All Lit Up
Marley Quinn
All Lit Up
by Marley Quinn
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Holly
Nick
Holly
Nick
Holly
Holly
Holly smiled as she stepped back to savor all her hard work. After many long hours, the Christmas decorations in her apartment were nearing perfection.
There were festive garlands framing the mantle, wreaths on every door, and no fewer than seven different types of Christmas lights strung across every wall, merrily twinkling and blinking in the fading afternoon light.
And the tree? Every bough was festooned with ornaments, each one a treasured item from her vast collection, right down to the hand blown glass angel on the top. Christmas lights were carefully laid out in a perfect spiral, perfectly matching the garland she had made out of popcorn and dried cranberries. It looked like something out of a fairy tale.
Everywhere she looked, Holly saw Christmas, and that thought made her very happy, indeed. All year long, she had waited for the season to arrive, and now it was here! Sure, there was no snow outside, and her family was far away, but other than that, this was perfection.
Yes, she sighed to herself, at least she could relax and enjoy every single moment of this wonderful holiday, a time when it was okay to permit your neighbors good cheer, pray for world peace, and indulge herself in sweet treats like homemade cookies, gooey fudge, and, of course, steaming mugs of peppermint hot chocolate, her absolute favorite.
But just as she turned to head to the kitchen to pour herself another helping of hot chocolate, her foot caught on one of the Christmas tree light cables, knocking her to the floor. There was a loud hiss, and then a bright flash of light as several of the bulbs popped. And then Holly shrieked as a powerful jolt of electricity zapped her, momentarily causing her to lose consciousness.
Feeling woozy, Holly slowly sat up, wincing at the pain she felt in every muscle in her body. What had just happened? She then gasped in horror as she saw that all of her Christmas lights were now lifeless and dead. This was a disaster!
Holly bounded to her feet and then began frantically checking all the cables. Several of them had been fused into a nasty plastic mess that singed her fingers when she touched it. She tried unplugging them and then plugging them back in, but it was no use. Something had shorted them out, and now Christmas was completely ruined!
Dashing to the fuse box in the front hallway, Holly sent up a silent prayer, hoping that maybe all she needed to do was flip a switch, and then Christmas would come back. But to her dismay, nothing happened, and she spent several long moments angrily flipping the switches back and forth, cursing at their stubborn refusal to bring her Christmas lights back to life.
What was she going to do? Trapped in an apartment without her beautiful, wonderful lights was a nightmare. And for this to happen on Christmas Eve? A total catastrophe. There was no way that Santa was going to be able to find her now, not in a dark, empty apartment without a wonderland of lights to guide him.
Sobbing to herself, Holly paced around her apartment, trying to figure out what to do. Was there time to go to the store and buy some new ones? No, wait, it was already after five o'clock, and most of them shut down early because of the holiday. Order some lights online? No, they'd never get delivered on time, even if she paid extra for rush shipping.
It was all so hopeless! Christmas was utterly ruined. All those long hours and hard work of getting everything decorated to perfection, for naught. She had obviously been a Bad Girl this year, and this was Santa's way of punishing her. That was the only explanation that made sense.
But then an idea struck her. Maybe this wasn't Santa's doing. Maybe there was some manufacturing defect in her lights. Yes! And so what she really needed to do was call in an electrician, someone who understood these things. Of course! And then he could use his skills to restore Christmas, and everything would be okay again.
Taking out her phone, Holly began going through all the listings for electricians in her city. But as she clicked through to voice call them, she got one recorded message after another, informing her with maddening cheerfulness that they were closed for the holidays. No! This couldn't be happening. Surely, there had to be a man out there who could deliver her a Christmas miracle.
With grim determination, Holly went through every listing for an electrician that she could find. And then, at long last, a human being answered.
"Hello?" came the gruff male voice on the other end.
"Hi there!" said Holly, being sure to put on a cheerful Christmas smile as she spoke. "I'm so happy that you answered. I really need an electrician. Can you help me?"
"Oh shit," said the man. "Sorry, I only answered by accident. We're closed. Call back next week, miss."
"Please, sir!" said Holly, fighting back years. "It's a Christmas emergency!"
"Look, as I said, we're closed," said the man. "And my wife will tan my hide if I tell her I'm heading out to do a job right now, you feel me? But, um, if it's really an emergency, I may know a guy who can help."
"Yes, sir, it really is!" said Holly, her heart racing.
"Okay, hang on," said the man, setting the phone down for a minute. "All right, are you still there? His name is Nick, and here's his number. I'm... not sure if he's still got his license or not, but he's your best bet. I worked with him on a couple of jobs, and he knows his stuff."
"Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you one million times," gushed Holly. "And I wish you the very merriest Christmas."
"Yeah, all right," said the man with a wry chuckle before ending the call.
As quick as a wink, Holly dialed the number the man had given her. At first, she was excited to hear the call go through, but then it rang and rang with no answer. Just when she was about to give up, though, someone picked up.
"Um, hello?" came a male voice.
"Hello, is this Nick?" said Holly, remembering to use her cheerful Christmas tone of voice.
