A Family Christmas Ch. 04

"Don't you dare say a word..." Julia hissed at me, but her face was wreathed in a big smile, "He was a very charming old gentleman,,,, and very observant..."

We strolled back towards Lanser Straβe her arm linked through mine the way that we had walked in Windsor Great Park on Christmas morning. I agreed with the old boy, I thought I was lucky too. "Where to now...?" I asked although I could easily have guessed the answer.

"Well to the Sporthotel, Wintergarten Restaurant of course..." she replied, "That is where you have been told to take your 'young lady' for a romantic lunch...remember."

I had eaten at the Sporthotel before with Mother and Cora but only in the Terrace Restaurant, the Wintergarten Restaurant served a full lunchtime menu of traditional Austrian dishes. The restaurant was busy but we were quickly seated at a table for two and presented with menus. The fare was quite extensive and I found myself spoiled for choice but finally settled for the two dish Tafelspitz; a tasty beef broth with carrots, turnips and leeks followed by tender boiled top rump steak with roasted potatoes and turnips, creamed spinach and a creamy horseradish and chive sauce. Julia ordered the Paprikahendl, roast chicken with sweet red peppers with Spätzle pasta and lettuce and Nockerl, savoury balls of semolina and soft cheese.

Once again it was Julia who proposed that we have wine with the meal but suggested that we should restrict ourselves to a glass each as it was only mid-day. We chinked our glasses over the table. "To my 'lovely young lady'..." I toasted with a cheeky grin.

She cocked an eyebrow and then gave me one of her big beautiful smiles. "To my handsome young beau..." She replied laughing.

We both ordered the hot apple strudel with a cinnamon whipped cream topping and coffee to finish.

"So tell me, James," she asked archly, "What sort of competition am I facing for your affections...do you have a regular girlfriend, or just lots of casual conquests?"

Her question took me by surprise even though it was humorously phrased. Until now we had both carefully avoided questions of a personal nature, I guess we were still just feeling out the depth of our new found amity. I was finding that despite our past history I was beginning to really like my aunt but in many ways we were very much alike, a little stand-offish, we didn't open up easily and were both still very tentative with our new relationship.

"Er, neither really," I mumbled, "I hang out with some of the girls from army cadets, but they are more my mates than girlfriends; I've been on a few dates...but nothing special... I guess with exams at school, sports commitments and the cadet force I don't really get much chance to meet girls socially."

I couldn't really tell her that my sister and I had a secret sexual relationship and had become very proficient at the art of pleasuring each other without actually fucking, and that because of our 'relaxation' sessions I felt no real need to look for sex with other girls, even though technically I suppose that I was still a virgin... I had yet to fuck a girl properly. I guess that most of the things that I liked doing did not really throw me into the path of girls who were up for it although most of my mates seemed to be shagging like rabbits.

The biggest obstacle to my having a girlfriend was that my benchmark for female excellence was my sister... No girl of my own age that I had met so far came anywhere near Cora as either a companion or a potential sexual partner.

"You are young yet, James," Julia said without sounding the slightest bit patronising, "Plenty of time for relationships later when you are at university..." Just for a moment I think that she let her guard slip, "Relationships are not always what they are cracked up to be..." She added with a slight hint of sadness.

Perhaps because she sounded as if she needed to talk... perhaps because she had treated me as an adult and an equal since we had been together... or perhaps because my mouth got away from my brain as usual, I plunged ahead with the question that was in my mind.

"Do you have someone, Jules?" Cora and I had speculated about it... Uncle Ted had his strongly held opinion... but neither of us had actually had the balls to ask the question.

"Me! Good God NO!" She said emphatically with a forced laugh but her face and eyes did not show mirth, her smile failed to conceal the look of unhappiness that briefly flashed across her lovely face.

I was suddenly very afraid that I had fucked up...said the wrong thing again... "I'm sorry, Jules... I didn't mean to pry..."

This was Austria not England and other people were smoking at their tables as strange as it now seemed to us British, and so I produced my cigarettes and offered her one. I lit both and we sat back in silence for a minute just savouring the calming effect of the nicotine.

