Alexander looked at me questioningly and I smiled.
‘I’d love some company. I’m going to leave Runcible here, though; shopping isn’t her thing. See you out the front in ten minutes?’
We took the lunch things into the kitchen, then I let my little dog outside briefly, before settling her into her basket and kissing her goodbye on her tufty head.
‘We call it the St Nicholas Fair here,’ said Alexander, as we passed the shops festooned with twinkling lights and approached long rows of sweet wooden chalets, stuffed to the brim with enticing Christmas trinkets and food, a huge Christmas tree watching over proceedings.
‘Dad, I can hear the carousel!’ cried Theo, and we all stopped to listen to the cheery, tinkling music. ‘Oh, can I go on that first?’
‘Why not?’ said his father, and we edged through the crowds to find the golden merry-go-round, resplendent in a pretty shop-lined square, its colourful horses bobbing gracefully.
‘Pity you didn’t sign up for this one,’ I said, as we joined a short queue. ‘It would have been the perfect place to sell your gin.’
Alexander pulled a face.
‘Maybe next year. The Christmas Fayre feels quite big enough for me – for now anyway. Are you going on?’
‘Huh?’
‘The carousel!’
I looked at the glittering ride, its colours, music and nostalgia an enticing invitation.
‘You know, I’ve never been on one?’ I said to Alexander. He frowned. ‘Nope, never.’
‘Well, one of the beauties of having children,’ he replied, ‘is you get to do all sorts of stuff you missed out on the first time, and nobody bats an eyelid. It’s terrific.’
‘Are you going on?’
‘Damn right I am!’
‘Oh, you have to come, too, Fallon!’ said Theo eagerly. ‘It’s not too fast, you won’t feel sick, I promise.’
I smiled at his kindness.
‘Well, in that case I will give it a whirl.’
As the ride stopped and the passengers alighted, we stepped up onto the shiny metal platform and chose three brightly painted horses in a row together, so that Theo could go in the middle.
‘Look, Dad, look, Fallon, their names are painted on their necks! Mine is called Lily, but I wish she was called Runcible. What are yours called?’
I looked.
‘Oh! Mine is called Dancer, that’s pretty.’
‘More traditional for reindeer,’ said Alexander, grinning. ‘Mine is called Boniface, which makes me regret not choosing that for you instead of Theo.’
Theo shrieked in horror, and we all laughed. I was feeling quite giddy and we hadn’t even started moving. When we did, it was glorious. The lights on the shops became streaks, punctuated with the happy faces of people waiting for their turn on the merry-go-round. The music jangled cheerfully around me as the golds, reds and greens of the horses reflected off the central mirrors of the ride until I was enveloped in a fairground embrace. All I could see clearly were Theo’s and Alexander’s faces, both wearing huge smiles as they occasionally shouted to each other or to me. I wrapped my arms around the barley twist pole emerging from my horse’s back and hugged it with joy, reluctant to let go as the spinning slowed and the carousel finally came to a stop.
‘Wasn’t thatbrilliant?’ said Theo as we climbed off our horses.
‘It certainly was,’ said Alexander. ‘Did you enjoy it?’ he asked, touching my shoulder briefly.
‘I loved it!’ I said. ‘I’m going to make sure I go on one of those whenever I can from now on, to make up for lost time.’
‘They always have one here at Christmas,’ said Theo. ‘So, you’ll have to come back every year.’
I nearly said that we had carousels in London, too, but stopped myself. Instead, I said, ‘Wasn’t there a tree decoration you were looking for? Shall we see if we can find them? And to continue my theme, I’m going to have some candy floss next, if anyone cares to join me?’