"Yeah, who's this?" said the man on the other end.
"My name's Holly. And I got your phone number from Jolt Brothers," said Holly. "I'm in need of an electrician, and they said you might be able to help. It's an emergency!"
"An emergency, eh?" said Nick after a long pause. "You do realize that it's Christmas Eve, right?"
"Yes, of course," said Holly. "That's exactly why it's an emergency! Something happened to my Christmas lights. And I just don't know what I'd do without them. Christmas has to be perfect, you see."
"Sure, right," came Nick's reply. "Listen, if I come out there, I'm gonna have to charge you a five hundred dollar callout free."
"Oh, of course! No problem," gushed Holly, her heart thumping in her chest. "I'm happy to pay it. Please, you have to help me."
"All right, all right," came Nick's grumbling reply. "What's your address?"
Holly told him, and she could hear the scratching of a pen as he took down the details. "All right, I'll be there in an hour or so."
"Thank you, Nick! You don't know how much this means to me," said Holly. "If you can get my lights working again, it'll truly be a Christmas miracle."
"Yeah, yeah," said Nick. "Just sit tight."
"Thank you," said Holly, sighing with happiness after closing the connection.
See? She wasn't a Bad Girl after all. Santa was just testing her to see if she was worthy. And she was, she really was! And after Nick came over and worked his magic, everything in the world would be okay again. There was still plenty of time before midnight for her to get everything ready for his arrival.
Nick
Nick waited until Bruce Willis uttered the famous line about yippee-ki-yay to the terrorists and then got up to go into the kitchen to get himself another beer.
After popping off the top and enjoying a big swig, he intentionally averted his eyes from the pile of dishes in the sink. It was Christmas Eve, so who knew? Maybe a magic fairy would come clean up his kitchen. And if not, well, those dishes would just have to wait.
Scratching his belly, which had become surprisingly itchy recently, Nick headed back into the living room and sat down on the recliner with a loud oomph. He loved his old recliner, but his lower back certainly didn't. Perhaps he ought to invest in a new chair if some money came his way, but for now, it'd have to do.
As he continued to nurse his beer, Nick marveled at how much the world had changed. In the movie, the terrorists were all Germans, which almost seemed funny nowadays.
Unfortunately, a loud burp escaped him right when Alan Rickman uttered his best line, but Nick was too lazy to press stop and rewind to play it again. Anyway, he'd already seen the movie a hundred times before.
Just as Bruce reached the top floor of the Nakatomi Plaza building, Nick's phone rang, causing him to spill a little beer on his undershirt. But since it already had a few other stains on it, a new wet patch was the least of his concerns.
Who in the world was calling him now? Probably some fool telemarketer, trying to catch some sucker at home.
"Hello?" he growled after making the connection.
But it wasn't a telemarketer. Instead, it was a woman, a rather sweet older lady by the sound of her voice, and she was in frantic need of help. It took Nick a minute to understand what she was saying, that she'd done something to her Christmas lights and shorted out her whole apartment.
At first, Nick had been irritated by the phone call interrupting his yearly tradition, but then he realized that this might be a blessing in disguise. Thinking fast, he told her that there'd be a $500 callout fee, which she agreed to without hesitation. Wow, maybe he'd be able to buy a new chair after all.
"All right, just sit tight. I'll be there in about an hour," he told the woman after getting her address. She only lived a short distance away, but Nick knew he needed some time to clean himself up and sober up a bit.
Ever since that putz Billy had ratted him out for drinking on the job, work opportunities had been few and far between. There just weren't that many people willing to hire an electrician who had lost his license, not unless some kind of freak storm hit the area, so Nick was in a jolly mood by the time he washed his face and changed into a clean-ish pair of coveralls.
The lady on the phone had been so frantic, it had been hard to understand exactly how much damage she'd done. But between the callout fee and the job, he might easily walk away with a thousand bucks, which put a pep in his step as he combed his hair and donned his jacket.
Just as he was about to leave the house, Nick glanced over and saw his old red Santa hat sitting on the crowded dresser. Thinking it'd be a nice way to cheer up the old lady who was clearly on her own for the holidays, Nick put the hat onto his head before heading out into the icy cold.
With the blowing snow, Nick had a hell of a time finding the lady's apartment building. But at last, he saw the street number and was lucky enough to get a parking spot close to the front door. Whistling to himself, he unlimbered his toolbox from the back of his beat-up truck and then rang the doorbell.
Thankfully, the lady buzzed him in before his fingers could get numb, and Nick wearily climbed the three floors to her apartment. To his complete surprise, when she opened the door, he saw that she wasn't an old lady at all but a rather attractive blonde woman in her late 20s. She was wearing a short little red velvet dress with white faux fur trim that nicely set off her curves.
Dang, this job was looking better and better he thought to himself as he stepped into her living room, surprisingly well-lit by the dozens of candles she had burning.
"Oh, thank goodness you're here!" said the lady, whose name he'd already forgotten, assuming she'd told it to him. Sometimes, the beer made his mind go fuzzy a bit.
"Yep," said Nick, stifling a belch. "Now show me the problem."
