The Advent Calendar (16 page)

‘Correct, sir. Delighted to be of service.’ He turned to JB. ‘What is it to be today?’

‘We need to sit down a moment and then we’ll need the screen.’ He led them to a corner of the shop where there was a small table and three chairs and a large plasma screen.

‘The most important lesson to learn about getting ready for Christmas,’ said JB, ‘is the one about forgiveness. All over the world, all year long, people hurt those they love in terrible ways.’ He picked up a remote control and pointed it at the screen. It divided into four sections. ‘The pictures are live,’ he said. ‘Fortunately there is no sound.’

Alice and Sam looked. They saw a husband and wife quarrelling; two elderly people walking sadly apart from each other; a grown man nursing a grudge against his father; two sisters who never spoke. Every few seconds, one of the images changed. Sam and Alice saw a succession of lonely, broken people in a world that was fragmenting.

‘Scratch the surface of any family,’ said JB, ‘and you will find deep fractures. Parents estranged from their children and children from their parents. Husbands and wives who live together still but whose hearts are full of bitterness. Brothers torn apart by jealousies which began in childhood. Sisters who never speak because of wrongs done to them years ago. Divorces which began with imagined neglect. Children separated from grandparents by pride which cannot make the first move. Lonely, estranged people carrying their own hurts, searching desperately for love.

‘Why do you think it is,’ he went on, ‘that people spend so much on Christmas? What is it they are looking for in the bright lights and decorations, food and drink? Each one is lonely. Each one is chasing friendship and community.’

He flicked off the television screen. ‘And that is why the most important lesson in preparing for Christmas is this: use these weeks before the Holy Day to practise forgiveness, to be reconciled, to let go of old hurts and wounds, to bring hearts and lives together again. There is no better way to get ready for the King.’

‘How can you forgive,’ said Alice, ‘if you have been so badly hurt?’

‘You have to want to do it,’ JB said, ‘really want to do it. Sometimes it helps to talk it through with someone else. But the best way is just to decide you will forgive and, if you can, let the person know. That’s why this little centre is equipped with phones and pens and paper.’

‘Shouldn’t you wait, sometimes, for the other person to make the first move?’

JB shook his head: ‘If each is waiting for the other, the waiting will last for all eternity. Make the first move. Make up. Be reconciled. Forgive and you will be forgiven.’

He stood up as he spoke and put one of his massive arms around each of them. ‘Come!’ he said. ‘This is one lesson which is learned in the doing not the hearing.’

He waved to Mr Gabriel who lifted his hat a final time and JB led them through a curtain into what looked on the outside like a fitting room.

In the corner of the fitting room was a mirror with a soft and misty surface. ‘You first, Sam. Put things right.’ Sam squeezed his hand, stepped through carefully and found himself back in the front room. Alice followed. Both of them looked back, expecting JB to be with them but the surface of the mirror simply reflected back to both of them their shabby, dirty image.

Alice quickly turned away, not liking the sight but determined to do as JB had said. She somehow had in her mind a picture of Megs and herself drifting further and further apart all down the years ahead.

‘Mum, I’m back,’ she called. ‘I’m sorry I ran off.’ Megs came out of the kitchen, into the hall and caught Alice up in her arms.

‘You absolute tinker,’ she said. ‘I’m so sorry. It was all too much too soon, I know.’

Alice set her feet back on the floor, held her mum’s hands and looked into her eyes. ‘Mum, I forgive you. I forgive you for everything. I love you very much.’ Megs hugged her again and held her close. ‘I forgive you, too, darling. We can get through this together.’

Sam went upstairs looking for Josie. He knew she wouldn’t be in the kitchen with Nick and Megs. Sure enough, she was in his small bedroom, eyes red and swollen. He knelt next to her on the bedroom floor and took her hand.

‘Josie – look – what you said earlier – it really hurt. I know that’s daft and I had no right to take offence. I just can’t stand the idea of you being with anyone else. Not now. I love you so much it hurts. But even though it hurts very much, I still think you were right to tell me. Nothing should come between us, not now. And I want you to know that if there’s anything to forgive – then I forgive you. It’s over.’

Josie was in tears again and he embraced her.

Alice thought hard about her dad for the rest of the day. He took her out for lunch, just the two of them. It didn’t feel right, somehow, to come right out and say she forgave him. Running off with someone else was on a different scale, somehow, to what Megs had done. But there was a sort of shift on the inside. And as they were saying goodbye, she managed to stammer out that Nick was still her dad and she loved him.