"No...I am glad you asked..." she said quietly and reached across the table and placed her hand over mine, "We are friends now...and friends are able to talk to each other ...aren't they?"

For once I kept my mouth shut, just nodded solemnly and held her hand. She did not pull it away.

"There is not anybody now," she stated. Her voice was a little subdued not strong and confident as was usual. "There was once...but not for a very, very, long time." She paused to take a deep lung full of smoke from her cigarette and allow it to trickle slowly from her lips and nostrils. Jeez, but it was sexy the way she did that. I thought that she had finished all she wanted to say and then suddenly she was disclosing her most private thoughts.

"When I was you age or a bit older I got my fair share of attention from the men around me and was considered something of a 'looker'." She said with a smile.

"You still are..." I put in, I agreed with Uncle Ted, she was still a good looking woman.

"Thank you James, dear... that is very sweet of you... but I know I am not twenty any more. Expensive clothes and make-up cannot disguise grey hair, wrinkles and sagging breasts for ever!"

"They don't look sagging to me..." I heard my mouth blurting before I could get my brain in gear.

She didn't say anything, just raised a warning eyebrow, took a sip from her coffee cup and continued. "The thing was...in those days I was totally absorbed in my career... I had landed a plum job in a very decent law firm with chambers at the Inns of Courts, I had a brilliantly successful pupillage and was set for a glittering career with my sights already set on the Bench..."

"That's being a judge...yes?" I asked sensibly and breathed a sigh of relief that the breast thing had passed by without incident.

"That's right. I was happy and successful, I had a brilliant career which I loved, a really 'swish' apartment in London, a good income and everything was right with my world... my father was proud of me and I was still really tight with your mother then, we spent a lot of time together during her holidays, came to Austria skiing or went sailing in Spain or Malta..."

"Would you like another coffee...or perhaps liqueurs..." A waiter had appeared at my elbow and was clearing away the dessert dishes. I looked at Julia and raised my eyebrows in askance. She shook her head.

"No that is all thank you... would you bring me the bill please..."

Julia reached into her pocket and produced her wallet and pulled out an American Express Card... it looked like a Gold Card to me but I had never seen one before so I was just guessing. I waved it away and counted out some of the Euros that I brought with me in cash... left over from last year... I always drew far more cash than I needed for the holiday and had not joined Mum and Cora in Spain in the summer to use it up.

We walked slowly back to the car arm in arm enjoying a cigarette in the open air. I don't know why but tobacco seems to taste better in the cold fresh mountain air.

"You were telling me about how you became a judge..." I prompted.

"No, I was confiding in you about how I came to be a sad lonely old maid..." She corrected with a small none too humorous laugh. I guess my aunt could still be a bit prickly at times.

"BULL SHIT!" I exploded. "Somebody as successful as you can hardly be considered sad... old is a load of crap, I don't see you as old at all... And there is no reason for you to be lonely, you have Mum and Cora... and me as well!" I guess my temper hadn't undergone much of an improvement either. Mother had been right, putting Julia and me together was a volatile mixture, both of us had quick tempers and a low tolerance threshold.

She stopped dead and spun me round to face her. Passers-by must have thought we were having a ruck in the street... "I'm dead..." I thought to myself, "She's going to fucking kill me...! Or I shall end up walking back to the hotel...!" Then she just leaned in and kissed me gently on the cheek... her soft lips and the touch of her hair against my face made my balls tingle.

"Thank you James, dear..." She said and her face lit up in one of those fantastically beautiful smiles that she shared with my mother and my sister...the sort of smile that brightens up an entire room and breaks hearts.

"Jules..." I began.

"Now don't say anything sentimental or mawkish..." She scolded, "You have just saved me from being sorry for myself...I couldn't bear it if I thought YOU felt sorry for me now...If I start to get mopish again...just...well just pinch me or something...OK?"

We got back into the car and she tilted the rear view mirror so that she could renew her lipstick... "Smoke and Mirrors..." She laughed. "If I am going to hang out with my nephew I need to try to make myself look younger...even if it is just an illusion, Eh?

"Let's not go there again..." I answered.

"I rather liked the bit about being your 'young lady', and about 'old being a load of crap'..." she smiled. Julia missed nothing and remembered everything. She started the car. "Let's drive into Innsbruck and do some shopping...I feel like buying something expensive..."