Nick's eyebrows went up when the hot chick led him over to a bundle of cables that had been fused together.
"And then there was this loud pop, and oof, I felt this sharp pain," said the woman, bending down and pointing at the cables, the generous neckline of her dress making it hard for him to concentrate.
"Woah," said Nick. "Are you okay? Maybe you should get that checked out. Being electrocuted is no joke."
"Oh, I feel fine now," said the woman, a dreamy look in her eyes. "But it just won't be Christmas without my lights!"
"All right, let me have a look," said Nick, rather enjoying her eyes on him as he carefully traced the cables back to the outlet. Sure enough, the cheap Chinese junk had shorted out, and it was a miracle that the lights hadn't caught on fire.
"Santa just won't be able to find his way here if everything isn't perfect!" said the woman.
"Mm-hmm," said Nick, ignoring her chatter as he scouted around for the fuse box.
The good news was that the fuses had done their job. Three of them had blown, but that was no problem as they were a standard size, and he had plenty of extras in his toolbox. Replacing the fuses would be easy. The real work would be unplugging all the crap she had going to what was clearly an overloaded extension cord.
"Okay, the good news is I can get the power back on," said Nick, turning to face her, once again struck by her good looks. Of course, she was a couple of decades younger than he was, but it didn't stop him from enjoying the view.
"Oh, you're an angel! You truly are," said the woman, clapping her hands together in a way that made her chest jiggle in a most distracting way.
"Bad news is it looks like most of your lights got fried," said Nick. "I mean, you've got quite a lot of them. You really shouldn't connect so many to one outlet."
"I just can't help it," said the woman with a girlish giggle. "I just love Christmas so much!"
"Uh-huh," said Nick. "All right, let me see what I can do."
"While you're doing that, I'm going to bake you up some Christmas cheer," announced the woman, dashing off toward the kitchen.
Nick smiled to himself as he got to work popping out the dead fuses and replacing them with new ones. Once that was done, he turned his attention to the job of separating out the salvageable Christmas lights from the ones which were trashed.
Once he'd unplugged everything from the extension cords, Nick walked back over to the fuse box and flipped the switch, rewarded a moment later by seeing all the lights in the house come on.
"Oh, you did it!" cried the woman from the kitchen.
Her enthusiasm was almost infectious, and Nick felt himself continuing to smile as he began untangling the intact cables from the melted mess. By the time a delicious aroma of gooey chocolate chips hit his nose, he had managed to save five strands of Christmas lights, much more than he had expected.
Nick then carefully plugged each one in to test them and was happy to see them blink into life. Standing up, he had to admit that the odd but still quite sexy lady had done a pretty good job decorating her apartment. Everywhere he looked, there was something Christmasy, giving the place a warm glow.
"Hope you're hungry!" said the woman, bearing a tray of cookies and a pitcher of milk as she walked into the living room.
"Wow, thanks," said Nick, wiping his hands on his coveralls before taking one, which was piping hot, forcing him to eat it in tiny little bites instead of gulping it down.
"You know," said the woman with a little titter. "With you wearing that hat and eating my cookies, why, a girl might think that you're actually Santa in disguise."
"Yeah," said Nick with a little chuckle, unable to resist helping himself to another one of her cookies.
"Plus, your name is Nick," said the woman, one finger toying with her bottom lip as she looked up at him.
"That's me," said Nick, starting to feel quite warm. The lady must've had the oven cranked up because the temperature in the apartment was almost sweltering.
"You know, I've been waiting for you my whole life, ever since I was a little girl," said the woman, her eyes wide and shiny in a way that was a bit unsettling.
"Oh, is that so?" said Nick, feeling woozy. Whether it was the heat or something else, he was finding it hard to think straight.
"I wrote you a letter every year," said the woman with a little pout. "But you never came to visit me."
"Oh, um, sorry about that," said Nick, now starting to get alarmed. Had she put some kind of drug in the cookies? Everything felt strange and distorted, as if he were underwater or something. It was all very weird.
Even in his altered condition, Nick couldn't help but notice the woman playing with the hem of her dress, causing it to ride up just a little. What was going on here? Why, if he didn't know better, he'd almost think that she was flirting with him or something.
"You remember me, don't you, Santa?" said the woman, both hands now clutching the hem of her dress. "I'm Holly. Your special girl. You still like me, don't you?"
"Right, Holly," mumbled Nick, sweat beading on his forehead. "Sure, yeah, of course."
"I knew it!" said Holly, a strange light dancing in her eyes as she lifted one hand and stuck out her thumb before plopping it straight into her mouth. Was she really sucking on her finger, or was he just imagining all this?
"Listen, um, the work's all done," said Nick, struggling to get the words out of his mouth. "Total's gonna be eight hundred and fifty. Cash if you got it."
"Oh, Santa," said Holly with a little giggle as wiggled her body in a way that caused Nick to begin thinking some very naughty thoughts even through the fog of whatever she'd drugged the cookies with. "I think you know that's not how I'm going to pay you."
"Um, what?" was about all Nick could get out before his legs gave way and he collapsed onto the sofa.