Here is a little story with a Christmas theme. I wrote this a week or so back but given the post from Piper, I thought that it was worth sharing now.

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The Council Offices were particularly busy on that fateful Friday afternoon. It was just two weeks before Christmas after all. Jamie Walsh was there to submit a planning application for a house that his company had just purchased not that far from the city centre. On his way out of the office, he overheard the end of a rather heated conversation.

“Are you saying that my family is going to be on the street for Christmas? Just because you are late paying the landlord of the B&B where you moved us because of black mould in your council flat? What are we going to do?”

The person on the other side of the screen was totally unsympathetic to the clear plight of this man and his family. Jamie shook his head and left the offices.

He’d just walked out of the building when he had an idea. He’d just managed to evict some squatters from another of his properties after a three-month battle. The property had been left in a terrible state. It was going to cost his company a lot of money just getting the place fit for human habitation again. He understood that the squatters had a political point to make with their protests but he considered him and his company not to be either a 'slum landlord' or one who milked those on benefits with sky-high rents. He preferred long-term tenants in his properties. Long term tenants paying reasonable rents were in his experience more appreciative of the property and didn’t leave it as if a bomb had exploded inside and outside.

Jamie returned to the foyer of the building just in time to see the man who had been complaining vociferately being escorted from the building by three burly security officers.

He let them get out of the building and let the man go. They then stood defiantly across the entrance with their arms folded triumphantly. Their message was clear, ‘do not come back’.

Jamie went outside and said to the man,
“Excuse me… I could not help but overhear what you said inside.”

“What’s it to you? Are you some sort of Ambulance chasing scumbag lawyer?”

Jamie smiled and shook his head.
“I am not a lawyer and I know the sort of lawyer you are talking about. They are the scum of the earth.”

He hoped that his words would start the process of getting him to at least talk to him sensibly.

“So? What is it then?”

“I think that I might have a solution to you being homeless over Christmas and possibly into the future?”

The man laughed.
“And how much is that going to cost me? If you didn’t hear it all, I’m on benefits and broke.”

“How about we go somewhere a bit warmer to discuss this?”

“I have to meet my daughter from school in an hour.”

“Which school is she at?”

“Southgate High School.”

“Good. There is a café right next to it. We can go there.”

“I’ll need to take the bus,” said the man.

Jamie shook his head.
“My car is over there. I can take you.”

The man hesitated.
“This ain’t me saying yes to anything understand?”

“As I haven’t offered you anything then I agree.”

[twenty minutes later]

“I’m Jamie Walsh. I run Walsh Housing,” said Jamie as he sat down with two cups of tea.

“Martin Terry.”

Jamie smiled.
“Pleased to meet you, Martin.”

He continued.
“As I said, I may have a solution to your problem. I have just completed on a house in Church Lane. It was the home of an old lady and she died last March. Probate was just recently granted. I have a crew of builders ready to make the place ready for a tenant towards the end of January. In the meantime, the property is an obvious target for squatters. How about you and your family move in until it is time for my builders to start work?”

“How much will it cost me? I ain’t made of money.”

Jamie smiled.
“That’s the beauty of my plan. You get a roof over your head for free in return for keeping the squatters away. If you are agreeable then I’ll send in a team of cleaners to clear the house of anything left behind by the old lady. As far as I know, the place is furnished so when the cleaners have done their thing, you could move in right away.”

“This all sounds too good to be true. There has to be a catch. What is it? No one even notices people like me. We are the invisibles.”

“I noticed you in the council offices, didn’t I? To me, you aren’t invisible, just a bit down on your luck. The council has a duty of care towards you and your daughter which… from what I saw, they have failed miserably. Black mould is a common problem. My team of builders find it in many of the properties they work on. If… if come the end of January the council has not dealt with it in your home then I’ll send my team in free of charge. How about that?”

“There are somethings that you should know before you go any farther. Firstly, I am a single parent. My wife is somewhere in the wind. She left… She left when my son came out as transgender. If you want to quit now then please do it. I’ve had my fill of well-wishers wanting to help until they find out that David is now Lauren.”

Jamie sat for a minute looking at his tea.
“Ok. I’m in. Everyone deserves a chance in life and it seems that in trying to do the right thing for your child the system keeps kicking you hard where it hurts? Is that sort of right?”

Martin nodded his head.

Jamie looked at his phone.

“It is nearly time for you to go and meet your daughter,” said Jamie.

He pulled out a business card and wrote something on the back.

“That’s my card. I have put the address of the house I’d like you to sit for at least a month on the back. Why don’t you give my phone a call right now so that I’ll have your number. When the place is clean, I’ll give you a call. When you are ready to move, call me and I’ll have one of my team with a van help you move.”

Martin took the card and dialled the number on it. Jamie entered the contact into his phone. Then he stood up.

“I know that you suspect me of trying to pull a fast one. A lot of my tenants are like that at first. While I run a business, I don’t try to screw them. The properties are my assets and the tenants are merely the custodians of it until it is time for some of them to move on. Mostly, that is into a better place. I hope that in time, you can begin to trust me. I hope to buy at least six properties this next year. All of them are going to need a house sitter until my builders can move in. We can review the situation in the new year. In the meantime, you will not be out on the streets over the holiday period.”

