For those who are following Demon be reassured, I will continue with it in the new year. In the meantime, my favourite character is talking to me again. I don't have time right now to write him a new book, but I can't deny him, so he's taken over the briefs for the next couple of weeks.
For those of you who haven't read the Enigma series. Silver is a former sex slave who, after having been beaten almost to death for loving another slave, ended up lost inside his head in a care home where River worked. With River's help he is slowly learning to live in the world outside his head, but isn't finding it easy because seven years ago everything that was essentially him (except for that little bit he managed to keep safe and inviolate) was wiped out to be replaced by someone who knows nothing but how to serve and to bring pleasure to men.
Despite his past, Silver is the sweetest and most beautiful person I have ever written. To see the world through his eyes is refreshing and invigorating for me.
In the next few flashes, we join River, Silver and River's twelve year old brother, Ben for Silver's very first Christmas. On Christmas Eve I will post a short story I wrote for a Special Edition of books I and II which was available for only a very short period of time, which gives us a slightly more in depth look at what Silver really things about Christmas
The prompt I've used this week was "It's hard when you don't know who to trust"
“Make sure you hold the ladder tightly. I want today to be
magical and a trip to the hospital doesn’t fit with my plans at all.”
“Why are you going into the roof?” River smiles his secret
smile, the smile he has when he’s hiding something – not in a bad way, but to give me a
surprise. I like surprises, but not when River might get hurt.
“I told you, it’s a surprise.”
“But I don’t want a surprise that hurts you.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine if you just hold the ladder.”
I hold the ladder as tightly as I can, but it still wobbles a little
as River balances on the very top and disappears through a hole in the ceiling.
I’m very anxious. I get anxious about a lot of things. Even though River tells
me I’m getting better every day, and I suppose I am, I don’t think that will
ever really go away. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope so.
“Catch the boxes,” River calls from inside the hole. I’m about to tell
him I can’t, because I’m holding the ladder, when I realize how silly that
would be. I don’t need to hold it when River isn’t on it. “Be careful, there
are some delicate things inside.”
I have to climb a little way up the ladder to reach the boxes, as
River passes them down. I don’t mind. I’m not afraid of heights. It’s one of
few things I’m not scared of. Sometimes it feels as if I’m scared of the world
and everything in it.
There are four boxes, and when they’re all safely on the floor, River
comes down out of the hole and I’m very glad.
I help River carry the boxes downstairs and he lays them in the middle
of the living room floor.
“What’s inside?”
“Take a look.”
The first box is quite large, but very light. I pull open the flaps
with growing excitement, and gasp aloud. The box is filled with glitter. No,
not actual glitter but…things that glitter and shine. I pull one out. It’s long
and soft and very shiny. “What it is?”
“It’s called tinsel.”
“What do we do with it?”
“The big ones can go on the ceiling, and there are thinner ones we can
put over the picture frames and on the tree.”
“What tree?” There are trees in the garden, but I’m not sure they’d
look good with tinsel wrapped around them.
“Silver, did you hear a word I just said?”
“Oh, no, sorry. I was thinking about the trees. How do we get the
glitter to stay on? We don’t wrap it around the trunk, do we? I don’t think
that would look good.”
“Not those trees, silly. We’re getting a tree for inside.”
“An inside tree?” That was interesting. Sam and Hannah have plants in
their house, but I’ve never seen an actual tree inside.
“You’ll see later. Maybe we’ll leave that box until then. It might
confuse you. Here, open this one.”
River pushes a box toward me and I open it with trembling hands. I’m
so excited. This one holds lots of little plastic things on strings with boxes
at one end. “What are these?”
“Wait a minute.” River takes one of the boxes and twists to push it
into a socketson the wall. Ah, of course. That’s what the box is, a plug. I’ve
never seen one dangling on a string before.
As soon as River turns on the electricity, the little plastic things
turn into tiny coloured lights that spill over my hand into the box. “They’re
beautiful,” I breathe. “What are they for?”
“They’re called fairy lights. We pin them up around the house and on
the tree.”
“I’ve seen them before. Randy put them in the shop. I made up some of
the little house kits, too, and put them in the window. Christmas decorations.”
The penny drops. “Is that what these are?”
River nods and smiles.
“Oh.Oh. I know what you mean about the tree. I’ve seen them. Christmas
trees. There’s a big one in the square, and Randy has one in the shop.” Randy
owns the art shop where I work.
“What’s in the last box?”
“Go ahead and take a look.”
It’s magical. Lots of little ornaments. Snow globes, frosted snowmen
and two white trees, like Christmas trees only much smaller.
“They go on the mantelpiece and the windowsill. I thought we could put
a few in our room, too.”
“I know what I can do. I’ll bring some of the little house kits home
and we can make the window pretty, just like in the shop.”
“That would be lovely.”
“I’ll go get some this afternoon and we can all do it together when
Ben comes home from school. Randy has special snow. It’s in a little tube but
gets much bigger when you put water on it. Snow is good at Christmas, right?”
“Snow is very good at Christmas, but do you know what’s better?”
I shake my head, although I have an idea from the way River is looking
at me what he’s going to say.
“You,” he whispers, crawling across the floor until he’s close enough
to kiss me.
This is the best part of Christmas; the best Christmas present I could
ever have. Christmas is very new to me. I didn’t celebrate Christmas at all
when I was a slave. Sometimes I saw the decorations, but I didn’t know what
they were for. Of course there were stories among the slaves, but I didn’t know
which to believe. It’s hard when you don’t know who to trust. They made pretty
pictures in my head, though, and that’s all I had back then. Now, I have more
than I could ever have hoped for. A home, a family, and best of all my soul
mate; the love of my life – River, who I know I can trust beyond doubt; beyond
reason. My saviour.
Next week, we'll pick up Ben and go looking for a tree.
In the meantime go check out the rest of our merry band of flashers
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