A Christmas Adventure

Chapter 1

Violet leaves her apartment in Madrid with her coat buttoned up to her neck. She buries her hands in her pockets and, after checking the steam coming from her mouth with each breath, also hides her chin in the white scarf wrapped around her neck.

It's 7:15 in the morning, and the cold seeps under her coat, freezing her legs covered in dark jeans. Violet starts walking briskly towards the offices where she works, a fifteen-minute walk away. With luck, she'll warm up after ten minutes of walking.

The asphalt is wet from yesterday afternoon's rain. The cold hasn't allowed it to dry, and with the drop in temperature overnight, she pauses to make sure she doesn't slip. It's an old habit acquired in her village, where winter frosts can cause more than one unexpected slip.

Violet delights in observing the Christmas decorations adorning the streets above her head; they're off now, but at night they're quite a spectacle that she likes to admire from her window balcony.

It's December 2nd, and all she can think about is the 22nd, when she'll finally start her Christmas vacation and can leave for ten days to visit her parents in the village. As she walks, Violet thinks about how much things can change. When she lived in Alquézar and studied in Huesca, she couldn't wait to finish and move anywhere to expand her horizons. Now, at thirty-two and after seven years living and working in Madrid for a multinational company, she'd give anything to feel the peace of the village again.

With these thoughts, she arrives at the huge office building where her company occupies the entire fourth floor and welcomes the heat that hits her face as soon as she crosses the door. Violet takes off her coat while riding the elevator, and ten minutes later, she's sitting at her desk in front of two computers, with her tablet serving as a calendar on its stand and her mobile phone to the side in case a client needs an urgent consultation.

Teresa, the colleague who handles the technical part of the project Violet works on, has suggested they have lunch together. Violet accepts without hesitating for a second. If it weren't for her, who has become not only her colleague but also a good friend, she's sure she would have gone crazy and wouldn't have been able to handle the pressure they're both under alone.

"They say good snowfalls are expected this year," Teresa comments without taking her eyes off her screen.

"I wouldn't mind if one of those that bury roads for a week fell, but only when I'm in the village," Violet replies, and Teresa laughs.

"Someday I'll have to visit that village of yours, although it'll be in summer," she clarifies, and they both laugh.

Violet's laughter disappears from her face in a flash when her phone screen lights up, and she sees Marina's name on it. She quickly slides her finger across the screen and rejects the call while letting out a sigh of desperation.

"Marina again?" Teresa guesses, whom the phone's vibration has made turn and witness Violet's nervous movement.

"Yes, she calls me almost daily."

"They say persistence pays off," her colleague jokes, and Violet gives her such a fiery look that she turns back to her screen and doesn't open her mouth again.

The two colleagues continue with their work throughout the morning until shortly before lunchtime, when Violet's phone vibrates again. She immediately looks up, thinking Marina is insisting again, but her expression changes to a smile when she discovers it's her mother. Violet takes off the headphones she wears to reduce noise and concentrate, and after picking up the phone from its stand, she gets up and moves to the window for some privacy.

"Hi, Mom," she greets happily.

They haven't spoken all week. She knows that as Christmas approaches, her parents are swamped with work at the bakery they've both run in the village for as long as she can remember. Orders for homemade polvorones , donuts, king cakes, and the house specialty - cookies whose recipe is the envy of the village - overwhelm them to the point where they have to hire extra staff from a month before.

Violet knows that talking to them in those weeks is almost impossible and that her mother takes advantage of any break to call her, which is why she has answered even while at work.

"Violet, honey..."

Her mother's sobs and stammering barely allow her to understand what she's saying. Maite cries inconsolably on the other end of the line, continuing to chatter trying to explain something. She speaks so fast and with such nervousness that it's impossible for Violet to understand a single word of what she's saying. She's also getting nervous and scared, fearing something might have happened to her father.

"Mom, calm down," she asks in a whisper, pressing her body against the window as if that would achieve more silence. "I can't understand you if you don't stop crying."

Her mother tries, and for a few seconds, she stops crying, but as soon as the first word comes out of her mouth, she chokes up again and stutters things Violet doesn't understand.

