This is a story for all of us who know that Santa is real...   The Red Coat By Susan Brown

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The alarm went off with a noisy buzz and he jumped at least a metre in the air.

Michael was just nine years old. He knew what day it was and to say he was excited would be an understatement. You see, all Michael really wanted this Christmas was to be a girl and he hoped with all his little heart that this year he would have his wish come true.

He had written a secret letter to Santa: he hadn’t shown the contents to his loving parents–he reckoned they would laugh at what he wanted. Anyway, they told him that only younger children had personal visits from Santa Claus.

Ever since he could think for himself he had thought that deep, deep inside he was a girl. He didn’t know why but he just sort of knew. He had friends and relatives that were boys and girls; he rarely played with the boys but he nearly always played with the girls. He loved that they were more gentle than the rough-and-tumble boys. Girls could look pretty and be gentle rather than try to be big and strong. Big and strong was silly, girls were much more sensible about things.

Michael was small for his age and slight in build. His hair was blond and a bit long for a boy. His delicate features often caused a people who did not know him thinking that he was a girl dressed a bit like a boy. This got him into trouble at school and he was always being ribbed for being too girlie looking to be a tomboy.

He sighed at these thoughts and then remembered once again that it was CHRISTMAS! The season for giving… and more importantly to him, miracles.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he got up out of his warm bed as quickly as he could. It was still dark, so he switched on his bedside lamp, put on a dressing gown over his pyjamas, pulled on slippers and crept quietly out of the bedroom. It was quiet in the hallway, but as his parents always left the landing light on, he could see quite well.

Michael tip-toed to Mummy and Daddy’s room and as quietly as possible, opened the door and poked his head inside the room. It was still dark, so they were still asleep. Daddy was snoring, as usual, almost making Michael giggle.

He thought about waking them up but then they might tell him to go back to bed, so he decided to let them sleep. After all it was still only 5 o’clock in the morning! Quietly closing the bedroom door he crept downstairs and into the lounge.

The first thing Michael did after switching the light on was to go over to the little table where he had left two chocolate biscuits on a plate and a glass of lemonade.

Michael gasped as he saw that the glass was empty and there were only a few crumbs left on the plate!

‘Great,’ thought Michael as he jumped up and down with excitement, ‘Santa did come, after all! ‘

He ran over to the tree and saw that there were lots of presents piled around the bottom of it!

‘Wow!’

Michael grabbed hold of the present nearest to him and was just about to open it when he heard a noise from behind him. He looked round and saw in the doorway a very sleepy looking Mummy and Daddy standing there!

‘Michael,’ said Mummy rubbing her eyes, ‘do you know what time it is?’

‘Erm–’

‘It’s 5 o’clock and you should still be in bed.’

‘I’m sorry, Mummy,’ said Michael, ‘It’s just that I’ve been waiting all year for Christmas and I couldn’t wait any longer.’

Mummy and Daddy both laughed and Mummy said, ‘OK then, you can open your presents as long as you are quiet, we don’t want to wake the baby up, do we?’

‘I’ll go and make a cup of tea,’ said Daddy, ‘do you want something, Michael?’

‘Yes please, may I have a glass of lemonade and two biscuits, like Santa had last night?’

‘What do you mean?’ said Daddy.

‘Oh, I came down after everyone went to bed last night and left a glass of lemonade and two biscuits on that table over there. See there’re all gone now.’

Mummy and Daddy gave each other a startled look.

‘Did you know he did that?’ said Daddy.

‘No,’ said Mummy in a puzzled voice, ‘did you?’

Daddy shook his head and went over to the table, had a look at the empty plate and glass and then said, ‘Quick, come over here!’

Mummy and Michael ran over to Daddy.

‘Look at that!’ said Daddy pointing to the carpet by the table.

What they saw made Michael gasp. It was muddy footprints leading up to the table and then all the way back to the garden window.

‘We’ve been burgled!’ wailed Mummy, her voice going squeaky as she spoke.

‘Don’t get upset, Joanne,’ said Daddy in a voice that sounded a bit quivery, ‘I’m sure that there is a good explanation for these footprints. Nothing seems to have been taken.’

They all went over to the window and looked out. It was still dark outside, but helped by the light in the room they could see a small patch of the garden outside quite clearly. It had been raining lightly but constantly for three days and there were footprints in the muddy ground leading quite clearly to and from the window!

