Interlude: A Christmas Short Story (Part One)

That day, I'd been busy since morning, hard at work decorating the party hall.

Because tonight is Christmas! Well, another world has no such custom, so I decided it on my own. It's the dead of winter. I set it on this day, about a month before the new year begins, because if it fell too close to the new-year revelry, the precious Christmas would go to waste.

Even in my past life, I thought Christmas was too near New Year's. Well, in modern Japan it had turned into an event, so it felt that way, but I do understand that both dates actually have meaning.

The glittering streets, the Christmas songs heard here and there, made me giddy with fun as a child. But once I became a parent, I recall it was a bit hard on the wallet. The busy December that rushes past, and the year's-end wistfulness that squeezes the chest somehow, I don't dislike those, though.

...And so, that being that, I figured I'd shift it to November, which has few events anyway! Well, "November" is also a calendar idea I decided on my own. Start splitting hairs and there's no end to it.

Pulling myself together, I spread the cloth I'd been holding in both arms over the table with a flap.

Crossing over the green tablecloth, I laid a deep-red cloth. Green and red, just these two colors, and it turns Christmassy in a rush. Strange, isn't it. On the cloth's border I'd busily embroidered with gold thread, but not to brag, since it's the work of a poor embroiderer like me, it looked like earthworms wriggling. Well, it somehow feels like it's in the right spirit, so if you think of it as that kind of decoration, no problem.

"...Miss, your embroidery is as distinctive as ever."

"Right? It's called an arabesque pattern."

"...Let's practice sometime soon."

"Guh."

I tried to pass it off as a new design, but Sissi's eye couldn't be fooled.

"I think my straight-stitch skills are pretty good, though."

"Oh, there's embroidery that repeats straight lines too, Miss."

"...Look, I'm impatient, you see? From the first stitch to the last, straight is more efficient."

As I let out a sore loser's excuse, Sissi sighed as if exasperated.

"Just because you're bad at it, please don't deny embroidery its very reason to exist."

"Ye-es..."

Lovely embroidery is fun just to look at, so I do like it. If only looking were all it took!

Pulling myself together, I let my thoughts drift to tonight's feast, planned in consultation with the head chef. Chicken shining glossy amber, and a Christmas cake. Given the season, I couldn't get fresh fruit, but I'll use the precious dried fruit I'd carefully stored, and heaps of jam steeped in plenty of sugar! And I have a secret plan to prepare stacks of fresh cream, which doesn't keep. Ahh, how I'm looking forward to it!