"Oh, hell...Retail Therapy...I guess all women have that in common". I thought.

We drove into Innsbruck and parked at the Rathaus-Garage on Adolph Pichler Platz, only a few minutes stroll away from the Maria-Theresa-Straβe and made our way to the Kaufhaus Tyrol, Innsbruck's newly refurbished shopping mall.

I am not a shopping enthusiast my boredom threshold is pretty low when it comes to trailing after Mother and Cora when we all go 'up west' and I usually try to find an excuse to disappear into a book shop and stay there until I am fairly confident that they are shopped out and will be acquiescent to finding a coffee shop somewhere. It was rather odd that I actually found the next hour or so browsing shoe shops and boutiques with Julia pleasant and entertaining...she was very good company and we seemed to be able to make small talk despite the age difference. I was happy to carry her trophies, a couple of pairs of shoes and a handbag, which I thought were very nice as far as shoes and handbags go... but were no way worth the extortionate amount which she charged to her credit card without blinking. Who is Jimmy Choo, anyway? As we were leaving the last boutique she suddenly darted at a rail and held up a tan leather quilted biker's jacket for me to see...

"Do you think that Coralline would like this...?" She asked. "It looks about her size..."

"Hell yes!" I replied, "That is just her style...she would love it." I mentally added up how much I had left in my wallet and came up about €200 short of the price tag... I would dearly have loved to buy it for my sister but Julia beat me to it. Before I had hardly finished speaking she had found a sales assistant and returned with another shopping bag for me to tote.

It was Julia who finally suggested that we stop at the Bar Central Café for coffees and enormous slices of rich Black Forest Gateau. "When we have had our drinks we can go back to the hotel and I will telephone your mother... she should know by then which flight they will be on tomorrow..." She suggested. I was looking forward to Mother and Cora flying out the next day, it had only been a couple of days but I missed not having my sister around and I was still a bit concerned for her wellbeing and would rather have her close; having said that, I also felt strangely reluctant to relinquish the new intimacy that had grown between Julia and myself from being here on our own.

By the time that we got back to the hotel it was dark and the younger skiers were already changed and clamouring to be let into the dining room and were filling the reception area with their energetic and noisy presence. During the holiday season it was usual for the hotel to start serving dinner early at 6pm so that the skiers and snow boarders could eat before making their way into Innsbruck to the popular bars such as Adlers or the Bar Plateau which were always heaving with noisy merry makers until nearly dawn. It had been one of my ambitions this holiday to persuade Mother to allow Cora and I to join the younger après ski set at one of the fashionable venues one night now that we were legally old enough to be admitted.

Julia had been trying to get a connection on her mobile 'phone since we came into the hotel lobby but she shook her head to me. "I can't get a signal to your mother's telephone..." She mouthed, "and it's too bloody noisy in here..." The chattering and laughter from the large group waiting for taxis into town was deafening. "Let's go up to the room and try the land line..."

"OK." I agreed leading the way to the ancient lift.

Fifteen minutes later I was starting to get a bit anxious. Neither of us had been able to raise Mother's mobile telephone... it must have been switched off. She would only do that if she was at the hospital and they should have left during the afternoon. Julia had twice tried telephoning the land line at home and had left messages on the answering machine for Mum to call us back. Finally I had taken Julia's laptop down to reception to piggy back off the hotel Wi-Fi and tried to get through to Cora's iPad but it too must have been switched off and so I had just left an e-mail message.

"Where the bloody hell are they?" I raged. We were sitting in our lounge, Julia had the landline telephone in her lap and I was still punching at her laptop refreshing her e-mail hoping for a reply from my sister. I was starting to get a bit worried and really snotty and bad tempered.

"Don't worry James dear..." Julia said in a consoling tone, "They are probably still at the hospital...maybe waiting to be checked out. Remember they are an hour behind us, it is still only five fifteen in England... if we still haven't got through in another fifteen minutes I will ring the hospital switchboard and try to find out if Cora has been discharged yet..."

"I'm sorry, Julia... I'm being an arsehole, I shouldn't take it out on you..." I apologised, "I'll make us another cup of coffee..."

