Colin and Martin’s First Christmas-3
832 Words
Colin’s voice brought Martin out of his funk; he’d been dazedly sitting on the sofa. He rose to his feet.
“What’s wrong?” they both asked at the same time.
Colin hugged Martin to him. “You sounded ill on the phone, and the blood, God, Martin, you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just thought you were ringing up to cancel today.” Martin fought hard to keep hold of his emotions.
“Cancel, why would I want to cancel?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t expecting anyone to ring, no one ever does, and when,” Martin sniffed, “and when I heard your voice and you were saying that you were sorry, well, I, I…” Martin lost the battle, the dam broke.
“Hush, love. Please Martin, please it’s okay. I got your number out of the phonebook, I’d forgotten what time you wanted me to come over. There, there, it’s okay, love, I’m here. I’m here.” Colin wiped Martin’s eyes.
“s**t, s**t, I’ve made a total prat of myself, haven’t I?”
“No, love. I’m sorry for frightening you. But you’ve been hurt, there are loads of bloody finger marks in the kitchen.” Colin lifted up Martin’s hands. “They look okay, just a few small nicks.”
“Sorry, I cut myself when I was doing the sprouts, I’m not used to handling them, cause I don’t like them myself.”
“No, me neither,” Colin said.
Martin started to giggle. “I ought to make you eat them all up for causing me all that trouble.”
“Sorry, but you never told me you were going to do sprouts. And what about me? When I saw the blood, I didn’t know what had happened to you, I thought you’d been hurt.”
“A right pair of twits, aren’t we?” Martin said, relaxing. It was okay. Everything was fine.
“Let me give you a hand in the kitchen.”
“It’s okay, I know where everything is. And there isn’t much to do at the minute.”
“Well, I’ll wipe up the blood then.”
“There isn’t much, surely?”
“No, not really, I think with blood, a little seems to go a long way. I ought to put Band Aids on your cuts though.”
“I’d rather you didn’t, it’d be like wearing gloves, and I won’t be able to feel things properly.”
“Oh yeah, I hadn’t thought about that. Well, let’s run your hands under the tap, I don’t want the cuts to get infected.”
“It’s nice to be looked after,” Martin smiled.
Once he’d attended to Martin’s cuts, Colin moved to the side and did his best to stay out of Martin’s way. Martin appreciated the company.
“Wow, it’s great how well you manage, considering…uh, that…”
Martin laughed. “That I’m not able to see what I’m doing?”
“Uh, yeah. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. “Look, this is how I chop stuff,” Martin said, reaching for a stick of celery.
He held the knife in his right hand, but used his left one over the top of the blade, with fingers spread.”
“The right hand does the cutting as usual, but the left hand does the seeing.”
“That’s really neat.”
Thinking he ought to lead the discussion away from blind culinary techniques, Martin said, “I thought we’d have poached salmon with a few prawns on a bed of salad as a starter.”
“Sounds lovely.”
“Would you like a sauce with it?”
“Whatever you think is best, I don’t want you to go to any more trouble.”
“Don’t worry, it’s an easy sauce to make up.” Martin demonstrated his point by putting a few tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise into a bowl, adding a little tomato puree, a pinch of cayenne pepper and a couple of squeezes of lemon juice. Reaching into a drawer, he pulled out a teaspoon. “Here, have a taste, do you want a bit more bite to it?”
Colin sampled the mixture. “No, it’s fine as it is.”
“Okay, you can help with the next bit if you like.” Martin reached up into a wall cupboard and brought down two wide glass goblets. “There’s some pre-washed lettuce and cherry tomatoes in the fridge, can you get them out along with the salmon and prawns, and kind of arrange them in these bowls?” Martin pointed to the celery and other salad greens he’d prepared, asking Colin to incorporate them also.
“Food presentation isn’t really my strong suit,” Martin admitted.
“You’ve done great, Martin, you honestly have. I know even without tasting any of this that it’ll be much nicer than the meal I would have had with Max and Tracy. And the company is much better here, too.”
“Thanks, Colin,” Martin said, getting a lump in his throat.
Martin had pulled out his rarely used dining table, setting it in the middle of the front room. He and Colin laid the table with a starched white tablecloth and Martin’s best china.
“Erm, Martin, I’m not normally one for saying grace at mealtimes, but well, erm, I’d like to say a few words if you don’t mind.”
“Sure, whatever you want.”
The pair held hands over the table. “Lord,” Colin began. “We thank you for these the gifts of your bounty, we also give thanks for bringing together two friends to share this wonderful meal, so lovingly prepared. May you watch over and guide us in our efforts to serve you in our daily lives. Amen.”
“Amen,” Martin repeated softly.
The two began to eat.
“Martin, this is fantastic.”
“Thanks, it was fairly simple to put together really.”
“Well, I don’t think I could have done it,” Colin said. “I don’t remember you ordering any of this stuff from the supermarket.”
“I had it all delivered on your day off.”
“Why?”
“Oh, well it just kind of worked out that way,” Martin said, lowering his head and putting in another mouthful of food. His appetite wasn’t the best; he was still too keyed up about the rest of the meal coming off okay, to be able to enjoy himself.
- Writer