Later on, Alice and Sam sat together by themselves in the front room while Josie and Megs washed up after tea. Sam and Josie had been out to buy a Christmas tree and Alice was sorting through the decorations whilst Sam checked all the lights.

‘JB was right, wasn’t he?’ said Alice. ‘It’s very, very hard. But it is the most important part of getting ready...to forgive.’

Sam couldn’t speak. He just nodded and his eyes were drawn once more to the open door of the calendar. In the doorway two tiny figures were locked together in an embrace: reconciliation.

16 December

Megs kept her promise and took Alice to church on Sunday morning. Sam had offered to cook lunch to make up for last Sunday but Megs thought it wiser to put on a casserole before she left.

Alice took the red invitation with her again, just in case, and Megs put on her best coat. As they got ready, Megs admired herself in the mirror in the front room. ‘I’ve wanted a mirror like this for ages, Alice. It’s like a really nice early Christmas present. Come and look at yourself.’

Alice stood in front of Megs and looked carefully. She knew all Megs could see was a nicely turned-out daughter who was growing up fast. What Alice saw was someone who was stained and dirty from head to toe, whose clothing was ripped and torn, whose hair was streaked with dirt.

This week, of course, they were on time and Alice said hello politely as she was given a book and waved to the nice man who spoke to them last week. Brenda came over to say hello.

‘Hello Alice. Good to see you again. Is this your mum?’

‘Megs Carroll,’ said Megs, holding out her hand.

‘Brenda Fisher. Is this your first time here?’

Megs nodded. ‘We’ve not lived here long.’

‘You’re very welcome,’ said Brenda. ‘Just make yourself at home.’

‘That’s nice,’ whispered Megs as Alice led her to a seat.

To Alice’s great surprise, Megs knew her way around the service book and guided her through. ‘You know what to do!’ Alice whispered. ‘I never knew you used to go to church. Why have you never taken me before?’

‘Tell you later,’ said Megs. ‘Shhh.’

Alice let the words of the service wash over her and just enjoyed the great space and the time to think. So much was happening to her and the people she loved. She found herself thinking about Abraham and Sarah and Col and JB and wondering what they would make of church. She said a prayer for Megs and Sam and Josie and Grandad, who was still poorly. Her favourite part was where the vicar lit another candle in the Advent crown at the front of church. There were three burning now. Only one more Sunday and it would be Christmas.

Megs led Alice forward when the time came to receive communion. Again, to Alice’s surprise, Megs held out her hands and took a small piece of bread and drank some wine.

‘What’s that all about?’ Alice whispered as she got back to the pew.

‘Tell you later,’ said Megs, squeezing her hand.

Josie was there for lunch again and Megs had invited Andrew, with Alice’s permission. He said very nice things about the casserole. Megs said it was nothing special really but she had got up early to make it and her cheeks went a bit pink.

‘So tell me, Mum,’ said Alice after the first course, ‘how come you know all about church and stuff and even took the bread and wine, and Sam knows nothing about it?’

‘Charming,’ said Sam. ‘I wouldn’t say I knew nothing.’

‘I went to church until I was about your age,’ said Megs, ‘in Lincolnshire where we grew up. Grandma was very involved though your grandfather only ever went at Christmas and Easter. I was confirmed and everything – that’s what happens before you can take bread and wine. I had lots of friends there.’

‘But what about Sam?’

‘I was too young,’ Sam said. ‘I was only five when we moved to Luton.’

‘We just never started going again when we moved house,’ Megs went on. ‘I found new friends, life kind of filled up. I’ve thought about going back to church from time to time – especially over the last few months – but never quite made it. Your father would get cross every time I mentioned it. He doesn’t believe in anything. I never really wanted to go on my own.’

‘I used to have to go when I was a kid,’ said Josie. ‘My mum and dad go all the time. All I remember is having to keep really quiet. Didn’t you find it really boring?’

‘I don’t understand a lot of it,’ said Alice. ‘But that’s not the same as boring, is it?’

‘What about you, Andrew?’ asked Sam.

‘Choirboy and server,’ Andrew said, blushing a bit. ‘That’s someone who helps at the front, Alice. But my mum died when I was sixteen. She had cancer. I stopped going after that. Blamed God, I suppose.’

