It Started With A Christmas Tree - A Lizzie Fuller Christmas Novella by Beth Prentice

Author:Beth Prentice
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2013-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

****

Sunday dinner came around pretty quickly and thankfully I did remember the ornament. I had it safely tucked into my bag where I would ask mum later to have a look at it. If it were crystal then I would go back to ‘Happy Christmas Trees’ in the morning and see if I could talk to Earl. If it were meant for someone else then it would be the right thing to do.

“Pass the potatoes, please,” Danny asked Grandma. Grandma was usually a barrel of laughs but today she looked sombre and cranky.

Ignoring Danny, she stabbed at her pumpkin.

I reached over and touched her hand and indicated she should turn her hearing aid on. We all heard the familiar screech as she turned it up to loud.

“What?” she asked, looking at me.

“Danny asked you to pass him the potatoes,” I said.

“What’s wrong with your hands?” she snapped at me.

“Did someone miss nap time?” asked Danny quietly.

I heard Mum sigh. “No. She came home from Mr. Willett’s as irritable as this.”

“What happened at Mr. Willett’s?” asked Drew. We all glared at him. None of us really wanted the details of what happened between Grandma and her man friend. Especially not while we were eating dinner.

“Well, thanks for asking,” replied Grandma, looking at Drew. “No one else around here cares enough to ask about my life,” she huffed.

“Oh Mum! That’s not true. I asked you what was wrong when you walked in this afternoon but you just ignored me and hurried off to your room.”

“Oh. Is that what you said. I thought you asked what’s that pong and I didn’t want to tell you I’d had curry for lunch. You don’t like it when I have curry,” explained Grandma, her mood improving slightly now she realized we did care.

Mum gave a disgusted grunt and resumed eating her dinner.

“Are you alright, Nell? Sounds like you’ve got a bit of indigestion. Maybe you need some of my medication. Actually, that reminds me, that cream you got me doesn’t work.”

“What cream?” asked mum.

“The one you got me for my sore gums.”

“Mum, I haven’t bought you any cream for your sore gums. What cream are you talking about?”

“The white and blue one. It’s got a really long end on it.”

“You’re not talking about the Anusol are you?” asked Mum, her fork full of potato stopped half way to her mouth.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Mum, that’s your hemorrhoid cream. It’s for sore bums, not gums!”

I watched Grandma consider this new information, swishing her teeth around as she did so.

“Well, I guess that explains why it tastes so bad then,” she replied.

After dinner, Molly and I helped Mum clean up the kitchen. For some reason I always got stuck with the washing up, Molly taking the drying up role. A few years ago, we had bought Mum a shiny stainless steel dishwasher but she sent it back saying she would much rather wash up by hand. We didn’t like to tell her the reason we bought it was so we wouldn’t have to wash up by hand.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.