A Christmas Miracle

Eliza's Story- Prologue

        Eliza was just average like any other girl. She had a warm and cozy house, a cat named Snicker doodle, a wonderful sister named Caroline, and 2 parents, Jacquie and Matthew Brown, the most joyous parents ever seen. It was a burning hot and humid day in Brooksville, Nevada. People were out selling lemonade on the sidewalks covered with pictures drawn with chalk, which the children created just a few days before today-July 17. Colors of children and adults bicycling and skateboarding flashed down the streets. Smiles and laughs filled the area. No one was inside, not even a mouse scurrying through a hole.

        Eliza and her parents were at their neighbors, the Bason's, pool outside. Mrs. Brown was fanning herself under the patio umbrella and Mr. Brown was talking about politics with Mr. Bason. Caroline was at a cooking summer camp for the week. Eliza was diving into the pool with the neighbor's daughter, Paige Bason. They were trying to see who could make the biggest, most gigantic splash ever. So far, Paige was winning and that brought out Eliza's competitive side.

"PU-AIGE!" Eliza exclaimed annoyed after Paige beat her in the next round.

"What?" Paige answered about to dive again.

"How are you so good at this?"

"I just practice and practice, unlike you who has no patience to sit in a chair for 1 minute!"

"That's not true!"

"Oh, yes it is! I have never seen you practice anything before!" Paige pointed out.

"Oh really, well I will show you!" Eliza then prepared to dive again.

        Paige wanted to watch this entertaining segment of Eliza making a fool of herself, so she pulled up a pink beach chair, sat down and crossed her legs. She also put on her sunglasses and started drinking her lemonade quietly. Eliza dived in and in. SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! That was only sound you could hear for the next 5 minutes. But all of a sudden a scream came about. It was Paige who had just been splashed by Eliza. She got up out of her chair and went and pushed Eliza into the pool. SP-LA-SH! The biggest splash yet, was just accomplished by Miss Eliza Brown. The only problem was that Eliza had just splashed Mr. and Mrs. Bason and her parents all over.

"Ugh! Eliza! Please pardon your splashing!" Eliza's mother called over.

        Paige and Eliza started giggling. They just couldn't believe that Eliza splashed her parents and Paige's parents. The picnic at the pool was soon over and Mrs. Brown had to pull Eliza the whole way back because Eliza did not want the fun to end! The family soon dried off and took a small nap. Eliza was the only one awake. She didn't worry about being too loud because her parents were sound sleepers. Even if they were placed in a concert, they would still not hear anything. All of a sudden, a burning smell came to Eliza's nose. It got stronger and stronger. When Eliza left her room to investigate. She saw a full blown fire and fire alarms started going off. Eliza darted downstairs and called 911. She then tried waking her parents up, while coughing from the smoke. They wouldn't budge. It started to get too thick for Eliza and she  started to leave. Firemen were soon at the door, motioning for Eliza to leave the house. Her cat, Snicker Doodle, luckily followed. She waited outside for what seemed like a long time. There was still no sign of her parents. Soon a tall fireman came out and said:

"I'm so sorry, we were too late. They were sound asleep. We did everything we could."

That was all Eliza could bear to hear. She burst into tears. The fireman hugged her. How could she break the news to Caroline? She didn't want to think about that right now. Eliza couldn't even look at her house that was burnt down. The house that was still containing people, her parents.