Davey's Tree

Davey was sad. Two days ago he'd been with his mam and dad in Tenerife. Now, they were suddenly home and self-isolating for two weeks.

What was so much worse was that his grandma had died. Mam had said it had been quick and unexpected. Like that was a good thing. Davey didn't think it was a good thing. His hamster had died last year. It had been quick and unexpected too.  That really hadn't bee a good thing.  He still missed Hammy. They still didn't have a replacement pet.

While they were all in the same house, they only seemed to see each other at meals. Sometimes Dad didn't join his mam and him. Dad had red eyes a lot of the the time.  Mam was on the phone sorting things out.

Davey sat in his room, playing on his PS4. It was going to be his main Christmas present, but Dad said he might as well have it now.

He felt numb. There was a metallic feeling around his heart. When anyone sent him a message about his gran that feeling squeezed and made him cry. He killed people in Call of Duty to make the pain seem less. So that he gave the pain to them.  Like they could take it away from him.

They didn't put up decorations. Davey's mam was too busy.  Davy's dad had gone up to the loft, but had found a tree ornament that Davey's gran had given him. It had been on their tree when Dad was little. Dad had sat at the edge of the loft hatch and cried. Davey didn't like to see him cry. He didn't say anything about the decorations after that.

But he did have a moan about it to his friends online. Ava and Fred talked about the mass of Christmas decorations that their parents had put up.  They even had a bloomin' huge blow up Santa in their front garden.

Amy's parents sounded much saner. They stuck their cards to door with blutac. They put up their tree on the first Saturday of December. They didn't have a real tree. Amy's dad had done research into the environmental impact of a real tree over a fake tree. Apparently there were a lot of facts to consider. He'd plumped for a large artificial one in the end.

His friends awkwardly commiserated with him over the lack of decorations and, of course, his grandma.

Mam had sorted out the funeral. They had to take him because there was no one to look after him. They sat at one side of the chapel. Uncle Simon, Auntie Sue, Ryan and Isobel sat at the other side. There were a couple of older people dotted around the back. Davey didn't know who they were.

Davey had never been to a funeral. The family wasn't religious. Gran had once said to stick her in a cardboard box and let her rot in the woods. She was laughing at the time. Mam had not taken this into account. But it was a small ceremony. They'd got into with a Humanist celebrant. He'd talked to mam, dad, Uncle Simon and Auntie Sue about gran. Now he talked about her as if he knew her. Mam recited Gran's favourite Joan Grenfell monologue. Everyone had a sad laugh.

Everyone cried as gran's coffin trundled towards the oven on the conveyor belt.  They played Gran's favourite song - Devil Woman by Cliff Richard. 

Mam started to cry a lot then. Dad put an arm around Mam's shoulders and they both cried. Davey cried too. He cried for his gran, but he also cried because his mam and dad were crying.

The house felt kind of empty when he got back. Mam dropped her bag and went to put on the kettle. She'd not taken off her coat. Davey got himself a glass of squash and went upstairs to his room.  His mam didn't even shout at him to remember to bring it back down.

The next day Davey came downstairs to the still undecorated house. It didn't seem worth it, his mam said. 

It felt like it would be disrespectful, Dad muttered.

Davey felt sad because he had always decorated with gran. Neither of them had been able to reach the top of the tree, so Dad had always been the one to put the angel on the top.

A couple of streets away, Amy was talking to the Ava and Fred over the internet.

"Have you been past Davey's?" Amy asked

"Yeah, the house looks sad," Ava said.

"No colour at all, " Fred muttered. 

"I've got an idea." Amy always had the ideas.

Later that day, Amy strode over to Davey's house with the biggest tree decoration she could find. It was actually too big for their tree. Her parents wouldn't miss it.

In the meantime Ava and Fred had been posting leaflets through doors. They'd made them on the computer.  The leaflet said

OUR FRIEND DAVEY HAS LOST HIS GRAN. (SHE DIED.) HIS PARENTS ARE SAD AND HAVE NOT PUT UP XMAS DECORATIONS. WE WANT TO DECORATE THE TREE OUTSIDE HIS HOUSE. IF YOU HAVE ANY BIG DECORATIONS, COULD YOU LEAVE THEM ON YOUR DOORSTEP TOMORROW?

When Davey came downstairs on the day after the day after his grandma's funeral it too him a while to notice the large red bell on the cherry tree in his front garden. His mam had noticed it first. She looked, as his gran used to say, 'pussy struck'.

"Where did that come from?" she stood at the front window with her cup of coffee.

No one answered her.

The next day lights appeared on the tree.

That was a surprise to Fred and Ava, whose mam had helped them to collect (and disinfect) the Christmas decorations they'd collected.

They hung the decorations, stars, bells, Santa Clauses, baubles as far up as they could reach. What was about five and a half feet. It looke a bit sad with only a bit of the tree done. But they went home feeling that they'd done what they could.

Davey could see them doing it. He waved frantically out of the window and they waved back.

"Have you been past Davey's?" Amy sounded really excited on the phone.

Ava said that they hadn't. Amy had to got past Davey's to leave the estate. They didn't.

"Come over. I'll see you there."

Ava and Fred's mam did need some convincing, but eventually they got dressed up for going out and walked to Davey's house.

They could not believe it. The tree was fully decorated. Fully. Right to the top. There were nutcrackers and ballerinas, mice in Santa hats, hedgehogs in Santa hats, reindeer and even more lights.

Davey's mam woke him up. He'd been getting up later and later. She was more excite that he'd seen her since before they'd heard the news about gran.

"Davey! You have to get up and see this!"

He slowly shuffled  down the stairs. He was still sleepy. He didn't expect anything more than he'd seen the day before.

The tree in their front garden was full of lights and ornaments. It was so colourful it almost made his eyes dazzle. He felt his nose tickle.

Then he saw his three friends near the tree. Properly socially distanced and everything.

He ran to the door because he had to say thank you. Opening it he almost fell over the largest Christmas tree topper star he'd ever seen.

Then he bounded over it.

He really wanted to hug his friends, but Amy reminded him that it wasn't allowed. So they all stood and grinned at each other.

Mr Brown, next door, came out too. He beamed at the children, "That's a bloomin' brilliant tree!"

Mrs Forsythe from next door cam out and agreed.

As though they had rung a bell, all of the other neighbours came out of their front doors. They started to sing 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland.'

Davey's mam came out and wrapped her arms around him. He knew she was crying. He also knew they weren't the type of tears that she'd cried after gran's funeral.

There was a clatter from the garage. Dad, still in his slippers was dragging the big ladder out of their garage. Dad, still in his slippers was dragging the big ladder out of the garage. He stood it beside the the tree, wondering where top of a cherry tree was.

Mam left Davey and insisted Dad should put on some proper shoes. Once he had, she held on to the bottom of the ladders. He took the star to what he'd judged to be the top of the tree and put it in place. It was a bit wonky, but everyone clapped and laughed..

When we was older, Davey knew that while that hadn't been the happiest of Christmases, it was the one he'd always remember.

 17 December 2020.