Today was Scott’s birthday.

“I hate my birthday,” announced Scott, “I hate the fact that my birthday is only a week from Christmas. I hate that I never get any birthday presents because everyone says, “we are going to combine your birthday and Christmas so you will have to wait until Christmas for it.”

“Never mind,” said his Mam, “this year your Gran has sent you a separate present, so you do have something to open.”

She passed him a large parcel that had been wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. Scott tugged excitedly at the cord and unpeeled the layers of paper. The excitement crashed and died in an instant as his Grans gift was revealed to be a scarf. It was no ordinary scarf. It looked like it had been knitted from an assortment of colours both inside and outside the rainbow. Mam unravelled the present. It was a least four metres in length.

“Looks like Gran got carried away,” she exclaimed.

Later that day Scott was getting ready to meet his friends in the park. It was bitterly cold outside and as he tried to step quietly out the back door, the words he had been dreading came floating from the kitchen.

“Wrap up warm. Oh I know, you can put your new scarf on.” It was all his Mam could do not to smile too broadly.

“Ahh Mam! The lads will be in the park, I can’t,” moaned Scott.

“Don’t be ungrateful Scott, your Gran put a lot of effort into this scarf,” answered his Mam.

“And a lot of wool,” added Scott.

“Now promise me that you will wear it”, said Mam.

“I promise,” replied Scott, with no conviction.

“I don’t want a pie crust promise,” she smiled.

“I know what you mean,” said Scott.

“Easily made, easily broken,” said mother and son in unison.

“I want treacle toffee trust,” she added.

“One you stick to,” said Scott, as if to order. Scott trudged out to meet up with his friends.

The ground was hard and everything still had a white dusting from a severe frost the night before. As he entered the park Scott saw two small boys looking sad and pointing up a tree. Scott followed their gaze and saw that a kite was stuck in the highest branch. There was no way the boys would have been able to climb the tree and they were starting to squabble as to whose fault it was.

An idea struck Scott. He unravelled his scarf from around his neck and looked on the ground for a stone. He found a suitable candidate and tied one end of his scarf around it. The boys stopped their arguing, curiosity having distracted them. They stood back as Scott started to swing the weighted scarf above his head.

With one accurate throw, Scott arrowed the scarf and stone sling shot at the kite. The stone hit the side of the kite, which fell to earth and the scarf followed, its mission accomplished.

“Thank you. Thank you very much” exclaimed the boys as they inspected the kite for any damage.

“That’s a great scarf you’ve got there” called one of the boys as they raced off.

“Yeah I suppose so” said Scott to himself reluctantly.

Scott walked further into the park. Soon he heard someone shouting.

“Rosie, Rosie. You come back here this instant.”

Scott could see it was Mrs Robson from next door with her dog Rosie.

“Hello Mrs Robson, Rosie seems to be a bit excited” said Scott as the small black dog raced all around the open field.

“Oh hello there Scott,” said Mrs Robson when she noticed her neighbour. “Yes she is, but her leash broke. I have to go home now but I can’t catch her.”

Another idea struck Scott. He took his scarf off again and this time he made it into a lasso.

“Call for Rosie again, Mrs Robson”.

The dog, with boundless energy, answered the call and raced towards Scott and Mrs Robson, but with no intention of stopping. Scott swung his makeshift lasso in the air and with split second timing he launched it at Rosie with instant success. The dog stopped in its tracks and sat wagging its tail, its long tongue lolling out the side of its mouth.

“Thank you very much Scott,” praised Mrs Robson, “that’s a wonderful scarf you have.”

“It’s alright,” replied Scott as Mrs Robson marched Rosie back home holding tightly onto her collar.

Suddenly there was a scream. Scott could see his friends were on the platform that extended out into the pond. Nature groups used the platform during the summer to do a spot of pond dipping to study the pond life.

Scott noticed that everyone was shouting at something in the middle of the pond. He raced towards it and noticed that the surface of the pond had frozen over. However, the ice was obviously too thin to walk on, but Jimmy Jones had ignored everyone and had stepped down from the platform and brazenly walked out across the ice. His weight had cracked the ice and he had fallen through and was splashing in the freezing cold water. No one could find anything long enough to reach him and Jimmy was trying hard to  grab the edge of the slippery ice whilst keeping above water.

Without hesitation Scott removed his scarf and threw one end towards Jimmy. The struggling boy grabbed hold instinctively and with the combined effort of all the friends they were able to pull bedraggled Jimmy out of the pond and onto the platform.

After making sure that Jimmy was all right they took him home where his mother sent him to bed after a hot bath.

Everyone crowded around Scott and congratulated him on his quick thinking and said what a fantastic thing his scarf was. “Yes it is” said Scott as he wrapped the damp and dirty scarf around his neck. He patted his woollen companion, “Yes it is.”

Scott made his way back home to tell his Mam about the exciting day. When he entered the front room he saw his Gran, who had turned up to wish him happy birthday.

“What do you think about the scarf,” she asked.

“This is the greatest present I’ve ever had,” announced Scott, hugging his Gran. “Could you knit me a pair of matching woolly gloves and a hat for Christmas?”

Copyright Pete Donald 2012

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