The Case of the Wrong Christmas Presents - Ken Cooper

“Come on, Mum’s bedroom’s the best bet!” Kieran was egging his young sister on. “While Mum’s at the shops we can hunt down the Christmas presents.”

“We shouldn’t do that, Kieran,” Laura protested, “For one thing it will take away any surprise.”

Kieran scoffed. “There’s never much of a surprise any more, anyway.  We look through the Argos catalogue and write a long list of things we’d like. What we get is bound to be something on the list – maybe more than one thing if we’re lucky.”

Laura couldn’t argue with that. Last year her main present was exactly what she’d written at the top of her list - a bike.  She’d also received the two Jacqueline Wilson books she asked for – ‘Sleepovers’ and ‘Secrets’. She enjoyed them so much that this year she’d asked for two more – ‘Midnight’ and ‘Vicky Angel’.

This year her number one wish was for the Art Academy plug-in for her Nintendo DS.  She’d seen the adverts and was convinced this would transform her into a famous artist.

At the top of Kieran’s list was an electronic keyboard. His friend James had received one last year and Kieran had been allowed to play on it. Only now and then at first, but after a while it was becoming obvious that James has very little musical inclination, let alone talent. As James became bored with the instrument he let Kieran use it more. Kieran was getting on quite well, so well that James started to resent his ability and began to find reasons to restrict the arrangement. That’s when Kieran decided he’d best get his own keyboard.

“Last Christmas most of the things were at the back of the wardrobe – or on top.” Kieran was already climbing the stairs. Despite Laura’s misgivings, she was not going to be left out. Kieran had undertaken the Christmas Present Hunt every year since he learnt the truth about Santa Clause.  But for Laura this was Year One.

Kieran slowly opened the door to his mother’s bedroom, almost as if he expected her to be there lying in wait. The room had become forbidden territory quite a few years ago. Laura, too, was now discouraged from claiming “I can’t sleep”, or “I’ve got a tummy ache” as excuses to cuddle up next to her mum. Her mum was run off her feet during the day and needed every minute of her night’s sleep. The cat also had tried to make himself comfortable on the queen size duvet on several occasions but Janet’s persistent shoving over the edge paid off eventually.

“Bingo!” Kieran spotted the old brown suitcase on top of the wardrobe. It would be too small to hold a keyboard but there could be other presents stashed inside. He dumped a pile of clothes from a chair onto the bed and dragged the chair next to the wardrobe. Standing on tiptoes he managed to swivel the case end on and, wiggling one way, then the other, gradually manoeuvred it so that it became finely balanced on the edge.

“Step up and help me if it starts to fall,” he said, his voice now strained as his arms stretched up. Laura stepped up onto the chair, though to stay there she needed one arm around her brother.   What she would do with her one remaining arm should the case fall she was unsure about. Kieran managed to make the case slide against the wardrobe. “Jump down now,” he said and Laura was able to use both hands to help her brother with the booty, which they laid on the bed.

The old suitcase had a clasp at each side, but each clasp was protected by a three-digit combination lock.

“Rats!” exclaimed Kieran as he tried each clasp, “She’s locked it!”

“Let’s put it back now,” said Laura, nervously.

“We could work our way through every combination.”

“But that would take ages. Let’s put it back now”.

“Wait, let’s try some numbers. Mum’s birthday –twenty ninth of January – two, nine, one.” He clicked the digits on one of the locks and slid the clasp. It pinged open. The two children looked at each other and giggled. Kieran set the dials on the other clasp and it too pinged open. He opened the case.

It did contain Christmas presents. But the children were somewhat mystified. Kieran opened a long thin box to find it contained a recorder. There also was a large thin book entitled ‘The Tenor Recorder’.

There too, was a Nintendo game. “But I’ve already got ‘Penguins of Madagascar’,” exclaimed Laura, “Mum bought it for my birthday! Surely she couldn’t have forgotten?”

“And look at this book,” she continued, “’Your First Hamster’? I hate mice and things!”

 There were other presents, but not one of them had featured on either of the children’s wish-lists.

“Rats, rats, rats!” hissed Kieran, “Some Christmas this is going to be.”

“Maybe it’s all mum can afford. We should be grateful we’ve at least got something. But I do wish mum hadn’t got me another ‘Penguins of Madagascar’!”

Kieran slammed the lid of the suitcase shut, secured the clasps and mixed up the numbers on the combinations. Putting the case back on top of the wardrobe was a little easier than getting it down, but there were a couple of moments when the whole thing almost crashed to the floor. Eventually everything was squared away, and he replaced the chair and the pile of clothes.

“Rats, rats, and treble rats!” This time Kieran shouted it as the two came downstairs.

“Well, I said we shouldn’t have gone looking for them, but you wouldn’t listen!” said Laura.

“Well it’s a good thing we do know about them. Now we can pretend to be pleased and surprised on Christmas day, instead of disappointed.”

“Yes, that’s true. But it’s going to be difficult.”

Christmas day arrived, and Janet was a bit surprised at her children’s lack of enthusiasm. Usually they’d want to open the presents before she’d even got out of bed.

“Come on, you two; let’s see what Santa’s brought you.” Their mother opened the door to the front room. There under the tree was a pile of cheerfully wrapped presents. At the bottom was a very large one bearing a tag with Kieran’s name on it. Kieran clawed at the paper and revealed the box containing a magnificent Yamaha electronic keyboard. His grin expanded a full octave.

“Oh wow, cool! Thanks mum!”

Meanwhile Laura had unwrapped a package with her name on it.

“Wow, ‘Art Academy’! Thanks Mum!”

There also were the two new books she’d put on her list.

“They’re brilliant! Thanks a lot Mum!”

The two children exchanged glances and Kieran managed a slight shrug which said “I don’t know!”

Later that morning Kieran and Laura made their mum a cup of coffee and warmed some mince pies in the oven. Trinity from next door came round with her mother. They’d be staying for Christmas lunch.

“What did you get for Christmas, Trinity,” Laura asked.

“Oh, I got a lovely golden hamster,” said Trinity. “You must come round and see it after lunch, if it’s awake! “

Kieran and Laura looked at each other.

“Oh, and I got a recorder too – a tenor - just what I wanted,” Trinity continued, “Did you both get what you wanted?”

“Yes we did!” they chorused.

…ooOoo…