12 Drummers Drumming

This is The Dizzle AKA Archer. His favourite bow can be found on the Hoyt website.

Work was moribund.
The River Mole was flooding.
Christmas is coming.
The world didn't end.
But George and Stella must.

Twelfth night.

Christmas 2019

George was surprised how little Disneyland Paris had changed. But then that was the whole point of Disney. It was meant to be timeless. Added to yes; but changing, no.

The technology was improved. The holoprojectors were completely reliable now, and whole scenes from Disney movies would suddenly materialise around you out of nowhere. But young children still preferred the real thing; you wanted to be able to hug Snow white rather than be impressed by her three dimensional projected image.

He looked at Stella. She still looked amazing even though she was just weeks off her sixtieth birthday and she still had that same big smile that had captured his attention back in the nineteen seventies.

"Love it" she said grabbing his arm. "Good to be back. Remember how grumpy you were first time".

"Little Hegarty loves it too" said George, pointing at their grandson who was being pulled along laughing by Lauren.

They stopped for coffee at a booth. George jabbed his thumb against the biometric reader to authorise the sale and within two seconds he had received payment confirmation on his lifepack, although he didn't even have to take it out of his pocket to check as the screen image popped up briefly on the digital permalens in his right eye. To anyone looking at him this was invisible. To George it was rather like the screen on a heads up display.

The parade came around the corner right on time, this year the theme was The Twelve Days of Christmas. At the front Minney Mouse carried a partridge in a pair tree. At the back the Twelve Drummers Drumming were all Goofys in American Civil War uniforms - half of them them confederate and half union.

"Bit weird that" said Stella. Everyone knew that there were massive tensions within the United States and talks of a modern civil war which could have cataclysmic consequences. But it was widely believed that the issue would be resolved by the combined Chinese and South American states who were now the dominant forces in the global economy. The US tended to do as they were told in the face of such pressures.

"World's changed a lot since we got together" said Stella as the drummers passed out of sight and the noise faded with them.

"No it hasn't" said George, pointing at little Hegarty, who was awestuck under a huge Christmas tree. "Christmas is still Christmas. And little boys are still the same".

"You're very good George" said Stella taking his arm. "I've always loved you. You age well too. Not grumpy. And surprisingly optimistic about the future".

"It's the age of the geek" said George. "And next year I will be able to see more clearly than ever. We all will."

"How come?"

"We'll all have 2020 vision" he said and laughed as she thumped him, playfully.

"One thing is for sure" she said "your jokes don't change. Just as bad as ever. Come on lets do the haunted house. It's my favourite. And we're not to old for a grope in the dark."

And with that the two of them slipped away into the darkness, laughing as only lifelong lovers can.