Page 54 of The Cosy Travelling Christmas Shop

‘You’ll make a lovely couple,’ Edwin said, scrutinising her. ‘He could do with someone like you, and not that awful Gina he was with before. I was glad to see the back of her, I can tell you.’

Gina… so that was the name of the girlfriend who’d treated him badly. Seren filed the name away.

‘You’ve got your future all sorted,’ her aunt declared with a self-satisfied smirk. ‘The travelling gift shop, a handsome young man… All you need now is your own place. You can’t carry on living with your dad forever, you know.’

‘I don’t intend to, but I used all my savings on doing the conversion for the van. Or I will have done once T&M Conversions send me their invoice.’

‘Bugger!’ Nelly’s hand had slipped when she reached for her mug of tea, and she’d knocked it onto the floor. Flustered, she gave Seren a beseeching look.

Seren hurried to mop up the mess, and by the time she’d finished she really did need to get going.

Giving her aunt a hug and a kiss, and a wave to Edwin, she dashed off, her head full of thoughts of the future.

‘Deck the Halls’ blasted out noisily for the regulation twelve seconds as the van cruised along one of Tinstone’s many residential streets. This was the third (or was it the fourth?) housing estate Seren had driven around, and by now she was getting used to curious people looking out of their windows at the sight of the brightly illuminated vehicle trundling along their road.

It was late afternoon and already dark, but she felt rather festive with her flashing antlers on her head and her Christmas jumper underneath a scarlet coat. She even had knitted gloves with snowmen on them, and a scarf to match. As she drove slowly down one street and up another, she loved seeing all the lights on the houses and the lit Christmas trees in the windows. It made her feel all warm and cosy inside, the way she used to feel as a child when a visit from Santa was real and the anticipation made her feel sick with excitement. Her favourite trees were the green ones with multi-coloured lights and an assortment of different baubles. No coordinated display for her; she loved a diverse tree, and had collected the decorations on it over many years, to be lovingly brought out on the second weekend in November, without fail. That was traditionally her and her dad’s trimming up weekend, and she looked forward to it every year. Carols playing in the background, a mince pie, and a Baileys liqueur on the go… It was a magical and special time, and it never failed to get her in the mood for the festivities ahead.

The music ceased and Seren parked the van for a few moments, waiting to see if she had any customers.

She hadn’t had many people come out of their houses to see what all the fuss was about, and those who had tended to have children with them and a pound coin clutched in their hands. When they realised she wasn’t selling ice cream, most of them slunk off, but a few had stayed long enough to have a look at her goods, and one or two had actually bought something.

It was a start, if nothing else, and she hadn’t been expecting hordes of people to flood into the street; she understood it was going to be a long, slow process. If it worked at all. She might be better off attending places such as the two care homes she’d visited today and assorted markets.

Hoping someone would come and see what was going on, Seren glanced in the side mirror and spotted two people hurrying out of their house, so she clambered into the back of the van and opened the window.

‘Merry Christmas,’ she cried as they approached.

‘I thought you were the ice cream van,’ the older woman said. She was accompanied by a teenage girl, who was only wearing a pair of leggings and a long-sleeved T-shirt, and who must have been frozen.

‘It used to be an ice cream van,’ Seren explained (for what felt like the hundredth time today) ‘but now it sells a wonderful selection of Christmas decorations and unique and unusual gifts.’

The woman eyed her suspiciously. ‘Don’t you work in that supermarket on Grange Street? Have they got you out selling stuff?’

Seren did a double-take. ‘Oh, hello, I didn’t recognise you. Yes, that’s me.’ She laughed lightly. ‘As for them having me driving a van, you shop there so you know they don’t sell anything as nice as this.’ Seren swept her arm around to include all the gorgeous things that were for sale.

‘Mum, can I buy the skin care stuff?’ The woman’s daughter pointed to a pretty box of moisturisers, made from beeswax produced by local bees.

‘You’ve got enough potions and lotions to sink a ship,’ her mother replied. ‘And by “I” you meanme, don’t you?’

‘Pleeeease? It’s for Jodie for Christmas. She always gets me something nice.’

The woman shook her head and got out her purse. ‘OK, but this is the last. Your friends are costing me a fortune.’ She handed over a twenty-pound note and Seren placed the item in a paper bag decorated with Christmas trees.

‘You can use the bag to wrap it,’ Seren suggested.

‘Good idea,’ the girl’s mother said, giving her daughter the present to hold. ‘It will save wasting yet more wrapping paper. It gets my goat, it does – all that money spent on gift wrap, and all the bother of sellotaping it, only for it to be torn to shreds in a matter of seconds.’ She gave her daughter an exasperated look. ‘I’ve got three of them. She’s the oldest. They are bankrupting me.’

Seren smiled sympathetically. ‘But you wouldn’t be without them,’ she said, and the woman smiled, the first one to crack her lips since she’d walked up to the window.

‘Sometimes I would,’ she replied darkly. ‘I’d say see you around, but I doubt if I’ll see you now that you’re no longer working in the shop.’

‘Oh, I’m still there. I’ll keep a look out for you,’ Seren said. ‘Bye. Merry Christmas.’

‘Yeah, right,’ came the muttered reply.

‘I’m not sure driving around the streets justifies the cost of the petrol I used,’ Seren said to her dad later that evening whilst they were having dinner.

‘You’ve got to speculate to accumulate. Anyway, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’ll take time for people to get used to the idea, and it’ll take time to build a reputation for selling nice, good quality stuff.’

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