Chapter 13.2 - December 2023: part III – Christmas Magic With You

 

It's the morning of christmas eve in the Curious household, and Cornelia was the first to get out of bed. Beate was still dreaming sweet dreams of her potential future career in music, and it looks like through some kind of telekinesis her dreams and thoughts have spilled over to her mother.. Or maybe they just talked about during the day....

Mothers will always be mothers, and it's christmas morning now, so she feels its her duty now to make sure the house is in as pristine conditon as it can be, before they will hang up the decorations and prepare for the guests to arrive later in the evening.. can't have dirty laundry lying around!

One that could probably care less about laundry, cleaning and even christmas decorations (or so he would say) is Noah, the teenager of the house.. The grounding he received from his father yesterday is still in effect, and that does not help his mood! Someone is going to be grumpy today... grumpy and hungry, a truely exciting combination. Life sucks when you're a teenager... sometimes...

 

It wasn't just music that was on Beates mind. Shortly before waking up she had a lovely dream about bottles of milk and waking up to a house full of joy... A big, modern, luxiurious house with a big secluded garden, surrounded by an enchanted forest.. A garden full of perfectly sculpted trees and childrens laughter..

Then she woke up and did what she always does every morning. She has been taught right by her mama, to never leave the bedroom without perfectly making the bed.. A house that's neat and tidy in every room and every corner makes for a happier family.. No dust bunnies allowed in this house!

When she came downstairs she found her old man still sleeping on the couch before quickly turning her head pretending not to notice that she caught her brother gently putting down the cushion on one of the chairs... Now she knew which chair to not sit on later when the guests were here...

"Morning Noah. Beautiful day isn't it?" she asked as she passed her brother by.. She didn't expect to get much of an answer as she suspected it wasn't a good morning for him..
She had been there and done that and knew there wasn't any point in stopping to cheer him up... The best thing she could do was to leave him alone and let things go as they went... and a little innocent fun never hurt anyone, especially when she wouldn't be the one to get the blame..

What Beate didn't get was why her father was sleeping on the couch, and she wanted to find her mom to figure out if everything was alright. She had somehow erased from her memory all the times when she was a teenager staying out late, getting scolded and grounded by her father before waking up the next morning to mysteriously find him sleeping on the couch by the front door like a watch dog, always keeping one eye open (kind of)... but the dog had gotten older now and his eyes and ears weren't what they once used to be...

After having put on the laundry, Cornelia had gone inside the bathroom downstairs to check up on it and wasn't to surprised when she found yet another huge puddle of... liquid in front of the toilet downstairs. She figured she needed to have another word with Tay about this.. Sometimes she wondered if he had been raised by wolves out in the forest, or what was amiss here.. Surely something had to have gone wrong at one point in time with his potty training....

 

Beate didn't beat around the bush when she finally found her mom in the bathroom downstairs. "What's up with dad? Why is he sleeping on the couch? Did you....?"

 

"No, uhh.. no...." Cornelia interrupted before Beate could finish what she wanted to say. She didn't want to hear those words being spoken in this house. Family members did not... they did not do that. They were always together in harmony....
    No, no... her dear Martin was only sleeping on the couch this time because he was such a lovely father, concerned for his son who had been staying up late.. and it was true, Cornelia wasn't lying to her daughter... this time. Martin had been up all night yesterday anxiously waiting for his son to come home all the while repeatedly texting and trying to call him, but getting no answer or reply... So it wasn't to strange that he was furious when he finally came home...

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Beate believed her mother for now, and decided to not ask any more questions. Somehow she also figured that this probably meant her brother was grounded... The best thing she could do now was to leave her mom to it, to continue cleaning up the house as usual, and practicing the drums for a while..
 

Meanwhile Tay had also emerged from his little boy cave to watch tv (he had been sitting there the whole time), to of course have it break when he got up to use the bathroom when it finally became available again..

 

..but now there was a little drummer girl in the way, it would be rude not to watch..

 

..atleast for a while until the needs became to pressing...

 

Upstairs father and son now shared a moment of silence together. Martin didn't need to say anything now for Noah to obediently do his homework. Just sitting down with a book and a scowl on his face was all it took. He was grounded after all, and had no other place to go...

 

Cornelia found some time to rest with a book as well, after having gone up and down the stairs numerous times to clean everything and decorate the house for tonights christmas celebration (and calling the repair man to fix the broken tv and the kitchen sink which also broke in the process...) Beate wasn't much of a helping hand, but atleast she respected her mom enough to give her some quiet and get up from her drumkit..

 

..and as the repair man arrived, so did the snow again.. it probably wouldn't stick for long this time either, it usually never did around here, but if they could only get some snow for this one evening it would have been perfect..