"Mom, please, try to take a breath and breathe slowly. Drink a glass of water, but calm down because I don't understand anything you're saying."

Silence returns, now she hears her mother blow her nose forcefully and fiddle with something in what she assumes is the kitchen of her house.

"Is anyone else with you, Mom?" she asks, hoping someone else can tell her what's happening.

"No."

"Is Dad okay?" Violet asks, terrified when her mother seems calmer.

"Perfectly."

The harsh tone her mother uses to respond surprises her, but she says nothing, only feels relief.

"Okay, and you? Are you okay?"

"No, of course not, your father has left," her mother spits out.

As she speaks, she seems different. Now she's not crying, she just feels rage, infinite rage.

"What do you mean he left? Did he go to buy supplies?" her daughter tries to understand.

"No, he didn't go to buy anything. He's gone, Violet, he's gone with another woman."

Violet's ears suddenly block, and her eyebrows arch on their own. She tries to process the information her mother has just provided, to imagine the situation, but it's impossible.

"What do you mean?" she asks stupidly.

"Just that, Violet, he's left with another woman."

Violet needs to sit down to process the shocking news. She walks clumsily to her chair and sits down, resting her elbows on her knees while squeezing the bridge of her nose.

"That can't be, Mom."

"It can't be?!" her mother yells in a fit of hysteria.

Her mother's indignant shout makes her pull the phone away from her ear, frightened. Teresa looks at her and asks quietly if everything is okay. Violet makes a definitive gesture of negation with her head; of course, nothing is okay.

"Okay, he's gone," Violet accepts, dismayed. "With whom? Where?"

"With Carmen. A woman we hired a little over a month ago. We had her in the summer too, and your father and she got along well, but I don't know, I didn't see anything strange."

"You mean he's been cheating on you since summer?" Violet asks, increasingly shocked.

"I don't know, honey."

Her mother breaks down crying again, this time it's a more controlled cry, painful and desperate.

"And where have they gone, Mom?"

"To a village in Almería."

Violet's throat dries up, and her body shudders with an uncomfortable chill. She sees Hernán, her direct boss, pass by and straightens up to pretend she's talking to a client until she loses sight of him.

"What do you mean a village in Almería? And what's he doing there? Is he visiting?" Violet asks like a machine gun, feeling that what her mother is telling her makes less and less sense.

"No, honey..." Maite answers in a pitiful tone, "he's gone to live there. This morning he packed a suitcase and told me he was leaving me, that he had fallen in love with Carmen, and that since he didn't want to be the talk of the town, they had both decided to go to her village. Apparently, she has a house there."

"He can't do this to you," Violet rages, "he's a pig. What about all the years you've been married? And your plans to retire in a few years? And the bakery? Has he left you stranded now when there's the most work?"

Violet is beside herself and launches one question after another with the same urgency they crowd in her head. Her mother has no answer for any of them. Her mind, troubled and tired, is only capable of recalling her husband's words telling her he was abandoning her with eyes filled with tears. She has seen the sorrow and pain it caused him to leave her, but not even that was enough to stop him. Maite has immediately understood that the love he feels for Carmen is much stronger than the affection he has left for her, and there's no fighting against that.

"He's not a pig," Maite stammers, "he's just a man in love."

"Don't defend him now, Mom."

It breaks Violet's soul to notice the pain in her mother's voice; right now, she wishes she were there to hug and comfort her, but five hundred kilometers and the three weeks left until she takes her Christmas vacation separate them.

"Mom, I'll ask for a few personal days and come to you. I'll call Dad, and we'll fix this. I'm sure it's just a silly whim, you know how men are."

When she realizes what she's said, she feels so disgusted with herself that she would be banging her head against the wall for the rest of the day. She can't believe she's come to the defense of someone capable of abandoning his wife for another, no matter how much he's her father and she adores him.

"Forget that," she says, taking a deep breath, "I'll come see you, Mom. It'll be okay."

