This chapter is dedicated to twilight, our resident catgirl, with thanks for all your support!
In the time between a family breakfast and opening their gifts, Tess knew that she had to speak to someone. So while Stanley was regaling the family with stories of his recent trip to Hamburg, she was keeping one eye on her phone. Spike wasn't online, but that was no big surprise. His family would be home, and that meant he was probably out jogging, trying to keep himself warm. Most of her friends would be busy with their own families. But she was surprised to see that Gabby was on XV. She had only added Tess a few days before, which Tess had assumed was a token effort to be flexible; making the point that she wanted Tess to be comfortable.
"Not busy today?" she typed out one-handed. "Thought you and Ffrances would have plans for the holidays. Doing something special and romantic."
"Later." The message appeared after only a few seconds. "F working. Volunteers for xmas sad helpline. U?"
Tess hesitated before answering. If she said she'd wet the bed again, Gabby would be right back to insisting that she wear diapers overnight when she got home, and she couldn't let that happen. The problem was over now. So she said something noncommittal, that the day was going well, and it was weird being with her family again. They talked for a few minutes, with Tess half paying attention to the conversation around her in the real world.
"Need trigger? Long time since u ask" the words appeared, and she found herself looking around the room, wondering if anyone could see how much she was blushing.
"Impatient?" her dad asked with a smile, and she couldn't think of the right response. "Want to get your gifts open? It's about as sunny as it's going to get. You can start opening them if you want." That was another tradition from childhood that didn't make too much sense now they were all practically adults; Mum and Dad wanted to take photos of them opening their presents, added to a big scrapbook of every birthday and Christmas so far.
"Yeah, sure." Tess perked up again, and turned back to her phone just for a second.
"I'm okay," she said to herself as her fingers danced over the keyboard. "Haven't needed it in more than a week, I don't have that problem anymore. Besides, you're not really here to say it. Will it work on a call?"
She'd opened the first of the brightly coloured packages under the tree before another vibration drew her attention back to her phone. Gabby pointed out that Tess was a member of the 'Information Generation', whatever that was supposed to mean. And that Ffrances usually phrased her posthypnotic suggestions in terms of being told something by someone you trust. In that case it was the message that was important rather than the words, so it would be possible for a trigger to work just as well over text on some chat app; so long as you considered that being told something.
Tess was curious; it was hard to imagine something like that working. But then, when she'd first tried hypnosis it had been hard to imagine that it would prove so effective at keeping her from wetting the bed. The curiosity grabbed her then, and she knew she had to try it even if she hadn't had the desperate need to make sure that she wouldn't be humiliated again in the morning. She asked Gabby to trigger her, playing up how much she was curious about the power of hypnosis, and hoping that her other reason wouldn't be clear. The message from Gabby came back almost immediately, and without any of the usual abbreviations and typos. She must have made an effort to get it right.
"You must not have an accident tonight."
Tess read the words twice; they felt as powerful and reassuring as ever. Somehow she knew it had worked; but in one corner of her mind she was still praying that it would work like this. She was confident, but she didn't really know for sure. She would have to go out later today, and see if she could find somewhere that was still open to buy diapers. Just in case she needed them, she told herself. And she would email a doctor as well, to make an appointment for the start of the new year.
First, she had a whole batch of gifts to unwrap. The paper on most of them was shiny foil, in bright primary colours. Most of them were trinkets, things she wouldn't think twice about, and probably wouldn't remember until they were out of sight. But they were jokes as well, signs of how close the family had always been. Things nobody else would understand the meaning of, and somehow that made them special. Stanley was on form as usual, presenting her with a Rubik's Cube on which all the colours had been replaced by stickers, with pictures of the two siblings with their best friends from six previous schools. Solving it to recreate the pictures would be near to impossible, but she had no doubt that Stanley had done it at least once. Just the kind of crazy sentimentality he excelled in.
"That brings back memories," she said with a half smile. "Will I ever be able to solve it?"
"There's books. There's probably an app that can work out the solution for you."
"But I'd need to tell it which pieces are the same colour, right? And then..." but her mind was already poking at the idea. Could she try putting every combination of two pieces next to each other? She was sure that would be easy enough, if she didn't care about messing up the remainder. And then she would be able to put some kind of stickers on them, work out which ones were parts of the same pictures, and then perhaps learn to solve it. She would...
"Thank you," she gasped and laughed. "That's going to frustrate me for hours."
"Well, it was either that or the pony treehouse thing you asked for when you were four. Did I make the right choice?"
"I'm not a baby anymore," Tess pouted. And the moment stretched out while she waited for someone to say something about the way she'd woken up this morning. Or to tell her she would always be their little girl.
