"Jimmy! Come here darling, we have something important to tell you," chanted Nan. I got up and sighed. My reading was interrupted yet again. I wondered what they were going to tell me. Slowly making my way downstairs, I hoped it wasn't bad news. Living with Gran and Grandpa was tough. You see my mum died in a car accident when I was young. Dad's a truck driver, I don't get to see him much because he's not very reliable.

"Jimmy," said Gran, "your father rang. He said he can't come home for Christmas." I stood in the middle of the room. Suddenly I felt dizzy. My sandy coloured hair covered my eyes as I tried to fight back the tears that were stinging my eyes. I blinked furiously a few times to try to stop them trickling down my red flushed cheeks. I wished so much that mum was alive, maybe then I would spend Christmas and my birthday with family other than Gran and Pa.

Don't get me wrong, I love Nan and Pa dearly, because they've always been there for me, but it's not the same as having a mum and dad to take you to the beach and do all the fun things that parents and their kids do. Quickly turning on my heels, I pounded upstairs and jumped on my bed and buried my head into my brightly coloured doona.

Breaking the silence, I heard someone knock on my door. Taking a quick glimpse at the door, I noticed Nan's scrawny little shadow on the wall. "Come in," I croaked as I sat up at the end of my bed and slouched. My cheeks were red and salty from my tears. My eyes red and my forehead was hot and sweaty. Nan hobbled into the room. Her white hair looking as white as ever.

"Jimmy, it's OK you still have me and Poppy to spend Christmas with. We can go to the cemetery if you like," said Nan sounding loving and caring. Getting up off my bed, I walked over to the window and peered outside. I spotted a happy family playing ball in the yard.

"It won't be the same," I moaned. "Everywhere I look I see families playing happily. Slumping down on my bed, I grabbed the teddy bear mum had given me before the accident. Sitting down next to me, Nan placed her short thin arms around me.

At dinner I was quiet. Pa sat at his normal place at the table which was at the end. The light was reflecting off of his bald plump head. We had broth and bread. I hate broth it tastes disgusting. I picked up my spoon and slowly placed a spoonful of broth in my mouth and swallowed it quickly. The only reason I ate my broth was so Pa didn't get angry with me and tell me what his parents would do to him if he didn't like what he was given or didn't eat his dinner.

Walking through the aisles of the toy shop at the local supermarket, I spotted what I wanted for Christmas. It was a remote control car. The car looked like a miniature version of a bright red Porsche. Picking the car up, I noticed Nan peering over my shoulder. "Put it back on the shelf Jimmy. We can't afford to get you that!" she said. On the way home in the taxi, I kept nagging Nan about the car. She got angry with me and sent me to my room when we got home. That night I dreamt that I stole the car and didn't get caught.

I made my mind up about how I was going to get the car. I was going to steal it. As I was walking down Second Street to go to the supermarket, I saw a grubby old man. His jeans were ripped, his shoes had holes in them, and he looked as though he hadn't had a shower for years. The man glared back at me. I continued to walk and I could hear footsteps behind me. I turned around and the old man placed his arm around my neck and dragged me into an alley. I screamed frantically. The man placed a grubby looking hand over my mouth. He stunk of rubbish.

"Shut up kid," he yelled. I could feel him tying something at the back of my head. I began to shake dramatically. The smell of the man was starting to make me dizzy. All of a sudden it was dark. He had pulled a blindfold over my eyes. I found it hard to stand up, stumbling a couple of times, the man grabbed hold of me. I thought I was going to pass out. He then picked me up and handcuffed my hands behind my back. "Help! Help!" I screamed. I was put in what seemed the back of a car. I could smell petrol.

When the man took the blindfold off me, I was in a shack. I could smell something terrible. More terrible than the old man smelled. Stumbling onto my feet, I peered out the window. The ground was completely covered in boxes, car parts and huge mountains of rubbish. I then knew I was at the local tip. Still handcuffed I kicked over a pile of boxes and tried to make a racket, so someone would notice I was there, but it was no use. The sounds of tractors and trucks were too loud to compete with.

I lay down on my back next to the door of the shack and kicked it ferociously. I reckon I had been pounding on the damn door for ten minutes before it opened.

As the door opened, I quickly sprang to my feet and ran out the door. It was really hard to run with my hands behind my back. As I was running, I had to quickly duck and jump over rubbish mountains. Heaps of workers saw me running and yelled, "Hey you get back here." But I took no notice of them and continued running.

When I ran past a worker, he started chasing after me. Even though my legs were tired, I knew I had to run faster, if this guy wasn't going to catch me. After reaching the main road, I looked behind me. The worker was nowhere in sight. An elderly man in an old pick up truck saw me walking along the road and pulled over next to me. I had sticky tears streaming down my face. He opened the passenger door and asked me, "Are you OK boy?". I was too puffed to answer him. Suddenly I had an urge to look behind me. Coming along the road was the grubby old man who tried to kidnap me.

Quickly I jumped into the pick up truck and told him to close the door and drive as fast as he could. We sped down the back roads of the tip, but we couldn't seem to shake the guy off our trail. So I asked Ray to take me to his house and call the police. Ray's house was a small cottage type house. Ray's wife hid me in the attic and rang the police. Ray came up with some keys and opened the handcuffs for me. My wrists felt as though they were on fire because the cuffs were too tight.

When the police came, I was leaning against the wall sleeping. I told them what had happened and asked if I could go home. I gave the constable my address and she drove me home. As soon as Pa swung the front door open, I put my arms around him and hugged him tightly and said, "I love you both." I didn't realise how important to me Nan and Pa were, until then. The constable filled Nan and Pa with the details of what happened, as I ran upstairs to a nice warm shower to try and wash the smell of rubbish off me.

That Christmas I got the remote control car I wanted. I am now 21 and training to be a policeman because I want to help children that have had similar experiences as I did that day many years ago.