Page 6 of The Cosy Travelling Christmas Shop

‘Your daughter or your aunt?’

‘Me, actually. I’ll start again, shall I? I am thinking about buying a used ice cream van and transforming it into a mobile shop. Can it be done?’

‘It most certainly can.’

‘OK, then. How much?’

Daniel carefully placed the packet of biscuits under his arm, picked up the mugs of tea and walked over to Tobias.

‘Ta, mate,’ Tobias mouthed at him, before turning back to his call. ‘It depends on what you want doing.’

‘Yes, of course, it does. But you can definitely do it?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Rightio, all I’ve got to do now is buy it.’

‘When you’ve got the vehicle, bring it in and we can have a chat and take it from there.’

‘Okey-dokey. Thanks. See you soon.’

Tobias popped the phone in his pocket and turned his attention to Daniel. ‘There’s one thing I can say about my job – I’m never bored. A bit like you, really. No two jobs are the same and no two clients are the same.’

‘I wonder if you’ll ever get to meet this guy and the ice cream van he hasn’t bought yet?’ Daniel mused.

‘No idea – but do you know who I’d like to meet?’

‘Who?’ Daniel took a slurp of tea.

‘Father Christmas! Ho, ho, ho!’

Daniel sighed. He was never going to live this down, was he?

‘Daniel, is that you?’ Daniel’s mum yelled down the phone, and he held it away from his ear with a grimace.

‘Yes, Mum, it’s me.’ He was mildly concerned to think that a) she didn’t recognise his voice and that b) she thought someone else would be answering his mobile.

‘Good. I’m glad I caught you. I just wanted to tell you that Grandad is settled in. He’s got that nice room I was telling you about, with the view of the garden. He’s all unpacked and is looking forward to joining in with everything.’

‘Great. I’ll pop in to see him on my way home. Is there anything I can take him? Anything he needs or has forgotten?’

‘Just yourself. He’ll be thrilled to see you.’

‘He saw me yesterday,’ Daniel pointed out.

‘I’m scared he’ll think we’ll forget him.’

‘Mum, he’s only been there a couple of hours. And it was his decision to go into a home.’ Daniel still didn’t understand why. His grandad’s Parkinson’s wasn’t that bad, yet. But that was it, wasn’t it –yet. It would get worse, and there was no telling how fast, or how severe the deterioration would be.

‘I didn’t want him to go,’ Daniel’s mum wailed, and he could tell she was close to tears.

‘Neither did I. We’d have managed.’ Somehow they would have done, although he had no clue as to how.

‘Yes, we would have,’ Linda said. ‘I could have taken early retirement, and with home care and whatnot, we’d have coped.’

‘I could have moved back home…’ And that was where the whole argument for Edwin not going into a home had fallen apart. His grandad had been adamant that wasn’t what he wanted for his grandson, and Daniel had recalled the heated conversations where Edwin had been furious that Daniel was happy to ‘waste his youth’ (Edwin’s words, not Daniel’s) on caring for an old man like him.

Never mind that Daniel was thirty-one and his youth was fast disappearing. Or that he’d have been more than happy to alter his lifestyle if it meant Grandad didn’t have to go into a home. Anyway, he was hardly living the high life at the moment, was he, and he couldn’t see the situation changing any time soon.

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