Daddy scratched the slightly bald patch on his head in puzzlement and Mummy shivered a bit.

Michael jumped up and down and said, ‘I told you Santa would come!’

Mummy turned to Michael and said, ‘now look, Michael, we did explain when you had your birthday last month that Santa only comes to the homes of children up to the age of eight. After that they ask mummies and daddies to collect the presents from a secret place, if the children have been good all year. Santa hasn’t got time to visit everyone, so that’s why he does it this way.’

‘But what about the footprints?’ asked Michael?

‘Erm…ask Daddy–’

‘Don’t ask me.’ said Daddy, shaking his head, ‘I’ve no idea. The window’s still locked so I just don’t know about how the footprints got there.’

‘I just know it was Santa using some magic,’ said Michael, dismissing the problem with a wave of his hand, ‘Can I please, please, PLEASE, open my presents now?’

‘All right,’ said Daddy, ‘otherwise we’ll never get any peace.’

Michael rushed over to the tree and opened his presents. He had most of things he asked Santa for, like a Mickey Mouse watch, a pair of skates, a cuddly teddy and a special big present which was a bright shiny bike, but not the one thing that he had written secretly to Santa about.

He sighed to himself and then thought, ‘Ah well, maybe next year.’

Michael then remembered the presents he did have and all in all, he was very happy with what he had been given. He turned to Mummy and Daddy and said, ‘I must write a big thank you to Santa for the presents but do you think I ought to ask him to wipe his feet before he comes in?’

Mummy and Daddy laughed.

‘We don’t mind a bit of dirt in a good cause,’ Mummy said, ‘all you have to do is just thank him for the presents.’

Daddy was picking up all the torn Christmas paper around the tree when he said, ‘hello; what’s this Michael, I think you’ve forgotten a present.’

Michael, who was just about to put on his skates, put them down and went over to where Daddy was pointing.

At the back of the tree, almost hidden by the thickly decorated branches was a bright red present covered in gold stars, there was a card attached to a piece of golden ribbon and on the card it said;

To Michael,
A very special present for
a very special boy.
From… Santa.

 

Michael unwrapped the present and saw that it was a box. When he took off the lid, he looked in and saw a red padded coat with a white furry hood.

Michael took his dressing gown off and put on the coat, zipped it up and said, ‘Ooh, it’s lovely and warm and it fits just right.’

‘It’s a bit girlie,’ whispered Mummy, looking sideways at Daddy who shrugged.

‘Never mind,’ said Daddy, doubtfully, ‘It could be unisex, I suppose.’

Michael unzipped the pockets and put his hands in them. A startled look came over his face as he pulled one of his hands out. Clutched in his hand was an envelope. It was red and covered in gold stars, just like the wrapping paper.

‘What have you got there?’ said Daddy.

‘It’s an envelope,’ said Michael, ‘It’s got some writing on it.’

‘Let me see,’ said Mummy as she took the envelope and read, ‘only to be opened by the wearer of the coat.’

Mummy gave the envelope back to Michael and said, ‘You had better open it then.’

Michael opened the envelope and took out a red piece of very old paper that was very crinkled. Luckily, the writing was still quite clear and at the top it said:

Warning,
Only to be read by Michael.
By order of… Santa.

 

‘What does it say?’ said Daddy.

‘I’m not allowed to say,’ said Michael breathlessly, ‘It’s a secret from Santa.’

‘Let’s go and make another cup of tea while he looks at the note then Daddy.’ said
Mummy.

Mummy and Daddy left the room while Michael went and sat down in the big deep armchair by the fireplace. He made sure that he was alone and not even his new teddy could see what he was doing and then he started reading.

This is what the note said:

Turkey and mince pies are Christmas fare,
Good luck comes to you
If this coat you should wear,
Remember the names of the Christmas reindeer,
And for each that you name
You will have a wish to declare
But if you make a wish that is bad,
That will make you very sad
’cause a bad wish should not ever come true
And the magic coat will abandon you.

 
Michael took a bit of time reading the poem and he got stuck on several of the words, but in the end he finished it; however he didn’t know what ‘declare’ meant and he went into the kitchen and asked Mummy.

It means to make something known,’ said Mummy after thinking for a moment, ‘like when you sent that letter to Santa with your wish list, you sort of declared that you wanted those things on the list.’

