Chaos At Christmas – Episode 20
Chaos At Christmas by Ewan Smith
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- 1. Chaos At Christmas – Episode 20
But though her days were breathless and non-stop, they were exciting as well. It was like being on a roller-coaster; she was never sure what was just round the corner.
That afternoon, a message reached her from Geraint. He wondered if he could have a quick word when she had a spare moment. She didn’t exactly drop everything and run – staff at the Manor were far too dignified to run anywhere.
But she was on her way out of the hotel within twenty seconds of the message getting to her. There was something about him which drew her like an elastic band. “Boing, boing,” she thought to herself with a grin.
Geraint was standing with Faisal on the front lawn. “Goodness, you’ve been busy,” Ferelith said, gazing about in admiration.
Dozens of shrubs in pots had been arranged to make a large circle. Their leaves were a dramatic mixture of Christmas colours and the pots had all been decorated with tinsel. “I had a brainstorming session with the ground staff this morning,”
Geraint said. “This is the part of the lawn where the penguins were based. It’s in a real mess at the moment and we need to keep people off it so that the grass gets a chance to recover. But we decided that it would be a bit boring just to put up some sort of barrier.”
“So what’s this?”
He smiled and held out his hands. “You are looking at – the Fosbury Manor Christmas Wishing Well!”
Ferelith’s eyes widened. “I see.” Though she didn’t really. “Why are there lots of hoops on the ground inside the circle.”
Eagerly, he began to explain. “You need to imagine that you’re a guest at the hotel and you have a secret Christmas wish of some sort. That wish is going to be tossed into our wishing well.”
“O – kay,” Ferelith said uncertainly.
“Next to each of the hoops there will be a sign explaining what happens to any wishes which land inside it. They’ll say things like ‘Your wish will come true!’ or ‘Santa knows what you want!’ or ‘Bad luck – try again!’”
Ferelith frowned as she tried to understand. “So do people write their wishes on pieces of paper?”
“We thought that we could provide some in star-shapes.”
Ferelith nodded slowly. “That would work. And we could maybe supply glitter pens as well so that the wishes could be decorated. Then what? Do people just throw the wishes into your well?”
“That’s where we had our best idea. We’re going to use a leaf blower.” There was one by his feet and he picked it up. “Do you have a small piece of paper?” Ferelith searched in her pockets and brought out an old receipt. “Fold it up,” Geraint said and she did so.
He switched on the leaf blower. “Now throw it up,” he called. She did so and, blasted by the leaf blower, the crumpled receipt flew high into the air and then drifted slowly down to land in one of the hoops in the middle of the circle. “We thought we could run two or three sessions a day where people could have their Christmas wishes blown into the wishing well.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” Ferelith said. “I think the younger guests especially will love it.”
“It’s just a bit of fun but the main point is that it will keep people off the churned-up part of the ground.”
“So was there something that you wanted my help with?”
Geraint looked at her uncertainly. “We need some signs. One to explain what the wishing well is all about and others to go with each of the hoops. Then there are the star-shaped pieces of paper. And the pens, of course.”
Ferelith could feel her To-Do List growing by the moment. She smiled ruefully. “No problem, leave that to me.”
“That’s brilliant,” Geraint beamed. Unexpectedly, he stepped forward and took her in a hug. Ferelith felt herself beaming too; who cared about To-Do Lists? He stood with his arms around her and it occurred to Ferelith that, if she didn’t move at all, perhaps he would forget to let her go. But a voice suddenly broke into her thoughts.
Excuse me, there’s someone hiding in the bushes and taking photographs of people.
She felt Geraint’s shock as he let go of her. Two young guests were gazing at them. “Taking photographs?” Ferelith said in puzzlement.
One of the girls nodded. “He’s in those bushes by the entrance of the hotel. We spotted him when we were playing hide-and-seek.”
“He got away, unfortunately,” Ferelith said. “I think he realised that he’d been spotted.”
Lionel was gazing at her with concern. “Did you get a good look at him?”
Ferelith shook her head. “Not really. But he had two cameras with him; one slung round his neck and the other in his hand. Both with long lenses.”
Franklyn shook his head in disgust.
Paparazzi, They’re like parasites.
But Lyle just shrugged. “They have their jobs to do.”
When Ferelith had informed her father about the photographer, he had immediately contacted Lyle and Franklyn. Ferelith explained what had happened and Lionel told them about the visit earlier to the hotel by Layanna Parker.
“The two things must be connected,” Franklyn said, looking angrily at Lionel. “What’s going on at this hotel? The security is far too lax. Firstly, it was the penguins being removed from the grounds without anyone even knowing about it. And now this.”
Ferelith felt a spurt of irritation at his words. She didn’t like the idea of the hotel being blamed. It was surely because of Lyle that all these things were happening?
But Lionel was looking troubled. “The security of our guests is an absolute priority at the Manor. And I would argue that there’s no problem at all with the hotel itself.” He frowned. “Though perhaps there is a problem with the grounds.”
“So what do you intend to do?” Franklyn demanded.
Lyle suddenly leant forward, his eyes bright with enthusiasm. “I know what the answer is – motion detectors!”
Ferelith’s phone began to chirrup. She picked it up with a mutter of frustration. She knew what the call would be about. “Don’t tell me, Erik. The motion detectors have picked up another signal?”
“You’ve guessed it, Miss Ferelith. Down by the sensory garden. Would you be good enough to check it out?”
“Of course, I’ll go now.”
She looked at her computer screen with a weary sigh. All morning, she had been trying to finish the signs for Geraint’s wishing well but she was constantly being interrupted by requests from Erik to check out alarms from the motion detectors. They came through to the front desk and he passed them straight on to her.
Lyle had been so enthusiastic about the detectors. “It’s a new system we’ve been developing at GroupChat. The detectors constantly sample visual information from a particular area and detect any changes that occur. If the degree of change reaches a significant level then an alarm signal is automatically triggered.”
As he had told them in a torrent of detail about how the detectors worked, Ferelith had quickly got lost in his explanations. She suspected that her father had been the same but there was no holding Lyle back.