"Bugger that... there is a bottle of Scotch in my bedroom that I brought in my suitcase... Why don't you fetch it and a couple of glasses... we will probably feel less tense for having a snort..."

I found the unopened bottle of Glenmorangie 10 Year Old Malt on her dressing table and brought it through to the lounge. She was still sitting on the settee trying for a connection on her mobile and so I poured each of us a generous measure, handed her one and sat down beside her. She reached down and pulled two cigarettes from her packet on the table, lit both with a slim gold vintage Dunhill lighter and handed one to me. The tip tasted of her lipstick, sweet and slightly fruity... or perhaps like rose petals, very erotic like a kiss on a stick.

"Still no joy... I think I shall try the hospital switchboard now..." she said taking a sip from her glass.

We both jumped when the telephone extension rang on her lap and the orange light flickered to indicate that it was a call from the switchboard. Julia grabbed the receiver and spoke rapidly in German then smiled and announced... "It is your mother...calling from the hospital..."

Listening to one side of a telephone conversation is at best frustrating but from what I could make out things were not going according to plan...eventually Julia said "I think you should tell James yourself, Gill..." She handed me the receiver.

"Hello Mum... What's happening... is Cora OK? What time are you flying out tomorrow?" I asked.

"It is all alright, darling... Nothing to be alarmed about... yes Cora is fine, but..." She sounded frustrated rather than worried. "But we won't be flying out until maybe Friday or Saturday... Mr. Goldblum has agreed to let your sister come home tomorrow afternoon but wants to do another scan on Thursday before he will sign her off to fly..."

"Oh, shit Mum... Is she alright REALLY? Should we be thinking about coming home to the UK?"

"Firstly..." Mum said firmly, "Cora is fine except that she still gets a bit dizzy when she stands for long periods and naturally her broken arm aches. Secondly, she is really pissed off about the holiday...so I want you to stay put with Aunt Julia... we WILL get out to join you before New Year... I promise..."

"Well... er... OK, if you are sure..." I agreed. "Can I speak to Cora?"

"No darling, she is in her room sleeping at the moment... Mr Goldblum has let me use his office to call you... So I cannot stay on the 'phone for too long... Telephone or speak to her on Skype tomorrow... Her batteries are dead as usual so I will charge them tonight for her and you should be able to get through in the afternoon..."

That pissed me off...if Cora had used up her 'phone battery talking to her stupid friends all day...why hadn't she called me?

"OK... Give Cora my love... Love you too, Mum." I signed off and handed the telephone back to Julia and shuffled through to my own room and banged the door behind me then threw myself down on my bed, lit a cigarette and lay on my back just staring at the ceiling in a sulk.

It was a good half an hour before there was a light tap on my door and it opened to reveal Julia. She had changed and was wearing a loose fitting mid-thigh length fluffy mohair jumper in a light grey with a wide cowl neck, over a pair of tight fitting dark grey jeans and plain grey leather pumps.

"You had better get your arse in gear and get changed for dinner..." She said, "You've got five minutes to get over your sulk and then I go without you..."

"I'm not hungry!" I mumbled moodily.

"So order some food and then don't eat it..." she snapped. I looked up and saw that she was grinning. "If you let me go on my own... I shall probably get drunk and start a fight in the bar..." she chuckled. A week ago I would never have believed that Julia had such a great sense of humour, sharp and dry just like Mum.

"OK...just wait whilst I change," I replied relenting my strop. For most of my life I had done nothing but fight with my Aunt Julia but now I found it really difficult to stay annoyed in her presence for more than a few minutes. It only took me a few minutes to have a quick wash, run the shaver over my face and pull on a clean maroon Benger polo-neck sweater and my smart beige chinos, gather up my wallet and cigarettes and I was ready to join her. I was still a bit moody about Mum and Cora being delayed but I was beginning to see that there might be an upside to the situation... at least I would get to have Julia to myself for another couple of days.

By the time that we got to the dining room it had emptied out of the bar and disco goers and we bagged a quiet table in a corner by a window where we could watch the snow falling and turning the cars on the car park into rounded white humps, like a well ordered parade of resting polar bears.