Wandering Spirits

Chapter 25

Storm looked down at the plate, where the remnants of a homemade lasagna still faintly steamed. Freja's laughter lingered in the air like music, and he couldn't help but think that the evening's peace would be replaced by work chaos in just a week. He glanced over at Freja, who reached for the remote control, clear brown eyes fixed on the TV screen.

"Wait a little," he said, his voice an attempt to be mysterious.

Her hand stopped in midair, and she turned her head towards him with a questioning look. With a smile as warm as the dinner sun, Storm rose from the safe embrace of the sofa and walked purposefully towards the bedroom. He could hear the creaking of the old floorboards under his feet as he approached the closet, where a carefully wrapped gift awaited its debut.

The gift lay there like a promise of shared secrets, wrapped in shiny paper that caught the light from the ceiling lamp. He grabbed the square package, feeling how the ribbons were getting ready to release what was inside.

When he returned to the living room, he was met by Freja's eager gaze, a mixture of childlike enthusiasm and youthful curiosity playing across her face. Storm handed her the square package, and for a moment, he seemed to see a spark of adventure in her deep eyes.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, her hands clutching the gift as if it were a rare treasure. She threw herself around his neck, a bear hug that made him feel both his ribs and his heartbeats.

"You can wait to hug me until you see what's inside," he laughed, his words light as bubbles in soda.

But Freja's hug did not let go. It warmed more than the last rays of the summer evening, and Storm knew that this moment would be one he remembered long after work had taken him back to its busy everyday life.

With hesitant fingers, she found her way through the glittering paper. He watched her as she, with wide eyes, caught sight of the contents.

"My own phone!" she exclaimed, her voice vibrating with a joy that spread to the entire room. She threw her arms around Storm once again, this time so eagerly that he almost lost his balance. "Thank you Thank you Thank you Thaaaank yooou!"

He felt how her tears of joy formed wet spots on his shirt, but it didn't bother him. There was something about the way she appreciated this gesture that filled him with a bubbling sensation of having done something truly good.

She withdrew, her eyes fixed on the mobile phone lying there in the packaging, as if it were a window to a world full of possibilities. "Oh, turquoise color too!" her voice rose a few octaves in pure excitement. "You know exactly what I like, Storm!"

He smiled broadly, witnessing the pure explosion of emotions from her, as if he had just introduced her to a portal to a new dimension. The way she held the phone, as if it was a part of her she never knew she was missing, made Storm realize once again that he could make this girl happy, with even the smallest things.

He looked at her with a warm gaze that locked onto every little movement she made. She sat there, with the new phone in her hands, and the lightning from the ceiling lamp glittered in the tears still hanging in the corner of her eye. He felt an overwhelming feeling of love welling up inside him - it was as if his inner compass now only pointed in one direction: towards her.

"Imagine that I can take pictures, Storm! And play games! I can have music...!" Freja's voice was like a living waterfall of excitement. She swiped and tapped on the screen like she had never done anything else. Her enthusiasm was electric, and he could almost see the sparks flying from her.

She kept talking, without taking a breath, but Storm didn't quite follow. There was something about the way she let her fingertips dance over the turquoise surface of the phone that captivated him.