On Christmas Night

By Jessi Hammond

Troy knows he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. But he knows he's good at his job as assistant gardener at the retirement village and he loves working there.

And it's even better when his old teacher, Mr Brock, who helped him get the job, becomes a resident.

But when Mr Brock suffers a health crisis just before Christmas, Troy is the only one who realises how much danger he's really in…

A Christmas suspense short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kincaid Publishing
• Release date: Nov 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215206706

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About this book

Troy knows he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. But he knows he’s good at his job as assistant gardener at the retirement village and he loves working there.

And it’s even better when his old teacher, Mr Brock, who helped him get the job, becomes a resident.

But when Mr Brock suffers a health crisis just before Christmas, Troy is the only one who realises how much danger he’s really in…

On Christmas Night

One

The Clearview Retirement Village sprawled across four acres of lush, immaculately-kept gardens. It was laid out like an old-fashioned English village, Troy had read in the brochure. On the front cover the Village was pictured from above, the photo taken by a drone. It looked almost like a flower. The communal areas like the hall and the library and the admin building were right at the front entrance, like it was the stem, and the three rows of houses spread around them like petals opening up under the sun. The assisted-care units faced inward toward the admin block, on the other side of an asphalt ring-road, while the two rows of self-care, self-contained units faced each other across an outer ring road. Pathways led between the houses at various points so those on the outside didn’t have to walk all the way around to get to the centre. High hedges grew inside the perimeter fence and lawns spread lush and green everywhere else, apart from the garden beds that splashed bright blocks of colour everywhere.

And right now the Village was decorated for Christmas, which was tomorrow! The two halves of the gate each held a huge fake wreath, coloured lights were strung along the house fences and the eaves of the common buildings, and there was a huge Christmas tree in the admin foyer. The tree was real, like it was every year, a Douglas fir just taller than Troy could reach upwards, its roots confined within a huge plastic pot that was hidden inside a bigger concrete pot painted in cheerful Christmas green and red stripes. Its branches were absolutely covered with hundreds of ornaments and lights and tinsel. Troy had helped decorate it at the beginning of December, like he always did. And he would put the decorations back into their box the first day back after New Year’s, when he and Mr Hendricksen, the groundskeeper, would plant this tree out in the grounds like they did every year.

Troy had gone into the foyer a few times on his breaks just to look at that tree and find new ornaments until Ms Brady’s frown had warned him away.

Apart