Gazette Christmas Short Story Contest.

Four years ago, Roger Crombie helped judge The Royal Gazette 's Christmas short story competition. A year later, he filed this report, which first appeared in RG Magazine, about what Bermuda's younger authors had to say in their contest entries. The story has been updated to mark this year's competition.

A filthy man, leaning against the wall of an insurance company.

The 1998 Christmas short story competition winners and runners-up are published today. This year ran true to form, as did the 1994 competition.

In both years, when the judges opened the large wooden box housed in the newspaper's foyer all month, they found more than 200 entries. Most were prepared on home computers. Although a small number came from aspiring adult writers, hundreds were submitted by local schoolchildren, the great majority of them girls between the ages of nine and 15.

The father had lost his job, their house had been taken away, there was no food. The family had to be split up. It was not going to be a Merry Christmas.

In 1994, we had been hearing a lot about our children, tales of violence and disrespect. What their entries in the competition present, year in, year out, is their view of life in Bermuda: as it is (Christmas made me feel crowded and small) , and as it could be when transformed by the Christmas spirit (They all lived happily ever and ever and ever after) .

Many of the competition stories every year bear testimony to the difficult environment in which our kids, good as well as bad, find themselves as Christmas, the annual stress marathon, hoves into view. It was Christmas Eve, and the Front Street stores were full of people clawing and fighting with each other to get the best presents for their children.

When our children answer the daily paper's annual call, they let their imaginations loose in a fictional world where anything is possible, but truth will out. She did not eat the great big, fat, slimy brussel sprouts . Many base their stories in their gritty, everyday reality and allow the miracle of Christmas to right the wrongs which afflict their fictional families.

His mother, Sharon, a beautiful woman, was a big time corporate lawyer. His father Bill was a very good construction worker. Bill and Sharon had been together for many long miserable years. The smell of alcohol on Bill's breath awoke Sharon almost immediately, and she started screaming at him. Meanwhile, Frankie was in his room with his pillow over his head trying to block out the noise made by his parents. He fell asleep with tears in his eyes. As far as Frankie knew from watching the Oprah Winfrey show, the mother always got the child .

The greatest single fictional Christmas wrong is No Presents, which provided fully one-fifth of the 1994 competition entries (from which all the italicised quotes are taken) with the opportunity to find a way to deliver the gifts and a happy ending to the story. But the largest group of wrongs is societal and not very fictional at all. Ill-health, greed, divorce and bad parenting, and economic burdens top the list.

Ill-health fells someone in more than half the stories, with dead mothers atop the list. My mom died two years ago, and my dad has been sad ever since ...

My parents were killed a year ago in a car crash ... My dad was killed in an accident ... Exactly a year after we were born, all the rest of my brothers and sisters died of some mysterious disease that I didn't quite catch the name of .

Greed affects adults and children alike. The other child was a boy. His name was Percy. Percy was one of the greedy ones . Or: Steven was a young Wall Street broker. He grew up spoiled and arrogant because his parents tried their best to give him whatever he wanted . One story, entitled The Christmas Disaster , ends with: "We got to the Annex and my sisters were on the GREEDY ATTACK!'' In 1994, only one item appeared on two separate Christmas wish lists, and the plaintive wording was exactly the same in both cases: Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is my mom and dad to get back together, nothing else .

If a lack of presents is the top fictional concern, divorce easily outranks all others in terms of reality. The last few years, Christmas has missed young Billy Smith's house. His parents are between jobs as always and the magic of Christmas has disappeared. Billy's belief in Santa Claus is almost non-existent . And: Her father left and never came back. Her father had been in debt for months, because of her 22-year-old brother, named Patrick, who was a heroin addict.

Child authors looking for bad news from which to provide resurrection don't have to look far. My mom and dad called my brother, sister and I together and told us that since Bermuda was just coming out of the recession, money was short and we had to economise .

The competition allows children to write unguardedly of fears they might not discuss with parents or peers. They express emotions, often placing the words in the mouths of children painted as their opposites.

The children that Shrimpy the elf spoke to told him that they were concerned about the environment, increasing use of drugs, crime and also about the mistrust and fear in society, one 12-year-old girl wrote. Shrimpy was amazed at how the children on this island paradise seemed so worried and confused when people from other countries would think that the people living in Bermuda were the luckiest people in the world.

What they have to say speaks volumes about how our children see their parents, public figures, the Island ( "That's all Bermuda needs'', she said sarcastically, "another big old building.'' ) and who our children think they are: I have blue eyes, blonde hair and to me personally, I think I'm cute .

They tend to be less charitable to their siblings. Oh yeah, I have a younger sister who is 6, she's a pain the neck ... Robin was my five year old sister -- she was smart for her age, but I knew she needed help ... On the way there, Megan's six year old sister got carsick down by the Ice Queen ...

Just great, I thought -- both my sisters has All Purpose Crazy Glue all over them.

Most of all, they tell us how our children's worldview is formed by a combination of factors, of which parents, television, advertising, and tradition are among the most important.

The news is not all bad, but the spelling is atroshus .

Bermuda is its own world. On the surface it is a land of colour and soft clear water, and breezes stirring the soul. But underneath lies a social segregation built upon history and opportunism. After 400 years of Spanish and British domination, the times they are a-changing. The rich white merchant sits uneasy on a brutal history that is coming full circle. Black against white, rich against poor, the tale remains the same. This is Bermuda. (female, 14).