‘And what does abandon mean?’

‘It means to leave you or go away. Are you sure that you can’t tell us what’s in your note?’

Michael shook his head several times and said, ‘No I mustn’t it’s not allowed.’

I hope that your secret isn’t anything nasty,’ said a concerned Daddy.

‘I promise it isn’t. Cross my heart.’

Michael ran out of the kitchen and into the lounge where all his presents were waiting to be played with. He took off the coat and put it carefully on the chair, after putting the note back into the pocket.

It was a busy day for Michael, what with having to play with all his new toys. After breakfast, Nanny, Granddad, Auntie Pat, Uncle Peter and Michael’s cousins Daniel and Penny came to visit. They were staying for the day.

Daniel and Penny had brought some of their toys to play with and the children were busy comparing what they had got for Christmas.

‘l got a train set for my main present,’ said Daniel.

‘That’s nothing said Penny, ‘I got a new dolls house with lots of furniture in. What did you get Michael?’

‘I was very lucky. Santa gave me a new bike and lots of other things.

Daniel laughed and said, ‘You don’t still believe in Santa Claus do you?’

Michael looked shocked as he said, ‘Of course I do. He came to my house last night and left some muddy footprints. You ask my Mummy and Daddy; they saw them.’

‘I bet it was your Daddy’s footprints all along,’ said Daniel.

‘It wasn’t,’ said Michael getting red in the face with anger at what Daniel was saying. ‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘Santa left me a very special present.’

‘What was it,’ whispered Penny.

‘A special red coat.’

‘What’s so special about a red coat,’ said Daniel sneeringly.

‘It’s a secret, I can’t say.’ said Michael.

Daniel and Penny laughed at this. It was obvious that they thought Michael was fibbing. They tried to get the secret out of him, but he refused to tell them. After a while, they went and played with some toys and left Michael by himself.

Michael really wanted to tell them about the secret of the magic coat but kept remembering the warning on the note.

In the end he just went over to his teddy and played with him until dinner time.

Christmas dinner was the most special dinner of the year. Mummy had spent lots of money on it. Money that was hard to come by, as Daddy hadn’t worked for almost a year, and this made it even more special than usual. Michael’s parents had, in spite of everything, managed to put a little bit of money aside every week to help them to pay for Christmas.

It happened at about half past twelve by Michael’s new watch. It was not long before dinner was due to be ready. Michael and the other children had forgotten their argument earlier and were playing snap with some cards.

Suddenly, from the kitchen, they heard a loud scream.

The children all ran into the kitchen to see what was going on. Mummy was standing in front of the cooker. There was smoke coming out of the oven and there was a nasty burning sort of a smell.

‘Shut the oven door, quick, before the smoke gets worse,’ shouted Daddy.

‘My lovely dinner is ruined,’ cried Mummy shutting the oven door with a bang, ‘it’s all burnt up. I knew that old cooker was playing up, but we couldn’t afford to get it fixed. What are we going to do? We haven’t anything to eat and look at my lovely dress I’ve got grease down it now?’

Mummy wouldn’t stop crying. Even Daddy looked very upset and he said, ‘Never mind darling, I’m sure we can rustle up something to eat.’

Mummy looked at Daddy, blew her nose in a hankie and smiled at him through her tears.

She seemed to pull herself up straight, sniff a bit, smiled at Michael and then said to everyone, ‘I’m sorry about the dinner. We haven’t much in the cupboard that we can turn into a nice meal, but we do have some sausages and some potatoes for chips and we do have some ice cream for afters. Will that do everyone?’

Everyone agreed that it would make a nice dinner and then Nanny said, ‘come on, let’s leave them to get on with things.’

They all went out leaving Mummy and Daddy to get the meal ready.

Michael and the other kids went back into the lounge, closely followed by
the grown ups.

Michael tried to find his skates and looked everywhere for them. They were nowhere to be found. He decided to go and ask Mummy. He went to the kitchen door and was just about to open it when he heard the sound of crying. It was Mummy, still upset over the burnt dinner and spoilt dress.

Michael knew that he shouldn’t listen at doors, but he felt that he had to… He strained his ears to hear what was being said.

‘I’m sorry, I so much wanted this to be a special Christmas, but it all went wrong?’

