The Polar Express

What is a bell without sound? 

A boy lays restless on Christmas eve. Dark, silent solitude. But then - light. A fearful,  sudden declaration against the bedroom wall. Violently it severs itself; in, out, in, out. Something, however, far more chilling is churning - a sound. A misty muffle, maturing to a hot wail, authoritative and unceasing. 

There is a train outside. Among the quiet houses and quieter streets, there is a train outside. 

When there is a train outside, how can you not slip on your slippers and tiptoe to the door? 

“Are you coming?” The conductor says.

“Where?” 

“Why, to the north pole of course.” 

When there is a train outside, how can you not board? 

The passengers are children, children in pajamas. Children who saw the light and heard the sound. They sit snug in the cabin's glowing heat. They sip hot cocoa and are not scolded for having sugar too late. There are no parents on this train. Just kids, the warmth of the cabin, and the chill of the windows. The windows, telling fragmented stories. A flash of wilderness, a lake, then a bridge. And it does not slow. 

Until it does.

“There,” said the conductor, “is the North Pole.” 

At the North Pole, the elves congregate around Santa. Santa, who has chosen our protagonist to receive the first present. And what does he ask for? A bell. Not just any bell, a bell from Santa’s sleigh.

It had been said Santa’s bells make the most beautiful sound. Surely this present, straight off the sleigh, will grant his wish. Surely now, he will hear the sound. So he shakes the bell - and shakes it, and shakes it again. But there is no sound. Only metal and silence. As if he were back in his room - dark, silent solitude. As if the train had never come.

Suddenly, the boy wakes up, laying in his bed. Was it all a dream? He soon discovers, tucked far beneath the Christmas tree, a small box. Inside this box lies Santas bell. Shaking the bell, he now believes. Shaking the bell, he now hears. He turns to his parents in amazement, but all they say is “that's too bad…it's broken.”

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).