Lonely This Christmas Read Online Free Page A

pinged to signal that her TV dinner was cooked, Judy was finding it almost impossible to focus.
    With fork in one hand, and remote control in the other, Judy ate her meal while flicking through the TV channels.  After ten minutes failing to concentrate properly, Judy finished her meal, turned down the volume on the TV, and flopped back down onto her large comfortable cream colored sofa.
    Puffing up the cushions, Judy lay flat out and closed her eyes. Raising her wrist to her nose once more she took a long deep sniff off her new favorite scent, and was instantly transported back to a place and time she remembered so well.
     

Chapter Eight
     
    It was coming up to Christmas 1974, and over two months before she would be given that first real valentines present of the Charlie perfume and teddy bear. It was two whole weeks before the City High School Christmas disco and Judy was over at Elaine’s house for the evening, for a full dress rehearsal. They were practicing their dance routines for the party, because everybody knew that you had to have a well polished dance routine for each and every record. It was long before the advent of the CD player, and only the most advanced household even owned a cassette player.
    Elaine’s parents had stretched to buying her a record player to keep in her bedroom. It was small, lightweight, and came in its own case. With its built in speaker it would never provide the same level of volume of the school record player. The school record player had huge speakers and was designed to drown out the sound of chattering children whenever necessary. If you turned up the sound too much on Elaine’s record player, it would distort the music and the internal speaker would vibrate wildly; but it was good enough to perfect the dance steps they had carefully choreographed. Nothing could compare to the large wooden monstrosity that was housed in the school hall, but then again such a beast would never have fitted on Elaine’s small dainty dressing table.
    “ Eeh Judy, only fourteen sleeps till the Christmas disco, and nineteen sleeps till Christmas day. I can’t wait. Come on then, let’s see your outfit.”
    Judy pulled out her outfit from the black shopping bag, and Elaine squealed with delight when she saw the colorful creations. The canary yellow wide legged trousers were all the rage and the black long sleeved V neck had flecks of golden Lurex running through the body.
    “It’s amazing, Judy, I love it. Wait till you see mine,” Elaine babbled excitedly.
    Reaching under her bed Elaine produced a carefully folded shopping bag, and placing it onto the bed she pulled out the contents. A pair of electric blue wide legs trousers and a canary yellow bell sleeved blouse.
    “Oh, Elaine they’re gorgeous, they must have cost a bomb,” said Judy in a tone of genuine admiration.
    Both girls squealed with delight as they held up their outfits and danced around the bedroom.
    “I’m wearing these black platforms, if I can get used to walking in them without falling over before then. I had to literally beg my mum to let me get them. What shoes are you wearing?” asked Elaine, as she lifted up the black patent platform shoes with three inch block heels.
    “Mine are pretty much the same as those. I’ve been practicing walking in them when I’m in the house, but I guess we should be practicing dancing in them too. If we don’t master the art of these platforms, I can see us ending up flat on our backs; and you can imagine how much that would please Yvette Sparnon.”
    “You’re so right, Judy,” responded Elaine in a moment of realization, “OK that settles it. From tomorrow night until the night before the disco we will practice the dancing in our shoes. We will not fall down at the disco; we will not give Yvette Sparnon something else to taunt us about. We will conquer the shoes and we will leave the Christmas school disco with our dignity intact.”
    Waving her shiny new platforms in the air