As always, the prompt as well as my author’s notes will be at the end of the story.
A Not So Silent Night
One of the ceiling lights is flickering, pulling me from my reading.
I put down the journal and squint up towards the lights, but now they’re shining as if nothing is wrong. Just as well, because I probably wouldn’t find anyone to change them over the holidays.
The clock at the wall shows that it is almost three in the afternoon, and it is already getting dark outside. I rise from my desk and walk over to the window looking out over the school grounds.
Outside snow is gently falling, and the school grounds are covered with a white, almost pristine coating. Just a few tracks are visible leading from the entrance over to the dorms. I’m surprised to see any at all: There aren’t more than a dozen students who are staying over the holidays, and they have little reason to leave the school grounds on Christmas Eve.
To be honest there is little reason for me to be here either, but someone from the faculty has to be in case something happens that needs an administrative decision, and since I don’t have family that job usually falls to me.
I turn away from the window and walk back to my desk. I’ve already read all the articles in the journal that I found interesting and was only reading the rest of them for lack of anything better to do. I consider finishing the bit of grading work that I still have to do, but not even I would do that today. It’s just a matter of principle.
Just then the phone on my desk is ringing. Probably just the principal who has just remembered she has saddled me with this duty again and is trying to absolve her conscience by wishing me a Merry Christmas.
I take up the phone. “Yes?”
“Hey Akio, it’s me! Can you come over to the boys’ dorm for a sec? We need your help with something.”
So nurse has also been stuck with staying here today. Must suck not being able to spend the holidays with his girlfriend. “Sure. Did anything happen?”
“Nah, not a big deal. Just some dispute we need you to mediate.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there.”
I hang up and switch the phone to relay calls to my mobile. A dispute? On Christmas Eve with so few students being around? I mentally go through the list of students I know are staying here. The most likely culprit has to be Setou…
***
As I approach the dorm I see quite a few tracks in the snow, but the building itself is mostly dark.
I enter and feel around for the light switch when suddenly the lights all flare up.
“””MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. MUTOU!”””
As I blink away the stars from my eyes I see about a dozen students along with nurse and two of his assistant nurses. In front there’s Hisao beaming at me with a broad smile; next to him are Ibarazaki, Tezuka and – to my surprise – Ikezawa; the rest are mostly first and second years.
“What’s going on here? You said…”
“Oh yes, the dispute.” Nurse grins like an imbecile as he usually does. “Now front and centre you two.” He shoves Hisao and Ibarazaki to the front.
Hisao looks at me sheepishly. “Well, you know we weren’t sure. I was saying that if we were organizing a surprise Christmas party for you there should be classical Christmas songs…”
“Hogwash,” Emi interrupts him, “there’s no way Mr. Mutou would listen so something so boring! It should be pop songs, right?”
“I… Uhm… Actually I do prefer the classical songs…”
“See? I told you so.”
Hisao grins at his short girlfriend as she sticks out her tongue at him, then she turns around and cheerily shouts. “You heard him Saki, the first CD please!”
A moment later the melody of Silent Night is coming softly from some loudspeakers. Trying to get my bearings I look around the common room.
The room is covered end to end in Christmas decoration, but there is an obvious mismatch: One wall is decorated with confetti and paper streamers, another with fir branches and cones, the third with paper angels and stars, and the last is covered with a huge canvas with an abstract painting of what I think is supposed to be a purple Christmas tree.
As I take the scene in Hisao, noticing my confusion, speaks up. “Well, we put some people in charge of decorations, but since they were all in different classes they apparently didn’t communicate all too well…”
“As much as I don’t like to admit it,” Ibarazaki pipes in, “I guess Shizune would have done a better job of getting things organized than you did.”
Hisao sighs. “Well, she had to go home over the holidays, and you certainly didn’t volunteer to do it…”
“Hisao, don’t let Emi get to you so easily! You should know by now that she’s just teasing you.”
I look past Hisao to see a young woman I don’t know coming from the kitchen, a huge bowl in her hands. She turns to nurse. “Now be a dear, and make a bit of room on the buffet table. The hot punch is ready.”
Nurse quickly makes his way to a couple of tables lined along the back wall. On them there is a wild assortment of cookies, Potato chips, sausages and other snacks - probably the same problem as with the decorations…
He shoves a few of them closer together, and the woman – who I assume is Ibarazaki’s mother – puts down the bowl.
“Now line up with your cups everyone!” She dips a ladle into the bowl and begins filling the cups the students hold her way.
I eye the bowl suspiciously. “So, just to be sure…”
“It’s fruit punch, of course,” she interrupts me. Then she winks and continues a bit more silently. “I have another, smaller bowl for the adults back in the kitchen.”
I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn to see nurse’s familiar grin. “I know you’re on duty, but you’ve got to try at least one cup. Nurse’s orders. Meiko’s hot wine punch is to die for.”
