"A Jolly Christmas After All'' It was 3 o'clock in the morning and everyone in the Miller house was fast asleep except nine year old Lisa. Lisa lived in a small house in Southampton with her mother, father, and grandma. Lisa's grandma was not your everyday woman. Lisa's grandma was a police lady, and she hadn't quite realised that she was retired. She organised things like neighbourhood watches and things like that.

Lisa's house was a beautiful peach colour. It had white shutters and a beautiful wrap-around porch. Lisa also had two older brothers Kevin, and Shawn, who were at the Bermuda College and they lived in their own apartments.

The reason Lisa was still awake was because she was upset that her parents wouldn't let her get a puppy for Christmas. They said that puppies were too messy and that she wouldn't be able to take care of it.

One day Lisa's older brother, Shawn, told her that he would take her to the SPCA, but only to look at the dogs and not to adopt one. He made that very clear. When they arrived, Lisa looked at every single dog very carefully, but the dog that stood out most to her was the little black one in the very last cage. She had big fluffy paws and ears and two little spots of white under her chin. All the other dogs jumped up when they knew there was someone there and some even started barking, but this one just sat there staring up at her. Lisa fell in love with this puppy in a minute and told Shawn that this was the one that she wanted. Shawn reminded her that they had only come down to the SPCA to look at the dogs, and that they had to leave now because their mother was expecting them to be home for lunch.

Lisa told her parents all about the puppy at the SPCA. After she had finished speaking she thought that, just maybe, her parents might have started to like the puppy too. Lisa visited the puppy every weekend and was sure the puppy would be a good choice because she had already been house trained. When Lisa told her parents that they seemed to become even more interested.

It was two days before Christmas and the house was all decorated with Christmas ornaments and Lisa's grandmother said she was going out on a walk.

Lisa was in a great mood. Her parents had told her that she could adopt the puppy from the SPCA today.

When they arrived at the SPCA Lisa went to see her puppy. Lisa was skipping down to the cage where the puppy was kept, when to her surprise and disbelief, the puppy was gone! The assistant came up to her and told her that someone had just come in and adopted it. There was a cold feeling inside Lisa's stomach.

Lisa ran up to her mother and told her the bad news with tears running down her cheeks. Lisa's mother hugged her and took her back to their car. Lisa didn't say a word for the whole car ride back to her house.

Lisa arrived home in an unbelievably horrible mood. She snapped at anyone who tried to cheer her up and she threw a dish on the ground on purpose! As she stomped down the corridor she heard a noise coming from her bedroom. On Lisa's bed was a cage and inside that was the puppy from the SPCA. Lisa was so overjoyed, she opened the cage and hugged the puppy. Lisa noticed a piece of card hanging from the side of the cage. It read: "I hope you like the puppy, Love grandma.'' "I am Cinderalla, and you are the wicked sisters.'' -- Thomas Nast SHORT STORY COMPETITION CPN