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David raised his head from the 9mm he was cleaning. The violent bang on his door was very unusual and even more unexpected. Setting down his gun, he walked to the heavy oak-door that could withstand any attack lesser than a grenade blast.
Even though he had no idea who was behind the door and in what business, he walked at it in ease. It was definitely one of his very few friends since none of his huskies barely raised their heads let alone warned him with low growl or furious barking.
“At last, you think in small hut like this, getting to the door wouldn’t take so long. You think I like to stand here freezing myself with these”, said the female voice of familiar red head as soon as David had managed to open the door.
“Let me help you with those”, David said, ready to pick up the big boxes out off Meryl’s hands, but thought again when he got a mean eye from her. So instead he just stepped aside, letting Meryl inside his warm living room.
“So… What are you exactly doing here?” David asked as he was about to close the heavy door
“I’m here to help you decorate the place. We thought it would be fun if for once your place actually looked it was welcoming the coming Christmas”, Meryl said, putting her huge boxes on the sofa.
“I… what ‘we’?” David said and his question was followed by the familiar sound of snow getting crushed beneath heavy tires and engine. Apparently Meryl had also heard that since she wasn’t answering.
David watched as the SUV with shackles on its tires parked to his yard and the familiar mess of hair, followed with thick white coat, stepped out of the car. He waved his hands to Hal and turn around to face Meryl again.
The woman was humming silently, pulling happily stuff from the boxes, apparently more looking than unpacking something. Finally she pulled a Christmas wreath made from spruce twigs, lichen, heath and red lace and with it, walked to the door, where David was still standing.
“Don’t you think you should go and help Hal with his stuff? I don’t think he can handle them all by himself”, Meryl said glancing at the man in white in David’s yard over her shoulder while nailing the wreath to the door.
Knowing better than to argue with her, David put his winter combat boots on and walked to the car where Hal was indeed struggling with his boxes. David also noticed that the boxes were actually smaller than Meryl’s.
“Let me help with those”, David said and this time got a thankful smile to his reward instead of a defying one.
“So. Want to explain what this is all about?” David asked again. No matter how tough Meryl was outside, she was still a woman and her answer to his question had been way too womanly for him to actually understand what was going on in his home at the moment.
“Remember that Christmas party we had here last year?” Hal asked shifting his share of boxes in his hands. “Well Rose was little shocked at the plain look of your house so under Christmas. So she, Mei Ling and Meryl decided to do something this year”.
“And what is your part in this whole scene”.
“I’m the head of the lighting department”, Hal said, his eyes grinning behind his glasses.
“Lighting… You don’t plan to turn my home to landing station are you?” David asked little scared. “You know my closest neighbour is two miles away so competing with house decoration is kind of pointless”.
“Don’t worry. I’m just going to put up a few lights”, Hal said, setting his boxes down on the porch.
David set his eyes on the five boxes that Hal was opening and wasn’t really convinced. But if even Rose was in this little scheme they were playing, he knew he had already lost the battle, before it had really even begun. And he could always take them all down. He would then just have to keep his friends away from his property until the holidays were over.
So, giving up manly, David continued the things he had done before Meryl had interrupted him. He finished the cleaning of his guns, fed his dogs and made himself a cup of coffee. The only change that his friends’ presence brought to his day was that instead of an easy-make instant coffee he made the whole pot.
All though the presence of his friends did not change his daily routines they did change the look of his home. David was grateful that the decorations were obviously done by Meryl’s tastes and not Rose’s, so instead of glittering silver, his living room was now surrounded by green garlan,d and his coffee table had an actual table clothe on it. His free table space was now occupied by straw figures and countless candles and there was a straw mobile hanging from his ceiling as well as a star lamp in his kitchen window.
Besides the fact that his home would probably burn to the ground if he were to set all those candles up, the decorations actually did look rather nice. His home really looked like it was waiting for Christmas so maybe this year he would go the trouble of actually buying the ham. And maybe something present like to his huskies.
Even though the insides of his house looked nice, he was still too afraid to go outside. Meryl, Rose and Mei Ling had been responsible for the changes inside his house, but the outside lighting had been left for Hal alone. And when Jack had come with Rose, there had been no need for David to go out and help them. He was still seeing horrid images of suburb neighbourhoods that were so well lighten that one could land a plane there in a blizzard in the middle of the night.
“What do you think girls, this place look ready?” Rose asked watching the new look they had bring to David’s house from the door.
“I think it is, what do you say Mei”, Meryl said, joining Rose on the door.
“Looks nice to me. Besides I’m hungry. You think they still serve food in Nellie’s?” Mei Ling asked, looking at the old wooden clock over David’s fireplace.
“If we leave right now, we might make it”, Meryl said, glancing her wrist watch while pulling her coat over. “David, blow the candles off, we go see if Hal and Jack are ready”.
All the three women put their shoes and jackets on and left David in few seconds. Obeying, David blow all the candles off and even if they hadn’t lit them all, it still took him a good ten minutes before he was out and ready.
When David stepped out, he was forced to meet his fears. Luckily the lights weren’t as bad as he had excepted, even though there were kind of plenty of them. One couldn’t probably take their plane down to his front yard but a helicopter with a good pilot might be able to do it. Or at least the lights would show the locations of his buildings.
His porch had now a green garland mixed with tiny lights going around it and the garage building across his yard had light string going around its roof line. These were the regular Christmas lights everyone around the world had properly attached to their houses. What was on his front lawn on other hand was far from regular Christmas decoration. David didn’t even want to know how long Jack and Hal had been working with the iron frame. This was just once again a proof that Hal really was as ‘Otacon’ as it appeared.
David got in the front seat of Hal’s car and as he sped away, he could see the lighted frame of a six foot tall Metal Gear Rex, guarding his home.