“By the Quiet Hearth” (Am Stillen Herd) 1894
by Maximilian Schaefer
This is the runner-up short story of our second contest, held in the month of July in 2023.
Theme: Through a Child’s Eyes: from the perspective of a child,
experiencing a notable event or moment.
I was eight and a half years old. It was about three weeks before Christmas, and all I could remember is that all the days before Christmas, walking to the market with my mother is that the skies were a dull grey matching the cement sidewalks that we hurried along to fetch our weekly supplies. And the air always seemed to have a cold brisk wind blowing upon us, which made it all the more dark and gloomy; until we passed and I would stop and stand in front of Eaton’s Department Store in front of the huge front display windows gazing magically at the beautiful sparkling colored lights shining and glowing behind the window with a train set running through little villages, tunnels and landscapes of happy joyous wonders; which immediately warmed me up and brought light to everything around me. And, I wished to have that train for Christmas. Those little moments brought me more joy and satisfied me more than the chocolate sandwiches that my mother use to purchase for me everytime upon our arrival at the market…
It’s Christmas Eve, and everything lit up, the first snow falls filling the air… making snow balls, snowmans and snow igloos… playing with my friends… listening to Christmas Choirs that were and went door to door in the background… The excitement was in the air and in my mind, heart and soul…
And that night everything went well, playing cards and chewing on candy until the late hours of the night, had decorated the Christmas tree, and it was finally time to leave out the milk and cookies for Santa before going to bed…
But I couldn’t sleep, and laying in my bed, I heard the murmuring of voices and the crumpling and shuffling of papers and boxes; and when all died down, and I was sure that no one was anywhere in sight, I had to peak, and not only peak, but I went and found the gift, the one assigned to me, and I opened it, it was the train! And my eyes popped open and lit up, and the spirit of joy rushed through my body, ecstatic and overjoyed, but fearing… fearing in the case my parents caught me, caught me with the train in my hands before Christmas breakfast…
I quickly closed and taped the wrapping around the box, and went back to my bedroom to wait, but I fell asleep and woke up late…
Remembering the train, I, without washing up or getting dressed, I ran to the recreation, the living room, and when I got to the door, I saw my younger brother playing with the train, and he says to me, “Look, look what I got for Christmas.”
Instantly, I was blinded with tears, frozen and out of breath; I turned away and ran back to my bedroom, and locked myself in and rained a lake… At that moment I despised my brothers blue eyes and fair hair…
And I stayed there all day and all the following night crying; and I wouldn’t come out for three days to when I was really hungry; and when I did, my mother was waiting for me in the kitchen, with a German Shepard Puppy with a bow around its neck for a collar in her arms; And she, filled with tears in her eyes, and from the looks of the big black bulges below them, looked like she had been crying all the while also… And she says to me in her soft voice, “Tonino, your Christmas present, his name is Caesar.”
But I turned away, rejecting her and the puppy. I went and put on a coat, my boots, gloves and a hat and scarf and went to the igloo that we had built Christmas Eve… and when inside I saw a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, another bowl filled with puppy food and a train set… and I cried even harder than I ever did in my life… and I lay down flat on my face weeping and melting the snow… And seconds later I heard Caesar barking as he was scratching my shoulders.
But I still rejected the puppy, but never, Caesar never rejected me…
And eventually we became friends, and to this day, I’ve never had a better friend or Christmas present than Caesar…
It turned out that both my brother and I received a train set for Christmas that year…
-Antonio Di Mito
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