For day 4 click here.
The lights were already on the Christmas tree. Multi-coloured and flashing. They flashed at an almost intolerable frequency. The children had chosen them almost twenty years before — when they had in fact been children — and Esme had never once had to replace a bulb. She was going to tolerate the flashing until a bulb broke, then she was going to get some tasteful yellow lights – ones that looked like candlesticks or snowflakes and, more importantly, stayed on.
Next went the baubles; luckily, the hideous ones that the children had chosen — again almost twenty years before — had all been smashed by careless hands, so Esme had lovely tasteful baubles — red and green — that matched all the way up the tree. The tinsel went on last. Tinsel was just tinsel. It always looked as if a child had been let loose in a glitter factory regardless of how long ago it had been bought. Esme sighed and shoved it on, hiding the shinier bits where they wouldn’t reflect off the flashing multi-coloured lights.
Finally, she was ready to put the fairy on top. Again, they had had a toy for such a long time that the poor thing had lost one of shoes and last year the cat had eaten part of its wings, so Esme had decided to throw it away once and for all — her children’s empathy for decorations be damned. She had bought a lovely fairy from a shop in Covent Garden the last time she had visited the children. When she told them that she had thrown away the cat-eaten fairy they had reacted as if she had told them she had thrown away the cat itself and not just a decoration.
The fairy she had bought had a silver dress and shiny metallic wings that the cat wouldn’t be able to chew through. It had a crown on its head and a tiny wand stuck into its hand. She was so looking forward to putting it on the tree, but when she looked through the decoration box she couldn’t find it. Puzzled, she went to check if she had left it in the car, but no. She remembered taking it in from the car anyway. She went back to the Christmas tree. She was sure she had left it round here so she would know to put it on the tree, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw the cat-eaten fairy alone in the corner of the decoration box. She had thrown that away months ago. She was sure she had.
She sighed to herself, admitting defeat. it seemed even a cat was no match for this fairy. She put the one shod, broken-winged fairy on the top of the tree. At least the children will be pleased, she thought as she left the room, leaving the flashing lights on.
ChristyESWriter 