Not Daddy Christmas

"But if I'm using your car, David, what will you do?"

"That's OK, Sonia. I have my classic sports car. It's not practical for bulk shopping but it will do."

It took a couple of hours of internet and telephone calls to sort out the insurance for Sonia to drive Jane's old car. Sonia's own car insurance was still valid. She had to notify them that she no longer owned her car but her proof of no claim bonus helped.

Sonia had a job. She had use of a car, laptop, internet access and most importantly somewhere to live. I knew she was feeling awkward about how much I was doing for her. She was grateful but too conscious of the debt, financial and otherwise.

+++

There wasn't much more we could do about Sonia's finances this close to Christmas because the banks were closing for a few days. We had food supplies including the dinner for Christmas Day. Everything else would have to wait.

I suggested that Sonia contacted Andy at least to tell him where she was. She rang him and arranged to meet him at a coffee shop in town. She drove off in Jean's old car. I waited, worried that Sonia might be hurt by just telling Andy what had happened. She didn't come back for three hours. Her face showed that my fears had been groundless.

She walked into the kitchen, threw her arms around me, and kissed me very effectively. I wanted to hear her news but her lips were too busy silencing her Uncle David. When she withdrew her face a few inches I suggested coffee.

"Coffee? No thanks. I'm awash with coffee. Andy and I drank too many cups while we talked."

"And?"

"I know some of what was wrong with John. He had sent a long email to Andy. Andy had edited it and printed put a copy for me. I knew that the company John was working for had been taken over about two years ago. What I didn't know was that all the staff were made redundant and re-employed under new contracts. John hadn't been employed long enough to get a redundancy payment at the take over."

"But...?"

"John found out that the new owners were asset-stripping the company and breaking company regulations. He spoke to one of the Board members about it. That was his big mistake. Within the hour he was made redundant, this time for real, and again without any financial compensation. He went to the Citizens' Advice Bureau but they couldn't help, nor could he raise a complaint with an Employment Tribunal -- because his new contract had been too short. He was unemployed and with a bad reference. His new bosses were crooks and he couldn't do anything about it."

"What did Andy think about it?"

"Andy? He was great. He had tried to help John but his own employers are in difficulties. Until the email Andy hadn't known the full story, just that John was unemployed. He thought I knew. The email made it clear that I didn't. Andy had wanted to contact me as soon as he read John's email. He couldn't. He had John's email address and mobile phone number, neither of which are working, but he didn't have a contact for me. He would have offered me a bed even though he would probably have had to sleep on a settee. His flat? It's a studio apartment. You know what that means -- a single room with an attached bathroom. It wouldn't have been practical for more than one night."

"Any other news from Andy? Such as where John's gone?"

"No. As I said, John's email and phone don't work. He's probably as broke as I was. Where he is? Andy doesn't know and I haven't got much idea. He's still got his car. He might be sleeping in that. It's just possible. We did it for one very wet night when we couldn't find anywhere dry enough to pitch a tent. Oh. The tent and camping equipment. The bailiffs took it all. It was still in the flat. So John can't be camping. He would have taken it."

"Did you lose anything you really valued, Sonia?"

"No. Not really. The bailiffs were very good, for bailiffs. They let me take the items of sentimental value and for my work, except the computers. We've lost furniture, tools, utensils, white goods all of which could be replaced over time but nothing that is really irreplaceable -- except our home."

I could see that Sonia was hurt most by that. She had not only lost her partner, she had lost what she considered to be her home. Whatever I did for her, I couldn't turn back the clock. If only I had kept in touch with her? But what could I have done? Sonia didn't know that she was due to be evicted or that the bailiffs were on the way -- until it was too late for anyone, including me, to stop it. I might have been able to save everything she owned by paying the bailiffs but I couldn't have stopped the eviction.

"Andy did something else for me that really helped," Sonia said slowly. "He showed me that he loved me and had done for years. He didn't say it, but I knew. John's abrupt departure and the months of argument had upset me more than I had realised. Andy's love, and yours, Uncle David, mean a lot to me. You two are there for me."

