A Twist On Tradition
Coffee Break Tale
It’s always odd when I think about it – how your nighttime is my morning,” Jen’s dad said from the screen of her laptop.
He called all the time, and usually mentioned the massive distance between them. Her marriage to Travis had been sudden. As part of his job he’d flown over and visited the office where she’d worked, and after a whirlwind romance she’d moved to the other side of the world.
Not for the first time, she wondered if her dad’s smile at the wedding hid heartache that his only daughter was moving so far away.
“So, your first Christmas in Australia as a married woman,” her dad said now. “What do you have planned?”
“Well, as it’s midsummer we’re going to have a barbecue in the garden with seafood, prawns, maybe even lobster. Then we’ll take a walk on the beach.”
“You won’t be roasting a turkey using my slow-cook method, then? Gas mark six for thirty minutes then down to a half overnight? The place used to smell amazing when we woke up, didn’t it? I expect you’ll be missing out on my special stuffing too?” “I’m afraid I will.” He’d taught her such a lot as she’d grown up – how to change a plug when she was ten; how to wield a power-drill at twelve. He’d explained how to pitch a tent at thirteen. At seventeen, he’d taught her how to drive with meticulous care: mirror, signal, manoeuvre. He always had been an encyclopaedia of knowledge and sound advice. He’d had to be, since her mum had passed away aged just thirty-two.
So did you find Travis’s Christmas tree, finally?” he asked on screen. She’d moved into Travis’s place not knowing where a thing might be. She’d left all her own furniture behind in her room at her dad’s. She wondered if it now stood like a shrine.
“It was in the garage. I went in with a stick. There are so many dangerous spiders and snakes over here you have to be careful of. Anyway, yes, I did. Hang on while I turn my laptop around.” She angled it towards the tree. “I put on the lights and the tinsel just before you called. I was about to hang the baubles. Travis has a few.” “Did you test the lights first?” “No, no, I haven’t turned them on yet. I’ll do it in a sec. How are you, Dad? You and Lorna?”
She gave a little gulp thinking of the woman he’d finally met. She’d worried back then, aged eighteen, that the special connection she shared with him would be lost forever.
“We’re fine. Just great.” His own laptop shifted and the screen changed. There stood the familiar lounge of her childhood home. There was Clancy, the tabby, fast asleep. There was the bay window she’d gazed out of as a girl and there… there in the corner stood their old tree; the one they always put up together at the beginning of December. Her hand moved over her heart. “You’ve only just started decorating it, too.” Her voice cracked a little.
“Yes, I did a bit this morning but my heart wasn’t it in. My lights are working, I did check that. Check yours now, love.”
She hurried over to the plug as he watched and turned on the switch. “Oh,” she said as nothing lit up at all. “I bet one of the bulbs is loose. You’ll have to check them one by one.”
“Just like we used to?” She grinned, then needed to take a deep breath.
“How long do you have, Dad? I mean, Travis is with his brother on a boys’ night out. He said he hasn’t put his tree up for two years. It’s not his thing. Do you have any baubles handy?”
He lifted up a box. “I do, actually. I’ve got some more tinsel right here as well.”
“I do too. Shall we start decorating… as we talk?”
“That sounds like a good idea to me.” He smiled. “I was worried this year Christmas wouldn’t feel the same, but…” He wiped at one eye. “It’s starting to now. Thanks to you.” She wiped away a tear, too. “They say you can’t find Christmas under a tree, Dad – but that’s only because they don’t know about you and me.”