A Prompt

Christmas (13)

Shancai strolled through the artificial forest which has been set up with felled green firs and pines at the small place close to the Metro station near her house. It was already dark though it wasn't that late. The air was freezing cold and smelled like snow one day before Christmas. She was late for buying a tree but hoped to make a good deal anyway.

In the last moment she had decided to arrange for a genuine Christmas tree. Her plans were to decorate her flat as gloomy and festive as possible according to the season. That meant a lot of work, as on the next day her parents – after finally having made up their minds – would come and visit her in Europe.

She has also made preparations for the dinner. A poultry was waiting in her fridge, it just needed to be marinated overnight to become a traditional Peking duck. Thanks god, Michel had closed the restaurant until Sylvester. The kitchen needed some modernization and with that opportunity the restaurant room got a new paint as well. Therefore, she had some time off to spend with her parents. It was such an exhausting year yet so successful the same way. How she longed for a warm embrace of her mother and her father. Longing to see that they would be alright after all these years. Of course, her mother would soon be nagging her like she always did. Silly to even long for this? In her mother's eyes she was still a child, but Shancai was looking forward to being treated like one even it would be only for a short week. She gulped. The voice of the salesman interrupted her daydream.

"Mademoiselle, have you made your choice?"

"I'd like to have the smallest of your trees, Monsieur, please." The seller looked first at her and then on his remaining trees. "Is this a joke? Do you see a small one? It's one day before Christmas, the small trees are usually the first ones to be sold out. Let me see if there's still a smaller one left." Both walked through the rows from one tree to the next to check the size of each.

Measuring Shancai again he asked more himself than her: "I guess it should not be much taller than you, little lady." He slowly shook his head and scratched his chin. "Not easy, not easy," he mumbled.

"There is one," Shancai shouted out loud, pointing at a tree. The salesman took that special pine out of his stand and carried it to the middle where the wrap machine packed the tree in a net. "Please, come to the check-out at the entrance when you are ready, I'll put it down there for you."

Shancai nodded with eyes closed and inhaled the fresh green scent of the trees which gave her the illusion to be in a true forest of wood. Some single snowflakes actually started to dance around and touched her face. However, she was in the middle of a big city, the noise of the rush hour and the siren of an emergency vehicle coming closer led her back to reality. Finally, with quick steps she hurried to the cash desk where some trees were already waiting to get picked up by their owners. She paid and grabbed the tree next to her.

The way home was rather difficult. With every step the tree got heavier and heavier. She turned it from left to right, dug her ten fingers into the net and tried to carry it in front her. So exhausting! In the end she turned it, grabbed the trunk and trailing it behind her she arrived breathing and sweating in front of her home.

"So glad I'm here finally," she said loud to herself when opening the front door of her house. The rest would be a piece of a cake as there was an elevator waiting for her and the tree.

"Should be done in 5 minutes at the latest," she thought in relief. Alas the elevator had his own life though. It was an ancient and very small type of lift with two mesh doors which had to be closed manually. Shancai always felt like Audrey Hepburn in the film Charade when she took the lift. Usually two persons could enter the elevator, therefore, it should not be a great act to take Shancai in and the tree. What a disappointment! She tried several ways and methods. It was all a mess. The tree seemed to have grown from the moment she took it until she has opened the lift door. At first, she entered the lift, turned and pulled the tree from outside in. It was far too long to just put it in, she had to bow its top to get it into the lift and she feared to break it. It wasn't easy from her position and above all – she couldn't close the door nor push the go-up button.