A Christmas to Remember

by Katie Flynn

  Tess agreed reluctantly to say nothing to the Thomases, but once back in the flat’s kitchen, where Gran was dishing up the shepherd’s pie they had made earlier, she told her Snowy’s plan and asked what she thought she should do about it.

  Gran laughed, then considered. ‘Do? Why, nothing, because for all you know Snowy might have repented and already got in touch with Marilyn with some excuse for not taking her out. Of course it was very wrong of him to want to get revenge for something which happened years ago, but all he will be doing is denting Marilyn’s self-esteem, which in my opinion isn’t a bad thing. And now forget about it, which is what Snowy told you to do. Girls like Marilyn are like corks: you can put them in the water and hold them down but they’ll bob to the surface again no matter what.’

  Snowy came whistling down Heyworth Street the morning after he had failed to meet Marilyn. It was a beautiful April day, the breeze smelling of both the river and the countryside, and the sunshine fell warmly on his uncovered head. He was nearing the church to which most of the other pedestrians were heading when he spotted Marilyn. He guessed she was also bound for church and wondered for a brief moment whether to dive down a side street before she saw him or to approach her cheerily, as though he had no reason to avoid her. He decided on the second option when he saw she was alone, her mother having presumably gone on ahead with her cronies.

  Marilyn was dressed demurely, as befitted a churchgoer, and Snowy thought that her dark green coat with its swirling skirt almost touching her ankles and the little green hat perched on her gleaming gold head were a great deal more attractive than the gaudy clothes she had worn on their previous encounter. He crossed the road and saluted her lazily, a hand raised. ‘Morning, Marilyn. On your way to church?’ he enquired breezily. ‘You’re looking very smart.’

  Marilyn turned to face him, eyes flashing, mouth tightening, and Snowy thought irreverently that one of these days she was going to look the image of her mother; not an attractive thought. Mrs Thomas ran her small shop with an iron hand, and Snowy had frequently thought that, when annoyed or overstretched, her mouth tightened into a positive rat trap, but now he smiled down at Marilyn as though he could not imagine why she was looking so annoyed.

  Marilyn, however, enlightened him. ‘You bastard!’ she hissed. ‘You bloody stood me up, you – you . . .’ There followed a string of swear words which had Snowy blinking in disbelief. Everyone can swear, but Marilyn, it seemed, had taken a course in foul language, and had passed with flying colours.

  But Snowy pretended puzzlement. ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked. ‘Have I done something to annoy you?’

  Marilyn gasped, choked, and then started to giggle. ‘You bloody stood me up, you bastard,’ she repeated, but the fury had gone out of her voice. ‘It were a mean trick, ’cos I were lookin’ forward to catchin’ up with all the latest gossip. And you an’ me were good pals once, until that little snake in the grass—’

  ‘Are you referring to the woman I love?’ Snowy said flippantly. ‘Because if you are, you’re way out. And anyway, I’ve not heard yet why you’re so annoyed with me. What can I have done to get up your nose?’

  But this, it seemed, was too much. Marilyn clapped a hand to her mouth, but the giggles escaped and it was several moments before she could remind him again of his conduct. ‘You stood me up,’ she repeated. ‘I were walkin’ up and down the pavement outside Mam’s house, a perishin’ laughin’ stock, until I give up at about eight o’clock. So where were you, Mr Desmond bloody White?’

  Snowy spread his hands. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said untruthfully. ‘I made it quite clear that I was taking Tess out last night. Surely you couldn’t have misunderstood what I was saying? But look, we can’t stand here nattering, or you’ll miss the church service. Though how you dare go into church with the awful language you’ve been using still hot on your lips I don’t know.’

  ‘You liar. It wasn’t that way at all,’ Marilyn said, but she no longer sounded angry or amused, merely sulky. ‘You’re rotten through and through, Snowy White, and I’m glad I found out in time.’ Rather spoiling the effect, she looked at him hopefully. ‘Why don’t we meet after church? The weather’s fine enough; we could go out to Princes Park, have a row on the lake . . .’

  Snowy pretended to consider, then shook his head regretfully. ‘Impossible, I’m afraid. Me and my girlfriend are taking a river trip; I’m on my way down to the Pier Head now.’

