Page 63 of The Secret Christmas Bookshop
‘Nothing untoward has happened since we spoke on thephone.’ He frowned, and she wondered if he’d realized how uptight he’d sounded.
‘Great.’ She grinned. ‘Shall we go in? Annie’s probably waiting.’
Annie greeted them warmly and led them to the back of the arcade, through a set of double doors and into a space with only a couple of small, high windows, and a distinctly musty smell.
She held her arms out wide, gesturing to the three games that took up most of the space. ‘What do you think?’
‘Rudolph Hoopla,’ Harry said, approaching the first one. Three comedic-looking stuffed reindeer heads, with antlers and large red noses, stuck out of the back panel, and there were stacks of coloured rings on a counter at the front. ‘You get different points for the different parts?’
‘More for the noses, because they’re not as easy to hook onto,’ Annie explained. ‘And it has a kooky soundtrack and flashing lights, if you’ve got an external power source.’
‘We have,’ Sophie confirmed.
‘Great! Get a load of this.’ She switched it on, and the game came to life with flashing, multicoloured lights racing around the top, and a dance remix of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’.
‘That is hideous.’ Harry had to shout to be heard.
‘The kids will love it!’ Annie grinned.
‘Oh my God,’ Sophie said. ‘The reindeermove?’The heads were dipping down and up, moving from side to side.
‘That’s for added difficulty,’ Annie told her. ‘You can turn it on or off.’
‘I say on.’ Harry folded his arms, wincing as the music changed key.
‘Harry Anderly,’ Sophie said, mock-sternly, ‘do you want to make all the Mistingham children cry? How will you ever shake off the Dark Demon Lord of Mistingham title if you behave like this?’
He shot her an irritated glance.
‘The dark demonwhat?’ Annie said.
‘Nothing,’ Harry replied quickly. ‘What’s next?’
Annie switched off the disco reindeer and the room fell into blessed quiet. She showed them the Christmas Tree Carnival Toss, which was a cutout wooden Christmas tree, at least seven feet tall, painted beautifully in dark green with old-fashioned decorations. It had holes cut in it, into which players had to try and throw sponge balls, and no lights or blaring sounds. ‘Thank God,’ Harry said emphatically.
‘This is the last one.’ Annie gestured to a large plastic pond, currently without water, but full of little plastic figures all dressed as festive characters – elves and Santas, robins and snowmen. The surround was painted in red, green and gold glitter paint.
‘It’s Hook the Duck,’ Harry said incredulously.
Sophie felt laughter bubble up inside her.
‘Hook theChristmasDuck,’ Annie corrected.
‘Right,’ he said. ‘That’s an entirely different kettle of fish, then.’
‘Don’t you mean an entirely different pond of mallards?’ Sophie asked.
The look he gave her could have frozen the surface of the sea.
They agreed on a price with Annie for the hire of all three games, and the task of getting them moved to the green, then stepped into the winter sunshine.
‘What’s next?’ Harry asked.
‘I need to go to Vea’s and pick up the supplies I ordered for oak-tree decorating.’ A cloud slipped in front of the sun, and Sophie tucked her chin into her collar.
‘Ah yes, the part where we don’t just decorate the “at risk” tree with fancy lights, we allow the villagers to hang decorations on it.’
Sophie stopped walking. ‘Youlovedthis idea when we talked about it: getting everyone to make a decoration in the village hall in the week leading up to the festival, writing a Christmas wish or something they’re grateful for on it, then putting it on the tree. We’ll have someone there – you or Dexter or Ermin – to do the actual hanging, because children especially won’t be able to reach, but …’ She huffed out a breath. ‘Why have you reverted back to Lord Grump?’
