Say my name

Chapter 15

There were very few people in the house that slept well last night. They all gathered at breakfast. Anabella tried to look and act as natural as she could. Layers of corrector and face powder hid her puffy eyes and red cheeks. She promised herself to be strong and did not give Maxim any satisfaction that he hurt her. Maxim took the same approach because he remained polite but distant with the family but avoided any eye contact with Anabella.

After breakfast Aleksey put the younger generation in charge of decorating the Christmas tree. He and Svetlana would finish preparing dishes for the Christmas Eve dinner. Sergey went up to the attic and brought the multiple boxes of tree ornaments. He enjoyed himself like a little boy. He whistled Christmas songs along with the music from Elena's phone. The sparkles in his eyes danced happily. Anabella pitied them that they lost so many beautiful moments in life after their mom passed. She had a wonderful Christmas every year. Maxim strung the twinkle lights around the tree since he was the tallest, Elena encouraged him to add more and more until it seemed the tree would go up in flames when lit. Sergey picked various ornaments and told them stories of when and how they got them. Some of them were homemade, some were bought and there were many vintage, beautiful, hand painted glass ornaments inherited by their mother. Anabella cherished every single one of them. She looked them over gently and hang them on the tree. The Christmas music played softly, the lights twinkled like fireflies, although it was late morning the snow clouds were dense and hang low, stealing a lot of daylight. It kept snowing hard. Aleksey lit the fire in the fireplace first thing in the morning. Now a cheerful crackling was mixed with music. Maxim was silent through the entire process, but the overall atmosphere of joy shook up his shell slightly. After glancing a couple of times in his direction, Anabella saw a lot of emotions in his eyes whenever he was handling certain ornaments. He hurt her, but Anabella felt the urge to hug him and comfort him right now. This Christmas brought back many happy memories, both boys dealt with it in their own way. Anabella tried to reach a higher branch unsuccessfully, Maxim moved closer and took the ornament from her fingers and hang it up. He noticed with a pang of sadness that she still wore his mother's ring. The brushing of fingers made Anabella tremble. It took her breath away and she closed her eyes. He lingered a second longer but then moved away to the other side of the tree.

After an hour or so, they sat on the sofa and armchairs admiring their work. Aleksey and Svetlana stepped out of the kitchen and examined it. Aleksey's eyes got misty. Anabella suddenly homesick and asked him to use his phone to call home. Aleksey and Svetlana reminded her to pass the Christmas wishes to the whole family and especially Jessica and Kevin. Anabella promised to do it and went to her bedroom. She looked at the time, oh good, they are still up. She laid down on the bed and dialed her mom's number.

As expected, when she connected, she could barely hear because they were in the whirlwind of preparations and mom put her on a speaker. As a result, everybody tried to talk all at once and she could not understand anybody. Finally, her mom took the receiver and went to the bathroom to have a quiet space. "How are you my love? We miss you dearly." Anabella fought to keep the tears at bay, she did not want to worry them, and after all she was safe and sound.

"I'm good Mom. We're slowly getting ready for dinner. It's noon here. Just finished decorating the Christmas tree. Aleksey and his lady friend cooked for two days. The food looks amazing. I made Grandmas gingerbread cookies, and everybody loved them. It's very cozy here and it's snowing a lot. I don't think we ever had so much snow for Christmas. Well, maybe once, when we all went to the Rockies for holidays." Anabella smiled at the memories. "I want to wish you and everybody else the best, merriest Christmas. I love you all so much. Aleksey and his family are joining in the greetings."

"Thank you, my baby, I wish you all the same. You are my Christmas star, so bright and beautiful. You have a mountain of gifts waiting for you and the baby under the Christmas tree. We will make something special for you for the Three Wise man holiday. Hold on one second, Jessica is banging at the door, she wants to have a word with you. Bye for now my love, take care of yourself in that cold climate and come back to us soon. Call us tomorrow. Here is your sister." Anabella's mom handed over the phone to Jess and went back to the kitchen.