‘Don’t worry darling,’ Daddy said rather sadly, ‘I’m sure things will get better in the new year.’

Michael nearly started crying himself as he didn’t like to see Mummy and Daddy being so unhappy. He then remembered the magic coat he got from Santa. Perhaps it could somehow help them.

He rushed into the kitchen and said, ‘Mummy, where is my new red coat?’

Mummy put her hand through her lovely dark hair and said, ‘I think it’s on your bed dear. I put it there when everyone arrived.’

Without waiting any longer to explain, Michael ran up to his room, pushed the door open and saw the bright red coat, folded neatly on his bed.

Michael grabbed the coat and put it on. He then went to the door and closed it softly. He didn’t want anyone to come in as he had secret work to do.

He took the note out of the pocket again and read the rhyme once again.

Michael frowned as him concentrated on what it said.

‘Hmm,’ he thought. ‘I need to remember the name of a reindeer. What was the name of Santa’s favourite Reindeer?’

He thought for ages to try and remember the name, but couldn’t recall. Then, just
as he was about to give up, he heard singing from downstairs. He strained to hear the words and then suddenly he heard them quite clearly.

Daniel and Penny were singing ‘Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer.’

Michael whispered, ‘Rudolph. ‘

Nothing happened. ‘P’raps Rudolph isn’t right,’ he thought to himself.

Then–as if by magic–the words of a poem came into his head, so he whispered,

With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles, his coursers they came,
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name:

Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall! and off and off we will fly!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!

Michael waited for something to happen but nothing did. He was so disappointed. He wanted so much to help his Mummy and Daddy to have the best Christmas ever. But it was going to be a very sad one.

He took off the coat and put it on the bed and lying down beside it, fell asleep.

He woke up suddenly and rubbing his eyes, he stood up.

Suddenly, the light went out and everything went quiet. Luckily, Michael wasn’t frightened of the dark and he felt his way over to the light switch and flicked it on and off several times. It still wouldn’t work.

He was about to go and tell Mummy about it, when the light came back on, by itself!

‘Oh!’

Michael felt strange, something wasn’t right. His hair was in front of his eyes, somehow.

‘That’s funny; I really must need my hair cut after all.’

He walked over to the door and then stopped, realising that his clothes felt funny too.

He looked down and he gasped. He was wearing a red dress!

‘Ooh, what’s happening?’

He ran over to the mirror on his wardrobe door and what he saw nearly made him faint.

His hair was now shoulder length and wavy. He had on a pretty red silky party frock that went down to his calves. He had white knee socks and dainty red shiny shoes on. Michael thought that he looked so pretty and what he saw now was what he had dreamt of for such a long time. He looked like a girl!

Michael was puzzled. How and why did this happen. Perhaps he had fallen asleep and the other children had dressed him this way to make fun of him.

Michael didn’t care. If this was making fun, then he would like more of it!

Michael shrugged his shoulders, opened the door and went downstairs. He was apprehensive about what everyone would say, but he decided that he was going to show everyone how pretty he was and perhaps no one would laugh at him.

As he walked down the stairs, he looked at his new watch, strange; it had changed from a boy’s to a girl’s one with little jewels on the face and a pink strap. He then saw that the watch said the time was twelve o’clock!

‘That’s not right,’ said Michael ‘Oh no, my new watch must be broken. What a horrible Christmas this is!’

He carried on down the stairs and went into the lounge. The other children were watching the TV and didn’t see Michael as he went over to the clock on the shelf. Michael looked at the time and saw that the clock also said 12 o’clock!

Michael couldn’t understand it. Both his watch and the clock were saying
it was 12 o’clock. He turned round and said ‘Penny what’s the time on your watch?’

Penny, who was busy watching cartoons, didn’t look up and just said ‘shhh.’

Michael didn’t want to ask Daniel the time as he was also watching the TV, so he went into the kitchen to find Mummy.

To his surprise, Michael saw that Nanny and Granddad, as well as his Auntie and Uncle, were all laughing and drinking some fuzzy stuff. It was a lot happier in the kitchen since he was last in time!

‘Mummy,’ said Michael my watch and the clock in the lounge isn’t working properly.’

Mummy stopped stirring something on the cooker and said, ‘What does the time say on your watch?’

‘Five past twelve,’ said Michael.

Everyone else looked at their watches and Mummy said, ‘That’s right, I think you made a mistake, Sarah. Now let me have a quick look at the turkey I want to see if it’s done yet.’

