get tormented about him being only a child by the older men in the army.
The smoke and haze was beginning to clear leaving the night cold and clear.
His makeshift bed creaked under his weight as he made to get up.
He had heard footsteps.
After a year in the army James knew a thing or two about intrusions and he silently reached for his gas mask and tip-toed through the mud.
Rifle at the ready, his eagle eyes darted around the trench trying to catch movement.
To his weary relief he saw his leader, the British leader Lloyd George climbing up and out of the trench. James went to leave as his tired mind came into focus. Lloyds number 1 rule is ‘ Always stay in the trench.’ He quoted under his breath.
Curiosity taking over him he stayed put, straining to hear.
“ Hello” “ Ja frölich Weihnachten”
. From learning German as a young child he caught ‘Frölich’ which meant merry and ‘Weihnachten’ which means Christmas. After this there was merely mixed chatter that James could not decipher. He was astounded.
As he stumbled back to his bed he tried to unscramble what had happened at the darkest hour. But found nothing. He slowly fell into an uneasy sleep filled with accusations and biased conclusions.
James woke up to an unusual sound. Silent. No screams in the distance, no guns firing, no mines exploding. Nothing. All the men and boys in the beds or on the ground around him were already up and sharing excited and worried stories in urgent whispers.
only other men who like James kept silent were 3 sixteen year old boys kneeing a bettered looking soccer ball around in a circle. But then to James horror one of the boys lost control of the patched ball, and it bounced up and over the trench wall. The boys turned verdant! Never had James seen someone so petrified. It went silent.
The ball bounced over the mud and gnarled wire and to everyone's horror it bounced into the enemies trench. There were murmured sounds coming from the Germans that eventually turned into a loquacious buzz. We watched aghast as a troglodytic figure stumbled over the marshy wall and on to no-mans land. We had our guns ready but to our bewilderment Lloyd George put out his hand. “No”
“ Kommen sie, spielen, ich Anruf ein , aufhören Fever!”
Everyone stayed stagnant.He did not know wether it was because they did not know German or because like James they were amazed at what the German leader Wilhelm the 2nd had just stated. He had called a ceasefire.