Chapter 1

Our lounge was like a kaleidoscope as the Christmas tree lights phased through their colours. Sweet singing came from the television, currently tuned to a children’s Christmas carol concert. Delicious smells of Christmas dinner nearly ready seeped from the kitchen. And the room was more than comfortably warm due to unseasonal weather that had also brought persistent rain. And yet the atmosphere in the lounge was chillier than a frosty graveyard at night.

My name is Jon Snow. Mum wanted me called John Snow to keep up a family tradition but Dad objected: he felt it had outlived its time. The result was a compromise of sorts. You can probably guess who wears the trousers in my home!

Life could have been complicated with two people in the house having names that sounded the same, so my first name was enunciated in a short, clipped fashion while my dad’s first name was drawn out. As my little sister Janey observed, my first name was pronounced like a sneeze and my Dad’s first name was pronounced like wind moaning through a tunnel.

Truth be told, I was a rather timid, gawky, nerdish nonentity. I got totally tongue-tied when I tried to talk to girls. That was somewhat unfortunate because they made up over fifty percent of my class at school. I had a couple of close friends in Philip Wilverton and Dexter Thomas, both of whom had lived in the same street as me since we were born. Our mums arranged play dates for us from when we were only a few months old so we have known each other since forever, and we are as familiar with each other’s homes as our own.

If either Phil or Dex had been girls, I might have grown up to be much more comfortable in female company, but such is life. The only girl I have ever had much interaction with was my little sister. Janey was two years younger than me, but she didn’t really count. It’s hard to be scared of talking to someone when you’ve seen them at their lowest, projectile vomiting or with a hacking cough and snot pouring out of their nose.

I have to mention that Janey was the wisest person I know. She was not a straight A student or anything like that; I was the one who got high grades. But Janey had remarkable insight for her age. Scratch that, she had remarkable insight for any age. She would be the first to point out that the Emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes. We got on well together and we never had any episodes of hitting each other or breaking each other’s toys like other siblings seem to have. However Janey realised we had to put on a show for our parents’ sake to stop them becoming too complacent, so in their earshot we would pretend to tease each other mercilessly.

That Christmas I was thirteen. As usual we got up on Christmas morning and had our breakfasts, the delay heightening our expectancy of what was to come. Then, with occasional short delays for Mum to check on how Christmas dinner was cooking, we set about opening our presents.

My family had a Christmas tradition. We bought each other small, individual presents but clubbed together so that everyone got a single, main, expensive present. Top of my Christmas wish list had been the latest video game, in hope rather than expectation since it was rated eighteen and over.