  Marilyn used an ugly word, but they were now opposite the church, so Snowy seized her hand and shook it vigorously, making sure that he squeezed tightly enough to hurt. ‘Nice to see you, Miss Thomas,’ he said, retaining her fingers in a cruel grip whilst she tried in vain to pull away. ‘No doubt we’ll meet again one of these days.’

  He let go of her right hand and watched her massaging it with her left, cheeks still flushed. But she did not answer, merely crossing the road and joining the other churchgoers whilst Snowy, his face lit by a satisfied smile, continued on his way. He told himself that Marilyn need no longer bother him, that he had already begun to tire of her all those years ago, and that he need have no regrets, because for all her careful upbringing and undoubted beauty the language she had used proved she was as common as muck and would never have been a suitable girlfriend for someone such as himself, a university student who would one day earn a salary, not a wage, and would hold an important position in the community. In fact, he was well rid of her.

  Snowy smiled to himself. Tess Williams was bright and intelligent, though in his opinion not at all beautiful. Her soft fawn-coloured hair framed elfin features, but her large hazel eyes regarded the world steadily, and he had no doubt that she too would one day become a pillar of the community. And when that day dawns, he told himself, I shall want to be a part of Tess’s life.

  The thought made him smile more broadly than ever. Funny little Tess, who faded into insignificance when compared with beautiful, golden-haired Marilyn, how strange to think that one of these days she might become a force to be reckoned with. But he had watched with increasing interest as the pet shop became a reality and not just a dream. Tess, despite never having had any experience in business matters, was learning by leaps and bounds.

  As he got nearer the Pier Head Snowy saw Tess ahead of him, making for the pleasure boat at the quayside. She had tied her hair back from her face with a piece of ribbon and was wearing a blue gingham dress which he recognised as part of her school uniform. It was not at all glamorous, but Snowy knew it was far more suitable for a river trip than the clothing which had adorned Marilyn Thomas. He reached Tess’s side and put an arm round her. ‘All right?’ He jerked a thumb at the large basket she was holding. ‘Is that our picnic? We can buy a drink aboard, but food’s bound to be expensive, and anyway the ship lets us off for an hour around lunchtime so we can eat our picnic then. Guess who I saw on my way here?’

  Tess pulled a face. ‘I don’t have to guess, I know. Marilyn, of course.’ Snowy saw that she was trying to repress a giggle and thought how pretty she looked when the dimple beside her mouth came and went. ‘Did you speak to her?’

  ‘Of course,’ Snowy said, doing his best to sound surprised. ‘After all, we’re old friends, wouldn’t you say?’

  ‘Old friends, but new enemies,’ Tess said. ‘Or didn’t she realise she’d been stood up? You might have told her she’d got the wrong day or the wrong time; didn’t she ask where you were?’

  Snowy pretended to consider, then spoke slowly. ‘Ask me where I was? Well, I suppose she did, in a way.’ He grinned down at Tess, his blue eyes dancing, his mouth curving into a smile. ‘She called you a snake in the grass, my dear! What about that, eh?’

  ‘Really? And what, pray, did she call you?’

  Snowy chuckled. ‘If I were to repeat what she called me you wouldn’t understand half the words she used and your ears would burn for a fortnight. I was quite shocked; she was on her way to attend the eleven o’clock service too. Ah, look, they’ve opened the g
angway, which means we can board. Come along, because this is probably the nearest you’ll get to a holiday until the shop is able to do without you for the odd day.’ He took her basket, pretended to stagger beneath its weight, and then began to ascend the gangway.

  Tess turned to stare at him. ‘But I shall get every Sunday off, and the river trips go on a Sunday. In fact once June arrives we can catch the ferry to Woodside and have a lovely day in the country and a cream tea with straw-berries,’ she pointed out. ‘And some of the farmhouses give you a Sunday roast for a few bob.’

  Snowy looked down at her, slowly shaking his head and thinking how cute she looked when her pearly little teeth gripped her lower lip and her eyes looked so trustingly up into his. ‘No, little goose, I’d bet money on the fact that you won’t be able to have Sundays off. You’ll be cleaning cages, refilling water pots, and mixing poultry meal for chickens. You’ll be chopping and cooking dog meat so you have something to sell on Monday, exercising the puppies, cleaning the window glass . . .’

