Chapter Twenty-Five

Sunday 13th December

I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams

"So what do you think? Can you see anything? I wondered if I should buy a better webcam?"

"Harry, I can't see a thing, just a lot of white; where are we?"

"Try that?"

Nikki saw the image change and could make out buildings below her. Suddenly there was a lot of noise and someone popped up in front of the camera and said 'hi!'

"Oy, get out the way, she's trying to see the view!"

"Okay man, chill!" the teenager said.

"Turn me round Harry I want to see you," Nikki called.

"Hello from the 102nd floor!"

"Morning," try and keep the thing still Harry and I can only see the bottom half of your face, lift it up a bit. Harry dutifully did as he was told revealing his whole face and his headwear.

"What the hell is that?" Nikki cried laughing and pointing at the screen.

"Nikki do you know how cold it is up here?"

"Yes but you seem to have ear flaps!" she laughed again her deep throaty laugh.

"Woah man she sounds hot!" the teenager grabbed his friend and tried to see the screen. "Where is she?"

"London," replied Harry.

"Hellooo London!" they called back.

"Erm hello," Nikki replied. "So I take it we're up the Empire State Building."

"Yes we are and we're not going to be for much longer or my fingers will freeze and I'll drop you, the temperature is in the minuses even on the Fahrenheit scale, it is REALLY cold Nikki, so quick look, there's the Chrysler building, the Brooklyn bridge, where the twin towers used to be, and the statue of Liberty beyond.

"It's lovely Harry," Nikki replied. She couldn't make out a thing but she wasn't going to tell Harry that.

"Any my apartment building is over that way, and the Park's that way."

"Ok Harry, enough whizzing me round, my head's not quite back to normal yet."

"Are you going to let me see your face today? I'll take you inside the indoors bit up here, it'll be a bit warmer. He bustled in through the door and found a quiet corner.

"Hmm, doesn't look too bad, how much make up have you got on it?"

"A bit," Nikki admitted.

"You were never going to let me see it properly were you?"

"No," she grinned. "Well my hat wearing friend; isn't it time you got home, those clouds out there looked like snow to me!"

"You think?" Harry asked, removing his hat now he was inside in the relative warmth.

"Definitely," she sounded certain, but she hadn't really seen anything at all from the webcam just the world weather forecast last night before going to bed.

"Woohoo, Hello London!" the boys screamed again as they passed Harry, their faces red from the biting wind.

"It sounds friendly," Nikki said.

"You know, sometimes it is; sometimes I really like it here."

"And at other times?" Nikki asked.

"At other times, it is totally and utterly cold; beyond freezing in every way you can imagine!"

"I'm sorry about Leyla." Nikki said, aware that despite his own crisis that week, she had monopolised a lot of his time and not really spoken about his problems at all.

"Don't be sorry, Nikki. I'm angry that she was just using me the whole time, but in some ways it's a relief. All that talk of marriage and the future. I spent hours trying and failing to picture it and now I don't have to worry anymore. I'm not sure I could ever really picture a future with her. I tried to visualise it, some bits seemed clear but there was so much I just couldn't imagine her there with me."

"So you could imagine some of it then?"

"Well not really, but I do have some goals, some aspirations, some things I just know will be.

"Like what?" Nikki said intrigued.

"Well as hard as it was to imagine Leyla in my future, I never had any trouble imagining you still being part of my life."

"Oh," Nikki replied, unsure really of what he meant. "You mean in forty year's time we'll still be Skyping each other every Sunday at one and telling the other who we shagged that week, and how many tablets we're taking?"

"Oh no!" Harry replied. Nikki pulled a face.

"There's no way we'd by Skyping at one," Harry continued. "I'm sure that would interrupt my Sunday roast at the rather smart care home I'll be in, I won't talk to you at one, something civilized like three-thirty would be much better," he grinned.

"So you'd move back to England for your dotage?"

"What?"

"This ritzy care home of yours must be in England if you're having lunch at one. That means you must be thinking about moving back sometime." Nikki explained.

"I suppose it does," he replied. It was amazing how a brief conversation with Nikki could reveal the meaning behind the thoughts he had.

"Don't you think we'll get fed up of each other by then? We won't really have stories to tell of who's been sleeping with whom when you're in your eighties will we?"

"We'll always have stories; I'll never get fed up with you, or your stories. This week's was a cracker. How many people do you think I know that can tell stories as good as yours?"

"They're not just stories Harry! It's my life!"

"I know! I will never get bored."

"What if I stop being hit on the head and left for dead quite so often?"

"You'd find something," Harry grinned. "With you, there will always be something."

"Are you going away for Christmas?" Nikki asked eager to change the subject.

"Yes! I can't wait, Florida here I come. I could do with some sunshine after this! Don't worry I'll take you with me, you can show Mum how Skype works and set it up for her on her computer."

"I don't know why you didn't show her before you left?"

"There are some things it's best not to attempt with Mum, teaching her the latest technology is certainly one. You'll be fine though. I promise. It's a mother son thing."

"Thanks Harry, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to it so much now!"

"Of course you will, you'll have a brilliant time, you'll have turkey and all the trimmings and I'll be sat on a beach with a margarita and a fajita. I can Skype you both Christmas night, that will be fun! Do you think you could turn me round so I can watch the Christmas Doctor Who with you?"

"Harry!" she laughed. "Anyway I thought they showed it over there now."

"Maybe, I never bothered with the TV. I'm sure I can get it somehow."

"I hope you have a good time, you never know, you might meet someone."

"I might!" He paused. "Jorge has asked me to sing with him, he wants Beto and me to do backing vocals at his next gig!"

"Harry?! Did you say yes?"

"I did! We're going to rehearse on Tues, see how we get on. Did I tell you he's had the Christmas album on ever since Thanksgiving was over? I swear I know every song already!"

The computer began to get jostled and the other voices were making it hard to hear.

"It looks like it's getting busier up there, you'd better go."

"Nice to talk to you Nikki," Harry said.

"You too Harry, thanks for the field trip."

"See you in Florida!"

"Yes, see you in Florida."

"BYE BYE LONDON!" Nikki heard from the distance. She laughed and closed the connection.

I'll be home for Christmas: Kim Gannon Walter Kent (Elvis)

Doctor Who is a long running SciFi BBC programme that always has a Christmas special; the irony this year being that Tom Ward played one of the characters in the Christmas episode. Sorry I just had to put it in and watching Dr Who on Christmas night is a very British thing to do.