by Verónica Martín Balsells, Barcelona

Max was a little box. He was born in the first days of 1997. He lived in a cold warehouse for nearly ten months. He was finally taken to another place. His new house was a doll factory. Max met many other boxes there, in the factory.

One morning, a marvellous thing happened. A doll was given to each little box. It was November and the weather was really cold. So, in order to protect the dolls from the cold, the boxes kept the dolls inside them.

Soon, all the boxes became close friends with the dolls they were keeping inside them.

Max was so happy! Mary, his doll, was very friendly and so beautiful; she had curly blond hair and her eyes were big and expressive.

December had begun and all the boxes (with the dolls, of course) were taken to big department stores. There, a lot of girls and boys looked at them. Max liked to be admired by all those girls and boys very much. Max didn't realize that what the children were admiring were the dolls and not the boxes.

Well, in any case, one day, a little girl picked Max up and put him into a bag. Max (well, in fact, the doll) had been bought by the little girl's mother.

Mary and Max were confused. Someone had put them under a tree (it was a Christmas tree!) "Why?" they asked each other.

Max told Mary not to worry because they were still together and that was the most important thing for them. But Max didn't suspect at all that the following day, they would be separated.

Yes! It was 25^th of December, Christmas Day!

Early in the morning, a little girl opened Max and took out the doll. Mary was really frightened but the girl didn't seem to mind this. "Mum, look how beautiful this doll is!", said the girl. Meanwhile, the father took Max and threw him into the wastepaper basket.

It was the end of Max and Mary's friendship. Max could never understand why the girl wanted the doll but didn't want him. Max had lost his best friend. He was a sad box for the rest of his life ….

The End

  Christmas 1998