Page 64 of A Winter in Wonderland
Chapter 29
OnChristmas morning, at a more respectable hour, I returned to the room from the shower to find Esteri FaceTiming with my dad.
‘Here she is,’ Esteri said with a smile, angling the phone towards me and my wet, straggly hair.
‘Um, good morning!’ I said, a burst of love popping through at seeing my lovely dad’s face, smiling, from within my phone.
‘Merry Christmas,’ he called back, but Esteri was back facing my phone towards her.
‘All right, so I’ll let you speak to your daughter in a minute, Mr Everwood. Where was I? Ah yes, so he’s an elf which means he has tobean elf all the time so it doesn’t ruin the Christmas illusion. But she definitelylikes himlikes him, you can tell, you know?’
‘Whoa whoa whoa,’ I said, snatching for my phone. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Just filling your dad in on all the fun you’ve been having,’ Esteri said, all innocent.
‘She’s been telling us about Josh,’ came Shay’s voice, and I looked at the screen to see my dad holding the tablet he was using further away.
‘Oh great,’ I said. ‘You’re all there.’
‘Merry Christmas, sis-in-law!’ Tess called out. ‘Josh sounds delicious, go get him.’
‘Yes,’ said my dad. ‘Go get him.’
Oh my god.
Esteri picked up her toiletries bag and left the room, chuckling, while I propped my phone on the side and ran my brush through my hair before twisting it up into a braid. I then took a seat by the window and looked at them all properly. ‘Anyway,yuletide greetingsto you all.’
‘Merry Christmas, Myla,’ they chorused, then Shay added, ‘Are we allowed to say that to you?’
‘Yes,’ I laughed. ‘But it’s merry for me because it’s nearly over.’Was that still true?
‘What do you mean?’ Dad asked. ‘You’re not home until the end of January, are you?’
‘No, I just mean Christmas itself.’
‘Doesn’t all the Santa stuff in Lapland carry on after Christmas?’ asked Tess.
‘Well, yeah, and that’s fine, that’s what I signed up for, don’t panic, Shay. ButIknow Christmas is over. Anyway,’ I changed the subject, aware I was teetering on buzz-kill territory, ‘how’s your Christmas morning going?’
Dad checked his watch. ‘Well, it’s not yet eight here, so it’s not been going long so far.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ Tess interrupted. ‘Shay had a cravingfor rice pudding at three in the morning so I was here in the kitchen digging in the back of the fridge for a Müller Rice in the middle of the night. Merry Christmas, me.’
‘I had rice pudding, or porridge, in the middle of the night, too!’ I cried. ‘It’s a traditional Christmas brekkie in Finland and Esteri makes a delicious batch. The whole house was awake and eating it because the aurora borealis were out last night.’
‘Oh that’s right, that’s where I got the idea,’ Shay said, absent-mindedly stroking her stomach. ‘I’d been reading about Finnish Christmas customs yesterday to see what you might be up to.’
‘What were the Northern Lights like?’ asked Dad.
‘And did you watch them with Josh?’ added Tess.
‘Yes, Josh was there but so was practically the whole house,’ I white-lied to my sister-in-law. ‘But anyway, the lights were incredible. We’re living right in the middle of the forest so the view wasn’t great, but I’m going to try and see them again while I’m here. Hopefully I’ll get lucky and run a Northern Lights safari trip and see them then. Fingers crossed.’
‘I’m keeping all my fingers crossed for you, honey,’ Dad said.
‘Thanks, Dad.’
I was glad he was spending Christmas with my sister, as he usually did. He’d lived alone since I’d left for university at eighteen, and although he insisted he was fine, I knew he enjoyed the holidays and I was glad Shay was able to be there for him.
