Cody woke up early that morning. He wanted to make sure everything was right when Santa arrived. This was the day he would see Santa Claus for the first time. This was the day he would prove to Bobby that Santa is real. He ran downstairs and into the kitchen. His mother was already up and making preparation for Christmas dinner.
"Morning mom."
"Good morning Cody. You're up early this morning."
"You mailed my letter right?"
"Yes, Cody, I did."
"Oh, you're making the cookies? Good, make sure there is enough milk in the house."
His mother looked up at him and smiled. "Someone is really excited this Christmas. I thought your father would be up by now. I told him I need the extra help. Your grandparents and aunts and uncles are coming over for dinner tomorrow."
"Oh, that's so cool. I haven't seen grandpa in a while. Can Bobby spend Christmas with us too?"
"Well, wouldn't Bobby's family want him to spend Christmas with them?"
"Bobby's parents are really busy. They'll be away for Christmas, and he said he'd rather stay here than to spend Christmas with his aunt Shirley and her two kids who hate him."
"Well, sure he can if his parents agree to it."
"Okay, mom. Thank you. I'll let him know," Cody said as he headed for the stairs.
"Cody, I thought you were here to help me, and I did say if his parents agree," his mother called after him.
Cody called Bobby and told him what his mother said, and then he went back to help her in the kitchen.
In the evening Bobby came over with his clothes and binoculars.
Mrs. Walters served dinner and they all ate around the dining table.
After dinner, the boys helped tidy the kitchen and then went up to their room.
They sat on the bed and played with the snakes and ladder game that Cody got the Christmas before.
"When do you think your parents will fall asleep?"
"They usually go to sleep by ten. She'll soon come to check on us."
"And what time do you expect Santa Claus?"
"I don't know. I guess he comes when everybody is sleeping. That's why nobody ever sees him."
"Well, the stories say he comes on Christmas Eve and Christmas eve ends at eleven fifty-nine tonight. Let's say something happens and he's late, then I'll give him until twelve and when he doesn't show up by then, you'll admit that he isn't real okay?"
"He is real. I know it."
"Okay, we'll find out tonight."
Later that night the boys waited until the house was quiet. Even the dog was asleep. They quickly changed out of their pajamas and into some dark clothing. The only lights that were on inside the house were the ones on the Christmas tree in the living room. The boys tip-toed down the stairs in ninja style. They were even holding their breaths. Bobby opened the door and made sure it didn't creak. Cody was first to step outside. Bobby slowly closed the door and they crept out into the chilly night air.
They climbed the stairs that led to the chimney and made sure not to step hard on the roof.
"Cody, let's kneel down and crawl over to the chimney. You're getting so fat that your footsteps are echoing. And couldn't you have found something black to wear? That gray shirt looks a bit pale now that we're in the dark," Bobby whispered.
Bobby put the tiny flashlight in his mouth and they got down on their knees and crept over to sit beside the chimney.
They sat there on the roof looking at the scenery of the houses around them and whispered to each other.
"Wow! I didn't know the neighborhood was this beautiful," said Cody.
"Me neither. Look at all these lights. There is blue and purple and red so many colors. We should come up here more often."
"Look, it's snowing in Mrs. Codling's yard."
"That's fake snow dufus, and that's a plastic snowman."
"I can see your house from up here."
"Yeah, I know. It's the only house that doesn't have Christmas lights, very easy to spot."
"Why don't your parents celebrate Christmas anyway?"
"They celebrate Christmas. They just do it at work. Remember that mom is a caterer so she always has these Christmas parties and weddings to deal with. And dad is always abroad on business, so every year I go to Aunt Shirley's house for Christmas and I get the burnt Christmas cakes, the smallest piece of turkey, and watch the shows that her kids have on repeat all the time."
Bobby checked his watch. "It's eleven thirty, Santa must be on his way now right?"
"I don't know he has lots of gifts to deliver."
"Well, I feel sleepy already."
" He'll come, Just wait and see."
"When twelve o clock comes and he's not here, I'm going back in the house and you can sit and wait for eternity for someone to come who is not real."
Bobby carefully lay down on his back with his palms under his head and gazed at the night sky. Cody did the same. They waited and waited until bobby's eyes began to close and he drifted off to sleep. Cody decided he would not fall asleep. Cody took the flashlight and looked at Bobby's watch; it was four minutes past twelve. Bobby woke up when he felt someone touching his hand.
"Is he here yet?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
"No, he's not."
Bobby looked at his watch; it was five minutes past twelve.
"Well, can't say I didn't tell you. I'm going back to the house now. It's really cold out here."
He got up and started walking towards the stairs, he looked back and saw that Cody wasn't walking behind him.
"Cody come on, your mother might be on her way to your room to check on us. Santa Claus is not coming to town."
"He'll come. He's just running late. I'll wait a while longer."
"Cody I'm cold. I'm going down to light the fireplace and warm up. Wait, that's it. We'll go down and light the fireplace and leave the fire burning through the night; if Santa comes down the chimney tonight, we'll know because we'll find his burnt bones in the fireplace when we wake up."
"That's not very ni... Bobby look! He's coming. I see the red light. That's Rudolph's nose shining."
