Page 55 of Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm
Somewhere in the trees, an owl is hooting persistently. He obviously appreciates Cliff’s Christmas classic too.
I go to invite myself in, but a shiver makes me realise how cold I am. I didn’t think to put a jacket on over my pyjamas, and it’s freezing tonight, and I know that if Noel’s got any heat in there, it’ll only be the little heater he brought me on the first night. Instead of going straight in, I go back to the house and pull on the coat that’s hanging by the door and wrap it around myself, freezing after only a few short minutes outside on such a cold night. In the kitchen, I make two large mugs of tea and grab a packet of biscuits. If he’s outside working on a sub-zero night like this, you can guarantee he needs a cuppa and a chocolate digestive.
I’m purposely quiet as I carry the two mugs back to the barn, the packet of biscuits leaning precariously out of my jacket pocket as I slide the door open with my foot and freeze in shock.
Inside the barn, Gizmo is wearing a purple knitted hoody and sitting on the bench of a huge wooden sleigh while Noel sands the side. Neither of them have heard me come in above the noise of the sander, and it gives me a chance to look it over in awe. It’s huge. Plain, unfinished wood, with a bench at the front easily big enough for two people, and another two benches facing each other in the back. There’s metal glinting from the wide ski-like runners, and smoothly curved edges all around that make you want to run your hand over them. The barn is heavy with the scent of freshly sawn wood, and above the noise of the sander, I can hear a hint of Paul McCartney singing ‘Mull of Kintyre’. I can’t tear my eyes away from the sleigh. I can instantly imagine it painted red with gold edges and sparkly snowflakes, happy families sitting on the benches, drinking hot chocolate with their chosen Christmas tree propped up nearby. He must have built the whole thing from scratch … but why? Why is he making a sleigh?
I wait until he stops sanding the rounded side before I speak. ‘Wow.’
Gizmo barks and jumps up, instantly diving off the bench and down the step from the sleigh to the floor. ‘Hello, lovely,’ I say as he rushes over, his tail wagging like a propeller. My hands are full so I balance on one leg and gently pet him with my foot.
When I look up, Noel’s put the sander down and is pulling his gloves off. ‘Sorry, I was trying to be quiet. I didn’t mean to wake you.’
‘You didn’t.’ There’s a metal tool cabinet near the door so I put the teas and biscuits on that, and crouch down to give Gizmo a proper rub. When I stand back up, he dashes across to the sleigh, jumps up the step and back onto the bench, and I follow him for a closer look at the festive masterpiece.
Noel steps away while I walk around it, running my fingers over silky curves and edges carved into smooth swirls. The lines and knots in the wood make it look rustic and pretty, and beautiful in an imperfect way. ‘How can you be so talented that you canmakea sleigh?’
He picks up a mug of tea and hides his face behind it. ‘I hope one of these was for me because I’ve just hijacked it if it wasn’t.’
‘You’re allowed take a compliment, Noel.’
‘I was making it for Evergreene. The wood is from his own fallen Christmas trees. I didn’t get it completed before he died, but now it looks like you’re staying, I thought you might like it instead. I’ve been out here for the past few nights to see if I can get it finished by December. It’s really nothing.’
I look over the top of the sleigh at him but he just stands there breathing in the steam from the hot tea without looking up. Building a sleigh from scratch isnotnothing.
‘How did you know these were my favourite biscuits?’ He opens the packet of biscuits and stuffs a whole one into his mouth.
I roll my eyes at his determination to never take a compliment. ‘They’re chocolate digestives – they’re everyone’s favourite biscuit.’
Gizmo is sitting in the sleigh with his nose twitching in the direction of said biscuits, so I reach over and rub his ears again and he turns into my hand. ‘What are you two doing out here at this time of night when I know how early your start is?’
He checks his watch like he’s got no idea what the time is. ‘Well, it was much earlier when I started, and I’ve just carried on.’
I watch the way he’s mainlining chocolate digestives like they’re going out of fashion. ‘Have you had anything to eat or drink?’
‘No, that’s why I love you.’ Panic flashes across his face and he frantically nods to the tea and biscuits. ‘For these, obviously. Not for anything else. I didn’t mean …’
I blush almost as much as he is, but I don’t know why I’m blushing. Obviously he didn’t mean anything else by it. ‘Can I get in?’ I gesture to the sleigh to stop myself thinking about why either of us are blushing so fiercely.
‘Of course. That’s what it’s designed for. If I can get it finished in time, I thought it would make a great place for the Santa you’ve hired to sit and meet kids, a cool backdrop for photographs taken with him. I know you were thinking of hiring a grotto, but I think it’s too late in the year for that.’
I’ve managed to book a man to play Santa through an agency, and Glenna suggested either hiring a grotto or putting up a little shed myself, but I ran out of time to do either. And now he’s made me a sleigh. ‘Noel, this is …’ I trail off as tears fill my eyes. This isunreal.
‘Evergreene was intending to take on a herd of reindeer. There are a lot of concerns about reindeer being used for entertainment purposes now so it’s probably not such a good idea, but if you ever wanted to keep horses in the future, it’s light enough to be pulled by a working horse. You could offer sleigh rides around the farm in a real “one horse open sleigh”.’
‘God, that would be … magical.’ I sit down beside Gizmo, who gets up and turns around, getting comfortable on his blanket until he’s leaning against my thigh. I scritch along the line between brown and white patches on his head while Noel picks up both mugs of tea and somehow manages to snag what’s left of the biscuit packet with his little finger and carry the whole lot across. He hands me my tea and flops down on the opposite side of Gizmo, leaning back against the bench and exhaling like it’s the first time he’s sat down in hours.
The song changes to Lady Antebellum’s cover of ‘Let It Snow’ and he holds the biscuit packet out to me. I take one, and he takes another one and puts the packet down on his other side, out of Gizmo’s reach. Gizmo thinks all food is meant for him and tries to clamber across Noel’s lap to get to the biscuits. When that fails, he climbs up his chest and tries to take the digestive right out of his mouth, his tail wagging like it’s the best game ever.
Noel’s laughing as he turns away from him, clamping his lips shut and swallowing quickly. ‘You can’t have that, my love, it’s got chocolate on it.’
Gizmo sits back down on his blanket with an annoyed huff. I’ve never seen a dog sulk before, but he may as well have folded his arms and stuck his bottom lip out. If he was a teenager, he’d have shouted ‘it’s not fair!’ and flounced out with a door slam.
Noel laughs when he tries to stroke him and he huffs and turns away, and I nearly choke on my own biscuit when he looks at me beseechingly and stands up again, wagging his tail as he puts a tentative paw on my thigh like he can have a bit of mine instead.
‘Giz, look.’ Noel whistles Gizmo’s tune fromGremlinsto get his attention, and then digs around in his pocket. I watch the wide pointy Chihuahua ears go up and down at every movement of his fingers in the pocket of his slate-grey hoodie until he produces a tiny dog biscuit with a flourish and presents it to the little dog, who gets so excited about it that he nearly wags himself right off the bench.
He puts a paw on Noel’s fingers and pulls his hand towards him, taking the biscuit delicately and crunching it up.
