The Chalet - A Christmas drabble for Caz from Secret Santa
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#1: The Chalet - A Christmas drabble for Caz from Secret Santa Author: Secret SantaLocation: The North Pole PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:32 pm
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Caz - here is an unashamedly sentimental and huge-poetic-licence-taken story for you!

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The Chalet

With a creak and a sigh, the old lady stirred herself to face another long and cold day. These days, it seemed, the harsh Tirolean winter bit into her wooden bones with more ferocity than before, shaking her structure to the core when the bitter wind sliced through the air like an arrow up from the western valley. The distant water meadows hibernated under a blanket of snow and the blue mountains glared forbiddingly down at the grey lake that nibbled at the edges of the shore where the chalet crouched, vulnerable now in her old age.

There had been a day when the chalet breathed deeply, the energy of her children infusing life into her arteries. Those same halls now had no sound other than the wheeze of the old lungs as the chalet shuddered under the fresh onslaught of each mountain-bred gust. The happy calls of girls, the scurrying of their feet, were but echoes now in the dreams of her youth. She reflected fondly on the seasons and the changes they had brought. Indulgently, she had watched as the girls scuffed walls and floors through sliding, illicit night time circuses and tilting. The dents and grazes became part of her identity and a constant physical reminder of the presence of her children.

Then the Nazis annexed Austria. The Chalet had watched her daughters, suddenly so grown up despite their diminutive size, scurrying back and forth to Der Edel Ritter with piles of books and belongings. As her life blood poured out, the Chalet settled back on her haunches to warily watch and wait.

But her children did not return. After a few weeks, they fled to the safety of Guernsey, and thus out of her life. Bought by an American business man, she then spent some time alone before a succession of enterprises and tourists came and went. Her interior was transformed again and again, as she was put to different purposes. Eventually a family settled, but the isolation of the place drove them away and for some months she had sat empty. She had awoken one morning to the sound of tapping on those same panes that had witnessed such noisy snails – a middles’ prank in her salad days. New voices were exclaiming over her dusty interior. Then came the so familiar bell-like tones of one of her oldest daughters, describing life in the Chalet a decade and a half earlier, stirring the surface of the pool where memories had lain dormant for so long, suppressed by the weeds of war and strife.

As she struggled up, blinking her eyes against the brightness of the sun, hope coursing through her, she heard the voices fade away into the distance and with them the certainty that they were real.

Then the years began to blur into one another, as they tend to when one grows older. Her now crumbling elegance began to wilt, her skin papery white and sagging. Each day the same, she stopped leaning into the warmth of the sun’s rays, and instead turned inwards, surviving only on the fuel of her memories of her younger days when she was full of purpose and life. Few incidents broke the monotony of her existence but the recent visits by the men in suits with clipboards, by the men with tape measures and devices to sound out her rotting floorboards and by the enthusiastic young man speaking of ‘prime location’ and ‘development opportunities’, ‘economic viability’ and ‘eco-friendly solutions’ had forced her to face the future with a certain amount of resignation.

Today, then, shivering under the icy blasts, she felt the end was near. Around midday, as the sky imperceptibly brightened, she felt the shudder of engines as a series of large dark cars pulled up swiftly outside her gaunt frame. Sinking into melancholy, she hunkered down to await the moment of her execution.

A voice penetrated the fog in her mind. She knew the voice – cracked a little with age, but still golden and full of joy. Struggling to awaken, she stretched and creaked and peered down at the large party silhouetted against the snow. Wrapped up warmly in brightly coloured scarves and mufflers, three generations were excitedly clustering about a tall old lady who made her way towards the door with slow but graceful steps despite her nailed boots and age. She stood before the threshold of the chalet and threw back her hood. Putting out a trembling hand, she grasped the door frame, seeking support from it. The rosy flush on the pale face and the sparkling eyes belied her excitement, but she spoke calmly and her words fell like droplets, thawing the ice in the Chalet’s heart.

“You’ve brought me home for Christmas?” she said in her low voice.

“More than that, Grandmamma,” spoke an earnest looking young man. “We’ve - ” he paused and glanced around at everyone else expectantly, “we’ve bought you the home!”

Silence fell for a moment as the Chalet held her breath.

“I don’t understand,” said the old lady with the large dark eyes.
A middle-aged lady with greying chestnut hair moved forward and touched her mother on the arm gently.

“It’s true, Mamma,” she whispered. “Charles has done all the paperwork, and the chalet is a gift to you. Mike has got a whole gang coming to restore it and convert it back to the lovely airy rooms you always remember. It is going to be a place for Chaletians to return to, to holiday in, to rest and to remember their schooldays.” She put her hand into her bag and withdrew a large blackened key which she placed in her mother’s hand.

Turning the key slowly, for it was stiff and heavy, the old gears meshed and the door swung open. A fresh breeze blew in through the front door, bringing the promise of spring on its breath as the Chalet drew deeply of its life-giving oxygen. The old lady and the old chalet both stood, beautiful though older, battered by life, but filled with the anticipation of the new life to come. Joey stood in the doorway, her eyes luminous.

“I’m really home,” she whispered, and the echo came back to her from the depths of the Chalet: “you’re really home.”


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Have a wonderful Christmas, Caz! Very Happy

#2:  Author: JustJenLocation: sitting on the steps PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:07 pm
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wipes away tears. That was wonderful!

#3:  Author: LottieLocation: Humphrey's Corner PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:47 pm
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That's lovely! How nice for the Chalet, and for Joey too.
Thanks, Caz's Santa.

#4:  Author: MaryRLocation: Cheshire PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:56 pm
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Beautifully and heart-stirringly written, Santa. The echo at the end was particularly poignant. Thank you.

#5:  Author: LesleyLocation: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:03 pm
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Tears in my eyes - that was lovely Santa.

#6:  Author: janemLocation: Ash, Surrey PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:04 pm
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*crying too*

That was beautiful.

#7:  Author: LizBLocation: Oxon, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:09 pm
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That was lovely.

Thanks Cazx's Santa

#8:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 10:39 pm
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Thank you Santa - that was lovely.

#9:  Author: Cath V-PLocation: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:16 pm
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That was lovely....

#10:  Author: TaraLocation: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:08 am
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Very moving. Thank you, Santa.

#11:  Author: DawnLocation: Leeds, West Yorks PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:34 am
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Another one in tears - thankyou Santa

#12:  Author: FatimaLocation: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:17 am
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That was superb. Thanks Santa.

#13:  Author: Ruth BLocation: Oxford, UK PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:16 am
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Luffly. Thank you Santa.

#14:  Author: JennieLocation: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 3:41 pm
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Heartwarmingly lovely.

#15:  Author: Kathy_SLocation: midwestern US PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:18 pm
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Oh, I like that! Thank you, Caz'-Santa.

#16:  Author: Carolyn PLocation: Lancaster, England PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:38 pm
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That was lovely, thank you caz's santa.

#17:  Author: CazxLocation: Swansea/Bristol PostPosted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:47 pm
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Thank you so much Santa! I loved it!

#18:  Author: SugarplumLocation: second star to the right! PostPosted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:52 pm
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Ohh that's lovely.

#19:  Author: Woofter PostPosted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:22 pm
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That's beautiful.

#20:  Author: MirandaLocation: Perth, Western Australia PostPosted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 2:08 pm
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Thank you Santa - that was very very clever and very moving.

#21:  Author: VikkiLocation: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 8:55 pm
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Awww!!

That was beautiful!



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