The Gratitude Goblin

Once upon a time, there was a ten-year-old boy named Alec. Alec was a very spoiled and ungrateful little boy. Alec’s greed became his identity. Alec was going to turn eleven years old, and he had asked for only one thing for his birthday. Alec wanted a play station. All of his friends had one, so why couldn’t he?

For days, he would try to make deals and offers to get the Playstation for his birthday. Then one day, Alec’s mother had said to him:

“Why can’t you just be grateful for the things that you already have?”

Alec threw a temper-tantrum and screamed his lungs out. Alec, upset and in distress, wanted to run away and find a rich family to adopt him. They don’t care what I want for my birthday he thought to himself. What’s so wrong about having the new play station for my birthday? As Alec was packing clothes into his Transformers backpack, he caught a glimpse of something in his closet. A person, perhaps? The door slowly swung open and creaked eerily. The only source of light within the room was Alec’s choo-choo-train night light plugged into the wall opposite of the closet. Out came a short green man, no taller than Alec himself. He had boils on his face, especially on his cheeks, and he had long brown hair parted in the middle, down to his shoulders. He had hazel-colored eyes and brown lips with yellow teeth. The strange green man wore what looked as a large worn out potato sack and he had felt shoes that were curled at the ends. The man took a half-step forward toward Alec but suddenly stopped as Alec silently gasped.

“Oh, dear boy, do not fear me, for I am nothing more than a friend,” said the little green man. His voice sounded deep and smooth.

“Who are you?” Alec’s voice cracked with every word. “What are you?” Alec was about to run for the door.

“I, little boy,” said the little green man in an even calmer tone, “am the Gratitude Goblin.”

“W-what? I thought goblins were mean and scary,” said Alec, remembering all of a scary story his older brother Will had told him once about how goblins eat children’s bones for breakfast.

“Oh heavens no, goblins are very nice folk. I mean you no harm little boy, I only have but a gift for you.”

“A gift? For me?”

“Perhaps, little one. My dear boy, I have much to tell you in such little time,” the goblin walked away from the closet door and walked toward the center of the room. He dropped down and sat Indian-style on Alec’s red and blue circle rug. Alec studied the goblin with fear and curiosity. The goblin studied Alec back and let his eyes begin to wander the room. The goblin spotted a toy choo-choo-train next to him and picked it up. Alec could now see that he had long, green fingers with warts all over each one and his fingernails were long, brown, and cracked at the edges. Alec’s stomach began to twist at the sight.

“Hey! Don’t touch that! That’s my train!” shouted Alec, tears burning the back of his eyes.

The goblin looked at Alec with soft eyes as he parted his lips to speak.

“What makes this train so special?” asked the goblin, his voice full of sarcasm.

“That’s my train! My toy!” Alec shouted with anger.

The goblin gave a sneer and mischievous grin. He raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. The toy train vanished into a puff of smoke. Alec, appalled, felt the tears stream down his hot cheeks.

“What?! What did you do with my train?” Alec wailed.

“What made that train so special?” Asked the goblin again, this time with light-heartedness that even Alec could hear.

“That was my train” Alec said, gritting his teeth.

“Hmm, is that so?” the goblin raised his eyebrows and looked directly at a picture of Alec and his family at the beach on his bedside table. Alec caught him starring and followed his line of sight.

“My family? What about them? They gave me that train!”

“Mhmm,” the goblin gave a satisfied smile to Alec and snapped his fingers again. There, slowly fading into sight, Alec’s toy train reappeared in the goblin’s hands. Alec’s face was full of shock and anger.

“What did you do that for?” Alec screamed at the goblin.

“You thought the train was valuable because it was yours, however you did not focus on who gave you the toy in the first place,” the goblin gently set the toy train down on Alec’s rug.

