I AM ALREADY ELEVEN, Cristina López Suárez, 1st Advanced

How difficult Christmas is for a child of eleven. I have to maintain the illusion of my parents and my classmates who have not yet discovered what really lies behind many gifts. At home they don’t stop bombarding me with commercials of toys on television, in magazines and catalogues of toyshops. But worst of all are the pinching cheeks that give me my aunts, my grandmothers, my great-aunts and all the relatives who pass by my home these days. In the park my friends don’t stop talking about what gifts they are going to ask for to the Three Wise Men this year. What if you misbehave they are watching you from the sky and they are going to bring you only coal. What if you open one eye in the night before Epiphany, they disappear from your living room or if your parents offer their milk and the next day the vessels are empty. You may ask yourself, how I discovered the harsh reality. It happened last Christmas, specifically the day of the parade. With all the enthusiasm of a 10-years-old child who still believes in the magic of this day, I headed to the main square with my parents where hundreds of children were waiting for their arrival. Beside me were the oldest in the school, a group of boys who loved to laugh at others. I couldn’t avoid overhearing their conversation, as they were discussing something about the Three Wise Men. What was my surprise, when I heard that Melchior was the local butcher and Balthasar the African man who has a phone booth in front of the school. The next day, and as I hadn’t got up, my mother came concerned to wake me up. I told her that I had discovered what was happening with the Three Wise Men and the parents, and I told her that I had lost all hope. So then, she told me she was sorry by the way which I had discover the secret, but I had to keep hiding a few years, because in a few months, I would have a sister. I was an only child and that news had brought back the lost illusion. Finally I’m going to have a playmate, a sister who I can take care of and protect and with whom to share and teach thousands of things. She was the best gift from the Three Wise Men, my parents, had ever given me. My sister is called Sara and she is one of the most important people in my life.