Page 4 of A Winter in Wonderland
‘Because I have no job and no house. And I don’t want to be here over Christmas.’
‘You don’t want to behere… ’ Shay mused. ‘Mmm … oh yes, this could work.’
‘You sound like a creepy toymaker in a weird play. What have you found for me? I’ll do anything.’
‘You will?’
‘Yes!’ She was being even more exasperating than usual. Maybe it was a real find. Maybe it was something like interning as a celebrity stylist in Beverley Hills. For awards season!
‘Anything?’
‘Oh my god, Shay, yes, I’ll do anything, I just need a job and somewhere to live.’
Shay reached behind her and pulled a brochure off her shelf, shielding the front, and then looked directly at me. ‘I have something. We just had somebody pull out of a placement, super last-minute, and we’d struggle to fill it at short notice. If we could get you your work permit in time, you’dfly there in two weeks, you’d be gone right through until late January, it pays well, staff accommodation is provided, it’ll be a lot of fun.’
‘It sounds perfect, sign me up.’
‘It is a snowy destination, but it’s just beautiful and there are ice hotels and husky dogs and good food and warm saunas.’
I hesitated. ‘OK … it sounds a little “winter wonderland” but I’m sure I can make it work.’ As long as I didn’t have to hear thirty-year-old Christmas music blasting out of every open door for two months, or have to fight my way through ropes of tinsel to get to my desk, I could survive. ‘It’s nice and sunny in the mountains though, isn’t it, usually?’
‘Erm, yep,’ she answered. ‘Yep, there’ll be a bit of sunshine.’
‘So where is it?’
‘Finland.’ Shay put the brochure down on the desk before me, the page open at a pink-skied alpine forest, draped entirely with a duvet of snow.
‘Finland?’ What seasonal work was there in Finland?
‘Well, Lapland.’
‘Lapland?Now wait a minute, isn’t that—’
‘Look.’ She turned the page of the brochure to show a gondola making its way up a mountain. ‘A sauna inside a gondola, oooh, yummy.’
I tried to turn the page again but she clamped her hands down on top of it. We struggled with each other for a moment until I threw a jelly baby at her face and snatched the brochure.
I knew it! Pages and pages of the most Christmassy place on earth were surrounding the two non-festive photos she’d shown me. Long-bearded Santas smiling from within log cabins. Rosy-cheeked elves playing in the snow. Twinkle-light-covered trees in front of dark, Northern-Lighted skies. Reindeer hanging out in furry clumps wearing jingle bells on their harnesses. I started laughing. ‘Good one, Shay.’
But she wasn’t laughing. In fact, she had her hands folded in front of her and a ‘take it or leave it’ expression on her face. ‘I’m not joking, Myla.’
‘I can’t go to Lapland. The whole reason I’m here is to find something to help meescapeChristmas.’
‘Actually, you said the most important reason you were here was because you wanted to have somewhere to work and live. You can have that, in Lapland.’
I shook my head. No way. No. Flipping. Way.
‘Listen,’ Shay said. ‘The job is for an Adventure Guide, which means you’d be mostly out and about in the gorgeous countryside showing holidaymakers a great time doing all the activities not even related to Santa Claus. Much.’
‘I mean, it feels like you’re lying through your teeth to me.’
‘I’m not.’ She shook her head. ‘Look, you’ve never been there, this could be a lot of fun, a real adventure. And yes, you won’t be able to completely avoid Christmas, but what’s the worst that could happen?’
I let out a scoff at that, and she waved her hands in the air. ‘Just think about it, OK. You came to me wanting to get away, this is your chance, handed to you on a silver platter.’
Watching as she popped three more jelly babies into hermouth, I said, ‘As a pregnant woman, do you not feel at all bad eating jelly babies?’
‘Nope.’
