Christmas Blues

This is story 21 in the challenge set by L.C. Schäfer which you can read about here:

Prompt number twenty-one:

Christmas has moved on. Some people wish it was still here as without it, loneliness can come.

Write a story about someone with post Christmas blues

***

She sat in the coffee shop, feeling strangely numb after all the hustle and bustle of the last two weeks. She loved having family come to stay but the preparation took it out of her, raising her blood pressure and building her anxiety to volcanic proportions.

Presents, food shopping, getting a tree, decorating the tree, decorating the house, visiting arrangements, games, nibbles, cakes needing icing, mince pies, turkey defrosting, basting, carving, topping up drinks, tidying while everyone snoozed...

The family gathered and the family left.

And now, just like that, the explosion was over and life was becoming less: less stressful, yes, but less hectic and less fulfilling. She sighed. She had been waiting for little pieces of calm for weeks and now that she had them, she didn't know what to do with them.

She sipped her cappuccino and savoured the flavour and the frothiness of the milk. She had to admit to feeling a little down. She loved Christmas: the lights, the colours, the carols but there was always a massive come down. She had felt so central to everyone and now, she was back to being May, on her own. Everyone thought that she had a full life and she did, for the most part with the activities that she made herself go to - her fitness class, her craft group, the WI, the volunteering at the charity shop - but what no-one realised was the loneliness when she went home.

As soon as she opened the door, the vacuum hit her, and it sucked like a leech, making her chest constrict and her throat tighten. The house was empty. She was a widow. Tom had gone.

May was horrified to feel a tear roll down her cheek and raised the cappuccino cup to her lips again to hide her grief and help to collect herself.

She'd do what others do when sat on their own and look at her phone. Distract herself with other people's lives.

And there he was. Tom. Gazing back at her. Not her Tom. But a rescue dog, needing a home and May knew then and there that she had the perfect place for the little chap to reside.

***

365 words

There will be a lot of people experiencing post holiday blues, I think and I thought that I would explore that with the story of May and Tom, the dog.

I think he'd look like this. Bright and alert and ready to be taken home. Just the thing for May to lift her.

Thanks for stopping by. If you've read this story, please do leave a comment as I love to interact with my readers.

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