Then, he stood up and walked towards Alec’s dresser. The goblin looked around on the top of the dresser and rested his eyes on the picture of Alec and his family at the beach. He picked up the picture frame and studied everyone in the picture very closely; His father, the mother, his brother, and his aunt, and uncle. The goblin released the picture in midair and let it drop to the floor. The picture frame cracked and sprayed all over the rug, was shards of glass; the picture ripped at a corner. Alec’s jaw dropped open, and his eyes grew wide. The goblin turned his head to look at Alec and saw his expression.

“Oh, my apologies, was this picture important to you?”

“That was a picture of me and my family!” Tears were rapidly rolling down Alec’s face and his face was turning bright red.

“How much do you cherish your family? I do not think you show it very often,” the goblin snapped his fingers and the picture snapped back into place along with the shards of glass. The picture and the picture frame was restored and looked like new again.

“Why are you doing all of this to me?” questioned Alec fear in his voice.

“All you ever do is ask and want and ask and want. You hardly ever show any appreciation for the things that you already have.” The goblin stared at Alec with doe eyes.

“Alec, your birthday is right around the corner. Look at what you already have, look around you my dear boy! You have a warm home, food, and water, clothes, and various toys to play with already,” The goblin looked back at the photo of Alec and his family.

“It is important to stop and appreciate the things that you already have in your life. Things can always disappear in an instance—without warning,” the goblin pointed a long warty finger at Alec’s toy train.

“Do not frown, little boy. Show some gratitude and things will soon begin to lighten up,” the goblin looked at Alec and gave a lulling smile.

Alec got up and walked over to the goblin and opened up his arms wide and gave a big warm hug.

“Thank you, Mr. Goblin,” Alec’s voice was full of satisfaction.

Suddenly, the goblin pulled away and walked towards Alec’s closet door. He reached inside and pulled out a box wrapped in shiny green wrapping paper. The box started to move and shake as the goblin set the box back down on the ground. The goblin looked back and gave a wink at Alec.

"Happy birthday Alec,” that was the last three words the goblin had said to Alec before leaving into Alec’s closet with the gift-wrapped box. When the closet door closed, Alec blacked out into a coma-like sleep, and woke up the next morning. Alec stopped asking for things for his birthday and patiently waited for his big day to come. A few days passed, but it felt like a day to Alec; his birthday had finally come. All of his family had come over to his house to celebrate—his aunts, uncles, and cousins.

“So, Alec, what do you want for your eleventh birthday? Anything you want, you name it,” said uncle Nicholas.

Alec hesitated for a moment, remembering what the goblin had told him; and then he spoke.

“I don’t want anything for my birthday,” Everyone silently gasped as the words came out of Alec’s mouth.

“Honey, are you sure? We can go to the store and you can pic—“

“No mom, I just want to spend time with my family today,” Alec said to his mother.

“Well,” said uncle Nicholas “I guess you wont want this puppy for your birthday then, huh?”

“What?” shouted Alec.

Uncle Nicholas walked out the front door and to his car. When he came back, he was carrying a box wrapped in shiny green wrapping paper. Alec recognized it instantly. It was the same box the goblin had the other night. Uncle Nicholas set the box down on the floor and it began to shake. Alec ran across the room and sat on the floor in front of the box. He opened the lid and the box tipped over to its side, allowing the lid to come completely off. Out came a Rottweiler puppy with a golden boy attached to the back of the collar. Inside the box, Alec could see there was an envelope. Alec reached his hand inside and grabbed the envelope; inside was a birthday card.

“Ah, so that was what Mr. Goblin had put in the box,” said uncle Nicholas.

“Who’s Mr. Goblin?” asked Alec, ears ringing at the name.

“Mr. Goblin is a very nice man who works at the puppy shelter. He asked if it was anyone’s birthday and he smiled at me when I told him it was yours.” Uncle Nicholas bent down to pet the puppy. “I thought I saw him slide something into the box.”

Alec smiled and looked up to see everyone smiling at him and his new puppy. This is way better than some stupid Playstation, Alec thought to him self.

“Thank you all for this wonderful gift.” Alec said with a gleeful smile and stood up to hug each of his family members.