Writers Unblocked Magazine Volume 1/ Number 1

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” is
playing in the background. George sings
along for a moment, then stops as he sees
one of his favourite ornaments - the train
engine. It reminds him that he hasn’t yet set
up his train set with the Christmas village.
There was something about trains that
George loved. He recalls the family farm in
Newmarket, a rural community with a oneroom
schoolhouse. He remembers how,
as a child, he would run through the fields
with his dog, Buster, feeling so free yet full
of curiosity. He stopped whenever he heard
the train whistle, musing about the exciting
ventures of the train passengers.
“One day,” he tells Buster, “we’ll move to the
city with its tall buildings, automobiles and
electric street lights! There’s a museum and
the YMCA too, Buster!”
They eventually move to the city, where
George meets Richard, who is dating Annie.
While they are slow to become friends,
Richard will eventually marry George’s sister
and the two men become best friends.
They share a passion for trains, spending
hours at the railway tracks by Lake Ontario,
watching the trains as they travel east and
on to Ottawa and Montreal. Though neither
smoked, they lit cigars and talked about
combustible engines and the future of trains,
rehashing stories from train and science
periodicals. Best friends are like that.
George is singing again, this time to the
carol “Sleigh Ride.” The jingling bells from
the horse sled take him back once more to
the farm. While his father was not much of
a farmer, he loved the animals, and George
Sr. loved to tell the story about the day the
family’s horse stopped pulling the plow in the
field. No matter how much George Sr. yelled,
that horse just refused to move, and he was
determined to drag the stubborn animal if he
had to. Walking up to grab the horse’s reins,
George Sr. saw baby Annie, sitting playing in
the horse’s pathway. She’d wandered away
from the house without George’s mother
noticing. That horse saved Anne’s life.
That was the worst part of leaving the farm.
They had to sell the horse. He feels a tear
running down his cheek, and suddenly feels
foolish. Who cries about a horse? George’s
soft blue eyes scan the tree for the horse
ornament, but he cannot find it. He bought
it years ago because it looked like the horse
that saved his family from tragedy.
“Hey,” he says out loud. “What’s the big
idea? Who took the horse off the tree?” He
looks over his shoulder, expecting to see
one of the children smiling mischievously.
But they’re not there. Instead, a woman is
sitting in a blue chair startled by his outburst.
“What are you looking at?” George asks. He’s
embarrassed because he doesn’t remember
who she is. He has never been good at
faces or names. But this woman is not at all
familiar.
“Where is everybody?” he calls out. “Quit
clowning around. I’m serious!” George is
becoming frustrated. A joke is one thing, but
to hide the horse is going too far. And who is
this lady?
“Oh George,” a lady in a blue cotton shirt
and pants rushes over to him. She wears a
name tag that reads ‘Denise’. “How about
some coffee and cookies?” George has never
turned down coffee and cookies.
Denise takes George to a small table in the
bright coffee lounge where several residents
are watching an annual Christmas romance
on the large-screened TV. A man in a gold
sweater enters the room and greets George
VOL. 1 / NO. 1 • WRITERS UNBLOCKED
7