He didn’t wait for a reply. Jamie hated these potentially embarrassing moments.

[The following Wednesday]

Jamie was supervising the last of the cleaning crew at the property. They’d worked wonders in the past three days. The last of four skips of rubbish had just been collected. The downside was that all the work would have almost certainly come to the notice of at least one of the groups of squatters that were the bane of all the developers in the area.

He looked at his watch. Martin had said that he'd be here but so far, he was a no-show. Jamie hoped that he would turn up as he had said that he would. He’d arranged for the water, gas and electricity supply to be reconnected in anticipation of Martin taking up his offer. The last thing he wanted was to leave the building unoccupied over the extended Christmas/New Year break.

The last of the cleaning crew had just left and Jamie was beginning to think that Martin was going to let him down when he saw Martin walking along the road. He was with someone. Jamie guessed that someone was his daughter.

“Sorry that I’m late. I got a call from Lauren’s school about some bullying.”

Jamie could see that Lauren had been in a fight.

“Are you ok… Lauren isn’t it?”

She didn’t react other than to nod her head.

“Three of them took a dislike to Lauren for getting an ‘A’ in their Maths test.”

“I fought back then they said that it was my fault for starting it.”

Her words brought back some rather unpleasant memories for Jamie.

“And there was not a scratch of the others?” asked Jamie.

This time Lauren managed a smile as well as nodding her head.

“Lauren, I was bullied at school for just being me. Those bullies are nobodies these days whereas my company owns more than sixty properties. Who is the winner? Things will get better Lauren, I promise you.”

“Thank you,” she said softly.

To Jamie, her whole demeanour said ‘female’.

“Come on in and I’ll show you around,” said Jamie.

Martin led the two of them into the property.

They emerged some twenty minutes later with smiles all around. It was clear that things had gone well.
“Mr Walsh, thank you,” said Lauren.
“For the first time in years, I will have my own bedroom.”

Her smile told Jamie that the risk he’d taken with Martin and Lauren might well just work.

[two days before Christmas]

The bell at the house rang just before 7 pm.

“I’ll get it Dad,” said Lauren.

“If it is those bloody carol singers again, tell them to get lost ok?”

“I will,” said Lauren as she bounded down the stairs.

She opened the door and found Mr Walsh waiting.

“Oh Mr Walsh. Please come in.”

“I hope that I’m not interrupting anything?”

“No, I was just finishing off the homework that I’ve been given to do over the holidays.”

“Ok,” he said and came into the house. Right away, he knew that it had become a home again.

“Dad is in the kitchen doing the washing up,” said Lauren.

Lauren led the way towards the back of the house.
“Hello Mr Walsh. I hope that you are not bearing bad news this close to Christmas?”

Jamie chuckled.
“Not bad news. I was wondering if you and Lauren were doing anything special for Christmas day?”

“No, we weren’t why?”

“I’d like to invite you and Lauren to have lunch with me and my daughter. I only live half a mile from here so it is an easy walk.”

Jamie noticed a hesitation in Martin.
“You don’t have to buy us any presents. Your presence will be enough for us. How about it?”

No one wanted to say anything. Eventually Lauren broke the ice.

“Come on Dad. It would be a nice change. To be with someone rather than being on our own.”

With a shrug of his shoulders, Martin nodded his head.

[Christmas Day]

“Welcome to our home,” said Jamie as he answered the door to Martin and Lauren.

“Thank you,” said Martin.

“Come on in. Lunch is nearly ready.”

He stood aside and let them into the house. He noticed that Lauren was wearing a skirt.

After taking their coats, Jamie said,
“Lauren, my daughter Steph is upstairs. Would you go up and see what is taking her so long to get ready?”

Lauren looked at her father who nodded.

“Martin, why don’t we go into the kitchen?”

With a glance up the stairs, he followed Jamie into the kitchen.

[Meanwhile upstairs]

“Hello,” said a voice from inside a bedroom when Lauren reached the top of the stairs.
“Come on in,”

Slightly hesitantly, Lauren went into the room. Another young woman was standing in front of a full-length mirror holding up a dress.

“You must be Lauren.”
“I’m Steph.”

Steph turned to face Lauren.
“It is nice to meet a fellow traveller,” said Steph.

“Traveller?”

“Yes, a journey into the world of women.”

Lauren then understood what she was going on about. The previously very nervous Lauren sank onto the bed and cried. Steph came and put her arm around Lauren.

[one hour later]

“I think that I hear them coming down the stairs,” said Jamie.
“Just when we have done everything…”

Martin relaxed. With every minute that he’d been apart from Lauren, the more nervous he’d become.

The two women made a quite dramatic entrance. Both of them looked very resplendent in very colourful dresses. Lauren was in red while Steph was in blue.

“Dad, Steph is like me.”

Martin looked at Jamie.
"Yes, Martin. Steph was born as a boy but from the age of about four, he said to us that he was a girl. Steph came out to the world at about the same age that Lauren is now.

“Thank you Jamie,” said Martin.
“Lauren needs a friend.”

“They both needs friends. We, as parents have to be there for them when they need it.”

Martin relaxed and they all had a good time. For once, something had gone right for him and his daughter.