Page 41 of Just Say Christmas
Rhys said, “You’re right, mate. Casey wants a taller one, though, so . . .” He moved a couple trees down the line. “Here we are. This one’s even taller than me.” Four hundred ten dollars, and thatdidn’tinclude the fairy lights.
“Oh,” Casey said.
“What?” Rhys asked.
Isaiah had been reading tags. Now, he said, standing in front of a slightly shorter, but still extremely wide tree next to Casey’s, “This one is the same height as yours, Uncle Rhys, and it’s a hundred forty dollars more, but I think it’s better. It costs only about twenty-five percent more instead of twice as much. That’s only a little more thanonevan payment, and it also has more than twice as many tips. So it really doesn’t cost too much more than the first one, if you calculate by tips. Plus you don’t have to fluff it. I’m not sure what that is, but it probably takes time. Mum figures out whether time is worth it by how much money she could make during that time. I don’t know how long it takes to fluff, or how much money you make, so I can’t do that. You could, though, if you can multiply in your head.”
“I can multiply in my head,” Rhys said. “But I’m not coaching at the moment, so my time’s not really relevant, is it? And I’m pretty sure that tree-fluffing isn’t too onerous a task.” Not with a beer and the kids helping him. “Also,” he pointed out, “we aren’t counting by tips. Nobody counts by tips. You didn’t even know what tips were until five minutes ago. I still don’t know what they are.”
“They’re the little branches, I think,” Isaiah said. “How many little branches it has. It’s important, or they wouldn’t put it on the tag.”
“And if you get this really big one,” Casey said, “it’s even better! Because it has even more tips. It’s got more than two thousand tips! You could put soooo many ormanents on it, and it would be beautiful.”
“That’s twice as many tips as mine,” Isaiah informed him, in a double-team movement that Rhys recognized for what it was. “So it’s an even better deal. Also, the expensive ones have branch tips molded from real trees to look more realistic, and your kind doesn’t, so that might be important. You use a Christmas tree every year, kind of like a van, so you have to divide by the number of years to see how much it really costs.”
Rhys said, “I thought we were putting soooo many ornaments on it. Could obscure the tips, eh.”
Isaiah said, “I’m just saying that it’s another tangible benefit. ‘Tangible’ means you can measure it. It’s not just something you think, like how Casey probably thinks hers is prettier. That would be an intangible benefit.”
“It’ssomuch prettier,” Casey said. “It’s fluffy and green andbeautiful.”
“Thanks,” Rhys told Isaiah. “But I’m not sure, tangible or intangible, that any Christmas tree is worth eight hundred fifty dollars.”
“We have a very high ceiling now, though,” Isaiah said, studying Casey’s tree, which was indeed so tall that Rhys could barely have reached the top even by stretching his arm up. “This wouldn’t have fit in our old house, but it’ll fit in your house.”
“Ourhouse,” Rhys said automatically. “It’s too wide at the base. We’d all be moving sideways just to get around it. For that matter, a living Christmas tree could be brilliant. We go out in the back garden, pick a fern tree close to the house, put some fairy lights on it, string an extension cord, hang a few colored-glass balls, and Bob’s your uncle. Still got space in the house, we can look out at night and see it, and we’ve done it Kiwi style, which is always better.”
“That’s a very good idea,” Isaiah conceded. “It’s not exactlyChristmasy,but it’s more efficient, and better for the planet.”
“Dad,”Casey said. “Wecan’tnot have a tree. It won’t beChristmas.”And, yes, here they went with the big eyes, the hand on his arm, the mouse-ear hair buns, and the dress that was red “for Christmas, even though it’s hot, because it’s still going to be Christmas.”
He tried. He told her, “We’re not paying eight hundred fifty dollars for a tree, full stop. We’ll get this one. Still taller than me, but not as much of a hazard to pedestrian traffic.” He grabbed hold of Isaiah’s tree—which was still wide enough at the base that it was going to be like having a grand piano in the lounge—to make his point clearer, or stake his claim, and looked at Zora, who’d been unhelpfully silent so far.
“That’s a beautiful tree,” she said, and he saw why she’d been quiet. Because she was trying not to laugh. “So big and . . . fluffed. Very realistic branch tips as well. Brilliant choice. How should we decorate it, Casey? I saw a photo where somebody did it all in silver and white and gold, so it looked magical, like it had been decorated for a palace by a fairy queen. Or we could do it in red and green, sort of a homely, friendly thing.”
Casey said, “Silver and gold.” Firmly. “And an angel.”
“Yes,” Zora said. “Definitely an angel. Let’s go pick her out first.”
“Thanks,” Rhys muttered to Zora, once he’d wrestled a gigantic box of tree off the shelf and carried it to the checkout. The thing had to weigh twenty-five Kg’s. He wasn’t buying a tree so much as a forest.
“You realize,” Zora said, “that you’re still buying her a five-hundred-fifty-dollar tree. How much were you planning to spend when we came in here? I know whatIwas planning on, and it wasn’t five hundred fifty dollars. Let alone everything else.”
Rhys suspected she was right, since Casey was looking, at the moment, at a shelf of overlarge, extravagantly dressed angel figurines with gilt wings. There were entire racksof angels, but she’d zeroed in on the ones on the top shelf. The thing would be on the top of the tree, far above Casey’s eye level, once ayear.The sign said “Hand-crafted,” too. He did not have a good feeling.
“Wait,” he realized. Belatedly. “Did I just get played? On the tree?”
This time, Zora laughed. And she kept laughing, so helplessly that she had to lean into his chest, and he had to hold her. “Oh, Rhys,” she finally said, dabbing at her streaming eyes with careful fingertips. “I’m sorry, but . . . oh, dear. You’re so wonderful, and so hopeless. And you are going to spend so much money today.”
22
A String of Pearls
RHYS
Rhys had grown up poor as dirt, and he’d gone to bed hungry enough times to remember how it felt. When he hadn’t been poor anymore—other than his first few years of playing professionally, when he’d been stupid—he’d generally been a pretty careful spender. He’d figured his rugby career could be over anytime, because it was the truth. Even after he’d started coaching, he hadn’t assumed it would continue. Today, though, he’d spent over two thousand dollars in an hour on Christmas decorations.
On the other hand, he suddenly had an absolutely unexpected and completely unearned family, and he was enjoying his life in a way he’d never thought possible. You couldn’t really put a price on that, which was why the hand he was holding had a two-carat diamond on it. You couldn’t put a price on it, but youcouldknow when spending was important. Like, for instance, letting her know she mattered.
