Submission:Fiction

The Best Gift

In Cheryl’s family there were eleven children. Their parents loved them, but they were not happy at all. Their father was an alcoholic. And this made it so bad growing up.Her mother just tended to the children and the house to keep her mind off of his drinking. He was a good man except for when he was drinking. It seemed like it didn't bother him that the rest of the family was so unhappy.But he had to have cared for them because he stayed with them.He never ran off. But he did keep them in food and shelter. But the children had to do without a lot of things. Cheryl didn’t know really what Christmas was until she went to school. The other children at school would talk all about the gifts they had gotten. It made her so unhappy. She thought that she must have been a bad girl all those times that Santa Claus didn’t bring her and her brother and sisters anything.
Their older sister Jane was going on her senior trip. She was fixing to graduate out of the twelfth grade. And Cheryl was just going into the first. Jane was the best big sister. Cheryl missed her while she had been gone. She was still dreaming about all the presents the children at school told her about. She was dreaming about them under their tree. When her sister finally returned home, she had a surprise for all of the children. Papoose dolls for the girls. And she had little bow and arrows for the boys. Cheryl loved her gift so much. She had never remembered being so happy. It was the prettiest and only present she had ever had. It made all the children happier then they had ever remember being.
Later on in the years after Cheryl and her siblings grew up and had their children there were lots of great holidays.During Christmas one year her daughter opened up her small present.And there was the little papoose doll that she had gotten long ago.And the expression on her daughters face told it all.That the little doll was the best gift of all.Cheryl sobbed with joy watching her little daughter taking such good care of it.And remembering how much joy it at gave her all those years ago.

Word Count:393