In Devonshire, just down the road from Lindos, there was a yellow house decorated in the holiday style, just like all of the rest of the houses around it. Inside the house, Jason and Sarah were playing hide and seek to pass the time before Christmas Eve.Jason opened his eyes.

"Ready or not, here I come!" he called out, and began to crouch about, waving his arms around, and looking in the room for Sarah. At fifteen years, Jason was in the mood to play around with six-year-old Sarah for a while.

He crouched down next to the bed, and tried to look underneath. It was impossible; his head was just too big to fit. Muffled giggles gave Sarah away.

When she saw his arm waving around in a desperate attempt to reach her, she couldn't contain herself any longer, and she burst into laugher, imagining the comical image of her big brother lying on the ground, cheeks red, and stretching hard, so hard to grab her. Jason started to laugh too, and let his arm drop to the floor.

"Okay, I give up. That's a good spot, sis."

"Never! You can't get me, nyah nayh!" she teased him from her cover.

"You really want me to get you?"

"Yeah!"

She started to laugh again.

Jason got up and stretched his arms for a moment, before bending down and lifting up the child size bed, revealing the six year old and her blanket underneath.

"Gotcha."

"Not fair!" "Come on out, let's get a snack."

She crawled out, sticking her tongue out as she did, and walked to the kitchen, while Jason put the bed down, and threw the comforter over it. He made his way to the kitchen.

Sarah had already gotten the milk and cookies out, and was dipping one of them into her glass when Jason walked in, plucking the cookie from her hands.

"Hey!"

"Ha, ha." He stuck his tongue back out at her, and she giggled, dunking another cookie.

She stuck the soaked cookie into her mouth, and then looked over at Jason.

"Jas?"

"Yeah?"

"Is Santa Claus real?"

Jason paused.

"Well, yeah, I guess."

"Really Jas. Honest?"

"I told you sis. Yeah, in a sense."

"What do you mean?"

She took a gulp of the milk.

"Well, I don't know about the part about him being fat," (she giggled) "or about him living on the North Pole, 'cause its way cold up there."

"He could, if he had a heater."

"No sis, it's way, way cold up there. You know how the water is in Horseshoe Bay in like, January?"

She nodded, and shook, holding herself to demonstrate exactly how cold.

"Even colder than that."

"Colder than that? But that's freezing!"

"Yep, even colder than that." She took another cookie.

"You don't believe in Santa, do you?"

"I dunno. Do you?"

"Well, yeah. And I'm gonna prove it to you, so there!" She dunked the cookie, and ate it, chin thrust out in childish assurance.

He laughed at her expression, and took a picture of her, and showed her. After she had stopped laughing, she checked her watch, and then asked "What time would Santa come? If he was real, I mean." Jason sighed.

"Huh. Maybe about midnight, I guess. He starts from Finland, and then comes cross Europe to here, then to America."

"Why wouldn't he come to Bermuda first?"

"Immigration makes him sign papers and stuff, and it takes a while to go through."

She pondered this, and was about to dunk another cookie when Jason picked it out of her hands, and put it away.

"Too many cookies, and you'll get fat." He explained, and she rolled her eyes.

"You just want them for yourself!" He grinned. "So?"

Sarah aimed a kick at him, and then started off to her room down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Jason asked.

"I dunno; play with my dolls or something. Tonight's a big night."

"What do you mean, a big night?" Jason asked, following her.

She turned around, and said patiently, "I'm gonna prove to you that Santa is coming." Jason put his arms up in mock surrender.

"Fine, but Michael's just asked me to go into town, last minute shopping. Better be good, or Santa won't bring you anything. If you need anything, you give me a call; I'll see what I can do."

She turned around, skipping into her room. "Bye." she said, as she began to pull out her dolls.

He turned, and went out, letting the door bang behind him.

By the time that Jason arrived home at seven, the parents had returned from the beach, and were cooking dinner. The smell of cassava permeated the air, and it drifted from the house to the streets.

They settled down for dinner, and ate with light conversation. Sarah finished first, and called out for seconds, which Jason served her. After the meal had finished, and been cleared away, it was eight-thirty. Dad decided to take an early rest, claiming that he had had 'a big day', despite having just sat at the beach with Mum all day.

Mum played a board game with Jason and Sarah until nine, when she put Sarah to bed. Jason then retired to his room to watch some television, and Mum went to bed.

At ten, Jason turned off the television due to the sound of footsteps heading down the hall. He assumed it would continue past, but instead, he heard a knock on his door. He got out of bed and opened it.

Sarah was standing expectantly there, and grabbed his arm. "Come on! In two hours, he'll be here!"

He resisted at first. "Sarah, come on, you're six. You should be in bed."

"Come on, Jas, it's only for tonight, and then I promise I won't wake you up, or take your lunch snacks..."

"... you take my chips?"

"Well yeah, but that doesn't matter, I promise not to do it anymore, or anything, just come on! If you miss it, it's your fault, and I swear Jas."

She made a threatening gesture with her fist, and he gave in. She allowed him back into the room to grab his iPod, but then dragged him into the living room, pushing him onto the couch.

"Stay there." She ran to the couch by the cabinet, and stood on the arm, reaching for something up top.

"Careful sis."

"I always am. What are you, Mum or something?" Jason put the ear bud in, and tuned out.

Meanwhile, Sarah had located the video camera, and placed it so that both chimney and Jason were in full view. She crawled onto the couch, and covered herself with a blanket. Soon Jason was asleep. Only an hour had passed from when Sarah had knocked on Jason's door.

Sarah was on the verge of falling asleep when something knocked on the roof on the house, jolting her awake. She tried to wake up Jason, but he was fast asleep, music still playing away in his ear. Sarah gave up, and looked over to the chimney to see someone materialise in front of it.

He wasn't all that skinny, and he was wearing red, and he had a beard.

"Santa?" The man in red jumped, and almost hit his head.

"Dear Lord... child, you should be asleep!" He turned and caught his bag.

"Jason didn't believe that you were real."

"A lot of people don't. You don't need to believe in me to be a good person, do you?"

"Well, no." Santa picked out some gifts, and put them underneath the tree. From his bag, he also produced a maroon blanket, and placed it over Jason.

"That's the best I can do, but in the mean time, you had better go to sleep. Else you'll be too tired to wake up to presents tomorrow!"

She sighed, and scuffed the floor with her sock. "Yeah."

"Sleep tight." Sarah crawled onto the couch, and Santa pulled her blanket over her. When he stepped back, she was sound asleep.

Without a sound, he was gone.

When Jason woke up in the morning, there were presents under the tree, indeed, but the video camera's red light was off. Sarah was fast asleep, and he was still very warm underneath this- -blanket?

He didn't recall bringing a blanket into the room earlier. When Sarah stretched, and looked over at the blanket, she smiled, and said: "Told you so." The presents were the usual things, toys, clothes, and magazines, but the thing Jason wanted to see most was the video tape Sarah had taken of the previous night. The tape had stopped recording, he saw. When he rewound it, he found that the tape had stopped recording at 11.59 p.m.

The blanket on his lap was warm, and he stretched. He believed.