Free Christmas Wishes (novella) by Rhian Cahill

he’d been hit by a train.
    The shock to his chest was palpable, as though something steel hard and lightning sharp had ripped through him, leaving him open and raw and aching hot with sensation. His jaw dropped, his lids lowered, his breathing was suddenly laboured, and every muscle was tense with anticipation.
    And despite the impression that he’d been shoved backwards at a great rate, staggering from the sheer force of the impact, he was standing stock still, statue still, shop window dummy still, just like he’d been told to.
    He had no idea what just happened, why it felt like there was fire in his fingertips and his blood was circulating four times faster than normal, why he could hear bells ringing deep inside his head…
    Maybe he was sick, this was a stroke or an aneurysm, come on suddenly with no warning and pushing him so far off balance he was electrified. He needed Google to check for the symptoms because maybe that explained his unexpected inability to speak or think clearly.
    He had no idea how long Scott had been talking at him, so obviously his hearing was blown as well. It was her hand placed softly on his arm that brought him back, rushing back, and her honey voice saying his name that snatched him into the present again.
    He snapped his mouth closed and made some sound, more a grunt than anything intelligible, and she turned away. Shit, she thought he was a Neanderthal and he’d just proven it. He ran a hand through the tangle of his hair and pushed a breath out, turning to look at Scott.
    “Can you do that again, caveman?”
    “Ah...?”
    “Don’t over-think it. You either can or you can’t.”
    “I don’t know what I did.”
    Scott groaned, “You were perfect. Who’d have guessed, straight out of the box, never been used. You just have to do exactly what you did then and everything will be rainbows.”
    ‘Rainbows!’ What was this tool talking about? He couldn’t do that again; he wouldn’t live through the intensity of it. How was it she appeared so unaffected?
    She was over by the stereo, nonchalantly selecting the next track, her long dark ponytail swinging over her shoulder, cascading across her elegantly slender neck. She had her extraordinary pale amber eyes down on the screen, leaning forward slightly, a delicious arch in her back, one long, well muscled leg in front of the other.
    She looked real and natural, made of ordinary flesh and bone, where only a minute ago she’d seemed entirely illusory, like air, like desire given life in the form of an exotically beautiful girl.
    He looked at Mitch and Fluke, sitting on the floor over against the mirror. They were both grinning at him like circus clowns. They must have felt it too then, or seen her change form and become something supernatural.
    “Dan!”
    “Sorry, Scott – what?”
    “We’re going to do it again.”
    “No, I...”
    “Ok, take a minute.”
    He glanced at Alex, now discussing something with Scott, a bright smile animating her face. He might as well have been insect repellent for all the impact he had on her. He shook his head to try to clear it and walked across to the boys.
    “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, mate,” said Fluke.
    “Did you see it too?” He heard how utterly dazed and insanely stupid he sounded.
    “Nope?”
    “Mitch?”
    “Nah, you’re the one got stung.”
    “I don’t know what just happened.”
    Mitch laughed, but not unkindly, and jostled Fluke. “You’re in trouble, Dan.”
    “But I haven’t done anything. I just stood there like they told me to.”
    “Yeah, you did something.”
    Dan turned to Fluke, always the ‘go to’ for tricky things. “What did I do?”
    “I think you might have taken the plunge, mate.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “She’s the one.”
    “What?”
    “She’s the one.”
    “What one?”
    Mitch jumped in, “Some pissed off angel in a nappy shot you in the fat head with a laser beam.”
    “Be serious!”
    “I am. She just hit you