Page 20 - Sophie's Christmas With Teddy & Mouse

It was like a stone cottage from a fairytale, with sloping red roof tiles and a chimney with thick plumes of smoke, smelling like pine cones that were smoldering in the replace. Curtains of red and white checkered fabric hung in front of the windows. The cat called Little Fox sat carefully washing his paws one by one in front of the window, until he got every paw clean and settled back in his soft, round basket and fell asleep with a deep sigh.
The front door had shiny panes in the middle, framed with beautifully carved woodwork. The door was always open as a welcome to everyone. Teddy pricked up his ears, he heard a melodious voice humming a familiar tune from home. He had never heard such a friendly, beautiful, soft voice.
Then Teddy felt himself knocked to the ground. He was shocked, and looked back and stared straight into the face of the human child.
His eyes widened to the size of saucers and he forgot to breathe, his heart was pounding and he felt a tear of dread dribble down his nose.
"What now, what now?" he shivered.
But the human child had a wide smile on her sweet face.
"Are you my present?" she asked. "I've been waiting for my present for so long. Yes, I know for sure, I know for sure! Mum and Dad have been so mysterious lately, my birthday is the day before Christmas.
We celebrate it around the Christmas tree, together with my little brother Sam. Last year on my birthday I got this bike, look." she rattled on, "Look what I can do," And she 'oated' away again, riding on her red shiny bicycle around Teddy and Mouse, ringing her bell loudly ... Tríng-Tríng!
Teddy started laughing, his whole belly shook, he laughed and roared, then he took a deep breath with a big sob while another tear rolled down his bear nose and he laughed even more.
"Oh, are you the human child I've always been so scared of?" he nally asked with relief .
Sophie was amazed and looked at Teddy with a determined look, saying in a haughty voice , "My name is Sophietje, Mom and Dad call me Sophie , our little big girl."
Teddy stretched out to take a closer look at Sophie, she had funny spots on her cheeks, little freckles of summer, but then the book fell out of his backpack. Sophie was silent for a moment, something that rarely happened. "That is my book," she said softly. "I lost it ages ago."