Hi, my name is Skeeter. I am 13. I spent this Christmas in Bermuda with the "Mohawks'' on a foreign exchange student programme. I am from New York City.

I arrived in Bermuda on December 23. When I arrived in Bermuda Mr. Justin "Big Chief'' Stovell was there to pick me . Big Chief and I talked about my plane flight to Bermuda and where he works.

When I arrived to their house in St. David's, the rest of the family was standing at the door waiting. First I was introduced to Mary-Sue "Momma Squa'' and Terri "Little Wolf''.

Later that evening we were watching TV and little wolf said, "I am Koriholio,'' I thought this was unusual but I said nothing and continued to watch TV. While I was sitting there I noticed big chief was meditating. I asked momma squa what was big chief doing and she just talking to the Mohawk gods.

That morning I woke up and there was a strange smell coming from the kitchen.

I got out of bed and went to the kitchen. Momma Squa was making longtail omelets. Again I thought this was unusual but I didn't say anything.

After breakfast we put up the Christmas tree. This was the first normal thing that I noticed. While doing this we talked about my life in New York City.

Once we were done packing away the boxes for the ornaments we went to Hamilton. There we did all of our Christmas shopping. For Little Wolf I got him a toy truck. I got Momma Squa some perfume and Big Chief a plaid shirt.

When I was finished shopping I went to Bananas and brought a Bermuda T-shirt.

There I saw a picture of a longtail. In the store they were playing strange music. I asked the clerk what type of music was it? She said it was soca.

We all met back at the car, which was in city hall car park. From there we went back to their house. There we talked about what we had done that day.

Later that afternoon we wrapped all the presents and put them under the tree.

There were some strange shaped gifts under the tree. In the living room where the tree was I noticed there was a cage that had this funny looking bird in it. I asked Little Wolf what was it and he said it was a special gift from the Mohawk gods. I chose not to say anything to him about the bird.

Momma Squa was making macaroni & cheese with the turkey for tomorrow or so I thought. It turned out that the turkey was a crow. Again I said nothing to them.

We went out to dinner that night. We went to White Horse. There I noticed that this place was near a bridge. One thing I didn't see was the ocean water. So I asked if we could sit outside. They said sure why not. So we sat outside and I noticed that the water was extremely clear.

When we got home everybody was anxious to get to bed early so that they could wake up early on tomorrow. Tomorrow being Christmas and everything I went to sleep just like they did.

That morning we opened up our presents. Little Wolf got some ancient Mohawk feathers from ten generation's back. Momma Squa got a cauldron. Big Chief got cedar sculpture of a Mohawk. They gave me a very tiny gift. It was a diamond carved into a Mohawk.

That afternoon we went to a cave in the distant end of St. David's. There we sang some strange Mohawk songs. We waited a few minutes. The water started to rumble the ground shook and out of the water a strange being appeared. It said to me "my child you are now officially a Mohawk,'' and disappeared.

While I was packing the next morning I tried to figure out what I was going to say to them before I leave.

In the car over to the airport I said nothing. While we were saying our good-byes I asked Big Chief why were they liked this and he said we were just putting on an act so you could have a good story to tell to your friends.

Antique drawing by Thomas Nast SHORT STORY COMPETITION CPN