Page 74 of I’m Dreaming of a New York Christmas

Anneka guided Mum to the desk, kicking clothes out of the way to create a path through the chaos. ‘Sit down and we’ll get you nice and dry. Then you can get back into bed and we can figure out a plan.’

Anneka directed the hot air at Mum’s hair while I brushed it to speed up the drying process. I couldn’t recall ever brushing Mum’s hair before. It felt much more fragile than I’d imagined.

‘I can tell you the plan already,’ Mum shouted over the hairdryer. ‘You two will go out and enjoy yourselves, and I’ll stay here. End of.’

Anneka and I locked eyes while Mum stared at herself in the mirror, her mouth set in a straight line. I got the sense that the last twenty-four hours had been much tougher for Mum – and Anneka – than I’d been led to believe.

‘We can’t just leave you here by yourse—’ I began, but Mum wouldn’t let me finish.

‘I said, END. OF.’ Mum grabbed the hairdryer and hairbrush from our hands and completed the job herself.

‘At the very least we need to get you some medicine,’ I said.

‘I did that yesterday,’ Anneka said, opening a bedside drawer to reveal an impressive array of remedies inside.

‘Oh, nice one.’

‘See?’ Mum said, climbing into bed, popping a random pill and washing it down with a swig of Pepsi. ‘I’m all set.’

I sighed, and looked at Anneka. But she just shrugged. ‘She’s no worse than she was yesterday. I say we head out ice skating, then find somewhere with Wi-Fi so we can check in with her…’

‘Who’s “her”, the cat’s bloody mother?’ Mum said, already curled up under the covers. ‘Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here. I’ve still got my faculties about me, you know.’

Anneka growled in frustration. ‘Jesus. Fine, Mum, we’ll check in with you after we’re done ice skating. Leave your phone on, yeah? Here – I’ve plugged it in so it won’t run out of battery.’

‘And if you don’t pick up, we’ll head straight back – right, Anneka?’

Anneka smiled at me – gratefully? – and nodded. ‘Right. Got that, Mum?’

‘Yes, if I don’t answer the phone you’ll assume I’ve croaked it and call the authorities. Understood.’

After I had a shot of instant coffee and brushed my teeth, we left Mum – already snoring – to it.

‘Have you been out in the snow yet?’ I asked, as we waited for the lift.

‘Nope, not been out since early evening yesterday. Although I imagine most of it’s gone by now?’

‘Absolutely not. You really ought to wrap yourself up.’

To appease me, Anneka did up the top button of her inappropriate longline coat. ‘I’m all set.’

‘Yep, you’re totally ready to scale Everest. You should’ve told me Mum was poorly, by the way – I would’ve come back yesterday to help out.’

‘By doing what, exactly? Listening to Mum moan and mope about? Or would you have just lain down in the empty bathtub all day?’

‘I—’

‘I know you’ve been sleeping in there, you idiot. But, hey, at least you got to sleep in an actual bed last night, eh?’

‘I mean, not that much sleep was had…’

‘Oi, oi!’ Anneka winked, and linked arms with me as we exited the lift and headed towards the revolving doors. But our limbs weren’t entwined for long, because – as soon as Anneka saw the magnitude of the white-out – she was running off into the park, yelping like one of the sledding toddlers.

‘This is like a movie set!’ she shouted, as she climbed onto a bench and jumped feet-first into one of the untouched patches of snow. The bottom half of her legs disappeared into the frozen powder.

‘Good job I’m wearing my knee-highs!’ she said, wading out of the drift, the tail of her coat dragging across the snow’s surface like a bridal train.

A mini photoshoot ensued, with Anneka instructing me to capture her various poses and leaps so she could update her ‘portfolio’. We weren’t the only people trying to immortalise the picture-perfect scene, with increasing numbers of selfie-stick-clutching TikTokers descending on the park from all directions, like some kind of zombie swarm.