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| The book that started it all! AVAILABLE HERE |
For the last several years, I have written a short, Christmas-themed story, and here is this year's offering. I hope you enjoy it.
A passing customer
pointed at her name badge, chuckled, and sang out, “Ho, ho, ho.”
Meredith Christmas grinned
at him from behind her glass-topped jewellery counter, pointed her finger at
him and repeated his greeting before giving him a cheerful thumbs-up.
“Merri, I don’t know how
you put up with it,” her colleague, Sandy, moaned. “All that ho-ho-hoing
year-round would drive me nuts. How did you get the surname Christmas anyway?”
“It’s from my Dad’s side
of the family and dates back to thirteenth-century England via one Richard
Christmas, who settled in Virginia in 1647,” Merri said. She waved at a girl of
about seven or eight who looked longingly at the jewellery displays but was hurried
along by her mother.
“Wow, it’s a pretty old
name then,” Sandy mused.
“Yes, it is. Mom and Dad have
a framed certificate showing the family crest and history.”
“That sounds positively
baronial,” Sandy said, narrowing her eyes and looking thoughtful. “I can see an
oak-beamed hall with a log-filled open fireplace and flames leaping up a stone
chimney.”
Merri laughed. “You and
your imagination. But wouldn’t that be lovely? It would be decorated with holly,
ivy, and real lanterns, and there would be room for everyone.”
Sandy nodded. “Family and
friends and all the peasants, of course.”
“Naturally,” Merri agreed,
then sighed. “Christmas is such a special time of year.”
“Merri, of everyone I
know who loves Christmas, you’re the hands-down winner.”
“You love Christmas, too,
Sandy, and don’t pretend otherwise. Ooh, look out, a customer is checking out
the gold counter. Your turn.”
Merri picked up a
polishing cloth and moved aside for Sandy to approach the counter. They started
working on the same day at Boyle’s Emporium, the town’s original and historical
corner store. It had been family-owned since it opened, but it was a mystery
that none of the staff knew anything about the current Boyle family. Another
mystery was that at the end of September, when Boyle’s started hiring for the
Christmas season, they had not asked for resumes but five-hundred-word essays
on why the applicants wanted to work at Boyle’s and why they liked Christmas.
Meredith glanced around
the beautifully decorated store. Who could not like Christmas here? She had
loved it since sitting on Father Christmas’s knee in the Winter Wonderland when
she was five years old and asking for a baby brother. Her innocent request made
her smile now, but hadn’t Father Christmas delivered? The following summer, her
baby brother arrived, wrapped in a pale blue crocheted shawl, not in pretty
snowflake patterned paper as she had imagined.
The sound of the till
opening and closing broke into her reverie.
“Good sale?” Merri asked
as Sandy rearranged the jewellery display to fill the gap made by the removal
of several pieces.
“Four-hundred and
ninety-four dollars and change,” Sandy replied. “I can’t believe how much cash
we’ve taken today. I’m glad I’m not closing tonight, so I won’t have to count
it.”
Merri glanced at her
watch. “Goodness, we’ve only got another half an hour to the end of our shift.
The day has flown by.”
“We can’t claim to be
bored, that’s for sure,” Sandy agreed. “Especially when there’s a gorgeous-looking
man on the horizon.”
She cocked her head,
indicating a six-foot-plus, dark-haired individual approaching their counter.
“This one’s yours,” she whispered, placing a firm hand on Merri’s
back and pushing her toward the counter.
Merri faltered as she
recognised the child holding tightly to the man’s hand. Right, she thought, remembering
how the mom had hustled her daughter past the jewellery counter. So, there’s
mom, dad, the kid, and possibly more than one, but she smiled at the child and
said, “Hello again.” Then she shifted her gaze to the man she took to be the girl’s
father and swallowed at the twinkle in his warm brown eyes. She pulled herself
together. Be professional. “May I help you?”
“Yes, you may,” he
replied. “My sister was in a hurry earlier and didn’t give Amanda time to buy a
gift for her grandmother.”
“Then let’s see what we
can do. Would you like to look at silver or gold earrings?”
Amanda shook her head. “I
want to see Christmas earrings. Grandma loves them.”
“Got it.” Merri pulled a
chair from behind the counter. “You sit here, and I’ll bring you a selection to view.”
She took a black velvet
pad from under the counter and carefully browsed through the earrings on
display. She frowned as she realised how few Christmas earrings they had in the
silver and gold displays, so she moved to the carousel stands and carefully
turned them, relieved to see more of a selection. There were tiny green trees studded
with different-coloured stones, glittering globes, a pair of wreaths decorated
with red bows, a fun pair simulating red and white striped candies, and another
pair in the shape of a snowflake. Merri placed them all on the pad and took
them back to her young customer, but then had a thought.
“Amanda, while you look
at these, I’m going to check something. I’ll be right back.”
Merri raced to the main
floor storeroom. She and Sandy had checked a delivery the day before, but hadn’t
they left one box for this morning? Merri keyed in her code and entered the
storeroom, scanning the area where they had worked yesterday. Yes, there it was,
tucked in the corner of a shelf.
She hauled the cardboard
container onto the worktable, reached for a box cutter and slit the tape. She removed
the invoice and checked it, but nothing was specifically Christmas earrings.
