Writing for Fun
December 2017
Mistletoe - Jeanette Rothwell
‘What’s Mistletoe?’ asked Toby. His Mother didn’t answer. She was fast asleep. He had heard the family talking about buying some and wondered if it was something to eat. His Mother had told him that they would be eating something called Turkey tomorrow and he was looking forward to that.
Toby could hear the family returning from their shopping trip and, curious as ever, he wanted to know what they had bought. His little legs scrambled to get off the lovely comfortable bed he had been sleeping on and he then had to tackle the staircase to get downstairs. He hadn’t quite mastered the height of the steps and landed at the bottom in a rather undignified heap. Jenny, the daughter of the house, laughingly scooped him up with one hand, dropped a light kiss on his head, chuckling ‘Silly kitten’ and put him down.
He shook himself and watched as the family wrestled with bringing in a large tree. A tree indoors was, in Toby’s opinion, unheard of. Trees were for the garden, with trunks you could climb. This one didn’t look as if it could be climbed.
In no time the tree had been planted in a large tub and quickly covered in twinkling lights and shiny balls. Mummy, Daddy, Joe and Jenny stood back to admire the tree and then disappeared into the dining room for lunch. Toby approached the tree gingerly and tried to bite one of the branches which proved to be very prickly and uninviting. However, the shiny balls looked like great fun and he patted several of them on the lower branches, until one fell off and rolled across the floor hotly pursued by Toby. It travelled on until it came to a stop under the bookcase, but as Toby was still so small, he was able to follow it, pat it again to bring it out from under the bookcase and he carried on playing with it until his little legs tired.
He abandoned the shiny ball and settled down in a bed which had been put down for him. He was soon asleep dreaming of catching a mouse to bring to his family. He was woken by Jenny calling him to have some food and he and his Mother converged on the kitchen to eat the pet food at top speed just in case somebody else wanted some of it! His Mother went back upstairs to have another snooze.
Exploring again, he could hear Jenny and Joe giggling in the lounge. They were tying together some plant pieces on which grew some white berries. They then brought in a ladder and hung the bunch from the ceiling, near the door. Toby wanted to climb the ladder too, but couldn’t get past the first rung. The ladder was swiftly taken away and Jenny and Joe settled in the lounge and turned on the TV.
Daddy came in and spotted the bunch hanging from the ceiling ‘Ho, ho,’ he said,’ I didn’t know you had bought some Mistletoe.’
‘So that’s what it is,’ thought Toby. ‘What was it for? It was hardly decorative and couldn’t be edible hanging up there.’
Daddy called Mummy from the kitchen and she came in drying her hands on a towel. Daddy caught her round the waist and put his lips on hers, making a funny noise which made Mummy blush. She gave Daddy a playful slap and went back to the kitchen while Daddy laughed.
One of the white berries dropped from the bunch and Toby ran over to it. He patted it around a few times but it didn’t roll very well so he tried sinking his sharp little teeth into it. It was very hard and not at all tasty which left him disgusted.
‘What was all the fuss about?’ he thought. ‘It wasn’t something to eat and if it was a game, it was a silly one.’
He then tackled the stairs again to join his Mother on Mummy and Daddy’s bed. He snuggled up to her and told her about the mistletoe. She opened one lazy eye to confirm that it really wasn’t something to eat and he was to look forward to the turkey tomorrow. He could tell that she was drooling over the thought of tomorrow’s dinner.
Toby was soon asleep dreaming of that mouse again. He had brought one in a few days ago and he presumed that Mummy’s shouts were screams of delight although she hadn’t thanked him yet.