The Advent Calendar by Steven Croft

Author:Steven Croft
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: advent, christmas, codes, nativity, jesus, donkey, manger, chocolate, kings, incense, star, bethlehem, christian, presents, xmas, mary, joseph
ISBN: 9780232528268
Publisher: Darton Longman Todd
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

14 December

Alice woke early the next morning, her mind full of the image of the great tree, rotten to the core and falling to the ground. What was it, she thought, that caused people to go bad? Where did the badness come from? How did it grow so that it took over your whole life?

After washing and dressing, Alice went downstairs and straight into the front room to look again at the calendar and the new gift of the mirror. As she walked through the door, she had the most unpleasant surprise. The surface of the mirror was clear now, not misty, so she could see her own reflection. Smeared across her face and down her neck was a dirty brown streak.

‘Where did that come from?’ she said aloud. Carefully she pulled her shirt open at the top and looked at her reflection. Sure enough the streak ran down onto her shoulder. She licked her fingers and rubbed at the dirt on her cheek. It made no difference.

‘Morning, darling,’ said Megs. ‘Hey! Nice mirror – where did that come from?’

‘Same place as the calendar, Mum. We put it up last night.’ Alice turned away from the mirror, expecting Megs to leap back in horror and reach for a flannel. Instead, Megs gave her a kiss on the forehead and went into the kitchen, humming.

‘Very strange,’ thought Alice. She checked back in the mirror. The dirt was still there. She ran upstairs to the bathroom and looked in the mirror there. Her face was as clean as when she washed it ten minutes ago. She filled the sink and went through the whole process again, scrubbing really hard. Then she came down again to the front room. The streak of dirt was back in place.

‘Time to go,’ Megs called, still humming.

‘You know I’m going out tonight, darling? Andrew’s going to call round at seven to take me to this dinner of his. You’ll be OK with Sam?’

Alice felt a bit weird. It was a strange feeling, having a dirty face, even if no one else could see it. ‘Guess so,’ she said. ‘Won’t be a regular thing, will it – with Mr Watkins?’

‘Doubt it, darling,’ Megs said, with a sigh. ‘But it will be nice to go out for an evening.’

When Alice got to the playground, Alex had a large lump of green plasticine in his pocket. ‘We may need some more time,’ he said. ‘I tested this last night on the garden hose. It held for three seconds after I turned on the tap. Even that was two seconds better than the blutac. We need something more powerful.’

‘What about a cork?’ said Suzie. ‘If we hammer it in just right that should give us some time. My dad bought a bottle of champagne at the weekend. Those corks have wires round them.’

‘Genius,’ said Alex. ‘We trim it down and hammer it in at lunchtime, hold it in place with one of those wires, then whip the wire off just before the lesson.

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