Alison Roberts - The Night Before Christmas

There had to be a thousand trees in this store. Incroyable . There was a whole forest of them when he stepped off at the top. Green trees. Silver and white ones. Even a fluorescent blue thing that looked very wrong. They were all covered with bows and balls and twinkling lights and it was all too much. Jack ducked between two of them and found himself in, of all places, the lingerie department.

Pausing to catch his breath and find an easy escape route, he found the shapely mannequins, wearing Christmas hats and very little else, quite a pleasant distraction. Jack was rather taken with a red and black striped bustier with built-in suspenders that were holding up some fishnet stockings.

A perfect Christmas gift for the woman with the right credentials. What a shame Danielle had given him that ultimatum only last week. She knew the rules, he explained silently to the mannequin, so why had she gone and ruined everything by demanding a commitment he would never make again? With a grimace that embraced both the current emptiness of his bed and the fact that he was trying to communicate telepathically with a plastic woman, Jack sighed and turned to scan the crowds once more, looking for a ‘down’ escalator.

There was a long queue of people making a human barrier halfway across this floor and Jack turned his head to find out what the attraction might be. A fashion parade perhaps? In the lingerie department?

No such luck. He should have guessed by the fact that everyone in this queue had small people attached to them. There was a Christmas grotto over there by the lifts and a Father Christmas was enthroned on a crimson velvet chair. A photographer was adjusting lights as a mother tried to persuade a toddler to sit still on Santa’s knee to have his picture taken.

A nearby child was whining. ‘When’s my turn, Mum?’

Another was crying. The rising level of high-pitched, excited voices was starting to make him feel distinctly uncomfortable, like fingernails on a blackboard.

The stairs would be faster. Turning on all the charm he could muster, Jack edged rapidly through the press of humanity, excusing himself repeatedly. The vast majority of the people were women and they responded admirably to a bit of authority tempered with a smile. That they continued to stare at him after he’d passed by went unnoticed.

He almost made it. If it hadn’t been for the little grandma practically fainting in his arms, he would have been half way down the stairs by now.

Instead, he found himself searching for a chair. ‘Is there somewhere she could sit down?’ he asked the saleswoman who had come rushing to help.

‘Here. This way.’ The face over the trim black skirt and frilly white blouse was anxious. The woman, whose name tag said ‘Denise’, was holding aside the curtain that was being used to screen the back of the Christmas grotto.

The chair was solid and wooden and the elderly woman sank onto it with a relieved groan.

‘Keep your head down for a moment,’ Jack said. He supported her with one arm, using his free hand to find her wrist.

‘Shall I call for an ambulance?’ Denise asked.

‘No!’ The elderly woman shook her purple rinsed hair. ‘Please don’t do that.’

‘Give us a minute,’ Jack said. ‘I’m a doctor.’

‘Oh-h-h.’ Denise smiled for the first time. ‘That’s lucky.’

Jack thought of the minutes ticking past and how hard it might be to find a taxi once he made it outside but he wasn’t going to contradict Denise. He could feel a rapid and rather weak pulse in the wrist he was holding and he noted the faint sheen of perspiration on the woman’s pale face.

‘What’s your name?’ he enquired.

‘Mabel.’

‘I’m Jack,’ he told her. ‘Dr Rousseau. Tell me, has anything like this ever happened to you before?’

‘No. I’m as healthy as a horse. I don’t want any fuss. I just … came over a bit funny, that’s all.’

‘Dizzy?’

‘Oh … yes.’

‘Sick?’

‘Yes. I’m starting to feel a bit better now, though.’

‘No pain in your chest?’

‘No.’

‘You’re puffing a bit.’

‘I walked up all those stairs. My great-grandson’s here somewhere, with my daughter. He’s waiting to see Father Christmas.’

This was where the man in the red suit must come when he was allowed a breather, Jack decided. There was a small table beside the chair with a carafe of water and some glasses.

‘Do you think I could have a glass of that water, dear?’ Mabel asked.

Denise did the honours. Jack stayed where he was, thinking through his options. If he could rule out anything serious, like a cardiac event, he could probably leave Mabel and escape downstairs. Or maybe they could take her downstairs. It was rather stuffy in this small, curtained space. He was in a corner and his back was right against one edge. Right beside the red velvet throne, judging by how clearly he could hear voices.

‘Hello there, dear. What’s your name?’

‘Holly.’

‘And how old are you, Holly?’

‘I’m six.’

‘And what it is you want for Christmas?’

‘It’s not just for me.’ The six year old girl sounded so earnest she was breathless. ‘It’s for Misty, too.’

‘Who’s Misty?’

‘My sister.’

‘And how old is Misty?’

‘She’s six, too.’

‘Oh … you must be twins.’

Santa didn’t sound half as bright as Holly, Jack thought. He still had his fingers on Mabel’s wrist and her pulse was jumping a bit. Maybe he should send for an ambulance. Just because she wasn’t experiencing any chest pain, it didn’t mean she wasn’t having a heart attack. The pulse was faint enough to make him concerned about her blood pressure as well. Of course, if she’d nearly fainted, it would have dropped considerably but it didn’t pick up in the next minute or so, he’d need to do something.

‘How old are you, Mabel?’

‘Eighty-three.’

‘Are you on medication for anything?’

‘Just my blood pressure. The doctor’s given me some new pills for it. I just started them yesterday.’

‘Hmm. That might well have something to do with how you’re feeling. Can you remember the name of the pills?’ he asked.

‘They’re in my purse. Oh, no … where is my purse?’

‘You must have dropped it!’ Denise exclaimed. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll go and have a look right now.’

Jack watched with dismay as the saleswoman ducked through the curtain and disappeared. She might be gone for a long time and he could hardly abandon an elderly woman having a vagal episode, could he? He was trapped. Closing his eyes for a moment, he could hear that Holly was still chattering to Santa.

‘It’s cos we were born at Christmas. I’m Holly and she’s Misty. Like, you know, misty-toe.’

Misty-toe? Jack felt his lips twitch and some of his frustration evaporated. He was stuck for the moment so he might as well try and enjoy it.

‘And you and Misty want a daddy for Christmas, you said?’

A daddy ? Jack blinked and started listening a lot more carefully.

‘Yes, please. Is that OK? Mummy says we don’t need one really but I’m sure she’d like it. You can manage that, can’t you? I told Misty you could. She wanted to come too but she’s too sick.’

‘Ah … I’m sorry to hear that.’

So was Mabel. Her head was up and she was clearly eavesdropping on the secret conversation behind them as well. At the mention of the sick sister, she looked straight at Jack. Horrified? More like … expectant.

As if he could do anything about it. He was a specialist surgeon, not a paediatrician. Unless they needed new body parts transplanted, he didn’t have anything to do with small people.