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> Unseen Christmas Tales: The Martins, Willises & Alessis by
Ceri
Christmas Eve: Now retired from nursing, Pam Willis has plenty of time to organise the perfect family Christmas. Doug still works part time, currently overseeing the new extension to the Lassiters Darwin complex but after an accident at work whilst installing a hot tub, Doug is laid up at home getting under Pam’s feet. With both his legs in plaster, Doug has already knocked over the Christmas tree twice and ‘accidentally’ drunk all the brandy destined for Pam’s special Christmas pud. Exasperated, Pam calls on Phil Martin, who lives just around the corner with Ruth, to take Doug away for the day so she can get on with things in peace. In return, Ruth comes over with wine and a box of chocolates and gets on with helping a grateful Pam prepare the house and a tasty Christmas Eve meal for her family. This year was going to be a very special one, Gaby was on the verge of giving birth to her third child and Brad and Beth were coming to visit. Adam was already there as he moved to Darwin with his wife Gemma three years ago to set up a GP practice. With the surgery closed for the festive season, he decided to join his father and Phil at the golf club while Gemma went to see how Gaby was getting on in her enormous state.
Meanwhile, Rick Alessi was completely snowed under at the hotel. With co-manager Gaby on Maternity leave and half the assistant managers off sick with the flu, he was under intense pressure to finish organising the annual Darwin Home for Abandoned Galahs Charity Christmas Ball for later that evening. Not only that but his parents Benito and Cathy were due to arrive from Sydney later that afternoon along with his cousin Christina and her son Andrew. They almost cancelled their plans as Rick’s brother Marco went missing six months previously after being involved in an illegal shoe importing racket in Italy and a reported sighting in Afghanistan the previous week got their hopes up but sadly, it was proved to be false. Cathy persuaded Benito that they had to be there for their other son and family was important at this time of year, so they booked their flights to Darwin that day. Christina decided to join them, as she and Andrew would be alone otherwise. Also, Andrew was trying to contact his father Paul Robinson and Christina feared Andrew would run away as he’d been becoming increasingly disruptive at home and school. The family has disowned the other Alessi twin Caroline after they refused to support her marriage to Paulo Robinoson, a man she met in Milan. He came to stay at her hotel whilst competing in an Adolf Hitler lookalike competition and they married two days later. Christina hopes to reconcile with her twin once she comes to her senses.
Over at Gaby and Jack’s house, Gemma was surprised to find no one answering the door. After spending several minutes waiting and calling Gaby’s mobile and house phone, she was getting quite worried. Rick’s girlfriend Jodie was also good friends with Gaby so Gemma called her to see if she knew anything. Jodie didn’t but decided to come straight round to see if she could help and also called Rick to let him know that she wouldn’t be at home when the Alessis arrived. Pam was also ringing Gaby at this time as she was concerned that she hadn’t called that day to let her know what time she, Jack, Zac and Mac (their second son) would be coming over. Ruth, a little tipsy by now, told her not to worry too much and Gaby will call soon enough. Pam agreed and they both carried on sipping on the wine and putting various seasonal foodstuffs into the oven and far too many chocolates in their mouths.
On landing at Darwin, Benito switched on his mobile and got the message from Rick that neither he nor Jodie would be at the house but they can pop into Lassiters for the key and then make themselves at home until he got there. Cathy noticed that Rick sounded very stressed and was anxious to get to her son. Arriving at Lassiters, they found a seriously understaffed Rick running about like a headless chicken and decided that he desperately needed help. With Benito’s management experience and Cathy’s organising skills, they sent Christina and Andrew off to Rick’s house and set about getting the party back on track so Rick could leave on time when the duty manager arrived. Cathy was faced with a collection of unruly galahs to put on display, as they desperately needed new homes. Unfortunately, Cathy ended up being pecked quite viciously when three of the birds escaped after Benito scared them with his dodgy hair transplant. Rick decided to cancel the entire event due to this terrible tragedy and they all went off to hospital to get Cathy sewn up and nicely medicated.
Back at Pam and Doug’s place, an increasingly sloshed Ruth and Pam had fallen asleep in the middle of wrapping some last minute gifts and unbeknown to the snoozing twosome, the food in the oven was starting to burn. At the golf club, Phil, Doug and Adam decided to call it a day and get back to their respective wives before that night’s festivities began. Also, they felt it was best to get a move on as Doug attempted to drive the golf buggy with his two broken legs and crashed it into a bunker. On their way back they passed a worried looking Gemma and Jodie outside Gaby’s house, having been tenuously joined by Christina and Andrew who saw them as their taxi took them to Rick’s place. Phil, Doug and Adam pulled over to see what was going on. In his haste, Phil left the keys in the ignition. They learned that Gaby had not been taken to hospital yet and Jack’s mobile was switched off. Doug decided that they should break in to see if there were any clues in the house while Phil attempted to get into the garage to see if the car was there. It wasn’t, which left everyone wondering where Jack and Gaby could have gone. Another quick call to the hospital confirmed that Gaby still hadn’t arrived and no answer at home left Doug panic-stricken and more eager to break in.
