Page 37 of A Winter in Wonderland
Briony and Leah came running out first, straight back over to me.
‘So do you actuallyknowFather Christmas?’ Briony, the older girl, asked, taking my hand again.
‘Sure,’ I said. That wasn’t actually true … today was going to be my first time meeting him at his cabin too, though I’d been there during training. ‘He told me he can’t wait to meet you both.’
Leah screamed up at me in delight. ‘He is my FAVOURITE, I like him even more than I like Daddy because he gets us all our presents.’
Briony tugged my hand. ‘Are the reindeers we’ll ride on today the ones Santa uses on Christmas Eve?’
‘Some of them. Santa has lots of reindeer friends.’
‘Are we actually sitting on the rains-dears?’ Leah asked, her little face concerned.
‘No, they’ll be pulling us on sleighs, just like how Santa rides.’
‘Do you know any Christmas songs?’ Briony asked.
‘Yes, I love Christmas songs. Do you?’ I deflected.
‘Can you sing us one?’ she asked, the wily little rascal.
Nooooooo, don’t make me do this torture.I opened and closed my mouth a few times, looking around to see if anyone was in earshot, and sadly, they were. This meant a) I couldn’t refuse and say it was against company policy or something, and b) now my colleagues would hear me sing, badly, to songs I don’t even know.
Racking my brains for a suitable Christmas song – it had been a long, long time since I’d listened to or sang such things, I started to sway from side to side, like I was working up to a melody.
Briony blinked at me. ‘Can’t you think of one?’
‘Of course I can, I’m just trying to come up with the perfect one, that’s all.’ I began with a tuneless murmuring of ‘Frosty the Snowman’, but forgot the second line, so faltered out after I’d replaced it with, ‘Hmm-hm-hmmhmm-hmmhmm-hmmmmmmm.’
‘Do you know Britney Spears?’ Briony asked.
‘Yes!’ I grinned. Now we were more on my kinda turf. ‘My favourite is “Slave 4—”’
‘So do you know “My Only Wish This Year”?’
I felt my mouth dry. ‘The Christmas one?’
Leah nodded, staring up at me, and whispered, ‘I love that one.’
‘Oh good … ’ I did know it, because Britney gets my love even if Christmas doesn’t, but I wouldn’t say I knew it well enough to sing. ‘What about “Baby One More Time”? I could sing that?’
Briony and Leah both shook their heads, and Leah laid down the law. ‘A Christmas song. Please.’
‘Please,’ added Briony, all fluttery eyes and cold nose. God, it was like they were a couple of poor little street urchins at the beginning ofA Christmas Caroland I felt like the biggest Scrooge ever.
Fine.Fine.I looked around for inspiration and then it hit me, as I saw the sleighs, it was so obvious. I launched into a rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ because even that was lodged into my memory from primary school days, although the Batman-Smells lyrics were intertwining with the real ones in my mind.
By the time I hit the second verse, with a few dashes of poetic licence thrown in, Leah was tapping me on the arm.
‘Yes?’ I asked, stopping my awkward, swaying dance and pretending not to notice other guests and my workmates giving me Looks.
‘Shall I sing instead?’ Leah asked.
Ouch.
‘Um, OK, go ahead.’
I didn’t want to sing anyway, but I was still a little affronted. Never mind. This just proved that I was right to not go to all those Christmas sing-along concerts with my friends over the past decade.