"No, that's just a star."
"No, look! It's a reindeer. It's getting closer now."
Cody was so excited he almost fell from the roof. Bobby opened his eyes in disbelief as nine reindeers appeared to be floating in the sky. A red, gold and green sleigh came sailing through the clouds. The reindeers flew over the chimney, allowing the sleigh to hover over its top. There was a clicking sound and then a staircase slid from the bottom of the sleigh and stretched down to the roof. A large man with a long, bushy, white beard; stepped out of the sleigh with a red bag that almost doubled his size. He walked over to the ladder that led to the top of the chimney. He was just about to climb the ladder when Cody came and hugged him. Poor Cody, he was so small his hands could barely fit around the giant man's legs.
"Santa, you came. You came. My friend didn't believe me when I told him you'd come. See Bobby, he is real. I told you he was real."
"Oh oh ooh, what are two ten-year-old boys doing on a rooftop so late in the night?"
"We were waiting for you Santa. Bobby wanted to see if you were real."
"Oh oh ooh. You make Santa laugh. You wanted to see if I was real? Well, I'm here, real as can be. Oh oh ooh. Ha, Cody Walters, born on the eleventh of July 2007, has always been nice, not only ask for gifts for himself but for his parents and best friend too."
He looked over to where Bobby was standing, "Bobby Jenkins, born on the 26th of May 2007. Known for putting glue on his classmates' chairs, known for lying to his parents, Known for making his little cousins eat dirt for chocolate. You have been a very naughty boy Bobby."
Bobby opened his mouth to say something but the words couldn't come out.
"Oh, wondering how I came to know all that ha? Santa knows everything, my boy, Santa knows everything. Anyway, it's not good for two young boys to be out on a roof this late at night. Who wants to go for a chimney slide."
"A chimney slide, you're taking us down the chimney?" Cody asked.
"Yep. It's Christmas, might as well make it very merry."
"That's so cool. Isn't it, Bobby?"
"I--yeah-- it-- is," Bobby said, still a little shocked at the fact that Santa was standing right beside them.
santa walked over to the chimney and took a golden pouch from his pocket, and then he climbed up the ladder and sprinkled some blue dust from the pouch into the chimney.
"What did you do that for?" asked Bobby.
"Oh, this powder is called cool fire. I use it in case someone forgot to put out the chimney fire. Can't imagine how I'd manage without it. I'd be a charred Santa Claus and there would be no more father Christmas."
Just imagine the look on Bobby's face when he found out about the cool fire. the boys climbed up on the ladder and Santa lifted them up one at a time and dropped them down the chimney then he picked up his sack and jumped in after them. The boys thought they would surely fall and hit their heads in the fireplace, but as soon as Santa let go of them they were slowly floating downward into cool blue light that the cool fire created and they landed on their feet with ease.
Bobby placed his hand over his chest to feel if his heart was still beating.
"Wow, that was amazing," said Cody. Santa came floating down behind them. "Be quiet now boys, don't want to wake the grown-ups now, do you?"
The boys tiptoed out of the fireplace into the dark living room. Santa took a little light that shaped like a pen and shined it for them to see where they were walking.
"Now Cody--" said Santa as he took some present from his sack and placed them under the Christmas tree, "you won't open these presents tonight. You are gonna open them in front of your family in the morning like you always do or else your parents will suspect that you were up in the night. Its time for you boys to go to bed, and somebody please close the front door. Too bad I don't have any presents for you this time Bobby, all these gifts are booked out, but if you be a nice boy next year, there will definitely be something in this sack for you. Be off to bed now, Santa got a lot of presents to deliver."
"Santa wait," said Cody, you're leaving the cookies and milk."
He took up the tray of cookies and the glass of milk that were on the table beside the Christmas tree and handed them to Santa.
"Oh thank you, Cody," said Santa. He drank the milk and ate the cookies and went back to the chimney.
Cody went and closed the front door then they crept up the stairs and back into Cody's room. They ran to the window and opened it so that they could see the sleigh when it went up in the air. They could hear Santa calling each of the reindeers by name
"Now Dasher and Dancer and Dunder and vixen, Cupid and Comet and Prancer and Blitzen and Rudolph with your nose so bright; let's deliver these presents to the children who are nice, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night."
They watched the sleigh go up in the sky until it disappeared into the clouds, then Cody close the window and they jumped in bed.
"You see now that he is real? See I told you?"
"Yeah, you're right and I was wrong. From now on I'm gonna be so nice, Santa will even bring me more than I ask for when I write to him next year."
"Oh, I feel so sleepy good night Bobby."
"Goodnight Cody."
In the morning the boys got up before everyone and ran to open the gifts under the Christmas tree. Cody got a brand new bicycle and the game he asked for. The two boys took a turn on the bicycle and they rode to all the houses in the district to tell everyone Merry Christmas, and a merry Christmas they had indeed. Mrs. Walters had prepared a huge Christmas dinner of ham, chicken, turkey, pork, fish, pasta, rice, and lots of cake and ice cream and jelly for dessert. All Cody's family were at the dinner table and the boys ate until they were stuffed.