A series of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons vignettes for Christmas
2003 by Tiger Jackson
Rare Avis: 12 December
Harmony had not considered taking leave at Christmas so she wasn’t affected by
the cancellation-of-leaves order. Besides, New Year’s Day was far more
important, though she would not be able to return to Japan for it. But there
would be Christmas and New Year’s celebrations on Cloudbase, and, as usual, she
would inject some Japanese elements.
Cloudbase’s head chef had already agreed to bake Japanese Christmas cakes. It
wouldn’t be easy to get fresh strawberries, but he’d promised to make a special
effort. And for New Years’s, he would prepare Omochi, steamed rice
pounded and formed into cakes. She planned to leave one as an offering on the
personal altar to her family’s household gods that she kept in her quarters. Her
mother had already sent a package with other offerings, including dried
persimmons, dried chestnuts, pine seeds, black peas, and flowers made of straw
and rice.
Lieutenant Green had promised to organize a live choral performance of the
Daiku, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for New Year’s Eve. A surprising number of
Spectrum personnel were talented singers, Harmony mused. Although Captain Blue
was certainly not among them! He sang like a crane.
Harmony’s thoughts returned to the last item she had found in the package her
mother had sent. It was a work of origami, an intricately folded paper crane,
the symbol of long life and peace. Her mother had painted the symbols of her
names, Kwan and Harmony, on each side of its body, and colourful little Spectrum
insignia on its wings. A paper crane was a magical creature. It was said that if
you folded a thousand of them, a dear wish would be granted.
It
made her think of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who lived in Hiroshima in 1945. As a
schoolgirl, Kwan had learned about how Sasaki had tried to fold a thousand
cranes because she sincerely believed that if she could, world peace would
follow. Sasaki had made more than six hundred before she died of radiation
poisoning. If she had completed the thousand cranes, Kwan had wondered, would
there be peace today? Harmony Angel did not try to answer the question; many
others had also asked it, and the answer was for philosophers to debate.
But
even this one crane was a powerful symbol and it touched her deeply. All over
the world, people still folded cranes and wished for peace. This was one of many
wishes, many hopes for peace. One crane could not do the work of one thousand.
But it was a start. It would need to be kept in a very special place.
*********************
At
shift change, Destiny Angel took Harmony’s place in Angel One. To her surprise,
she found atop the instruments panel a little paper bird with its wings
extended, bravely facing the sky, prepared to carry out its mission for peace.
Story Notes:
Harmony Angel’s
Japanese Christmas Cake
http://japanesefood.about.com for other Japanese recipes.
Ingredients (North
American measures):
For sponge cake:
1/3 cup all purpose
flour 1/3 cup sugar 1/4 tsp baking
powder 3 eggs 1 1/2 tbsp cup
butter For whipping cream: 2 cups heavy cream 4 tbsps sugar 16 pieces whole
strawberry
How to
Prepare: Spread
some batter inside of a round cake pan and place baking wax paper. (*8 inches
round pan.) Put eggs
and sugar in a bowl and whisk very well. Place the
bowl over hot water in another large bowl and whist further. When the
egg mixture becomes white, shift flour and baking powder together and add to the
bowl. Add
melted butter in the bowl and mix gently. Preheat
the oven in a 350-degree. Pour the
batter in the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 25-35 min. Remove
the cake from the pan and cool it on a rack. Cut the
cake in half horizontally. Mix heavy
cream and sugar in a bowl. Whip the
cream well. Slice 8
pieces of strawberries into thin pieces. Take the
half of the whipped cream and mix the sliced strawberries. Place the
cream on top of a round cake slice. Place
another cake slice on top of the cream. Spread
the rest of the whipped cream on top and around the cake. Decorate
the cake with 8 pieces of strawberries.
Makes 4
servings.
OTHER STORIES BY TIGER JACKSON Any comments? Send an
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