Essays filter in to the Gazette's front office all through the month of November. One or two arrive right on the deadline, their authors having taken every available moment to make their efforts the best they can be. Some English teachers make a story part of the curriculum and deliver the results to Par-la-Ville Road in bundles. Some parents write marvellous, flowing prose and submit it in the name of their nine-year-olds. Every year, a handful of entries are submitted without identification, and perforce go unread.

"Then Jesus was born,'' said Mum. My mum was still reading this story about Jesus. Finally after lecturing me about Jesus, she stopped. "Now'', she said, "What was that story all about?'' I replied: "Mum, it's Christmas tomorrow, I can't be thinking about this!'' Many of the entries are decorated, notably those prepared on a computer.

Although the graphics are often low-tech, perhaps coloured in with pencils, they attest to the loving care with which their creators have laboured. For as anyone knows who has written fiction, a short story is a labour of love. It requires a belief in the ability to lay bare a world of one's own making, to set and tell a story in that world, and, in the case of almost every competition entry, to provide moral guidance based on the uplifting nature of Christmas and the underlying goodness of the human spirit.

They rushed the man into the operating room. Just then a young nurse appeared at the door, bringing the news that this man, the patient, was a homeless man and would be unable to pay for the surgery needed to save his life. This shocked the doctors, who all stepped away. The doctors moved towards the door, not paying the least attention now to the patient, who was so ill, because they knew no money would be coming to them.

A small panel of judges volunteers for (or is Press-ganged into, as it were) a hugely time-consuming extra-curricular activity at the busiest time of the year. Over a period of two or three weeks, they read between them every single entry, set aside those few they believe worthy of further consideration, and then, in a series of meetings in which one judge emerges as the guiding hand, agree on winners, runners-up and extraordinarily meritorious efforts in both the Adult and Under-18 categories.

I was an ordinary girl who dressed smartly and properly for school and took pride in my uniform. I was that one person who just doesn't fit in, who is mocked, who is differently seen, and always talked about. I felt this was the fault of my parents.

Judges judge for a variety of reasons: community service, the desire to encourage writing in others, or the excuse to miss another Christmas party. It can't be the honoraria: judges are unpaid. Their identities are kept secret, but you could probably have worked out that they are mostly writers themselves.

How well I remember. It was a long time ago that I sat there in the corner of the TV room, banging my head against the wall. "I don't want to be here,'' I screamed. One of the social workers came into the room and led me to my dungeon.

Just before Christmas, The Royal Gazette publishes this special supplement, among the year's biggest, in which prize-winners and honourable mentions are printed for all Bermuda to read.

Continued on page 7 The process of writing forces contemplation on the author. Although the stories are billed as fiction, almost every entrant, adult or child, delivers a sub-form of fiction, fantasy. "Now,'' said Santa, "It is my turn to do you a big favour.'' In a big puff of smoke, we were all living in a bigger house with lots and lots of money .

And: They all said thank you to Santa and as he flew into the sky he dropped money down to them, coins and everything. He even left his cellular phone.

They all said I love you Santa. The next day they all went into town and bought a Mansion, a Mercedes and a Santa of their own . And: He opened the door and an avalanche of money showered him .

Freed from the restraints of telling the truth, the children do exactly that with a cold eye and a sad edge which tugs at the heartstrings, as the characters who populate their real lives show up in disguise as fictional characters in their Christmas tales.

Vicky finally found the Christmas spirit in her. She led a long and happy life, even though she was crippled for the rest of her life .

For every jolly Santa, there's a drunk or missing Dad. Her father left years before ... His father died in the war ... Her father had a drug problem ... Her father was in prison ... His real father was not around ... Her father was an alcoholic ... For each act of unexpected kindness, there's a dead brother or sister.

For every cahow and poinsietta, there's a Santa in trouble with the Police.

Little did Santa know that he had landed on the basketball court that belonged to the West Gate Correctional Facility. The next thing he knew was that a police officer who had heard the crash was accusing him of driving an unauthorised vehicle without a license, and of robbing a bank .

Occasionally, a young imagination runs riot and produces a wacky vision that cracks the judges up, and (usually) disqualifies the entry. In 1994, for example, in one story or another, the grinch who stole Christmas was Dr. David Saul, Johnny Barnes was having a torrid affair with Santa's wife, and an ex-elf was at the helm of Schroders, the international investment bank.

Johnny Barnes decided that they should first come up with a list of people that would actually want to stop the children from having a Christmas. The first person on their list was Dr. Saul. Lately Saul has been upset with the fact that most of the shopping is being done abroad.

Next on their list was Jerome Dill. We all know that he is more into the `human' side of our world and does not believe that anyone is an alien.

Having found out where the Masked Thief lives, Premier Swan and Johnny Barnes decided to pay a visit to his home. When they reached his house, they saw the masked thief take off his hood. It was Freddy Wade. His motive was everything the Premier did, he was to oppose it . The Royal Gazette 's motive is: anytime anyone writes anything good, to encourage it. The Christmas contest is the Island's largest writing competition. The rewards are those of the promising writer anywhere: publication, recognition and the public expression of private ideas.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the love and the sharing that was passed around Bermuda in the old days could come back? If we could all just remember the true meaning of Christmas and celebrate it with love and unity, and remember that Jesus came for all our sakes, Bermuda would be a better place to live in .

Write on, little citizens.

From then on, their Christmas wish came true year after year after year .

SHORT STORY COMPETITION CPN