Julia’s garden seems brighter than it was when I was last here. The hedges are neatly clipped and the scent of a newly mowed lawn fills the air. Jimmy, dressed in a reindeer-print shirt, has a beer in his hand and is talking to Cameron, who straightens and turns when I walk up the steps.
‘Amelie.’ Cameron doesn’t look me up and down, but I have a feeling he takes in everything. The sleeveless white linen shirt, matching long skirt and strappy white sandals I bought yesterday. My hair loose on my shoulders. A bowl of fruit salad in one hand, a bag full of gifts in the other. As he reaches for the bowl, I check him out too. Sage green short-sleeved shirt, black jeans, bare feet. Damp hair like he’s just got out of the shower.
‘Happy Christmas,’ he says quietly.
‘Thank you.’ Wrenching my gaze away, I look around him. ‘Where is Julia?’
‘Out the back. She’ll be happy to see you.’
I’m following Cameron through the house when I see the spruce that was sitting on a pallet in his shed. The pot has been covered with a pale green skirt appliqued with snowflakes and extra decorations have been added to the tree. Cameron’s wooden ornaments are different from the other baubles and Santa Clauses. The partridge sits on the top of the tree and below the partridge is a single dove (because I have the other one), and hens, parrots, golden rings, geese, swans, dairy cows and ballet shoes. The stars that represent the lords are gold and the thistles that represent the pipers have tall lilac spikes.
‘What do you think?’ Cameron, rugged and handsome and now even more serious than he was when I saw his Twelve Days of Christmas the first time around, is still holding my bowl of fruit salad.
‘Where are the drummers?’
‘I didn’t have time.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Christmas won’t mind?’
Analmostsmile. ‘No.’
‘Does that mean Christmas is a feeling, but it doesn’t have feelings?’
‘It’s good to see you, Amelie.’
When I went to high school in Sydney, I shared Christmas lunch with my grandmother and her elderly friends, and when I was at university, my friends invited me to their homes. I went to Alex’s parents’ holiday house and had Christmas lunch there. Everyone was welcoming and kind, but I felt like an outsider.
It would make sense for me to feel like an outsider here too but …
Cameron, Julia, Anna and Miss Winters are people I thought I knew but didn’t really know at all. I haven’t known Maggie, Jimmy and Audrey long, but would like to know them better. Tara is impressed by my ‘angel dress’ and holds out her arms whenever she sees me. Anna’s and Audrey’s husbands have taken over the barbecue and everyone looks out for Julia, sitting next to Cameron at the far end of the table, even though she tells them not to fuss. CJ and Reuben, a friend from school, touch hands when they think no one is watching. When Cameron presents the boys with tickets and asks if it’d be okay if he came with them to the Boxing Day cricket test, they cheer, grab his arms and spin him around.
Maggie and I sit at the opposite end of the table from Julia so that Rocket, flicking his tail like a metronome, can scowl in his cage between us.
‘I think Rocket would prefer to be on the roof.’
Maggie grins. ‘He’s hating every minute, but I’m having a better time than I thought I would.’
When I thread a piece of chicken through Rocket’s cage, he swipes it clear of the bars, bats it around the floor and pounces on it.
‘He’s doing well, Maggie.’
‘Thanks to you.’
I cut another piece of chicken from my kebab. ‘Audrey’s husband is doing a great job on the barbecue, isn’t he?’
‘I don’t know how he puts up with her.’
‘Maggie! Shhh.’
I suspect Audrey, sitting a few places down, knows we were talking about her because, careful not to get the heels of her patent red shoes stuck between the floorboards, she pushes back her chair and walks towards us.
‘Bloody hell,’ Maggie mutters, before loading a forkful of food into her mouth.
‘I see you’re enjoying Larry’s special marinade,’ Audrey says.
