I am woken by Steph Saying loudly “Daddy, Daddy, It's Christmas Day. Get up Daddy” I look at the clock, 0652 in the morning. Ok the ADHD tablets have settled her down a bit, but being woken by an excited 12 year old at this time in the morning is still not fun.
I head down stairs and into the kitchen to make myself a coffee. I have a strange feeling, the feeling of a void, a empty space. The presents are opened, Kids play or set up and half read instruction manuals. All the usual fun of a Christmas morning.
Shell disappears and returns a little bit later with stuff that wont fit in or on Pat's cooker. As we switched the location of Christmas dinner last year to aid Kim, it is Pat's turn this year.
As the food cooks on both cookers, I help set up the seating at Pat's. It's busy as everyone descends on the front room for lunch. Everyone gets a plate and sits down on one of the eleven chairs.
It was not until everyone was sitting down that it became clear, We had a one chair too many.
Sitting against the wall was a lone chair, One lone empty chair. The chair of the lost teen, The chair Kim usually sat on.
The void I felt earlier was Kim, well more to the point Not Kim. It was the space left by a missing part of the family.
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