The Christmas Thingy (2 page)

But all the films in the world can’t take the place of one real friend. Jessica doesn’t tell her parents, but she’s very lonely here in England.

And so, despite Mrs. Murgatroyd’s warning, Jessica decides to keep wishing for a little monster for Christmas. She knows it probably won’t matter anyway. Wishing hardly ever works, otherwise her left leg would have been as good as her right long ago, but she also knows that Christmas is a special time in the world, and unusual things can happen in this magical season.

Very
unusual things.

~~~

“
What
was
that
?” Jessica says, sitting up in bed and looking around in the dark. It’s a chilly night in the first week of December.

“Just the wind,” she tells herself. “I hope.”

Despite her love of monsters and spooky movies—which she knows are only make-believe—Jessica isn’t terribly fond of being alone at night in her second floor bedroom. This room is old and dark, with high, carved ceilings and strange wallpaper. Not at all like her bedroom at home in America.

She listens carefully and hears the usual faint little scratchings of the mice as they run up and down in the spaces inside her walls. She’s not afraid of mice—she’s seen a couple of them and they’re cute little things.

But now, she hears a different sound. A
rustling
that seems to come from under her bed. Thinking it’s a mouse, she looks below with the flashlight she always keeps under her pillow (just in case there’s a power failure) but sees nothing.

“Yep,” she sighs. “Just the wind.”

~~~

The
next afternoon after school, Jessica goes to her dresser and finds that both of the candy bars she always keeps in her top drawer (in case of snack attacks) are gone. Only the empty wrappers remain.

The mice ate her candy!

At least she
thinks
it was the mice. To find out for sure, she decides to set a trap. Not a hurting trap—a tasty trap.

That night, sometime after dinner and before bedtime, while Mrs. Murgatroyd is clearing and cleaning up and Mom and Dad are having their coffee, Jessica places one of Mrs. Murgatroyd’s homemade donuts on a plate on the night stand next to her bed. She ties a string to the donut, and attaches the string to a bell. Then she turns out the light and waits outside her door.

It’s not long—only minutes, really—before she hears the tinkle of the bell. She leaps inside the room with her flashlight and finds...

...an empty plate.

“The donut!” Jessica cries. “Where’d the donut go?”

Then she notices a trail of crumbs leading across the carpet. She follows them to the closet and, without waiting to decide whether she should be scared or not, she pulls open the closet door and shines the light inside.

And finds two big eyes staring back at her!

Jessica lets out a little “Eek!” and turns to run, but a funny voice stops her.

“Don’t be afraid, Jessica. I’m what you’ve been wishing for.”

The voice seems friendly enough, so Jessica turns on the bedroom light and steps back.

“Come on out where I can see you,” she says.

“Okay,” says the voice, which sounds like someone talking while holding his nose, “but don’t be scared.”

And out of her closet steps the strangest little creature Jessica has ever seen. Her first thought is that it looks like an oversized mushroom with big eyes and two feet; around the edge of the mushroom cap are a bunch of twisty little tentacles. One of those tentacles is coiled around a half-eaten donut. Jessica realizes why its voice sounds like someone talking with a pinched nose—it doesn’t
have
a nose!

Jessica can’t help it. She begins to laugh.

“You’re not afraid of me?” it says in its nasal voice.

“No! I think you’re funny-looking! What on earth are you?”

“Funny? I’ll have you know I’m the Christmas Thingy.”

Jessica is shocked. She stops laughing.

“The one who was here a hundred years ago?”

Thingy smiles and bows. “The very same.”

“The one who stole the little boy’s presents?”

“Of course not! I wish I knew how that story got started. It’s not true! Every time something gets lost at Christmas, I get blamed for it. It’s not fair. I’m innocent!”

“I believe you!” Jessica says, feeling sorry for Thingy.

“You do? Oh, good. I’ve been so upset about this that it’s taken me a hundred years to get up the nerve to come back. But you wished for me, so I came. And now that I’m here, I hope to restore the good name of Thingies everywhere.”

“And I’ll help!” Jessica says. “I’ll tell Mrs. M. that—”

“Oh, no! You mustn’t tell Mrs. Murgatroyd! She’ll never believe me. She’ll chase me back to Thingyland before I get a chance to prove myself. Let’s keep it a secret from her for now. You can tell her all about me on Christmas after you’ve opened all your presents. That will show her.”

“Does that mean we’ll be secret friends?” Jessica asks.

“The very secretest. And to prove I’m your friend, I’m going to get rid of all those noisy mice scratching inside your bedroom walls at night.”

“Don’t hurt them!”

“I wouldn’t think of it. I’m just going to send them to the basement where they won’t bother you anymore.”

As Jessica watches, Thingy twists its tentacles into braids and squeezes its eyes closed real tight.

“There!” it says after a moment. “They’re gone.”

“For good?”

“For as long as you live here.”

“How do I know they’re gone?”

“You’ll see,” says Thingy.

~~~

Later
that night, as Jessica lies in her bed in the dark, she strains her ears but can’t hear a single scratch in the walls. The silence is glorious!

“Thank you, Thingy,” she says into the dark. “I have a feeling we’re going to be great friends.”

“Of course we are,” says Thingy from its place under her bed.

~~~

As
soon as Jessica awakens the next morning, she looks under her bed. But all she sees are a few dust bunnies.

No sign of the Christmas Thingy.

She sighs sadly. “I must have dreamed the whole thing.”

But as she’s pulling on her leg brace, she hears a familiar pinched-nose voice. “What’s this, Jessica?”

She looks up and there’s Thingy standing by the open closet door.

“Thingy! You’re here!”

“Of course I’m here. And you’re there.” With one of his tentacles, he holds up a black rectangular box. “But what is this contraption?”

“It’s a DVD—a movie.” She looks at the title. “That one’s got no talking but it’s super. It’s called
The Thief of Baghdad
.”

“It’s about someone who steals?” Thingy asks, its eyes suddenly bright.

“Yes. And there’s lots of magic stuff in it. Even a flying carpet.”

“A flying carpet?” Thingy says. “That sounds like fun!”

With that, Thingy braids up its tentacles and squeezes its eyes shut, just as it did last night.

For a moment, nothing happens. Then Jessica notices a ripple running over the throw rug on the floor next to her bed. As she watches, its edges begin to flutter.