Christmas sorted, by Charles Roberts

 

Jenny was a happy bunny, she’d finished getting all the food for the Christmas feast.  Her brother and his family were coming over from America.  Her sister and her family were flying in from Australia, and she’d arranged for their mother to be home for the Christmas holidays.  She didn’t want her nephews and nieces to see their grandmother, for the first time, in a home for the demented.  She didn’t know how they’d react to seeing her surrounded by mad people, oh she knew they weren’t mad, but how did a ten year old perceive someone with dementure, she just didn’t know.  Jenny did know one thing however, that it would probably be the first and only time they would see her.  She wouldn’t remember them of course, she barely remembered who Jenny was, and she went to see her twice a week, and she always left the home with tears in her eyes as she remembered the good times before dad had died and mum had been struck down with this horrible illness.  It was as if it was some sort of predatory creature waiting to strike, and as soon as dad had died, it struck mum down.  The first Jenny had known about it was when the police rang her at work, they’d found her mum walking along the duel carriageway dressed in only her nighty and slippers, they’d taken her to the police station where she’d managed to tell them Jenny’s name, just her Christian name and workplace.

Her freezer was full and fridge fit to burst, she was collecting her mother from the home in the morning.  Her sister was flying in and expected to arrive at the family home late afternoon.  Her brother would be arriving sometime during the evening.  Jenny wasn’t quite sure how she was going to fit all those bodies into the four bedroomed house the family had grown up in, but she would try.  She’d borrowed and hired camp beds and air mattresses from all her friends, they were scattered all round the house.  Jenny herself was going to sleep on the settee in the living room so would have to wait until everyone had gone to their beds before she could settle down for the night.  But, as she kept reminding herself, it would only be for about a week over the Christmas period, both families flying back to their respective countries before the New Year.  She had made a special effort with the decorations, the tree taking pride of place in the living room, where dad had always placed it.  She’d managed to find all the tree ornaments and tried her best to make it look the way she remembered it looking when she was a child.  There was Holly and Ivy on the mantle above the living room fire and she’d even managed to find some mistletoe to hang in the hall way.

Jenny was laden down with shopping bags