ALBIE'S XMAS STOCKING

 Albie's fingers explored through the wool of the sock, prolonging for as long as possible the moment when he would open his first ever Christmas stocking. He found the unmistakable rubbery resistance of a ball that’d fit nicely in a pocket on school-days, but Mum had been sneaky and disguised the other packages with many layers of newspaper. Albie extracted one small present at a time, opening each one as slowly as in a game of pass-the-parcel. The ball was black in the moonlight but he guessed it was red — he bounced it a couple of times before remembering Dad was still snoring on the other side of the thin wall. A box opened to reveal a model car, all shiny paint and bulbous headlamps with a real driver you could take out. There was a catapult he’d lay odds Dad had slipped in when Mum wasn’t looking, and which he hid behind one of the small drawers in his chest. A bag of toffees and a sugar mouse came next — he dangled the mouse by its tail so he could bite the head off — and then, right in the toe of the sock, he found an orange and a sixpence.

He laid it all out on the worn eiderdown and gazed at the little heap, then wiped his cheeks angrily. He must be turning soft, blubbing over a few bits and bobs from Woolworth's. 

This is an extract from my book HELTER-SKELTER - there might have been a bit of my own nostalgia in mind when I wrote it!

You can buy HELTER-SKELTER and its sequel CAROUSEL from Amazon - it might even arrive in time for Christmas if you're lucky, but if not there are many long winter nights ahead when curling up with an absorbing story is an inviting prospect.