Page 37 of Christmas Ever After
I go to protest that I doubt the snow globesthemselvesdo much matching, but maybe she thinks there’s a sentient one like the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter books. There are less than two weeks until the Christmas market, so I don’t waste time in trying to correct her. ‘I’ve got Ali to agree to come into Love Is All A-Round at two o’clock this afternoon. Are you up for it as well?’
Her beam is brighter than any of the colour-coordinated Christmas lights twinkling in her shop and she gives me a happy nod, and as I walk outside and look around, thinking of the colleagues who work in each shop and who would be a good match for some of them, I can feel the ice insidemyheart starting to melt.
‘Why am I so nervous? I’ve done this hundreds of times with people I’ve never met. IknowAli and Imogen are a great match, but what if…’ Raff pushes his hair back for the umpteenth time. He, Quentin and I are in Love Is All A-Round, about to match our first couple. ‘What if it doesn’t work? What if the snow globe doesn’t move? What if they hate each other and we have to endure their wrath for the rest of our careers here? What if this is the wrong choice?’ He gesticulates to the snow globe he’s chosenfor them, which is inside a beautiful gift box on the counter, waiting for their arrival.
In the glass dome is a replica of the Christmas Ever After tree, laden with tiny modelled versions of the familiar decorations that stay up all year round. The tree is at the centre of Christmas Ever After, near the Carollers’ Cabin, complete with brightly coloured presents made of weatherproof resin and decorations that are all plastic and get replaced every few years when the summer sun fades them beyond recognition. Raff has created a perfect mini imitation, with a streetlamp beside it, a tiny version of the cabin, and a couple standing hand-in-hand and looking up at it. The man is wearing a white bobble hat that could double as Ali’s chef’s hat, and the woman’s got grey streaks running through her dark hair, just like Imogen has. It’s so perfect for Ali and Imogen that, if I didn’t know better, I’d think Raff made it especially for them.
At that moment, the real Ali goes to come in, realises Imogen is not far behind him, and holds the door open and waits for her to catch up and go through first.
She meets my eyes and fans a hand in front of her face as Raff greets them both.
‘Ooh, I do love this place.’ Ali wanders around, pointing out his favourite snow globes to Imogen. ‘You can sense the magic in the air.’
‘It’s like it’s snowing inside,’ she agrees.
The music Raff plays in his shop is instrumental, a twinkling, melodic tune that you could imagine being played during a perfect snowstorm, where the flakes are white and fluffy and your only obligation is going outside to dance around the garden in it, and you don’t actually have to do anything practical like travel anywhere and you can ignore the fact that the snow will be nothing more than grey sludge by morning. There are piano bits and gently lilting tings of a triangle that do something to mybrainwaves and make me feel like I’m dancing through the Land of Snow inThe Nutcrackerballet, about to be surrounded by waltzing snowflakes.
‘Well, we’ve got your very own snow globe ready for you here…’ Raff has slipped into charming mode, but I canseehow much his heart is not in this. He’ssodifferent to how he’s been when he’s sitting at my lathe. He’s found so much joy in the woodturning, the assembling and then the painting and accessorising of the nutcrackers he’s been making. He’s always animated and excited, but this… it’s like he doesn’t care. Hecaresabout Ali and Imogen as people, but there’s no joy in the snow globes. He couldn’t care less if that thing moves or not, and it comes across in everything he does.
Raff positions them carefully, with the corner of the counter between them, and the shop’s six-foot Christmas tree, which is laden with mini snow globes as ornaments, is the perfect backdrop for the photograph that Quentin takes.
‘For social media,’ Raff explains after getting their permission to post it. He takes the lid off the box and moves the snow globe so it’s upright in its protective packaging, and the snow settles around the base of the tree, ready for the first shake-up.
‘Now, you hold here, Ali.’ Raff positions Ali’s hands between the glass dome and the base. ‘And you here, Imogen.’ He reaches across and takes her hands and wraps them around the globe between the glass and the base too, and I can’t help noticing the very careful way he’s positioning them before he instructs them to pick the snow globe up and give it a shake.
There’s a sense of stillness in the shop. We’re all holding our breath as they lift the snow globe from the box, and then, just like mine did almost two weeks ago now, the miniature version of the Christmas Ever After tree rotates, sending the snow and glitter inside spinning and sparkling. The teeny-tiny pinpricksof lights on the tree are painted with something reflective that catches the brightness of the shop’s light and makes it look like the tree illuminates for just one flurry of a second, and it makes my breath stop in my throat.
Imogen gasps. ‘I saw it!’
‘I was too busy looking at Imogen,’ Ali says. ‘I’ve never seen her in this light before.’
I glance up at the overhead lights, but I don’t think he meant it literally.
I saw it too. I don’t know what I expected from this, but I didn’t expect toseethe snow globe move. It feels like magic is swirling in the air, like if I spun around myself, I’d be coated in flakes of glitter too, and they’d settle all around me like they’re settling around the feet of the couple in the snow globe.
Isthisthe joy that Claude was always chasing? Is this why he did it? Is this how he felt when he matched my parents, once upon a time? Did he really feel like he’d made a perfect match, and everything that happened afterwards couldn’t have been prevented?
It doesn’t feel like we matched Ali and Imogen at all – it feels like we gave them permission to acknowledge feelings that were already there. Both Ali and Imogen are in their late-fifties. They’ve both found love before and lost it. They’ve known each other as colleagues for years, but neither has ever been brave enough to suggest anything more, until a magical snow globe came along.
I meet Raff’s eyes across the shop and he gives me a smile, but it’s a muted half-smile. He isn’t happy.
Ali carries the snow globe to the counter. ‘I’ll take this, my friend.’
Raff holds a hand up. ‘No charge.’
Ali tries to insist, and I go over and stand next to Raff. ‘Just come to the Christmas market and if anyone asks, make sure they know that Love Is All A-Round matched you.’
‘And what about you, Franca? How can we help you? I don’t want to see this one go.’ Ali nods to Raff and then turns back to me. ‘But I don’t want to see you be evicted either. Shall we go and buy a nutcracker or two?’
‘I don’t think it would make much difference,’ I say as I thank them for offering. My task is less tangible than Raff’s match five couples thing. Get customer engagement. Get customers excited about – and talking about – nutcrackers. It’s not about sales so much as proving I can do what it takes to pull in visitors, because the council and my fellow shopkeepers had noticed my apathy, even before I had.
I can feel Raff’s eyes watching me as I thank them both for trying to help, and I can almost hear the cogs in his mind turning as he thinks it over.
Ali and Imogen make plans to go for dinner on Saturday afternoon, and we watch them as they leave, Ali handing the box containing the snow globe to Imogen as they part with a brief hug.
‘One match. Four to go,’ Raff mumbles, not sounding very optimistic about it.
I elbow him when Nina timidly puts her head round the door. ‘Three.’
