Page 27 of Daddy's Christmas Elf
“Look! Look, over there.” Eli pointed, his excited words slicing through the thoughts Grey shouldn’t be having. “Holly. There’s loads of it, so we can fill up our bags.” Eli tapped his pocket where a couple of the shopping carrier bags were stored away and gave a conspiratorial wink. “And we can get some ivy, too. Your living room is going to look like the centre fold spread of Stylish Christmas Homes. If that magazine doesn’t exist, it should do. Come on.” Laughing as he went, Eli slogged the last few steps to the top of the hill.
The bush was thick with holly, covered in fat red berries, and it wasn’t long before they’d filled one of the bags to overflowing.
“Is it legal, what we’re doing?” Eli asked, when they moved on to a clump of trees around which ivy twisted.
“Probably not. But if there’s nobody here to report us…” Grey shrugged. He didn’t know and he didn’t care, because outside in the sharp air with Eli working beside him and looking way cuter than was good for Grey, was doing him more good than anything had done in a long time.
“In which case, let’s see how much we can stuff in our bags.”
A few minutes later they’d gathered together as much as they could carry home.
“I’ve never seen the Heath so empty. I thought there’d be lots of kids up here, building snowmen.” Grey looked around him, at the Christmas card prettiness, squinting at the few people off in the distance. “But it’s so cold, I—oooff!”
The thud hit him square between the shoulder blades. Grey spun around. Eli was standing a few feet away, his face bright with mischievous trepidation. One gloved hand was brushed with snow, the other, held aloft, clutched a snowball.
Grey narrowed his eyes, and Eli grinned.
“You really think you’re going to get away with that? You were supposed to give me a warning. It’s the cardinal rule of snowball fights.”
Grey took a step forward, as Eli took one back, snowball still held high.
“No warnings, and take no prisoners. I fight dirty.”
“Yeah? Well I fight bigger, faster, and stronger — and way dirtier.”
Grey dropped the bags and swooped down, scooping up a mound of wet snow. Eli’s snowball whizzed past him, his aim less sure this time, before he turned tail and staggered through the thick snow, yelping and laughing as he tried to make his escape as Grey pelted his retreating back with expert overarm bowls.
Thank you, cricket practice…
Eli did his best to make as many snowballs as he could, but they fell short of Grey who continued launching his arsenal with military precision.
“Okay, okay, I give up.” Eli, covered in an explosion of snow, held his arms up in surrender, all the time laughing.
“Stop? It doesn’t work like that. I say when we stop, not you.” Grey grinned as he stalked towards Eli. “You can’t expect to throw a snowball at me and think you’ll get away with it. Come on, Eli, time to take your punishment.”
Grey leapt forward, but Eli anticipated him, and shot off down the hill, arms windmilling. Grey chucked the snowballs, one after the other in a ferocious volley but each fell shorter than the last as Eli ran fast.
Too fast.
Way too fast.
“Oh, shit.” Grey bolted after him, slipping and sliding, but Eli, out of control, was putting distance between them. The downward slope of the hill was getting steeper, adding to Eli’s uncontrollable momentum.
“Throw yourself down, to the side,” Grey bellowed, but the wind whipped his words away. The slope began to level out, but not enough for Eli to regain control, and stop him from smashing into the huge tree in his path.
Grey surged forward, putting everything he had into catching up with Eli who was headed towards a head-on collision. Grey’s long legs closed the gap, then a little more, just enough for him to throw all his weight behind a high leap, grabbing Eli tight, pushing him to the ground, the two of them tumbling in a tangled knot of limbs, snow sticking to their clothes, their hair, their faces. The tumbling slowed and stopped, under the tree’s snow laden branches, just inches from its gnarled old trunk.
They lay panting, trembling, and dazed, arms wrapped around each other.
“My legs wouldn’t slow down, I—I tried to stop but I couldn’t.”
Eli’s voice was small and breathless. Grey untangled their limbs. Eli was hurt, he couldn’t not be. He needed a doctor, The Royal Free Hospital was only minutes away…
“I’ll call an ambulance.” Grey fumbled for his phone, but Eli’s hand, steadier than his voice, clasped his arm.
“I’m okay, and that’s because of you. I’m a bit shaken up, got to admit, but the only thing really hurting is my pride.”
“You need to be checked over.”
