He came out of the toilet to find Jonny peering outside the sitting room window, he was still wearing his coat, beanie and gloves even though they had arrived home ten minutes ago. “Going out again?” he asked him.
“No,” Jon replied still looking out, “Too lazy and besides it’s rather cold inside too.”
Chris walked forwards and joined him, “Anything interesting going on?”
“Nope. Just snow, loads and loads of it.”
“For all those who wanted a white Christmas,” he chortled.
“Can’t get any whiter,” Jonny uttered and moved away from the window, “Have you called home?”
“Not yet. You?”
“I was about to,” he grimaced and Chris felt a tiny pang in his chest at his friend’s anguish. “I don’t really want to tell them I won’t come, but I guess they might know already.”
“Yeah, it’s all over the news.”
“I’ll call,” Jon said and sat on the tiny sofa near the little table where the landline telephone was.
All of a sudden Chris wished they didn’t have to be forced to spend Christmas away from their families, he wished Jonny could cheer up and be the funny guy he knew. He looked quite like a goof wearing his coat and hat in the sitting room, though.
“Take off your winter gear man, you’ll get sick,” he advised.
“You sound like my mum,” he looked up with a lopsided smile, his left cheek pressed to the receiver.
“Oh you, Jonathan,” Chris pinched his other cheek, “My little pride and joy,” he joked in a high-pitched voice.
“Hey,” Jonny chuckled battling the hand away, “Oh, hi! Hi Dad,” he quickly composed himself and began explaining his predicament to his father.
Deciding to allow his friend some privacy, Chris made his way to his bedroom. The first thing he noticed upon stepping through the door was how freezing it was inside.
“What the hell?” he muttered. He could swear the radiator had been on this morning. He gently placed his hand above it expecting to feel the comforting heat on his palm. To his surprise, nothing happened.
“Bloody hell,” he sighed and turned the taps first clockwise, then anticlockwise but the artifact remained as cold to the touch as if it had never been on.
Great, just what they needed…
Determined to find a solution and not let a silly piece of metal shit ruin his Christmas even more, he turned the taps again and again, hoping to unblock the inside valves or whatever it was that was broken. Five minutes later, though, he ended up kicking the thing in frustration.
“You fucking piece of shit!”
“What’s wrong?” Jonny stalked into his room, eyes wide in alarm.
“This fucking thing, it doesn’t work!”
“The radiator?”
“Yeah, it was working fine this morning but the little shit is now dead,” he seethed.
Calm as he always was, Jonny carefully walked towards it and inspected it.
“I’ve tried everything already!” he exclaimed but his friend paid no mind to his little outburst, he was busy taking a closer look at it.
“Mmm…yeah, it’s not working, I’m sorry,” he said.
“Shit.”
“That’s why it’s so bloody cold inside!” Jonny concluded.
