Chaos At Christmas – Episode 22
Chaos At Christmas by Ewan Smith
« Previous Post- 1. Chaos At Christmas: Episode 01
- 1. Chaos At Christmas – Episode 22
“When people choose flowers for their gardens, they usually concentrate on how the plants look and smell. That’s understandable, of course. But we have three other senses as well and the purpose of this garden is to engage them all.”
Once he got talking, Ferelith didn’t even attempt to interrupt; it would have been like trying to hold back a waterfall. There was something so sweet about his eagerness. It was as if he had a precious treasure which he longed to share.
“Close your eyes and feel the bark of this tree.” Ferelith felt him lead her hand gently. “Isn’t it wonderful? And these leaves – aren’t they extraordinary? They almost feel like fur.” Her hand seemed so at home in his. When he let her go, she felt a little sag of disappointment.
Night had fallen but there were solar-powered lights here and there to guide their way along the paths. There was enough light for them to see each other. “Now close your eyes again and this time just listen.”
She did so. Silence fell over them but she could sense him next to her; it was a strangely intimate moment. Then her ears attuned to the sounds. “…the trickling of the water from the little fountain…how peaceful is that…the whisper of the leaves around us…it’s as if they’re talking to each other…can you hear the rustling in the undergrowth…that’ll be a hedgehog…”
It may not have been a proper date but, for Ferelith, it still seemed as if there was magic in the air. The scents were the best thing of all. “Smell this honeysuckle,” Geraint murmured. “And this viburnum. What about this skimmia?”
The names meant nothing to her but as their two heads came together so that they could smell the extraordinary perfumes, her mind began to swirl and fly. She had no doubt that Geraint was only thinking of the plants. But his presence next to her in the darkness with all her senses afire made her feel as if they had slipped into a wonderful dream.
“Hello, girls, are you having a nice evening?”
Holly and Bree were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the steps outside the front of the hotel. They were huddled together over Holly’s GroupChat phone and, when they looked up and saw Ferelith and Geraint, their eyes widened.
Not as nice as your evening,
Holly retorted and the two girls burst out laughing.
Ferelith smiled uncertainly. “We’ve just been to the sensory garden.”
“We know!” they retorted in unison.
“The scents of some of the flowers are amazing.”
“It really should be called the Garden of Luuurrvve,” Bree said and their laughter redoubled.
Ferelith looked at them in puzzlement. “Am I missing something, girls?”
Holly turned her phone so that Ferelith could see the screen. “We’ve been looking at the map from the infra-red cameras to see if there was anything going on in the grounds.”
Bree cackled. “And there was one real hot-spot!”
“I’m not quite with you,” Ferelith said, though she was starting to get a sense of what they might be talking about. She sat down beside them. On the screen of Holly’s phone was an outline map of the grounds of the hotel. It was lit up in a fluorescent green with patches of yellow here and there.
“Those patches are people,” Holly said. “You can see the three of us together and Geraint standing a little way apart.” The patches were only rough outlines of human shapes but they were clear enough.
Holly fiddled with the controls of the screen and the map changed. “This is the sensory garden.” She fiddled around some more. “And this was it five minutes ago.” She increased the image so that two people could be clearly seen right at the centre. “That’s you and Geraint.”
Holly nudged Bree and the two of them giggled.
Having a lovely time.
Ferelith gazed in disbelief at the screen. It was occurring to her that the images they were looking at were available to everyone with a GroupChat phone. “But Geraint and I were just smelling the flowers together.”
“Of course you were!” Holly cackled. The two girls fell back, hooting with laughter and waving the screen which showed Ferelith and Geraint with their heads close together as if they were kissing passionately.
“I don’t want another level of security at the Manor,” Lionel protested. “There’s no need for it.”
“But this would be so simple to establish,” Lyle retorted eagerly. “Everything is already set up on the GroupChat phones. All that’s required is for it to be connected to the security cameras at the hotel.”
Ferelith was saying nothing. In fact, she had been keeping her head down all morning. No one had actually mentioned her visit to the sensory garden with Geraint the night before. However, she had noticed some amused glances and sidelong looks from one or two of her work colleagues.
It wasn’t that she had anything to feel ashamed about. On the contrary. But when she thought about it – and she seemed to be thinking about it almost continuously – she felt that she wouldn’t have been entirely unhappy if Geraint had tried out a kiss or two with her in the garden.
Somehow, she would have found a way to put up with the stress of the experience. But the two of them hadn’t enjoyed a cuddly snog and it was very frustrating to think that other people suspected that they had.
However, the last thing she wanted was for the subject to be brought up with her father. So she had been sitting quietly in Lionel’s office getting her instructions for the day when Lyle had suddenly appeared, full of enthusiasm. He’d had a new idea.
“Facial recognition,” he had said without a word of greeting. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. It’s there on the GroupChat phones as standard. And this is the perfect opportunity to try it out.”
Of course, Lionel could have expressed outrage. He was the manager of the hotel; it was his office. Lyle had no business bursting in without warning. For all he knew, Lionel and Ferelith might have been discussing a matter of life and death. As it happened, they had been talking about the laundry rota but that was neither here nor there.
On the other hand, Lyle was a billionaire many times over. And for some reason that made it hard to stand up to him. So Lionel and Ferelith just listened as he explained his latest brilliant plan.
According to Lyle, linking the phones’ facial recognition software to the hotel’s security system would be an easy matter. Then people who were picked up by the Manor’s CCTV cameras would be automatically identified.
“If the system finds someone who isn’t either a guest at the hotel, a member of staff or an approved visitor then an alert will be raised and that person can be checked out,” Lyle said. “It’s all very simple. Foolproof, really.”
Ferelith wasn’t convinced. “You said that about the motion detectors and I ended up having to check out dozens of false alarms which were just caused by the artificial snow blowing about.”
Lyle waved a hand dismissively. “That was a case of the right technology being used in the wrong situation. This is very different.” He looked at Lionel. “So what do you say? Shall we install the facial recognition software?”
Lionel grimaced. “I can see that there might be some advantages but…”
Excellent,
Lyle retorted, jumping to his feet. “I’ll go and set things up now. You won’t regret it!”
The silence in Lionel’s office was like the calm after the rush of a storm.