Sonia hugged me almost as if she didn't want to let go.

"I kissed Andy outside the coffee shop. He was startled but he enjoyed it. So did I. It is great to know that someone loves and wants a homeless waif."

"You're not..." I started to say. Sonia's lips cut my words short.

"I know. I'm your house guest, David. But I still feel I'm homeless. The home I had is gone, emptied, locked. The life I had has gone too. The relationship I thought I had? That's gone. If John had admitted that he was unemployed? We could have worked through it, somehow, perhaps. But there is something I still don't know. Why was John spending so much before he was unemployed?"

Sonia waved a hand at the paperwork neatly docketed into folders.

"The credit card debts started to accumulate over two years ago. John had been paying the minimum until he was sacked. After that he couldn't pay and the debts multiplied. So did the letters demanding instant payment. He was paying what he could but not paying anyone else -- the rent, the council tax, the utilities -- even though I was transferring money into the joint account towards them. But why was he spending so much? And in cash? The accounts show cash withdrawals, not transfers or cheques. John must have taken some of the correspondence when he left. It's not all there."

"We'll sort you out first, Sonia. We can't do anything about John if we don't know where he is."

"I know. But I'm worried. He was my partner. I loved him."

Saying 'loved' instead of 'love' made Sonia sad. She looked straight at my face.

"I loved him, David, I really did. He loved me. Now I have to say it in the past tense. That hurts more than everything. Whatever troubles John had I thought our love could work through them. Now that love has gone, just as John has gone. I can't rebuild that. It's past, over. John ran away leaving me to face eviction with just a day's warning. I can never forgive that. He abandoned me."

I held Sonia tightly, almost as tightly as she was hugging me. She was beyond crying. She was sad, distressed, but numb. John's betrayal had really crushed her more than the situation.

"You need time, Sonia. Andy and I will try to give you that time. The short term problems will be sorted out in the New Year. It will take longer to rebuild..."

I stopped. Rebuild? That gave me an idea as Sonia looked quizzically at me.

"Have you got any do-it-yourself skills, Sonia," I asked. "Painting, decorating, that sort of things?"

"I think so. We weren't allowed to do anything in that rented flat but I had helped Mum in the past. Why?"

"When Jane and I bought this house we had thought we might need to have a granny annexe for Jane's mother. My parents were living in a bungalow in a seaside town. Jane's mother was in a London tower block. We thought she might need to move if she got old and frail so we were looking for a house that could have a granny annexe. This house had originally belonged to a doctor. His surgery was alongside and although it hadn't been used since the 1930s we thought we could adapt it. Come on. Come and have a look."

I pushed her off my legs. She looked puzzled but she followed me into the kitchen. We went through a side door into a passageway behind the attached garage. There was a back door to the garage but another door ahead of us. It was locked but the key was in the door.

It opened into another passage way beside the garage but I crossed to the next door, also locked with the key in the keyhole. Beyond that was a small hall. I turned left and fumbled for a light switch.

"This is the living room," I announced. "The windows are covered inside and out."

I'd forgotten how much clutter was stored in that room. Most of it was shapeless heaps covered with cotton dust sheets.

"It's big," Sonia said.

"This was the waiting room for the surgery. The receptionist had a desk in that corner." I pointed.

There was another door to the right of where the desk would have been. We went through that to a corridor running side to side

"That's the bathroom and toilet," I said waving my hand towards a door on the left. "The kitchen which doesn't exist was to have been over there, to the right."

"Doesn't exist?" Sonia queried.

"Yes. Jane's mother never came. She fell down in her flat, went into hospital and never left the hospital until she died a week later. She had made it very clear that she didn't want to live with us anyway so we never converted this part of the house."

I opened the door in front of us.

"This was the doctor's consulting room and we were going to make it into the bedroom. It has a view of the back garden but the back door is in the non-existent kitchen."

The bedroom was about two-thirds the size of the living room. The kitchen that never was ran alongside it.

"It's massive," Sonia said. "Bigger than our flat was."

