A/N – Hello everyone! So I've been having a problem with writer's block recently and to get back into the habit of writing I am trying to write for prompts and challenges. And what better challenge than an Advent Calendar Challenge!
Disclaimer: I do not own Thunderbirds!
Hope you enjoy them! And so for day 1!
Prompt - On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me...
Parker put down the cup of tea and the crumpet he'd been munching when the doorbell rang. He pulled his jacket back on and rushed to the door.
Outside was a deliveryman, shifting sheepishly from foot to foot beside a large crate that was almost as tall as he was.
"Hi, mate, one to sign for. For Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward."
"What in blazes is it?" Parker asked, looking incredulously at some of the labels on the crate – 'international special delivery', 'this way up', 'live plants' and most worryingly 'live animals'.
"I, uh, I think it could be a joke… But then you never know with these richies, do you?" The delivery man gave a nervous sort of laugh and rocked back on his heels. "Sign for it?" He asked almost desperately, thrusting the electronic pad at Parker.
Parker grumbled but took the stylus and scrawled his signature.
"Thanks," the guy snatched the handle of the sack truck and all but ran down the drive, almost slipping on a patch of ice, to his van.
Parker walked around the crate several times, listening to a faint scratching inside, but ultimately deciding the crate was perfectly safe. He gave it one more long curious look, then headed back inside and to the drawing room, where he found her ladyship sipping a cup of tea and looking over her calendar of seasonal events and benefits coming up.
"'Scuse me, Milady. Delivery for you, h'out the front."
"Really, Parker? How wonderful, an early Christmas present perhaps." Lady Penelope laid the calendar back on the coffee table and gestured for Parker to lead the way. He stopped at a cupboard by the front door to fetch a crowbar.
Parker saw her eyes light up slightly but her eyebrows give a confused quirk when she saw the crate standing out on the front drive.
"Oh my, whatever could it be?" she asked, with girlish glee. She pulled a card from the front of the crate. "'From your true love.' Intriguing! Open it up, Parker."
Parker positioned the crowbar into the top edge of the crate, lifting off the lid. As he did so the sides folded down to reveal the entire contents of the crate.
"Goodness gracious," Penelope commented.
Parker's mouth dropped open.
Inside the crate was a tree in a large terracotta pot, wrapped with a gold ribbon. And sitting on the soil of the pot at the foot of the tree was a small bird.
What made Lady Penelope's musical laugh ring out so loudly though, was the fact that the tree was a pear tree and the bird, well that was of course a partridge.
"Well I never…" Lady Penelope stared at the tree for several seconds and then laughed again, realisation dawning as she flipped over the card in her hand to read the short message on the other side. 'From all five of us' and a winking face.
A/N – Well, there you go, day 1 done! Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it, it would be lovely to hear what everyone thought so if you want to leave a little review… :)
And hopefully I'll be able to keep this up all month!