My Christmas Present

世界没有不疼儿子的妈妈,只有不理解妈妈的儿子。本故事纯属虚构。

As long as I could remember, from the year dad left us for good when I was 5,mum never bought any present for me, even on my birthday. I often saw other children with such presents like toy cars, dolls or playing cards. But I was denied these kinds of things. I was jealous and of course complained about the simple life we lived in. But mum just gave it a smile, "no matter how hard your life is, meet it and live it."

This was just her motto which she repeated every now and then. But in the other hand mum worked very hard. She often took night shifts. And when she came home late at midnight, she was always dog tired with a fragile body which seemed to break down at any time. I saw her a lot times when she approached my room with very light steps to see if I was sleeping well. Sometimes I was sleeping but there were other times when I was awake but pretended to be sound sleeping. Then she will come to my bed and kissed me in my face.

Mum spent little money on clothes and decorations of the house. Old shoes, ragged stockings worn-out pants, such was how the neighbor described mum. Of course, I also wore old-fashioned clothes and mum crowded our little "cage", if such it may be called, with old furniture and "rubbish". My room and mum’s were separated simply by a piece of ragged cloth. Mum seemed to be kindly overlooking all these, but I didn't. I just couldn’t bear it, "Ma, where did your money go?"

"What do you mean?"

"You seldom spent any money on this home. So where did your money go?"

"I saved it. It will be useful when I am old."

How came I had so selfish a mum? I couldn’t understand. I envied other pupils who got good mothers.

One day after school, I didn’t go home. I did not feel like to go back at all. I was considering about the life without Mum. Maybe it would be more wonderful to live alone outside. Then I went the telephone box by the sidewalk. I told my girlfriend Janet that I would never go back home again and I asked if she would like to go with me. And she said I was crazy and rang off. Yet I didn’t think I was crazy at all.

That night, I sat in the stone bench in a park. The cold wind flied away all my warmth. There was nothing in my mind. I stood up and walked around to get a little feeling about warmth. But it seemed not to work. I began to think about my home and of course, my mum.
At the gate of the park, I saw a familiar figure. She looked as if she had lost something important. I recognized her. "Mum!" ,I cried out. With tears in her eyes, she rushed to me, hogged me and shouted, "my dear, where have you been? I've been looking for you everywhere."

At that minute I realized how important mother is to son and I didn’t say anything but close my eyes to feel the warmth in mum’s hog. I no longer had any attempt to leave home.
But it was only two weeks later that I started to complain about life again. However Ma was amiable-tempered. She never got angry; she just smiled, "John, you shouldn’t always wanna keep up with the Joneses. You should know that!"

"Go on! I’m not keeping up with the Joneses. I’m keeping up with the pace of the world. Ma, we shouldn’t be left behind by time."

Mum ignored my words no matter how much I said. I knew I couldn’t persuade her to give up this kind of "hard" life.

Some three months later, things were going on as usual. However, I found Ma spent a lot of time with a man called James Hughes in those months. Later he even came to our house. He offered to do some cooking, some washing and so on. James was a careful person. He showed his attention to mum and took care of me though I never showed a smile to him. Mum would always say to me, "John, you shouldn’t always show a straight face to James."

"I don’t want a new papa!" I replied. Then mum lowed her head and walked away. Just then, James came to our door. Mum took him outside. They talked for almost an hour beniece a tree.

Through the windows, I saw James slowly went away. Then Mum came in and said to me, "he will never come again, John. And you will never have any new father from now on." I stood still for a minute. Maybe I was too selfish I didn’t stand on mum’s shoes. I shouldn't have detached James from mum. However, Mum just smiled and turned away.

All things changed in the following Christmas. It was in the morning of that Christmas Day. Ma said she was going to buy some food for lunch and something for decoration. This was the first time Ma spent some money on Christmas as I could remember.

I waited until 2 in the afternoon and mum still didn’t come back. I went out to the market and in the other side of the street I saw mum, together with a lot of goods.

"Mum!"I cried out.

Mum noticed me, "John, came here help me. I got my hands full." she shouted and smiled.

From her sweet smile, I saw a beautiful angel. The angle showed her glistening eyes to me. She wanted to fly. She tried her every endeavor to beat her wings but she didn’t manage. She ignored all the things that surrounded. And she walked toward me, with her wings pointing at me.

"What are you doing? Stop!" Shouted a driver.

According to myself, I was lost at the beauty of the angel. I was also unconscious about the surroundings until I saw the bleeding her wings. The angel danced with her pure legs in spite of her pain. And later her legs started bleeding. She tried hard to fight the pain but at last she smiled to disappear.

Then I came around and found we were in an ambulance car. Mum stopped breathing before we reached the hospital. And I was sent to the operation room. I was given an operation.

A month later after the operation, the doctor told me that I had a severe disease in stomach when I was born and mum paid a total of 50,000 dollars for this operation.

I was shocked. I took mum’s diligence for selfish which mum only showed ignorance to. She had never bought present for me. But now I got this big present from the angel on that Christmas.