She pulled up beside the dunes. A 10 hour drive and a 30 years of work to get here. She stripped down to her bikini, hid the van key and felt the warmth of the boardwalk under her feet. The sea twinkled and the warm breeze carried away the grey memories of home as she ran to the water #writecbc

The grey in her mother’s cheeks drained away, replaced by a warm pink. The hymns stopped abruptly and Christmas songs filled the room. Joyful and loud, but not loud enough to drown the howl of pain, the sound of receding steps. Her mother laughed, ‘We don’t need to hide anymore.’ #5ActFestiveStory

A huge man, pale and blond
like Ella, burst into the room, flinging water onto the hissing fire. Ella felt her face freeze, heard her mother cry out. But behind him the door swung silently open. A woman holding a burning torch spoke in an icy whisper, ‘Ymir, you will not take her’ #5ActFestiveStory

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield is great

The Secret History. A work of art and I’m only 2 chapters in

Ella could feel her limbs chilling, a frost on the tip of her nose. ‘Look at you! He must be close. Your mother promised me this would never happen.’ ‘My mother?’ Ella’s teeth were chattering. The door burst open and a man in furs stared at them with icy eyes. ‘I’m taking her now.’ #5ActFestiveStory

Her mother sighed. ‘Last year it was wet leaves under the sleigh – too slippy to travel, he said. This year it’s the snow. If he can deliver a postcard he can deliver presents. It’s not me you should be apologising to Nicolas,’ she was addressing the card. ‘It’s the children.’ #5ActFestiveStory

Same!

My address, scrawled on layers of Tipex, was in handwriting I hadn’t seen in a decade. I scratched at it to reveal his address below, remembering nights kissing on his doorstep under mistletoe.I’d sent that card thinking I was breaking his heart; not realising I was freezing my own #5ActFestiveStory