Jen's Christmas Nightmare
Copyright© 2020 by TonySpencer
Chapter 14: A Quiet Sunday?
When I woke up on Sunday, it was a lovely bright but chilly day, the sun streaming through the window. I must have slept through to mid-morning. I awoke without a dare in the world and noticed that Junior was already up and I swear I could smell bacon grilling.
“Hello darling, favourite hubby of mine,” I declared, “sorry I overslept, you must’ve worn me out last night.”
And that was the last thing I remembered of the previous night as I kissed him on the cheek.
“I thought you were the one who exhausted me, because I got up twice in the night for snacks and both times you were in the dining room writing in your journal. You were so into it I didn’t want to interrupt, especially the second time, it was almost dawn and you had obviously gone out during the night because you were dressed for outside and not in your pyjamas.”
“I had? I don’t remember going out,” I really didn’t.
“I suspected you were out putting a secret Santa prezzie under the tree in the Main Square.”
“I’ve seen presents there, piled up, do people do that?
“Of course they do, but you wouldn’t know that because this time last year we were still strangers and we spent all our time on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in the Main House and didn’t visit Elf Town and the Main Square until after Christmas. By that time all the Secret Santa presents had been handed out and opened. We’ll be there this Christmas morning after the big breakfast though. So, if you weren’t ‘Secret Santa-ing’, where were you?”
“I don’t remember...”
I honestly couldn’t remember anything other than strange unconnected snatches of dreams.
“Perhaps this will remind you?” Junior held up a winter coat with one hand and opened his other fist to reveal pine needles in his palm. “These were in your hood. And there is paint on the back of this coat. Any idea where that came from?”
He turned the coat and I could see the yellow paint run down the back.
I shook my head. I didn’t have a clue, but I, pointed out, “That, Junior, is not even my coat.”
“On the BBC News this morning, there had been an arrest for terrorism, a young man known to the police, investigated for plotting some terrorist attack on his computer, if convicted he would probably get 25 years without parole. They showed a snatch of film of someone with a coat over his head being led away from Shane’s block of flats. Know anything about that?”
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