Short story - Rudi's Christmas

What appeared to be a quiet morning turned out noisy. Rudi was still in her room when she heard her elder siblings shouting at each other and running around the house. She remembered vividly what the commotion was for, "Food". Her siblings were frying the left over creamed rice from last night's dinner and some fresh eggs from their poultry.

It happened the day before too. Norm wasn't happy with the amount of food served on his plate. He argued that as the first son of his family he needed to be served first with a full plate. "Mi Les long kaikai, yupla mas givim mi planti", (I don't want to eat this, I need a full plate) he said". His cousins had promised him that he would have a full plate the next day. However that didn't happen which resulted in screams and shouting that morning.

It was Christmas. Rudi's siblings were home for holidays. She had four elder brothers and an elder sister. She was the last born. Their father was a teacher at a college. The college was situated up a hill looking down to the sea. It was stunning. The school and teacher's houses were surrounded by mango and banana trees. Fruits like Guava, custard apple, five star, giant laulau and soursoup were everywhere. There was nothing they were in need of.

Rudi always loved Christmas holidays with her siblings. They had so many places to visit. A 20minutes walk to the beach to swim and to collect dry woods or go fishing all day at the river near their house. They always had fun and this time it was going to be special. Their cousin Norm was coming over for holidays too.

Norm and his parents lived in another town. Her mother was a nurse and father was a machanic.

Norm was tall and skinny, always aggressive and crazy whenever anyone got on his nerves. When he wasnt fed on time, he would start destroying anything that was near him. Both their parents were traveling home for a burial and left Norm with the cousins. They were only gone for a week when Norm decided to display his craziness again.

On that beautiful sunny morning, as Rudi was making her bed, she heard her brothers shouting at each other "Run! "Run! as they ran, away from the house as fast as they could, away from their mad cousin who had a large stone on his right hand. His left hand holding tight onto his loose jeans as he ran after them. She ran to the window only to see the last person with a stone speeding across the gravel footpath.

Norm was shouting at them to stop as he ran after them. Rudi's elder siblings were running towards their favourite hiding spot near the river. They ran across two double classrooms, a basketball court and the mess hall. They forgot about Rudi and their left over breakfast in the kitchen and ran for their lives. They knew Norm wasn't going to harm her.

Rudi ran out to the empty house and started running after them. She could only see one of her brothers running through the hedges of flowers towards the bushtrack. "Dada! Dada!" She screamed as she ran past the first classroom. "Dada" was the name used by younger sibling on their elder ones out of respect.

She sped passed the basket ball court and diverted to the back of the mess hall to avoid being seen by Norm.

Norm couldn't run any further. The weight of the stone and the loose jeans were dragging him and he was so out of breath, he dropped the stone and sat on the ground near the mess hall. Few students and teachers who remained at the mess for breakfast heard the noise and came running towards Norm.

He was surrounded by the curious teachers and students who were asking him questions at the same time. "What's going on"? "What's happening"? "The kids parents are not around", said another teacher. "Where are your cousins? A student in blues shirt was asking as he sat down next to Norm.

By then, Rudi had arrived at the river and was surprised to see her siblings laughing and and swimming as if nothing had happened. She was out of breath but quickly told them about Norm and the crowd of people she saw while passing the mess hall. Everyone became quite and sat still.

"Let's go fishing!" Kim shouted from the other side of the river, she was sitting on a high rock. "We can bring some fish for Norm and make peace with him". That's a brilliant idea, her brother Jim agreed.

Kim was the eldest sister in the family. She was in her first year at the University. She always knew what to say and how to do things the right way. She was thinking about how to solve this issue with Norm when they got back to the house. So the idea of catching some fish for him made her sprung to action. "Listen everyone! She continued", this is what we will do. "Jim, Mike and Rudi will follow the river downstream, while Hiki, Luke and myself will go upstream, we will try to catch as many fish as we can so we can give some to Norm". They all thought this was a good idea so they left wishing each other good luck.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Norm had returned and saw all the leftovers plus Rudi's full fried rice and egg plate on the table. "I'm lucky, he thought, I'm going to finish all these food and take a nap". "Oh Noooo! He whispered under his breath" I must wash the plates and clean the house too, I must do the right thing this time, I must make peace with my cousins".

It was getting past 5pm when Rudi and her siblings arrived, then Kim and her brothers arrived after them. They were all suprised to see the house clean and in order. "Who did this"? Kim asked as she was looking at each of them. Norm was standing near the kitchen door smiling and showing signs of regret for his actions. "I did, he said slowly, and I'm really sorry for the way I treated you all earlier, so I thought I could make up to you by cleaning the place". "Hahahaha!" Kim started laughing then everyone joined in and laughed and hugged each other. They finally made peace and started preparing their fish for dinner.

They were still preparing the dinner when their parents returned from the village. "What a nice surprise!, Everyone! look who's here!" Kim shouted over the noise of laughter and stories. They all screamed and ran towards the car driving into the driveway. "I'm so happy you are back", Rudi said as she hugged her mother tight. "I missed you all too", her mother responded back with a smile of satisfaction on her face.

The Christmas passed quickly and everyone left home for school. Rudi was going to school too. "Life is really good after all and tomorrow will be the best day of my life" she thought as she lay down to sleep.

Her first day at school.

Well, siblings argue and fight all the time, yet remain committed to each other. They grow into adulthood and still remain best of friends.

End.