  ‘I won’t, I won’t!’ Tess squeaked, clearly horrified. ‘I’ll – I’ll get up very early and do all the important work and then I’ll pay a responsible schoolboy or -girl to do things like filling water pots. Gran will supervise and Albert will come in and check if I ask him – oh, you’re having me on! I hate you, Snowy White. I think Marilyn’s had a jolly narrow escape. I take it she has escaped?’

  They had reached the head of the gangway and Snowy jerked his thumb towards the bows. ‘Go and grab a seat in the front,’ he advised her. ‘As for escaping, you make me sound like the Loch Ness monster.’

  ‘So you are, just like it,’ Tess said merrily. ‘But stop fooling and tell me just what Marilyn said.’

  ‘Oh, nothing much. She said only a rotter would have agreed to cancel an existing date in order to go out with an old flame . . .’

  ‘And I quite agree that you are a rotter.’ Tess said, plonking herself down on a white-painted seat in the bows and indicating that Snowy should take the place next to her. ‘Well, if this is to be my last treat for ages I mean to make the most of it. Pass me the basket; there’s a bag of mint humbugs right at the top which we can suck as we go along, admiring the beauties of the countryside.’ She fished the sweets out of the basket, popped one into Snowy’s mouth and took one herself. ‘And now let’s forget Marilyn and all other unpleasant things and enjoy ourselves,’ she said thankfully. ‘Ah, they’re casting off! Isn’t it exciting? When Gran was young she used to get the ferry to Dublin and spend a week with relatives; I’d like to do that one day, but first Gran and I must get the business properly established.’ She wrapped her arms round herself and beamed at Snowy. ‘I’m going to be a pet shop millionaire,’ she announced. ‘So hang on to your hat, Snowy White, if you’re going to share our success!’

  Tess, Gran and Albert stood on the pavement outside the pet shop staring at the window, which was all set now for the opening the next day. Tess had spent a great deal of time and thought on how the window was to look, and after half a dozen tries had finally settled on the display the three of them were now examining. In the middle was a large aquarium decorated with water plants, clean sand and a couple of branches of coral as well as forty or so tiny goldfish. The price of the coral had made Tess gasp, but Gran had pointed out that this was a commodity she would only have to buy once and there was no doubt that it improved the look of the aquarium as well as giving the fish something to swim round. To one side of the aquarium was a box of kittens, one ginger, one tabby and one black and white. Normally they would have been playing with each other or with one of the woolly balls which dangled from the top of the box, but now, with only the streetlights to illuminate them, they were snoozing.

  On the other side was another box, containing two puppies. A canary in a cage hung from the ceiling and to the rear of the window, where once Miss Foulks had put her most expensive hats, stood a large cage with half a dozen rabbits in it.

  Tess turned from her examination of the window. ‘What do you think?’ she asked huskily. ‘Will it attract customers? I’ve taken your advice, Albert, and not put any prices in the window so that if folk are serious they have to come inside and enquire.’ After Albert had nodded his approval she turned to Gran. ‘I took your advice as well, and stopped trying to get virtually everything I sell into the window, and I must say it looks all the better for it. But now I’m going to lower my lovely new blind so that we can all get some sleep, including the pets. So we’d best say good night, Albert.’

  The door to their staircase was still open, but Albert shook his head. ‘I’m coming up with you; I’ve bought a bottle of fizzy Spanish wine to drink to the success of your venture, and I mean to broach it right away,’ he said. He positioned himself closely behind Edie. ‘Carefully as you go,’ he advised her. ‘If you were to fall down now, everyone would assume you’d drunk more than your fair share of the wine, and we can’t have that, can we?’

  The shop had been busy all day, for December was well advanced, but the crowds were thinning now as dusk approached. Tess was considering swinging the open sign on the door round to read: Sorry, we are closed when somebody came into the shop. For a moment, Tess thought it must just have been the wind, for she could see nobody, but then she looked again and realised that the intruder was a very small and very grubby boy, whose head scarcely came above the counter. Inwardly, Tess sighed. This customer was a sixpenny goldfish if ever she saw one; probably he was already holding, beneath the counter top, a glass jar into which she would decant the goldfish of his choice. And then he would bring out a collection of pennies and ha’pennies which might have taken him weeks to collect and would tell her that the goldfish was a present for his mam, and she would feel mean at taking money so hard earned.

