Sunday, Dec 22, 2021
Dad came by around lunch time, to drop off the poster I had forgot to take with me when Sofie and I followed him to his secret storage. He had outdone himself again. This time he had obviously been inspired by National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, another late 80s classic.
It was a fantastic drawing of a man (who sort of looked like me, I could tell) dressed up as Santa getting electrocuted by Xmas lights. The Santa was on the roof of Atlas, with the sign glowing in the dark, and presents flying all around. On the bottom, instead of “Christmas Vacation”, it said “Christmas Movie Marathon.”
“Thanks, Dad, this are gorgeous,” I told him.
“Thank you, Peter. I left some space on the bottom so you can write the times and the movies, I didn’t know your marathon program.”
“Would you want to do it? Your handwriting is much better than mine,” I said.
“What time?” Dad asked.
“Four pm, every day.”
“What about the movies? Which ones will you be showing?”
“That’s a surprise. Christmas magic, you know.”
Dad’s tongue was sticking out as he printed “A new magical movie every day at 4pm.”
“Perfect,” I said, placed the poster in our printer/copier and made 50 copies.
When Pete and Sofie arrived at three – Pete at 3pm sharp, Sofie ten past – I handed the posters to Sofie and a roll of tape to Pete and sent them out to wallpaper Kumpunotko with them.
“Excuse me for saying this, but this is so stupid. Why don’t you just create a Facebook event or post a photo of the poster on Instagram or something?” Sofie said.
“Right. Well, that’s one way,” I said and put my hands in my jeans back pockets and found the tape in the left one.
“Oh, Pete, would you come to the office before you go. I need to talk to you,” I went on.
Pete followed me to the office with a worried look on his face.
“Am I in trouble?” he asked me. “Has Mr. Rexi said something? I may have been al little late today, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“No, no, everything’s fi… what would Rexi have said? No, I just wanted to talk to you and I hope this will stay between you and me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“See, sometimes when you meet someone that you like, it may be difficult to find the words, or the courage, or the right moment to let them know you like her. Or him! But her,” I rambled.
“Yes, sir.”
“It happened to me once,” I began, but stopped right there when I realized I was playing with fire. My space-time continuum with Jennifer was not to be interfered with.
Pete gulped. It told me I was doing the right thing.
“Anyway, there is one great way to find the words and make the moment come to you. And it takes little courage,” I went on.
Pete fiddled with the roll of tape in his hand.
“A mixtape,” I said, and waved the small plastic container in my hand so that it made a rattling noise.
“Let the songs tell your story,” I said, and winked.
Pete took the tape and read the song titles. He nodded.
“Thank you, this is awesome,” he said.
“Now get out there, you and Sofie have fifty posters to plaster up around town,” I said, and slapped my hands together.
Sofie was waiting for Pete at the front door. She raised her eyebrows in a silent question but I didn’t see Pete’s silent answer. I just saw how Sofie smiled at him as they walked out and turned right toward the market square.
➡️ More on Someday Jennifer (HarperCollins Canada 2019)