Page 42 of The Day After Christmas
‘Never mind,’ said Felicity.
Just as they were turning to leave, they heard a noise that stopped them in their tracks. It was coming from the back of the house. It sounded like a person was being strangled but also was somehow being very loud about it.
‘Oh my God, there is someone locked in the attic,’ said James, only half joking.
The noise came again, astonishingly loud. It almost sounded like laughter. Sad laughter.
Realisation dawned suddenly. ‘Is that what I think it is?’ said Felicity, already moving towards the source of the sound.
‘It sounded like…’ said James, close on her heels.
‘A donkey,’ said Felicity, as she pushed open the back door to reveal exactly that. There, in the old kitchen at the back of the house was a small brown fluffy donkey, yelling its little head off. Mercifully, its enormously loud bray softened to a series of gentle huffs when Felicity and James appeared.
They exchanged glances.
‘Why can I never have a normal holiday?’ said Felicity, keeping her voice low so as not to startle the poor creature.
‘You love it,’ said James, his eyes wide.
CHAPTER 22
Felicity resisted the urge to immediately ring Andrea.
‘Right then. Erm…’
The donkey edged closer.
‘What is he doing here? He’s very cute but I’ll be honest, I don’t know anything about donkeys,’ said Felicity with a shrug.
The room was a state, with a thick layer of dust covering everything, but it was hard to tell if the donkey had just arrived or had been living there for a while as there was no sign of droppings or any water or food anywhere around.
‘I do,’ said James, and Felicity looked at him in surprise.
‘You do? How come?’
‘You don’t have to sound so shocked.’ He laughed softly, rubbing the back of his neck. ‘My parents never let me have any pets but my Great Aunt Barbara had donkeys when I was a kid. I got to go to the country to visit her, once or twice. Donkeys are officially the best.’
Felicity blinked. ‘You know about donkeys? What are you, Old MacDonald or something?’
James chuckled, his eyes still on the donkey.
‘No, nothing like that. She just had a donkey… kept like a pet, I guess? She was called Jessica. Jessica Rabbit to give her full title.’
‘That’s extremely cute,’ said Felicity. ‘Also, nice to see the legacy ofWho Framed Roger Rabbitis still going strong.’
‘What can I say? It’s a classic.’
‘Debatable.’
‘And we had a couple of pygmy goats. We named them Billy and Gruff – geddit?’
As he spoke, James bopped down to its level and the little donkey came straight over and stood next to him. Slowly, James reached out a hand and gave its soft head a little rub. The poor creature had the most enormous brown eyes and a tiny splodge of white hair on his forehead. He was thin and his coat was dull and covered in dirt. He smelt… interesting. A little bit of urine but also comforting, musky and sweet, with undertones of hay.
‘Hello, little guy,’ said James.
‘I think he likes you,’ said Felicity, heart melting.
‘It’s always a bit hard to tell with donkeys, as they don’t really show a lot of emotion. But yes, I think he might.’
