داستان انگلیسی کیتی و دودکش کریسمس همراه با فایل صوتی _ قسمت اول

Katie and the Christmas Chimney

Katie brought the broomstick down onto the roof of Samantha’s house. It was a Victorian building, rather grand, and still had a nice big chimney. It took a little magic to loosen the clay pot off the top of it and place it on a flat part of the roof above the modern extension. Katie peered into the opening in the top of the chimney flue. It was going to be a tight fit.

“She’s not going down there, is she?” thought Solomon, “Has she gone crazy?”

Katie lowered herself into the chimney. She threw her arms straight up, and WOOOSH! … she fell straight down. “AAAAAH!” she screamed. Somehow she managed to slow herself by lifting up her legs. OUCH! Her knees were scraped and her dressing gown was torn, but at least she wasn’t falling any more. It was totally dark in the chimney, and not at all nice.

“AH, AH, CHOO!”

Soot was getting up her nose, and she felt all grimy. Slowly, she began to edge her way down. “I’m going to be a very dirty Santa when I arrive,” she thought to herself, “but what do people expect? If they don’t clean their chimneys then they can’t complain if Santa wipes his feet on their hearth rug.”

Then she remembered that she hadn’t brought any presents. “Never mind,” she said to herself, “there’s bound to be some under the tree, I’ll just hand out those.”

The whole thing was starting to seem like not such a great idea when – oh no – that was confirmed. Katie found that she could not move. Either the chimney had got narrower, or she had got fatter, but either way, she was stuck.

This was scary. Katie began to panic. She was breathing heavily and she could feel her belly expanding in the tight space.

“I must think of the thin spell,” she was saying to herself. But sometimes, when you are really flustered, it’s hard to remember things. The slimming spell was well-know enough in magical circles, which is why you hardly ever see a rotund witch. There was one who had made tons of money by bottling it up it with carrot juice. In her mind’s eye, Katie could sort of see the right page in her magic book, but the words were all blurry. Then she remembered it – yes – in the form she had learned, you had to turn around three times – but how was she to do that when she was stuck in the chimney?

“I know,” I’ll get Isis to turn around,” she thought, “It’s worth a try. After all, she’s my best friend so we must have a magical connection.” Her phone was in the pocket of her dressing gown, but she couldn’t reach it. Instead, she thought really, really hard, and sent a brain wave as a text to Isis’s phone. “I do hope it’s not on silent,” she thought.

Tring! – Isis heard the message alert, and said, “Excuse me,” to Samantha’s cousin, to whom she was chatting, and glanced at her phone. The text said:

“I’m in the chimney – stuck – think of me and turn around three times. It’s my only hope for getting out of here”.

“Er, excuse me again,” said Isis, and she turned around three times thinking of Katie. The cousin, whose name was Ralph, and who was really quite good looking, in a slightly cruel sort of way, stared at Isis.

“It’s for good luck – just a Christmas tradition in our family,” said Isis, trying not to show how concerned she was. She glanced over to the fireplace, not quite sure what to expect – was Katie really going to drop down the chimney?

VOOM!

The fire lit itself and flames started to do a little dance around the wooden logs.

“Did you see that?” asked Ralph,

Isis nodded. “I don’t think that was supposed to happen,” she said.

And it wasn’t. The spell had gone badly wrong, and now Katie, up in the chimney, was starting to feel the heat. It was getting warm, really warm, too warm.

“Help!!!!!!!” she called out.

“Did you hear that?” asked Ralph. “It sounded like a ghost in the chimney.

“Must be the wind,” said Isis, who was now extremely worried. But what could she do? Should she tell Samantha’s mother that her friend was stuck up her chimney?

“Help!!!!” called out Katie again.

Up on the roof, Solomon peered into the chimney with his green eyes. “Hmmm, I think the silly girl’s got stuck,” he purred. He placed his paw above the hole and began to fish with it. Gradually a magical force began to jog Katie up and down a bit until – what a relief! – she was free – but instead of dropping down to the hearth, she was lured up to the top by Solomon.

Katie scrambled out onto the roof – gasping in the fresh, cold air.

“What on earth did you think you were doing?” thought Solomon.

“I, I was playing at being Santa,” said Katie.

“Santa?” Just look at yourself. You’re filthy,” said Solomon. He couldn’t help himself, he was talking out loud now, even though he was forbidden to do that. “If anyone saw you come creeping into their house, they’d call the police,” he said.

And Katie replied, “Yes, climbing up and down chimneys is a dirty, dangerous business. Kids these days don’t know how lucky they are.”

Her phone rang. Now she was free, she could reach into her dressing gown pocket and take it out. It was Isis, anxious to know how she was.

“I’m ok, thanks,” said Katie, “Just a bit shaken. I did my best, but I’m really sorry, Santa won’t be coming to the Christmas party this year.”

“That’s ok,” said Isis, “For once, I don’t think anyone will mind if Santa does not turn up. I’m just happy that you are safe.”

“Thank you,” said Katie, “So am I.”

Just as she spoke, the doorbell rang, and Santa came into the party with a sack of presents and started to hand them out with lots of Yo Ho Hos. It was a surprise thought up by Samantha’s mum. Everyone was delighted and nobody asked how somebody so large could ever get down a chimney.

And that was the story of Katie and the Christmas Chimney, written by Bertie, and read by me, Natasha.

I do hope you enjoyed it.

تهیه و تنظیم: زهرا صـانعی