"But only potentially a granny annexe. The kitchen has nothing except an ancient sink. The bathroom and toilet had fittings but they were ripped out decades ago. There's no heating except two blocked off open fires and the wiring? 1920s except the one light in the living room. That's on a temporary circuit from the main house."

"What are you suggesting, David?"

"What I'm suggesting is that we, with some professional help, make this into a Sonia annexe. You could live here independently."

"But..."

"But what? Finding a place to rent that you could afford? When could you do that, Sonia?"

Sonia's face crumpled, nearly in tears.

"After an eviction and with a wrecked credit rating? That's sometime, never, David."

"But here, working together, we could build a new home for you. Eventually it would add to the value of the house when I, or my executors, sell. It will take money, effort and time but only weeks or at worst a couple of months."

"Are you pushing me out of your house after a few days, David? You already have four bedrooms. Am I too much to have in your house?"

"No, Sonia, of course you aren't. But you are a different generation. You need to be your own person not my guest, au-pair, or whatever..."

"...whatever has possibilities, David." Sonia actually smiled at me, the first real smile since we met in the Council office.

"It hasn't, Sonia. I'm decades older than you, nearly old enough to be your grandfather..."

"Not my Christmas Daddy?"

"Sonia! Stop teasing me!" I knew she didn't mean it but I was pleased that she felt happy enough to be playful.

Sonia hugged me and pecked at my cheek.

"Sorry, ancient David, I'll be good but I won't stop being grateful."

"Grateful? Yes. But anything more? I have enough trouble with four determined widows chasing me without adding an adopted niece."

"Those widows? That gives me an idea, David. This place needs decoration," Sonia waved her hand around. "But it's Christmas and you don't have any decorations up, nor a tree."

"Why would I when I was expecting to be alone?"

"But you aren't alone now. You have me as your Christmas guest. I'd like a few decorations. You still have some?"

"Yes, but why? I don't have a present to put under the tree for you."

Sonia looked serious.

"I don't need a present from you David. You have given me more than I deserve already. You have given me somewhere to stay and are helping with my problems. That is more of a present than any wrapped gift. I wish I had something to give you."

"What I would like, Sonia, is to see you out of your mess, settled, happy and ready to move on. That might take months. This annexe might be a start. You could be you in here. I could be the old bachelor next door, perhaps flirting with elderly widows while you do whatever you want to do."

"At the moment, David, what I want is to enjoy being safe and with you. I can cook Christmas dinner for you while you sit in front of an open fire drinking mulled wine. Perhaps flirting with a sexy widow. Why not? They were willing to invite you to share Christmas with them. Why not invite all four? There could be safety in numbers."

"All four? That might be interesting -- or dangerous."

"Dangerous? No. Your Sonia will be here to protect you from designing widows. They won't be sure what my status is, so you'll be free to flirt without consequences."

"It seems an attractive idea, Sonia, but I have another suggestion. We'll do it if you invite Andy as well. I assume he would be on his own in his studio flat?"

"Probably. His parents usually go away for a cruise over Christmas and the New Year."

"If we are going to invite them we need to do it now. Christmas Day is close. We might end up with all five, or none."

We went back into the main house. Sonia and I used our mobile phones. Andy accepted immediately. My widows took a bit of persuasion. Once they appreciated that I was inviting all four and that Sonia would be here, they reluctantly agreed.

A few hours later I had dragged the suitcase of Christmas decorations out of the annexe. We didn't do too much, just the hall, kitchen and dining room. I laid a fire in the living room but didn't add any decorations. Sitting around an open fire would be festive enough and paper decorations could be a real hazard with an open fire. I even found a dozen Christmas crackers in store.

Sonia was happily buzzing around in the kitchen sorting out what we would eat. She sent me shopping with a short list of items that we needed for seven people instead of two.

+++

Christmas Eve

Sonia and I were sitting side by side on the settee opposite the open fire which would be lit tomorrow morning. We were drinking the last of some red wine from the light meal we had eaten earlier.

The Christmas decorations were up. We even had a small Christmas tree in the bay window. The dining table was already laid for tomorrow. Most of the meal preparation was done. We were enjoying a sense of achievement. We were ready for tomorrow's guests. I was slightly worried that it would be an odd group and I said so.

