Birthday Presents

On his birthday, Omri receives a small plastic Red Indian figure from his friend Patrick — a second-hand toy Patrick himself was finished with. Though Omri tries to hide it, he is quietly disappointed, since he already owns loads of small plastic figures scattered all over the house, and he and Patrick have grown a little tired of playing with them. Not wanting to hurt his friend's feelings, Omri keeps his true reaction to himself and simply slips the toy into his pocket.

Later, at a family birthday tea, Omri receives exciting gifts from his parents and older brothers — a skateboard, a helmet — but his brother Gillon, who has no pocket money after an accident involving their father's bicycle, gives him an untidily wrapped parcel instead. Inside is a small white metal cupboard with a mirror on its door, the kind once used for storing medicines, which Gillon had found discarded in the alley behind their garden. Rather than being disappointed, Omri is delighted, since he loves cupboards of any kind for the simple joy of storing and arranging things inside them.

Omri wishes aloud that the cupboard had a lock, and his mother offers him a box of old keys to try. Most are too big, but among the half-dozen that might fit is one unusual, ornate key with a curly top, tied with a strip of red satin ribbon. This turns out to be the key to his mother's own late grandmother's jewel box, brought long ago from Florence — a treasured key she once wore on a ribbon around her neck until it broke. She now hands it over to Omri as his new cupboard key, asking him to take good care of it. When Omri playfully wishes on the key that his brother Gillon's ordinary present might become something magical instead, the key turns smoothly in the lock — but the cupboard door will not open.

That night, as Omri is getting ready to sleep, his mother finds Patrick's old plastic Red Indian in his trouser pocket while doing the laundry, and suggests he simply put it in his new cupboard for safekeeping. Omri places the figure on the shelf inside, closes the door, and carefully locks it, before going to bed.

Later that night, Omri is startled awake by strange, tiny sounds — but dismisses them and falls back asleep. By morning, however, the sounds are unmistakable: a pattering, a tapping, a scrabbling, and what sounds almost like a very small voice. Thoroughly frightened, Omri reaches out and touches the cupboard, causing it to shift slightly, and the noises stop at once. After lying still for a long while, he finally works up the courage to unlock the door and look inside — only to find that the plastic Red Indian figure has completely vanished from the shelf. Then, searching further, Omri spots him crouched in the shadowy bottom corner of the cupboard — and realizes, to his astonishment, that the tiny figure is alive.