A Trip Of A Lifetime

It’s all about family in this light-hearted short story by Jenny Worstall.

THIS will be the first Christmas I’ve ever spent away from home. I’m sorry it’s short notice. I hope you don’t mind too much, Mum.”

“Of course not, Katrina,” Sue replied. “I’m sure that you’ll have a great time up in Edinburgh, and we’ll see you here for New Year as usual.”

She put the phone down and turned to her husband, Frank.

Katrina had been teaching in a school in Birmingham for a couple of years now, and last spring she had met Alastair. It had been love at first sight for both of them.

“Things must be serious,” Sue said excitedly.

“Must they?” Frank replied, looking up from his laptop.

“Yes, definitely,” Sue assured him. “Alastair has asked Katrina to stay with his family in Scotland for Christmas.

“We’ll miss her,” Frank replied. “After twenty-two Christmases at home with her, it’ll seem strange. Still, we’ll have Aunt Peggy staying as usual.”

“Yes,” Sue answered thoughtfully. “With her dog.”

Sue’s mind raced back to last Christmas when Aunt Peggy’s dog, Boris, had managed to pinch the sausages she had planned to put round the turkey.

She had only turned her back for a second to put a saucepan in the sink, but that was long enough for Boris to leap up and seize one end of the string of chipolatas with his sharp teeth, then run out of the back door.

“I know you’re thinking about the sausages.” Frank laughed.

“It wasn’t only that.” Sue frowned.

“I know,” Frank replied. “Muddy pawprints everywhere . . .”

“We had to keep moving the decorations higher up the tree out of his reach, and the lower branches looked so bare.” Sue flung her hands in the air.

“But what can we do? Aunt Peggy’s had a new lease of life since Boris came to live with her, so we can’t complain. After all –”

“It’s only once a year!” Frank finished his wife’s sentence for her and swept her into his arms. “Oh, Sue, we’ll have a great Christmas, you’ll see.”

Sue relaxed into her husband’s arms.

“I will miss having Katrina at home.”

“She has her own life now,” Frank said. “We can’t keep her at home for ever.”

Sue picked up a photograph from the mantelpiece and looked at her younger self holding a tiny baby wrapped in a soft woolly blanket knitted by Aunt Peggy all those years ago.

A younger Frank was standing next to his wife and daughter, beaming with pride, a slightly soppy look in his eyes.

This tender moment was interrupted by the shrill call of the phone.

“This will be the first Christmas I’ve spent away from you and the family for a long time,” Aunt Peggy announced.

“I’m sorry for the short notice. I hope you don’t mind too much, Frank.”

“Of course not, Aunt Peggy. I’m sure you’ll have a great time with your cousin Charlotte, and of course you want to stay with her to help out now that she’s broken her leg. We’ll see you for New Year as usual,” he replied.

“Fancy that,” Frank said once he’d hung up the phone.

“Yes, fancy that,” Sue echoed. “Just the two of us.”

“We could . . .”

“Go away?”

Sue and Frank raced each other to the computer and began researching Christmas breaks.

“Christmas in Honolulu!” Sue stared at the lovely beach on the screen in front of her.

“A winter break in the Bahamas!” Frank could imagine himself sipping a long cool drink like the man he could see

Sue and Frank had dreamed of visiting New York – and now was their chance . . .