“Are you sure all three of you can be here? There’s nobody in your office, is there?”
“Well, all the students who stayed on the campus are here, so there’s no problem.”
“Everyone?” I mentally go through the list of the people who should be here. I don’t know every single student by name, but the number should be correct, except for… “What about Setou?”
A girl – Kitamiya? – speaks up. “Is that the one who always cosplays as Harry Potter? He came down about an hour ago when we were decorating. He just screamed ‘It has begun!’ and ran back to his room.”
Nurse grins. “See? Everyone is accounted for.”
Suddenly the door opens behind me, and a surge of cold air is flowing in. I turn around to see Miss Miyagi standing in the door, her thick winter jacket almost entirely covered in snow.
“I’m sorry I’m late! I wasn’t able to drive my car up the hill in this snow, so I had to leave it in town and walk.”
One of the nurses – Uehara if I recall her name correctly - hurries over to her pats the snow from her jacket. “Don’t worry Makoto, he only just arrived as well. See, he hasn’t even taken off his jacket yet.”
I notice that it is getting quite warm in the room with this many people around. I shrug off my jacket, and Ikezawa of all people steps up to take it from me while Ueahara takes Miyagi’s jacket, and the two disappear into another room, presumably to hang them somewhere to dry.
Miss Miyagi sidles up to me and apologizes again. “I’m still sorry. I wanted to be here for the surprise, but I didn’t think the snow would be so bad over here.”
“It’s not a problem, Miss Miyagi, they never clear the snow on this hill on holidays.”
“Please, it’s Makoto. This is not official business.”
“Well, technically I am on the clock, but… well… Akio.” I’m not sure if it is the cold from outside, but I think she blushes a bit as I say that.
Behind us there is some clinking noise. We turn around to see nurse hitting his cup with a knife. “So, now that everyone is here, let’s get this party going, shall we? The buffet is open!”
***
The party has been going for a few hours now, and the punch bowl is nearly empty. The same goes for the special bowl in the kitchen, but as both I and nurse and his two assistants are on duty, Meiko and Makoto did most of the work on that bowl, and both of them are quite a bit tipsy.
Nurses Ueahara and Ogawa have retreated to the kitchen – maybe to surreptitiously finish of the special punch.
Kitamiya and Yoshida are trying to describe the - for want of a better word - -Christmas tree to Mori who is intently listening and now and then asking questions of Tezuka.
Ikezawa and Katayama are sitting in one of the corners reading books. Hisao and Ibarazaki are sitting in another corner… and I probably shouldn’t look too closely at what they’re doing.
Meiko is more leaning against nurse than she is standing on her own. “’m not schure I can drive home like schis…”
Nurse puts an arm around her waist to pull her upright. “Don’t worry. In one hour the next shift will be here, then I can drive you home. I’m pretty sure Emi will want to stay over, so we can get her and Hisao tomorrow.” He looks at her. “But you should better sit down somewhere for now.” He nods at me and leads – or rather drags – her to one of the couches.
I look down at Makoto. She is not quite as sloshed as Meiko, but she has been clinging to my arm for a while now, so I’m not quite certain how steady she is on her feet.
“What about you? Are you feeling okay?”
“I… I’m fine I guess, but I don’t think I should drive home today…”
“Don’t worry.” I take my mobile out of my pocket. “I can call you a taxi.”
“NO!” She grabs my hand, and as I look at her I am rather certain that her blushing is neither due to the cold nor the hot wine punch. “Would… Would you drive me home instead?”
***
So, that is my story. Merry Christmas ChattyWheeler… AND Merry Christmas Capn-Cold!
When I read through the prompts that the Prof put up on the discord I noticed that two of them were rather… synergistic, so I thought I could fulfil two wishes with one story. Here are the two prompts:
”ChattyWheeler” wrote:A character of your choice is all alone on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day/New Year’s Day at Yamaku. With everyone either at home for the holidays or out spending time with friends, the character of your choice feels like they have been forgotten and resolves to spend the day away from others. That is… until another character of your choosing unexpectedly appears. Perhaps, the first character of your choosing wasn’t so forgotten after all… This story can be fluffy, dramatic, somewhere in between, or whatever tone that the author wishes to invoke. Please have fun while writing this! Good luck, and happy holidays!
I think the result is mostly fluffy, but I left the end a bit ambiguous, so the drama fans can also fantasize”Capn-Cold wrote:Hisao enlists the help of Emi and others in an attempt to create a holiday 'thank you' to Mutou for all the help he's given Hisao since he arrived. There's only one problem: No one can agree on what to do.
I name-dropped a few characters from an earlier story of mine which I’m pretty sure few people who are still around have read…
Again, I’m sorry I couldn’t get it out before Christmas. I had the story mostly worked out in my head, I just needed a bit of time to write it down – and it mostly wrote itself once I started.
