“Back for Christmas” is a short story by John Collier first published in 1939. It can be found in the collection Fancies and Goodnights. It’s about an English couple who are going to America for the husband’s lecture tour. Their friends want them to be back home for Christmas, and the wife, who manages her husband’s schedule efficiently, assures them she won’t let him extend the trip. Here’s a summary of “Back for Christmas”.
“Back for Christmas” Summary
Dr. Carpenter is going away to lecture in America for three months, and his wife, Hermione, will be accompanying him. Some friends have come to their place to wish them farewell. They want Dr. Carpenter to be back in England for Christmas. He’s unsure because anything could happen, but Hermione assures everyone he’ll be back. They believe her and her husband almost does too. She’s efficient and always manages everything.
Everyone leaves with Hermione reiterating her promise to have the Doctor back for Christmas. They’ll drive to Southampton this evening and leave for America tomorrow. The maids clean everything up and say goodbye. Hermione sends her husband upstairs to change into his brown tweeds. She’ll take care of the odds and ends before they leave.
The Doctor goes upstairs and, instead of his brown tweeds, changes into an old bathrobe. He arranges a few things and calls Hermione up to see something extraordinary. There’s a gold chain in the tub drain. He gives her a flashlight to look down at it. When she leans over, he strikes her several times with a lead pipe and upends her body into the tub.
The Doctor takes off the bathrobe, empties a towel of implements into the washbasin and spreads newspaper on the floor. He straightens Hermione’s body and removes her clothes. There’s lots of blood. He turns on the taps but the water flow soon stops. Hermione has turned off the main line.
The Doctor runs down to the dark cellar and turns the water back on. The doorbell rings. Feeling defeated, he throws himself onto the floor into the coal dust. The front door opens and he hears the Wallingfords calling out their names.
The Doctor thinks he’s been caught. The Wallingfords speculate the Carpenters had to pop out somewhere at the last minute. The decide to stop by again on their way back, at about six thirty. The Doctor hears the door close.
He thinks he has time. He latches the front door and hurries upstairs. He uses his implements to complete his task and carries many parcels wrapped in newspaper and towels into the cellar. He packs them into the deep hole he had made in the corner where he told Hermione he was preparing a wine basin. He fills it in with soil and spreads coal dust over it. He cleans the bathroom and himself, and then burns his bathrobe and Hermione’s clothes.
It’s quarter past six when he finishes. He drives away unobserved. When it’s dark, he stops to think. Marion, who already though he was a widow, is waiting in Chicago. He’ll cancel the speaking engagements and live in an out-of-the-way American town. He’ll write a few letters back home from them both on the typewriter, as Hermione did, making excuses for their absence. He might even come back later to close out the property.
In New York, he’s safe and free and looks forward to seeing Marion. At the hotel, there are letters for him from England. Most are from friends but one is from a construction company, probably a bill. It’s for Hermione and it acknowledges a work order for a sunken wine bin in the cellar. They have the key and will be starting this week. It will be finished in plenty of time for Christmas.
I hope this summary of “Back for Christmas” by John Collier was helpful.