She would have to empty the whole box. She tipped the contents onto the tabletop
and checked each packet, breathing a sigh of relief when she found three pairs
of Christmas earrings. She ticked the removed items off the invoice and hurried
back to her counter.
“I’m sorry I took so long,
Amanda,” she said, catching her breath. “Here are three more pairs.” She removed
them from the packets and laid them on the pad. “What do you think?”
“Oh, I like these.”
Amanda pointed at a pair of enamelled snowmen. “But I like these better.”
She picked up a pair of
stars made of mother-of-pearl and hanging from gold wires.
“These are the ones, Dad.
Grandma will love them. They will go with her white hair.”
Merri looked up at the
child’s father, who nodded. “Could you gift wrap them, please?”
“Of course.” Merri turned
to Amanda. “Shall I put them in a box?”
“Yes, please.”
Merri opened a drawer and
took out wrapping paper and ribbons. Amanda chose plain blue paper and silver
ribbon and watched Merri measure and cut the paper.
“Can you wrap a parcel
that small?”
Merri grinned at the
child and whispered, “Watch me.”
In a few deft moves, she creased
and folded the paper, quickly wrapped the ribbon around the small box, and had
Amanda hold it with her finger while forming a bow.
“There, how about that?”
She handed the small gift to Amanda. “Do you think your grandma will like it?”
“She’ll love it,” Amanda
said. “Grandma says simple things are classy, whatever that means.”
“Your grandma sounds like
a smart lady,” Merri said. She shifted her gaze to Amanda’s father. “And I’m
sure your dad will explain what your grandma means.”
“Thank you very much,
Miss Christmas,” he said, removing a credit card from his wallet.
Unsure he was being sarcastic
at her suggestion or thanking her for helping his daughter, Merri barely
glanced at the card as she entered the sale into the processing machine and
handed it to him.
“Would you like a
receipt, Mr.–” Merri stopped, suddenly flustered because she didn’t know the
man’s name.
“Yes, I would, please,
and the name is Boyle. Josh Boyle.”
Merri looked up at him. “Boyle?”
she stammered. “As in Boyle’s Emporium Boyle?”
“That’s the one. We
prefer to keep it quiet if you don’t mind.”
“Um, yes, yes, of course,”
Merri said. Her head whirled. With her name in plain view so that everyone knew
who she was, she still couldn’t quite accept that she was talking to one of the
renowned but reclusive Boyles.
“And thank you again for
helping Amanda.” The smile he gave her warmed Merri right down to her toes. “My
mother said you were a good salesperson. She was right.”
Merri’s brow wrinkled.
She didn’t know any Boyles until now.
Josh Boyle whispered, “You
know her as Mrs. Winter, in Human Resources. She told me to come and see you. I’m
glad I did.”
“Dad,” Amanda tugged his
hand impatiently. “We have to go. Aunty Caroline said not to be late. If you
want to talk to,” she squinted at Merri’s name badge, “Merri, she should come
too.”
“What a splendid idea,”
Josh said. His eyes twinkled even more as he smiled at Merri. “How about it,
Miss Christmas? If you are free, would you accompany Amanda and me to my mother’s
Christmas party?”
“Please come, Merri,”
Amanda said. “Grandma is lovely, and so is Aunty Caroline when she’s not in a rush.”
“But what about your…”
Merri began, unsure how to ask the question uppermost in her mind.
“Wife? Amanda’s mom?” Josh
softly supplied for her.
Merri bit her lip and
nodded.
“No longer with us, I’m
afraid.”
“She died,” Amanda said
with all the candour of childhood.
“Well, then,” Merri took
a deep breath. “Yes, I should like that very much.”
“The party starts at
eight this evening. We’ll collect you at about seven-thirty if that suits you. Perhaps you’d put your phone number into my phone?”
Merri nodded, speechless because
her mouth was suddenly dry. He gave her his cell phone, and she tapped in her
number, then returned the phone to him.
He slipped it into his
coat pocket. “Later, then.”
“Wow,” Sandy whispered in
her ear. “Cinderella shall go to the ball. I can hear the uproar when this news
gets out.”
“Don’t,” Merri said. “Please
don’t say a word to anyone.”
Sandy chuckled. “Alright,
I promise. But you must also promise to tell me more about Mr. Dark and Delicious
and his daughter after that party. And if the look on your face is anything to
go by, you will have a very merry Christmas.”
Merri groaned. “Not if I
don’t get a move on.” She glanced anxiously at her watch. “Where’s Dora and
Sue? If they are late–”
Sandy gave her a push. “Just
sign out and go. I can manage until they get here.”
“You are–”
“Your best friend, and don’t you forget it. Go and have fun.”
Merri quickly hugged
Sandy, grabbed her coat and rushed out of the store into a cold, crisp evening.
She still couldn’t quite believe that she had accepted Josh’s invitation, but there was no going back. She couldn’t contact him because although she had provided
him with her phone number, she hadn’t taken his.
But, she told herself,
you don’t want to go back. Amanda and Josh had charmed her, and she wanted to
get to know them much, much better. Merri smiled at the
thought that, yes, Sandy was right, and she would have a very merry Christmas indeed.
THE
END
Victoria Chatham
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