✅ The Nice List

Christmas Morning

Merri was actually in a pretty good mood when she woke up. She had slept well, and the room was cool but not cold. She wandered half-asleep as far as the bathroom, and then made it as far as the kitchen in a fluffy pink robe that had been a gift from her ex. It wasn't the most dignified garment, not even reaching her knees, but it was good enough for around the house. And she wasn't prepared to face picking out an outfit until she had at least filled her mouth with hot coffee.

She turned on the machine, and then turned around to turn the radio on as well. The music currently playing seemed to be some bizarre mix of heavy rock elements with what sounded like a gospel choir, singing about making furniture. It was bizarre but had a catchy beat, and she found that it cheered her up more than most of the music on more conventional stations at this time of year.

She still hadn't noticed the date; her brain wasn't fully awake yet. But she allowed herself to dance on the spot a little as she waited for the rich scent of coffee to fill her home. And a second later, she pushed open the door into the lounge and then stopped. She froze in place for a moment as she stared at the scene in front of her, not quite sure that she could believe her own eyes. Merri had always prided herself on being rational, and in that split second the most rational explanation seemed to be that she was dreaming. Unable to think further, she turned around and returned to the kitchen, where the radio DJ was happily wishing everyone a happy Christmas, and encouraging listeners to phone in and share the strangest gift they had received.

Merri listened in a daze, and then filled up her mug with steaming coffee. She stood there and drank half of the mug, before topping it up and returning to the lounge. She was sure that this wasn't a dream now – she distinctly remembered someone telling her that you can't taste anything or feel heat in dreams, so the bitter tang of the coffee and the hot mug between her palms were a double confirmation. So the scene in front of her had to be for real. The only question remaining was how all this stuff could possibly have gotten here.

There were boxes under the Christmas tree. Some were wrapped in red and green stripy paper, some in hot pink. Some of them had festive greetings emblazoned across the gift wrap, while others had paper that looked more like foil. There were more different ribbons than Merri had ever seen in one place before, and a whole forest of bows. The lower branches of the tree were bent upwards as they attempted to shelter the mass of gifts, but the pile spilled out across the floor. Merri thought that she wouldn't even be able to get close enough to touch the tree without standing on a brightly coloured box.

It had to be Tarja. She acted like she would go along with whatever the world threw at her, but if she'd gotten some crazy idea in her head about showing Merri the true meaning of Christmas or some similar nonsense, she probably had enough planning to pull this off. Except... where could these gifts have been stored? There had to be hundreds of them here, certainly more than enough to completely fill Tarja's closet. There was nowhere they could have been hidden without Merri seeing them. Unless...

"They're not real," she whispered to herself. That made sense. The presents at the front would be for her, but the back rows could just as easily be empty shells of folded card. Tarja must have kept them all folded flat, and then spent a couple of hours overnight opening them all out. It was a neat trick, and it was probably supposed to teach her something. But all Merri felt, beyond her initial surprise, was amazement that anyone would go to such lengths for a joke.

She picked up one of the presents at the front. It didn't feel empty, but she kind of understood that there had to be a few real ones. With the mystery now resolved, she let her eyes rise from the ocean of gifts to the tree. And that was one thing she found slightly harder to explain.

"Tarja!?" she yelled, sure that her flatmate would be awake by now anyhow. "What have you done with the Christmas tree?"

There was a clattering from elsewhere in the house, and the sound of a door opening. And then Tarja's voice drifted in from the hallway: