charity project // mischa bachinski (ride the cyclone)

17 - confrontation

Our plan was to give them the gifts that weekend. All week, I helped him write a script for him to say to Tom and Laura. He had it memorized by that Friday. It was safe to say that both of us were a bit worried about the result of this confrontation.

Eventually, Saturday came. I drove to his house in one of my nicest outfits. Before ringing the doorbell, I smoothed down my hair and took a breath. Thankfully, it was Mischa who answered the door. He looked almost as nervous as he had after he told me everything in the rainy parking lot that day. That'd turned out well, though. Hopefully this will follow suit.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, reaching up to caress his face..

"Yes. I think I am. I am just a little bit scared. That is all."

"That's perfectly normal. It means you care. Hopefully they do, too."

He led me inside. "I told them I was going to bring you over tonight for Christmas. They wanted to be nice and preserve their image by hosting a dinner with you."

"How... thoughtful?"

"Maybe," Mischa shrugged.

I sat down beside Mischa at the dinner table. I had to say, the food did look delicious and the dining room was very well decorated.

Laura smiled at me. "We are so glad to see you again, aren't we, Tom?"

"Oh! Of course we are, dear. We always treat our guests with respect here," Tom nodded after looking up from his phone.

Mischa cleared his throat. "After we eat, I got each of you gifts."

Tom and Laura glanced at each other.

"Oh, that wasn't necessary!" Laura shook her head modestly.

The dinner was as delicious as it looked, and the most dry part of the meal was the conversation. It was absolutely vapid and I was almost excited to get to Mischa's big speech.

The time rolled around. Mischa returned with the gifts and sat down.

He looked at me for a moment. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and he looked to Tom and Laura.

"Before I give you these gifts, I just wanted to say thank you. I am so grateful that you took me in. I was so poor and lonely and helpless, and out of the kindness of your heart you gave me a place to stay and wonderful food to eat. Nothing I could give you could ever measure up to the gratitude I feel inside of me, but these gifts could help. Laura, this one is for you and I really hope you like it."

I couldn't help but notice a certain look on Laura's face. Not sad, not devastated. No, guilty. That was it. She looked incredibly guilty. Nevertheless, Laura opened the bag. She pulled out the face mask first and smiled.

"I knew that you like the stuff that you put on your face, so I got this for you!" Mischa told her.

"Thank you! This looks really neat!" She began to put the bag on the ground.

He stopped her. "Wait! There's one more thing in there!"

Laura raised her eyebrows and took out the makeup palette. "Wow... this is amazing, Mischa. I don't know what to say."

"No need. Your kindness says enough. I thought the colors would bring out the blue in your eyes."
"You are actually so thoughtful. I really appreciate this."

I looked over to Mischa, ecstatic. He returned the look and handed Tom his gift. I got a bit doubtful after Tom gave him a wary eye.

He unwrapped the gift and then held it up. Tom did, in fact, look mildly impressed.