Megs squeezed his hand. ‘I’ll get the pudding,’ she said. ‘I – er – made a trifle.’

The phone rang. Alice ran and answered it. ‘It’s Grandma for you, Mum,’ she said. ‘She sounds worried.’

Megs took the phone into the front room and Alice dished out the trifle proudly. Andrew and Sam asked for big helpings and teased her that the bowls were too small.

Everyone was laughing and giggling when Megs came back into the room. They fell quiet when they saw her face.

‘It’s Dad,’ she said. ‘He’s been taken into hospital. He had some kind of seizure at lunchtime. Mum’s just got back. She’s really upset. I think one of us needs to go and see her.’

‘Can’t we all go?’ said Alice.

‘Not really, my love,’ Megs said. ‘We’ll need to go and see Grandad in hospital and they probably wouldn’t let you in. You’ll need to stay here with someone.’

‘Best if you go, old girl,’ Sam said quietly. ‘Not the best time for me to appear, is it?’

Megs and Alice both knew that Sam hadn’t seen his mum and dad for about six months – and the last time they had seen each other Sam and his dad had quarrelled badly. Something about Sam’s job and some money he owed them.

‘Do you want me to take you?’ said Andrew. ‘No trouble. I could find something to do in Luton for a couple of hours.’

‘Are you sure?’ said Megs. ‘You don’t mind?’

‘Least I can do after a lunch like that.’

‘That’s settled then,’ said Josie. ‘Leave the washing up to us. No excuses, Sam!’

Megs packed an overnight bag, just in case, and she and Andrew were gone ten minutes later. After the clearing up, Josie popped into town to do some Christmas shopping. Sam and Alice settled down in the front room to catch up on homework and the Sunday papers.

Alice had a French test the next day, so she spent twenty minutes trying to master irregular verbs. Feeling tired she went over, as she often did, to look at the calendar.

‘Sam, you toad, there’s another door!’

Sam was snoring quietly in the corner. Alice shook him awake. ‘Wake up! Sam! There’s a door. Where’s your phone?’

Sam rubbed his eyes and stared. The new door was the grandest yet, made of some kind of crystal. He stumbled outside to his coat and fished the mobile out of the left-hand pocket.

As he came back into the room he shielded his eyes from his own reflection. His skin was caked in mud and his clothing was torn to shreds. They went through the familiar routine.

‘Five.’ Click. ‘Four.’ Click. ‘Colon.’ Click. ‘One.’ Click. ‘Two.’

Cautiously, both Alice and Sam turned towards the mirror. To their amazement and great relief, the surface had turned cloudy. Sam went first this time. He pressed one hand through, then the other and waved his arms around. Nothing. Taking a deep breath he pressed his face through the viscous surface.

As he opened his eyes on the other side he heard JB chuckling. ‘There is no need to hold your breath, Sam. Just come on through. The show is about to start.’

With some difficulty Sam drew his legs and body through the narrow space. As Alice followed him, he looked around. They were indoors – you could tell that from the temperature: warm and a bit stuffy. There was some kind of soft black carpet on the floor.

The room was dark apart from a small light burning in what seemed to be the centre of the space, near to where they stood. Right in the middle were three elaborate-looking chairs – like the ones in the dentist’s or in the first-class compartment of an aeroplane.

Sam inspected the chairs, which were like nothing he’d ever seen, with all kinds of attachments. Alice looked above and around her. ‘Stars,’ she gasped. ‘Thousands of them. And they are underneath us as well as above. Like we are in space but we can breathe.’

Sam saw more clearly now, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, that the floor was a small circular platform surrounded by a guard rail at waist height. The platform was about the size of a large living room and seemed to be suspended in a huge sphere.

‘Come and sit down,’ said JB. ‘Enjoy the show!’ He took the seat in the centre with Sam on his right and Alice on his left and showed them how to get ready. There were special suits to wear made from very thin silver-coloured material, a headset with an earpiece and a safety harness securing them to the seat.

Alice got it first. ‘Is it like an IMAX?’ she said. ‘It feels like the one I went to with Dad, near Waterloo station – only with seats.’

‘Right first time,’ said JB, securing Alice’s straps. ‘Only we’ve built a few refinements into this one.’

‘It looks like the dome is 360 degrees,’ said Sam, eyes widening as he took in the scene. Both Sam and Alice loved fairground rides and rollercoasters of every kind. ‘Rollicking roosters!’