"Yeah, but you said you'd never forgive me if I didn't get you one. I keep on looking."
"You're an idiot," she answered, and she couldn't help giggling. She didn't know if this was how a family was supposed to work, but it just felt right.
"Hey, that's not nice," Stanley answered with a theatrical pout, and then held Tess's gaze for a beat, just long enough for her to wonder what was coming next. "I'm the idiot. The genuine article, the one and only."
They all laughed, and went on to open the rest of their presents. Then there were so many other things to do. When they were little, they'd always had plenty of time to spread out the festivities; presents one day, visiting relatives another. Then carol singing, the Christmas church services – until Mum had cut those out of the schedule – and for building a snowman if the weather wherever they were currently living was suitable. But now, there would only be five days when both siblings were with them. Getting to and from the airport, packing and unpacking bags, would probably take a day out of that allowance at either end, and their parents' obligations to office parties and other semi-official business would take another. So Christmas Day had to be the big day, the one that was special.
They had a big roast dinner for lunch, so that they could spend the whole of the afternoon and evening relaxing. In the evening they would have a lighter meal, accompanied by the traditional pulling of crackers, followed by the telling of terrible jokes, which would almost invariably degenerate into a contest between father and son to see who could come up with the worst pun. For the past two years, Dad had crowned himself honorary dad for the year; but it might still be this year when Stanley staged a comeback.
* * *
"Really?" Stanley spoke quickly, raising an eyebrow and putting on the generic southern accent he had adopted for one of the characters in his attempt at a shaggy dog story. "Where I come from, we call that beef!"
Dad tried to respond, but the punchline had come out of nowhere and he didn't know what he could do to stop in. Not to mention the fact that his wife wouldn't stop giggling for long enough to let him speak. Tess was laughing as well, and it wasn't until half an hour later, after her brother had been crowned 'dad of the year', that Tess realised the day was almost over.
As the hectic excitement of the day faded, she realised that she was already exhausted. She hadn't stopped for a moment to think since she woke up, and the day had been a constant parade of one activity after another. Trying to cram a whole holiday into a couple of days had taken more of a toll than she realised.
When the day was finally over, she walked back into her room and found one more gift waiting for her on her bed. A rectangular package, not wrapped in red and green foil, but simple paper. She poked at it, wondering why it was separate from everything else. She opened the door again, and stepped out into the hallway. There was a young woman there, with pale skin, red hair, and exotic features that Tess couldn't quite place. She was standing with her hands clasped together in front of her, and if Tess could sum her attitude up in one word, it would have been 'attentive'.
"Erico?" she guessed.
"Yes, Miss Naylor. Can I help you?"
"There's a parcel on my bed. Do you know who..."
"We thought it could be beneficial, Miss. We wish never to disturb the family, but sometimes it is appropriate not to speak in the open."
Tess hesitated. Most of the people in San Lorenzo spoke with a strong accent, but most were conversant in English even if it wasn't their mother tongue. Erico's phrasing wasn't perfect, but was probably better than Tess's command of any other language. And she wasn't going to get any better; the details were in there, if she knew how to understand them.
"شكرا," she mumbled, and turned to see what was in her latest present. She could possibly have guessed, and hoped that it wasn't the case. But she knew as she assessed the package again that there was no doubt about it. She unfolded the paper at the top, and peered inside to see a selection of letters she wasn't familiar with. But the shape and colour told her almost right away what she was looking at. When she turned the pack over, the English translation of the name was exactly what she would have expected.
"SleepSafe," she read. "Girls' pyjama pants for all night confidence." They were diapers. Not the same designs as the ones that had been in the changing table at home, but presumably some brand that was more popular in Europe. They had a pattern of stars and smiley faces, rather than Disney characters, which seemed just a tiny fraction less childish. But still, they had bought her diapers. And without even speaking to her first.
For a moment, she tried to be angry. How could they do that? Erico had been pretty clear that they hadn't discussed this with her parents. How could domestic servants be so forward? They were just the people who stayed in the background, and who had to clean up after her... When she thought about it like that, she knew that it would be childish to be angry. The staff were affected by her problem, and they hadn't complained to her parents. They had tried to help her instead. And she'd been planning to go out and get some diapers. She just hadn't found time. So she couldn't be mad that someone else had done it for her. She might have said that it wasn't going to happen again, that she'd just drunk too much last night. Or tthat it was the jet lag catching up to her. But she'd been drinking wine since the big lunch today, and she didn't know how the strength compared to what Gabby had offered her. If it was just tiredness, then she should follow Erico's advice.
Take precautions, and sleep confident that whatever happened, her family wouldn't need to know.