A Christmas Story

When I was young, I always loved Christmas Eve, knowing that the next day presents would be scattered underneath my tree. As I went to bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about Christmas. Christmas. Christmas. It was tomorrow. I was just about to go upstairs when my sister pushed me so I shoved her back. My parents yelled at me as I ran upstairs to my bedroom. I wished they would be gone that next day. Finally, I slowly began to drift into my deep sleep.

I woke up a few hours later, hoping to see all the presents downstairs. I went to look for my parents, but they weren’t there. I went into both of my sister’s rooms. No one there either. Where could they have gone? I had always had dreams like this. But this was happening in reality! I began to panic, not knowing what to do. My family had disappeared. Oh no! I would be spending Christmas alone. And that’s when I heard the noise. A screeching sound, like metal on metal. I looked outside to be astonished by a express train sitting right in front of my eyes, on a street!
I ran out to meet a conductor who wore a grin and blue uniform. He stared at me for about a minute. I broke the silence by asking what this was. “This is the Polar Express,” he exclaimed. He said it was going to the North Pole. So young and intrigued, I hopped on. I was surprised to see how many kids were on it. Kids were singing Christmas songs and that subtle warmth of Christmas was around. Christmas spirit was definitely in the air. As I sat down, I was bombarded by what look like waiters, having steaming, rich pots of soothing hot chocolate. I sat there, sipping away at this delicious drink, when I noticed that some girl was sitting alone. She seemed shy, but she had this certain radiance to her. I went over and made conversation. When that same conductor came in, he announced to us that we were headed to the North Pole, and that all of us had wished that our families would disappear. Our faces dropped from that radiant Christmas spirit to a sad, frowning face. So much was happening in such a short amount of time. I was shocked to learn that within that next half hour, we had arrived at the North Pole. The North Pole looked like an ocean liner ablaze in the middle of an ocean.

When we hopped down off of the train, we saw small, short figures walking towards us. We were all surprised to learn that elves were real. They all wore mischievous smiles, so I couldn’t help myself but laugh when they played a joke on one of the kids. We arrived in what seemed to be a town square, with probably ten times more elves than there was that greeted us back at the train. The moment I saw that big red jacket with that red hat with the white ball, I knew who it was. The elves formed us into a line, leading all the way to the sleigh. As the line ahead of me slowly shortened, my mind began racing. What was I going to say? What should I ask him for? Still in my state of mind, I tripped climbing up on Santa’s sleigh. It felt like when I was little, taking the picture with Santa at the mall. Those never went well for me. One time I threw up on Santa. The other I just sat there staring at him, wondering what I was doing. Anyways, I knew what I wanted to ask him, but I knew the right thing to ask for was my family back. I never meant it when I said it that night. After he shook my hand, I hopped down, and walked to the train, and hoped my wish would be true.
When we settled down on the train, the guys began to play a friendly game of tag in the train car. I was trying to get away when I opened a door to the adjoining cars. But he pushed me instead of tagging me, and that slight motion sent me off the train, about to hit the tracks head first. Bracing for the landing, I opened my eyes to daylight glowing through my window. My mom was waking me up. “It’s time for Christmas, Nate.” I was hoping that when I went downstairs, me iPad would be there from Santa.