‘Absolutely,’ said JB. ‘Only the best. The sound is pretty impressive. These earpieces are just so that we can talk to each other. The seats tip and move during the flight so strap in tightly. We’ve also added atmospherics: wind and temperature changes and some smells.’

‘Amazing,’ said Alice. ‘When do we start?’

JB was strapping himself in. Sam saw he was still wearing his enormous coat and that his chair had some kind of keyboard strapped to it so he could start the performance.

‘Can you hear me, Alice?’ JB’s voice was clear through the headset.

‘Loud and clear,’ she said and gave the thumbs up.

‘Sam?’

‘All clear, JB.’

‘Then let’s go!’

The journey began slowly in terms of perception – although Alice realised afterwards that in reality what seemed to be the slowest part of the experience – at the beginning – was actually when they were travelling the fastest. The seats moved into an upright position. The front of the platform fell away so it felt as though they were suspended in space. As she looked at the dome above and below her, stretching away as far as she could see, Alice noticed that the stars were no longer stationary but had begun to move towards her and past her. There was no sound or wind, of course, simply a sense of forward movement in the vastness of outer space. One particular star dead ahead of them burned larger and more brightly than all the others. They were entering the solar system.

The journey continued in silence for what seemed like half an hour. The sun grew larger on the horizon. ‘Lower your visors now,’ said JB. ‘The sun will soon be too bright to look at directly. Look right.’

Sam turned his head. The coloured rings of Saturn flashed below them. The chairs banked left, as they spiralled into the solar system. In a matter of minutes the bulk of Jupiter appeared and passed beneath Alice’s left shoe. A few seconds later, the chair shook and dived, navigating its way past the asteroids, and moments after that they passed the red planet, Mars, skipping round its atmosphere, ever bending inwards and conscious of the growing brightness of the sun.

A few minutes later, as it seemed, Alice caught her first glance of earth suspended in space, rushing towards them. They skimmed low over the moon’s surface and were able to pick out craters, hills and plains and from there headed straight towards the earth, turning slowly on its axis. Alice gasped at the beauty of her own planet and picked out the familiar shapes of oceans and continents.

Sam jumped as somehow a great glass bubble was projected around them and the chairs moved back into a flat position. As the craft entered earth’s atmosphere the chairs lay flat and vibrated as they met resistance. The temperature increased and the bubble itself was coated in a sheath of flame.

The next moment the seats came upright again and they were flying through blue skies, through layers of cloud, descending all the time towards the earth’s surface. ‘Visors up!’ came JB’s command. As they descended, Alice could make out the coastline and the rivers, the vast desert spaces, the lakes and forests.

‘Where are the towns and cities?’ she asked.

‘Wait a moment,’ said JB. ‘Remember this is not quite the normal view.’

As they came nearer to the earth’s surface, the glass bubble around them retracted. They could feel the warm wind on their cheeks now and hear the gentle soundtrack of the earth without people. Alice noticed the way in which you had to listen carefully. The call of the gulls, the splash of waves on the beach, the cry of a deer.

Their journey paused over a series of low hills. Coming in, Alice had seen how their destination was a place where three great continents met: a crossroads of the world. They hovered at a height of about a hundred feet. JB pointed ahead and below. Alice saw the only signs so far of human life and habitation. A small wooden shack: a place for animals not people and, on a low hillside nearby, a wooden cross. There was nothing else.

JB pointed to the ground. ‘Watch very carefully.’ As they looked, something new began. A glistening, thin, deep-blue line appeared in the earth, then another, then another. They spread like a giant cobweb from the place where the cross stood and out for miles around covering the hillsides.

‘Foundations,’ called JB.

As the deep-blue lines spread outwards, Alice gradually began to see the shape of what looked like a great city: streets and squares, parks and gardens etched in sapphire. Sam looked back towards the centre. Clear crystals were appearing now in between the web of blue foundations, sparkling in the morning sun. Walls and houses, domes and turrets grew outwards from the centre. Ribbons of gold formed streets in between the buildings. Towers grew and sparkled the deepest red. As they watched, the great outer walls of the city were growing now and glistened with every kind of jewel. They rose above and around the city, protecting it from harm. Within them were set twelve pairs of gates made of pearl, four on each side, facing north, south, east and west. The gates were not closed but wide open waiting to receive all who would come. There was a light over and within the whole city which was brighter and more glorious even than the rays of the sun.