Now she feels stupid because it's not okay. Her mother, at fifty-four, has been left alone overnight, and on top of that, she's in charge of a business that requires all her attention, which is in full swing and in the most demanding month. How could her father have been so inconsiderate in every way?

"You don't need to come, Violet. I'm just calling to vent. Don't worry, I'll manage as best I can. Right now, when I go, I'll hang a sign that I need helpers. You know people always show up as soon as word gets around."

"People who have no idea, who hinder more than help, Mom," Violet laments, feeling helpless.

"Nobody's born learned. Come on, I'm feeling better now," she says, trying to appear strong.

Violet knows her better than anyone and knows she's devastated, that her heart inside is broken, and that on top of that, she'll have to endure questions and comments in the village when people notice her father's prolonged absence.

Mother and daughter say goodbye, and when Violet hangs up, she has to contain the urge to cry. Teresa, a bit rough in manners and very funny in Violet's eyes, puts a foot on one of the legs of her desk and pushes until her chair rolls and covers the three meters that separate her from Violet's desk.

"What happened?" she asks with a nosy face.

It's not that she's one for gossip, but anyone who didn't know her would think so. Violet summarizes the situation while trying to digest it.

"If I ask Hernán for a couple of days off, can you manage on your own?"

"Of course, silly. I'll advance as much as I can on my part, and when you come back, I'll give you a hand with yours so we can catch up. Two days are nothing, the project won't suffer, and the presentation will be ready."

"Thanks, Tere."

Teresa receives the kiss on the cheek that Violet gives her before getting up and rushing towards her boss's office. She watches her run and envies her colleague's energy, although at thirty-two, she was like that too, or maybe even more active. Now, at forty and after two pregnancies, she feels her body carries the weight of two lives.

Violet finds the door ajar and peeks in. Her boss seems to sense her presence and stops looking at photos on his phone to know what she wants.

"Come in, Violet," he says kindly.

She walks slowly while her eyes fix on the horrible purple tie with black polka dots hanging from his neck. Hernán Carro is a middle-aged man who would sweep women off their feet if it weren't for his awful taste in matching clothes.

"What can I do for you?"

Violet sits in front of him and rubs her hands nervously when she realizes it's the first time in all the years she's been there that she's come in to ask for a few personal days.

"You see, Hernán," she uses his first name because he asked her to do so a long time ago, when thanks to her and Teresa, the company received a million-dollar project, "I wanted to ask you for a couple of days to go visit my mother in the village."

"Has something serious happened?" he asks with feigned interest.

"Well, it's not serious, but she needs me."

"Has someone died?"

Violet's eyes roll three times before she shakes her head.

"Is someone sick?"

She denies, bewildered and not knowing if she should run out of the office.

"Well, I'm very sorry, Violet, but you know how important it is that we deliver the project on the agreed dates."

"But Teresa and I are meeting each part on time..."

"That's precisely why. If you're absent, I fear that perfect harmony will break, and I can't allow it. I'm sorry about whatever is happening with your mother, Violet, but you only have to hold on until the end of the month. We deliver the project, and we all take vacations. If you need more time after that, no problem, but before that, it's impossible."

Violet doesn't insist. She's too nervous and affected by what her mother has told her to grovel in front of such an insensitive person.

"Violet," he calls her before she reaches the door. "Your efforts will be rewarded starting next year, I promise."

She nods and leaves thinking he's a hypocrite. This is the third time he's promised her a raise in the last two years, and none of the previous ones have been fulfilled.

"What did he say?" Teresa asks as soon as she sees her enter with a disgruntled face.

"No," Violet responds.

"What a cheapskate. What are you going to do?"

"I'll go by car this weekend and come back."

"Are you crazy?" Teresa says with her eyes about to pop out of their sockets as if she had two springs behind them. "We work Saturday morning, and you have a five-hour drive."

"I'll leave when I get out of here. At least I'll see my mother for a while at night and can spend Sunday morning with her. I'll come back in the afternoon."

"It's crazy, woman. You'll end up exhausted."

"I need to see my mother, to let her know she has me. I can't wait three weeks."

Violet has decided. She's going this weekend.