A Mother's Pride

Chapter 23

Chris' POV

I know it's early because there is no light struggling to get past the grime on the blinds in my room. I can hear the drum of rain on the window pane.

I set an alarm because if my mother was the one to have woken me up, I would be grumpy. That woman can be so loud. Unnecessarily so.

I slip into my slippers and go downstairs. The slippers make a sound on the floor as I move, making it obvious that I am lazily dragging them. My eyes are half opened and any other part of my body cannot function. I feel like a zombie right now.

Slowly, one step per three seconds, I descend down the stairs. I have no idea how many times I have yawned ever since I woke up, but it sure is a lot. I stop for a second and lean against the rail, my eyelids feel heavy and I just want to fall right here and sleep. But I can't because "mommy wants her feast," I mimicked her voice in my head.

It sucks that I had to wake up from my awesome dream. I was certainly not happy about that. I had a dream about my Christmas being memorable and great. I remember that I had a great time with my family and I ended the day with some drinks. I was about to open my gift when I woke up. It was a very tall box, put upright and it was in a height of a human being. It took me two hours to try and open it but when I was about to see what was hidden in it, the alarm went off. Devastating isn't it? It's like working so hard for no reward at all.

I get to the kitchen and pull out a mug from the cupboard. I then take out all the ingredients I need to make coffee and boil my water. I yawn again. I work in slow motion but everything that I put on the kitchen counter makes noise and it startles me every time, as though I am not the one creating it.

Eyelids...hea...

It's when I feel a bright light flashing directly onto my eyes, causing me to close my eyes harder. What the... I open my eyes. Nina! She is totally taking a video. Her flashlight is too bright.

"Were you filming me?"

"Were you sleeping, dude you drooled into your mug."

I take my hand to feel the corners of my mouth in a haste motion, scared that she might be telling the truth and more scared that she might have caught it on camera.

"I'm just kidding. But were you really sleeping?"

"Delete that video Nina."

The kettle stops boiling and Nina takes it to pour into my mug, she takes the mug from me and starts making me coffee. Life saver. But I still want her to delete that video.

"No, I will not."

"Please Nina."

She hands me the coffee and I inhale the divine smell of it before I take a sip. Then, I take a sip and I feel my brain waking up.

I take another one, and another one and another one, and another, until the whole mug is empty and my brain is working at its full capacity. Darn! That was a mission. I don't even wake up this early when I have to go to work, this is torture.

"I am begging you Nina, I will do anything for you to delete that video."

"Anything huh?"

"Yes anything."

"If you are making any mashed-potatoes, mix them with wine so that our parents sleep early then we can go clubbing or something. It's Christmas, I will end up growing grey hair if I spend another second with those two." Nina was such a big baby.

Wait, what? Is she insane.

"Dude, we are not some fifteen year-olds that cannot leave the house anytime we want."

"Your mom will say that Christmas is a time for family and that we should go out tomorrow."

"Which is right."

"Like mother like son. Ugh! You are so pathetic. You said anything, why do you think you have a choice?"

"Right, that. But no, we are not doing that. I am not drugging my mother Nina. But I could help you sneak out."

"You know what, never mind Chris. I am still keeping the video by the way."

There is no use in arguing with Nina. She is one of the most stubborn people I know. But along with that, she is warm hearted and is always showing people love.

Nina's mother died when Nina was thirteen in a car accident. It must have been devastating to lose a mother, more difficult than it is to lose a father. Her father stayed single for seven years before he met my mother. They did not give us the details of how they met. So the following year, they got married. Nina was still in college and I had just started working for this other marketing company. She said that she never had a brother and it excited her that her father was marrying someone that had a son. She mostly used me to come pick her up after hours at college.

She clicked very well with...with Julia. Julia was twenty five by then and although she enjoyed having a brother more than anything, she said having a girl for a sibling was also pretty great. Adapting to the new situation was quite easy.

...

As we are sitting for breakfast; which is pancakes with chocolate syrup (my son's favorite food), Joseph calls Nina.

"Joseph says that he's at the gate." I give her the key to go and open for her husband.

Joseph has always been with Nina, even the time our parents got married, he was still in Nina's life. Their love story is cute. Apparenrly they met when Nina was doing her final year in high school or was it directly after, I cannot quite recall. Joseph was in college studying business management. They have been together ever since. When they married, I was there. It was very beautiful. I think Nina was twenty seven when she walked down the aisle. Their son is at Joseph's parents' house.
Julia got married when she was twenty seven as well, four years before Nina's wedding.

Ah Joseph, such a good man to hang around.

"Morning family."

"Good morning my man." I say and stand up to dish up for him.

"You don't have to, I ate. Merry Christmas to you all." He says and that's when I noticed that he has a few gifts with him. I direct him to put them under the tree. Then we continue laughing and chatting, like the great united family that we are.

"Is it now time to open the gifts dad?" Gift asks, his face covered with melted chocolate but his plate squeaky clean.

"Were you eating with your face?" I laugh at him.

"Maybe." He faces down and licks his fingers.

"Go wash your face first, then we will open them. Deal?"

"Deal."

He runs upstairs then comes back quickly, looking for gifts that has his name written on them. He opens all of them with great enthusiasm like the kid that he is, his eyes sparkling with excitement. In my times, such things were not there, he's lucky.

Gift opens his last gift, it's from me. I wait for the screaming to start. He's been watching hundreds of adverts a day for the past few weeks and the chances that I chose just the right thing are at best. As soon as the blue paper lies tattered on his lap, and he sees the picture printed on the white box, his eyes light up even more and his smile grows a lot bigger.

I did it. He likes it.

"Virtual Reality gaming kit, I love it. I love it. Thanks dad." He leaves it on the ground and rushes to hug me. I kiss the top of his head and brush his hair with my hand.

"You are welcome son."

"I will help you connect everything tomorrow, is that fine?"

"Sure cool, anything is fine." He moves from my lap and runs up to put his gifts in his room. The excitement rumbling inside of him is very clear.

The rest of us each open our gifts and show gratitude to each other. My mom got me a new brief case but I doubt I will use it, she knows how much I love the one I use. It was dad's. It has a special place in my heart.