While all this was going on, Brad and Beth arrived at Pam and Doug’s house to find smoke pouring out of the window. A horrified Brad barged through the front door to find a groggy, disorientated and chocolate-smeared Pam and Ruth wondering what was going on. Beth dealt with the oven while Brad got Pam and Ruth outside for some fresh air. A distraught Pam realised what had happened and declared that she had ruined Christmas for everyone. Beth took a guilty and slightly queasy Ruth home while Brad attempted to comfort his mother. Doug finally got an answer at home when Brad picked up the phone and the news threw Pam into deeper devastation, first dinner was ruined, now her heavily pregnant daughter was missing. Brad grabbed Pam and they drove to Gaby’s as fast as the law would allow.
Amongst all the panic over Gaby, an increasingly fidgety Andrew was getting fed up of all this drama with all these strangers and the seasoned joyrider drove off in Phil’s car. Christina was so involved in helping out that she didn’t notice for some time. A huge argument ensued and only stopped when Gemma cried out that shouting at each other clearly wasn’t helping anything. After what seemed like hours of trying, Doug finally got into the house after he rammed his crutches through the storm door and started searching for Gaby, with most of the others behind him. He cried out when he got to the bathroom, the door was locked and a strained voice was calling out. Gaby was inside! Phil kicked the door in and they were all faced with Gaby in the advanced stages of labour, wedged between the sink and the toilet. But where were Jack and the boys? Doug worked himself into a rage, how could Jack abandon his wife at such a time? Gaby was too exhausted to explain and begged Adam to do something. Everyone turned round as they heard a commotion at the front door as a frankly rather stinky and drunk Pam burst in wailing that Christmas is over. She was stunned into silence when she saw Gaby on the floor and began to cry with relief.
Several miles down the road, Andrew realised that he had absolutely no idea where he was going. Not sure what to do next, Andrew pulled over and began to grasp that he was actually a complete idiot. Looking over the road, Andrew saw a desperate-looking man and two boys stood next to a car, which had steam billowing out of the bonnet. Not really registering what he saw, Andrew went to pull away but accidentally rammed into a lamppost, rendering him unconscious. Several minutes passed until Andrew came round. Dizzy and feeling nauseous, Andrew suddenly experienced an epiphany, he was sent to help this man. Baby Jesus had appeared to him while he was knocked out and told him that he was a very bad person, but helping three lost souls would redeem him. He should also be nicer to his mother as she’d got him some pretty sweet Christmas presents. Andrew rubbed his head and got out of the car. The man was still there, trying to comfort his young son while the older boy sat on the ground rocking back and forth. Andrew approached the man and told him that he was here to help and all would be well. The man looked at him like he was crazy, noticing the large bump on his head. However Andrew persisted and the man finally explained that his wife was heavily pregnant and seriously wanted ice cream but being Christmas Eve; a lot of the shops were shut. He went to find a garage but he broke down and his mobile was dead. Andrew looked at the man and asked if he was called Jack. Puzzled, the man said yes…
At the hospital, Cathy was being stitched up when Rick called Jodie to find out what was going on. Relieved to hear that Gaby was fine but concerned for Andrew, Rick told Jodie what happened to Cathy and the charity ball. Jodie then relayed the news back to everyone at the house; causing Pam to become frenzied again, which distressed Gaby even more. This brought on a massive contraction and Adam realised that they would never get her to hospital on time. Not to mention the fact that guzzling so much ice cream had caused Gaby’s rear end to expand quite a lot, meaning that she was well and truly wedged next to the toilet. She would have to give birth there and then in the bathroom unless Gemma’s attempts to slide Gaby out of her predicament by applying Brandy butter to Gaby’s sides proved to be successful. Pam ended up passing out after Ruth turned up with Beth and informed everyone that there was no way they could dine at the Willises tonight, the whole place stunk of burned ham and the oven was half melted. What would they do? Pretty quiet up until this point, Phil was now on the verge of tears; he was really looking forward to that ham.
Back at the roadside, Andrew explained what was going on and offered to take Jack and the kids back to Gaby. In a moment of clarity, Jack noticed that Andrew was driving illegally and drove them all back to his house. All the way there Andrew kept saying that he was a changed person and he would never misbehave again. Also, he would donate all his presents to charity as he had enough possessions. Rick and his parents were leaving the hospital where they heard the news of the ruined dinner. As he and his family were just going to have leftovers from the charity ball that night, Rick made a quick call to the night manager who assured him that everything would be ready in a few hours. Rick arrived at Gaby’s house just as Andrew, Jack, Zac and Mac pulled in. There they found Adam delivering the newest addition to the Flynn family, a baby girl named Cody after her much-missed Aunt. Andrew declared this as a joyous moment and he recited several Bible verses, which shocked Christina to the core for Andrew has been staunchly Atheist since the age of three when he flushed her Bible down the toilet.
Later that night all three families sat down to a wonderful meal and a celebratory party kindly provided by Lassiters. This was going to be a great Christmas after all.
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