  Despite both her hopes and her hard work, the shop had not proved an instant success. Albert had said it was partly due to the fact that they were underfunded and of course also unknown to most of their suppliers. Understandably, she now realised, these had wanted paying as soon as they delivered rabbits, poultry, white mice and guinea pigs, and she simply had not had the money. She had tried explaining that she would pay up as soon as customers bought, but this cut little ice with people who were in much the same position.

  However, Tess had never been afraid of hard work and had slaved away, doing all her own cleaning, feeding and exercising, leaving only ordering and doing the books to Gran, until Snowy’s prediction that she would have no time to herself had proved all too horribly true, and for several dark months she had actually wondered whether she would have to confess herself beaten and put the shop up for sale. But she had struggled on, never allowing her standards to drop, and gradually the business had begun to thrive. Now, at last, she was simply longing to find someone trustworthy who could, for a small wage, take some of the work off her hands and had interviewed several hopefuls, but none had come up to her expectations.

  ‘Miss? Excuse me, miss . . .’ The small boy grinned ingratiatingly up at her. ‘Can I have a look around while you’re quiet, like? Only pet shops is what I done me presentation on at the end of term. I gorra gold star. Mr Bleckinsop said it were the best out of the whole class.’

  ‘Of course you can look around,’ Tess said wearily. An idea occurred to her. ‘Tell you what, you name the different species in the cages and aquarium and I’ll tell you if I agree with your teacher.’

  She had made the suggestion knowing it would please the kid to prowl amongst the cages, but she had not realised how thoroughly this scruffy urchin had researched his subject. At the end of ten minutes she was regarding her customer with awe. He not only knew the names of every animal, bird or fish in the shop, he knew their countries of origin, the food upon which they thrived, the amount of exercise they needed and their lavatory habits.

  At the end of the tour Tess stared at him with admiration. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked. ‘You know more about my animals and birds than any of the people who’ve come here asking f
or a job. Your Mr Bleckinsop knew what he was doing when he gave you that gold star.’

  ‘Me name’s Mitch and I’m ten years old, though I’m a bit small for me age,’ the boy assured her. ‘I come in for a goldfish, ’cos that’s all I can afford. Do you sell ’em by size? Only there’s one what’s a sort of pinky-silver colour . . . I got sixpence.’

  Tess thought of presents unbought, cards unsent, even mince pies unbaked, and smiled down hopefully into the grubby little face only just above the counter. ‘You can have any goldfish you want, and how would you like a Saturday job, Mitch?’ she said. ‘I can’t pay you much, but . . .’

  The face beyond the counter was one enormous grin. ‘A Saturday job!’ Mitch breathed. ‘Oh, miss, there ain’t nothin’ I’d like more. I’d do it for no money, so I would.’ His small face clouded. ‘The only thing is, me mam’s got a job cleanin’ offices on Saturdays so I’ve promised to look after me sister Elsie. She’s three, but she’s ever so good. If I tell her to sit in a chair and not move until she’s told, she’d be good as gold, honest to God she would.’

  At this point the door opened and Snowy appeared. He came over to the counter, leaned across it and kissed Tess on the tip of her nose.

  ‘Hello, beautiful,’ he said caressingly. ‘Time to shut up shop and accompany me to the flicks. Remember saying you wanted to see All About Eve? Well now’s your chance. Have you had a good day?’

  ‘Very good, but I can’t come yet, Snowy, because I’ve got to clear up first, though I’ve just employed Mitch here as a helper.’

  Snowy turned and stared at the small boy, then grinned. ‘Hello, young Mitch! How are you?’

  The boy grinned back. ‘Hello, Snowy,’ he said cheerfully. ‘I’ve been lookin’ at the animals and birds and that. If you like, miss, I can give you a hand right now; that way you’ll get to the flicks quicker.’

  ‘Thanks very much, Mitch, and now you’re on the team you’d better call me Tess,’ Tess said. ‘And you can start your job by cleaning and feeding. Snowy will keep an eye on you whilst I nip up to the flat with today’s takings so that my gran can make up the books.’