Christmas In July - A Short Story

Please Snow

Natalie shushed the herd of noisy teenagers and children with a practiced annoyance.

Every day the same thing occured.
Every time the weather forecast came on BBC One, the radio that broadcast to all and sundry around the UK,...the gabble of cousins started chattering about who liked who and who was going to see whom and what they wanted for Christmas. Oh and what's for tea.

Uncle Kevin turned his newspaper down a tad at the top to peer over at Natalie with a wry, knowing smile.

They were all excitedly happy, even Natalie; Her especially actually. She had flown in barely a week ago and found herself swallowed up in an unknown world containing a multitude of cousins and uncles and aunties, and a nana too. They all had never met before but every one of them were wonderfully welcoming.

And amid all those rellys hugs and kisses and chatter she had found a kindred spirit in one, Uncle Kevin. Laughing at the same comedy shows on the radio of an afternoon with him was so much fun.

Their two absolute favourites were Spike Mulligan's The Omar Khayyam Show and the Telegoons, a puppet show which was especially silly because they broadcast over the radiogram! It featured hilarious multi of vocal inflections made by Mister Milligan and his two goonie mates, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers.

The room was toasty warm, a log fire roared to the left, a loaded drinks cabinet to the right. Full of festive cheer it was, Uncle Kevin would say.  A sideboard full of knick-knacks under the window.

The radiogram sat in the corner and opposite, a blank space by the power socket.... Blank space? You ask why a blank space....

That's for the television.

Uncle Kevin had frequently dropped loud rambling hints about his anticipated Christmas present. Natalie had joined his game the morning after she arrived. Spouting, that she too, would adore a glorious television.

So, with much grunting and  obligatory brow wiping, they both dragged furniture all about the room; to free up a suitable spot.

The only spot of bother with that particular spot was the telephone table with attached seat... It didn't fit anywhere near the telephone wire on the skirting so it currently sat jutting out awkwardly into the main entry hall from the sitting-room door.

Much to Aunties grumbles, the telephone sat perched on the radiogram cabinet 'for the time being' so says Uncle Kevin.

"It will come Nat, soon enough. Make haste these clear days, see the sights, visit Hyde park. Because, mark my words, as soon as it snows you will be indoors more than out of 'em"

Nat shook her head vehemently in the negative making Kevin laugh, in that moment he realised this girl was the spitting image of her mother at the same age. Good teeth, nice nose, tall like the siblings and eyes that would go on to make many a boy swoon. His sister got a lot of boys in trouble!

"You look like your mum you know that. Can't see a blade of your father in you but your mum's all over your pretty face" Kevin smiled softly thinking about his sister, it had been many years since she'd been home to the motherland and even though they bickered over everything when they were youngster's, he missed her.

Kevin nodded toward the radio, the weather report was about to begin... he chuckled as Natalie wiggled over on her bottom to place her head close to the single speaker to get the all important report...

**

"Natalie" Cousin Sara waved a hand beckoning Nat to come along to the bedrooms at the rear of the terrace house.

Sara was determined to stay up late one last night before she returned home to Hethersett, a small village near Norwich. Sara was only down this week. Tomorrow they all, including Uncle Kevin, headed back to Norfolk for Christmas. The oldest cousins, Nat and Louise, got to remain here in London alone. Sara was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-ly jealous but what could she do. She was five years younger than her cousins and fifteen was much too young to be alone in London without parents. "Soooo snow or noooo snow?" Sara grinned the question at Nat.

Sara absolutely hated it. The freezing temperatures, the sound of that horrid crunch underfoot, driving wind impaling you with icicles, the ensuing slush and dirty slurry when it was melting but Natalie was exactly the opposite at the moment.

She'll soon hate it, Sara thought as she cleaned the record carefully with her special soft cloth.

Nat shook her head and pouted her lips comically making Sara prod her with her elbow, cloth and vinyl securely in hand. Natalie smiled at her cousins' jovial nudge. Sara lifted the cloth high and waved it in mock triumph at her being victorious in making Nat grin again. Picking up the record sleeve Nat began to read the musicians notes on the back. She always read the lot, trying to ingrain them in her brain she supposed. She loved this band, loved the look of the men on the cover, she had never seen anyone quite like them. They were all very handsome "What's their names again Sara?"

Nat had heard the music on the radio fleetingly in Australia, only a day or two before she hopped on the plane to wing it to England actually; And she definitely hadn't seen a record until she stepped through the doorway of this very bedroom. Nat smiled guiltily as Sara rolled her eyes for the hundredth time and rattled off the gorgeous mens' names in a speedy, well-practiced singsong of a voice:

"Ringo- Paul- George- John! Gee Nat, you can tell us every instrument they played and who sang lead whatsit on which tune but give you a photograph and poof you're as blank as Grandma Edith after three tipples of sherry!"

"You have had this record since April Sar, give me a break. I've been looking at them for less than a week!"

"Slobbering over them, more like it" Sara clutched the rag to her chest, dramatically sighing.

"Sara! I do not slobber! Any-way, where is this place, EMI?" Nat tapped the cover, the four men all staring downward, looking into the photographers' lens from a balcony of some sort. Sara calls them lads, but anyone with half a functioning brain could tell these 'lads' were all men.

"Doesn't it say?"

Of course it says, but what's this here... City of Westminster... I thought London was London"

"It's a borough"

"A burrow?"

"No borough"

"That's what I said"

"No, you didn't. You said a wombat hole. This is borough it's like a suburb I guess, in the colonies" Sara tacked on the end of the reply with her trusty well used joke about the convicts going to Australia in the seventeen hundreds, it was one she slipped into the conversation regularly.

"Oh Westminster! That's where Lou and I are going tomorrow- sightseeing! We'll be near it! Where's a map"

"It's miles from Parliament house Nat"

"But we can hop on a bus or the tub. Tube sorry, I keep forgetting the name of that" Nat rolled her eyes, it was all too much. This city was massive and for a girl straight off a humongous cattle property that sat, slap dab in the middle of Australia this place was all a bit daunting. As she chewed her lip, Louise, who had been standing in the doorway listening, walked in the room and looked at the record over Nat's shoulder.

"Why isn't the record playing"

Sara huffed then held up the cloth and record, stating the obvious silent answer to Louise.

"Because we are talking about us going to this!" Nat turned the sleeve over and wiggled the cover in Lou's face. Lou frowned.

"To hell?"

"No, derrr. To the studio where this cover photograph was taken" Nat grinned, she was so going everywhere in London, England, Wales. Even perhaps Scotland... that was if she could get a few weeks work or, if that tipped arse over tit, twist Uncle's arm to cart her up there in his construction van for a gander.

"You want to go visit a railing? Charming" Lou was winding Nat up, which was always jolly good fun because Nat would start swearing like a sweaty rude Australian stockman. Sara and Louise usually fell about in laughter at the coarse words that flutter unheeded from her sweetheart lips. "I'll tell you wot. Let's go to Big Ben, go wave to the Queen if she's in, try to get the Big 'eads at the Palace to move a smidge in the sentry boxes, and then go look at your beloved railing"

Sara dropped the needle carefully.

Nat squealed, launched at Louise for a bear hug and music simultaneously flooded the bedroom...

"One, Two, three, FAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"