"Andy will be OK," Sonia replied. "He's at his best with older women that he doesn't see as potential girlfriends. If he is attracted to someone he gets even shyer than normal and tongue-tied."

"How do you feel about him?" I asked.

"Andy? He's a friend. If he hadn't been the nearest friend when I was evicted I wouldn't have thought he was the person to ask for help. I know he likes me. No. It's stronger than that. He loves me, or thinks he does. He doesn't really know me well enough."

"Would you?"

"Consider him? No. He's nice. But he's a drip, a nice drip, but I couldn't see him as anything but a friend. There is one thing that has recently puzzled me about Andy. He has a good job with reasonable pay as a senior accountant. His parents helped with the deposit on his studio flat years ago and his mortgage must be minimal by now. He is always short of money and living as frugally as possible. Why? It's a similar problem to John's debts. I can't see what either of them could be spending so much money on. There is nothing to suggest that either have expensive tastes, use drugs, gamble or drink to excess. But John was spending more than he earned and Andy is spending a lot with nothing to account for it."

"The easy way to find out from Andy is to ask him," I said.

"I might have, if we had been closer. But I think I would embarrass him if I asked. It's none of my business, unlike John's debts."

"John's debts? A few days into the New Year and his debts won't be your problem."

"How? The joint account is massively overdrawn and that affects me, David."

"It will be paid off and closed, Sonia. Don't worry about it. It's only money..."

Sonia was about to interrupt. I held up my hand to stop her.

"...I know. It's easy for me to say 'It's only money' and from your point of view the overdraft is massive. It isn't -- to me. I can pay it off from my current account and not really notice the impact on my monthly income. It's unfair, I know, but I worked hard for decades to become as financially stable as I am, and for what? A single existence with no one close to leave my money to."

"But I'll owe you more than I could repay in five years, David."

"No you won't, Sonia. What's the point? It would cripple you financially to give me back money I don't need. What I do need is Sonia to be back on her two feet and happy. Happy will take time. Your financial worries will be history. We might even be able to reset your credit rating because the problems were caused by John, not you. I'll clear everything that was your personal or your joint responsibility."

"I'll still worry that you, David, have helped so much..."

"Why, Sonia? Jane and I helped you with your university costs and with your teacher training. They were gifts, not loans. Did they bother you?"

"Yes. And No. Yes, I was aware that you two helped me and Mum. No, I appreciated it and didn't feel I had to repay it. But this is different."

"No, it isn't Sonia. Jane and I invested in the future of a friend's daughter. I'm investing in the future of that daughter and now my friend too."

Sonia snuggled closer to me.

"I'll try, Uncle David, I'll try, but it worries me. Even with your help I was worried about my living costs at university. That's another puzzle about Andy. John and I were living in ancient student blocks built in the 1920s. Each had sets for seven students sharing facilities. They were sex-segregated. The men lived in a block down the hill, the women up the hill closer to the main university buildings. They were far cheaper than any other on or offsite accommodation because they were old, and because they were sex-segregated. Most students didn't want that. There were common rooms on the ground floor, the only place where one could 'entertain' people of the other sex but there was no privacy.

John and I chose them because they were cheap. Andy was sponsored by his employer. He could have afforded better but he was one of the others sharing with John. It might be that he was saving a deposit for his studio flat, but even so he could afford things we couldn't. Now he can't."

"That arrangement sounds ancient."

"It was. Those blocks have now been converted and modernised with individual student study bedrooms with a basic en suite. They are still cheap because any cooking has to be done in shared kitchens and now both house male and female students. But then? If John or I wanted to meet we had to go elsewhere."

"Elsewhere?" I asked.

"A pub, a coffee shop, anywhere we could be alone together. It seems so long ago. So long ago when John and I were happy together. We haven't been happy for a couple of years unable to part but unhappy together. We should have faced reality and split but it was easier to just keep living from dull day to dull day. Until he abandoned me!"

The last part was a cry from the heart. I hugged Sonia. We sat silently for about twenty minutes before we went to our separate bedrooms.