‘But, Mummy,’ said Michael in a puzzled voice, ‘the turkey’s burnt we can’t eat it. You said we were having sausages and chips.’

‘Don’t be silly, dear.’ said Mummy laughing, ‘I didn’t say anything of the kind. I think you’ve got a bit confused. It must be because you got up so early this morning. Now keep clear as I don’t want your pretty dress to get splashed.’

With that Mummy got the turkey out of the oven and put it on the side.

Michael’s eyes nearly popped out when he saw that the turkey wasn’t burnt at all, but cooked to a golden brown!

‘It isn’t burnt,’ cried Michael.

‘Of course not, silly.’ said Daddy, ‘are you sure you’re feeling all right, Sarah?’

‘Sarah’, thought Michael, ‘why did he call me Sarah? Oh it must be part of the dress up game. I wish they could have told me about it and not just changed me while I was asleep and why didn’t I wake up?’

Mummy turned round and looked at Michael with concern.

All Michael could do was open and shut his mouth like a fish as he realised that Mummy’s best dress didn’t have any nasty grease marks down the front of it!

Just then the kitchen phone rang and Daddy answered it.

‘Hello,’ he said, ‘Yes, it’s Peter speaking. Sorry, I can’t hear you very well. It’s a bad line.’

Daddy put his hand over his free ear and said ah-ha a couple of times and mm once. Then he nodded and smiled and said, ‘that’s great news. Of course I accept. I’ll see you the day after Boxing Day. Merry Christmas to you too!’

Daddy put the phone down, shook his head and said, ‘I can’t believe it. That was the boss of the advertising company. I applied for a job there, months ago. He said sorry for ringing Christmas Day, but he had to know if I was interested in taking up the job as there’s a rush on after Christmas and he needs me to help.’

Mummy ran over to Daddy and hugged him hard. Michael, not wanting to be left out, also went over to her parents for a lovely cuddle.

‘Oh, Sarah, this is a Happy Christmas.’

‘Mummy?’

‘Yes, sweetie.’

‘Why do you and Daddy keep calling me Sarah, when my name’s Michael?’

Everyone went quiet. Mummy looked puzzled and Daddy looked at Michael strangely. Nanny and Granddad had their mouths open and Auntie and Uncle stopped sipping their sherries.’

Then, suddenly, they all laughed.

Michael wished he knew what the joke was.

‘What?’

Mummy wiped her hands on a cloth and went over to Michael.

‘Sarah, I do love your jokes, poppet. It’s funny, if you had been born a boy, we’d have called you Michael, but as you are our dear, sweet little daughter, you’ll always be Sarah. Now enough of your jokes, young lady, go to the lounge and watch TV while we finish doing dinner.’

Michael, or Sarah as she now knew she was, didn’t go into the lounge. She quietly slipped upstairs to her room and sat on her bed.

She had a small tear in her eyes. They were not sad tears but happy ones. Her wish had come true. It wasn’t a cruel joke she was really a girl. She picked up her wonderful red coat and hugged it tightly, she was so happy.

She didn’t know how long she sat there for but before she knew it, she was called down for dinner.

‘This is our best Christmas ever,’ Mummy said, and everyone cheered.

After dinner, Sarah quietly went back upstairs to her room and closed the door. She went to the bed and sat down, picking up the red coat she had got from Santa.

She hugged the coat close to her chest and said, ‘It must have been the coat that stopped everything and changed what happened. It IS a magic coat. Mummy and Daddy are happy and we’re having a wonderful Christmas.’

Sarah crossed her room to the window and looked out. It was getting dark and instead of horrible rain, it was snowing heavily: a thick blanket of snow now covered everything and it looked all white and fresh. It stopped snowing while she watched and looking up in the sky she saw the clouds clearing away as if a curtain was being drawn back and there were millions of stars twinkling and the moon was big and bright. Suddenly she saw something flash in front of the moon and she could have sworn that it looked like Santa on his sledge being pulled by all his trusty reindeer.

Sarah jumped up and down with excitement and remembered that as long as she could recall the names of those reindeers she would be able to help make many dreams come true for others–as well as herself.

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THE END
 
My thanks go to Kristina L.S. for editing this piece.

Also to Gabi for helping making sense out of madness.