 

Excited with the arrival of the snow Beate wanted to ask Tay to go outside and throw some ball until the snow had gotten deep enough to have a real snow ball fight, but then some other personal needs came in the way.. Now, Beate didn't want to use the bathroom in the basement. That had become Tays bathroom, and yeah... she would much rather use the one upstairs whom she now knew was squeaky clean..

..only to be followed upstairs by the same Tay who had just gone there to do dishes.. in the bathroom sink..
"Oh ma wa'sher, am so sorry! I didn't know y'all was here! The kitch'n sink downstairs was broken, I just came in here to do ma dishes, am so sorry!"

 

"Don't think about it, I was just about finished anyway...." (My watcher, I need to get out of this house...)

 

In the kitchen downstairs (now with christmas decorations and a fixed sink) Martin had taken to harass his wife about their sons negligence of his school work, even though it wasn't really true. Noah had just done his homework. A little late and under the supervision of his father, but he had done it...

Martins ramblings didn't even go in one ear to leave the other. Cornelia had heard the same story (or very similar ones) so many times before they had become just as ordinary as washing ones hands after every visit to the toilet (and before preparing food). Just something so mundane, it happens without even thinking about it...

 

Noah wasn't gonna get any forgiveness from his father, even if he was a good boy staying inside and properly finishing his homework, but Beate couldn't stand watching her brother feel down because he was grounded on christmas eve of all days, so she walked over to forgive him and reward him for his effort to finish his homework.. well, that and she couldn't have him be restricted to be inside the house in case the opportunity should arise for a snowball fight outside later..
A snowball fight inside would probably not go down well....

 

The siblings continue to bond by telling jokes and making faces to each other, while Martin ponders what would happen if that christmas tree suddenly should catch fire..

It's the same thing every year, cluttering the house with silly decorations and filling it with people, being all festive and joyful.. Hmmph! And since that Tay moved in, he didn't even get to have the basement to himself! Double hmmph!

 

..and of course he was down there now, in the bathroom getting ready for the christmas party. He could hear the sound of water running in the shower through the door (and probably spilling onto the floor in huge puddles). That good for nothing Tay! Oh, why did he let himself be persuaded to accept him as a tenant in the house? "He's just so cute that young boy" he remembered Cornelia saying, "That spare room in the basement was never used for anything anyway, and the money will sure come in handy."

Bah! They would've done just fine without the money, most of it probably went towards the extra cost on the electricity bill anyway! And he hated what he had done to the room, that vile orange colour and the childish vibe it had! It looked much better when it was nothing but empty stone walls! Now Cornelia had always wanted more children in the house, so Tay was probably the perfect tenant for her – being like the big child that he was. If only he could find a way to talk her into having him kicked out of there.. but it seems no matter what he did, she always found some excuse for him... that 'poor' boy... bah!

 

Snow was still falling outside and Tay had gone upstairs to talk fondly about building snow men with Beate. Being a grumpy old man is exhausting enough, so Martin helped himself to some salad Cornelia had just prepared as a simple lunch to keep everyone from starving while waiting for the main christmas meal later in the evening.

 

As for Noah.... well, his sisters forgiveness had only temporarily lifted his spirits.. as he had now found his way to the bathroom by the kitchen to set a trap for his mom, most likely he figured, as she was always the one to use the sinks to clean stuff.. usually...

 

What he did not expect was that the next one to use the sink would be his father, as he had just finished his lunch and didn't want to burden his wife by leaving another dirty plate lying around after all she had done to decorate the house (even though he hated it). Noah could hear his fathers footsteps behind him and thought he had to come up with something quick so that he would go and use the kitchen sink instead, but it was to late..

Martin was splashed with cold water immediately upon turning on the sink, and through some luck maybe, Noahs phone rang at the same time. It was his good high school friend Emilia Stabell-Jones calling him, asking if he would go with her to the upcoming school ball next year. Noah had already been looking forward to the school ball for a while, so when one of his best friends called him about it he couldn't turn her down, so the answer was already given. Of course he would go with her, and now that this was settled it only made him look forward to the school ball even more.*

Now Martin didn't want to scold his son while he was on the phone with a potential future girlfriend. He's a grumpy old man, but he isn't cruel, so he decided to keep it in for now and try to remember it for some time later, preferably after the guests had left the house and the upcoming festivities were over.

 

In the meantime Martin was taking his frustrations out on Tay again, now making up random accusations of him gossiping and trash talking their family. Tay had no idea what the ol' man was bickerin' 'bout... he'd never done no such thing!

Well, Martin had better put on a smiling face – or go upstairs or down in the basement to keep to himself while the party lasted, which wouldn't be an unlikely outcome since he hated these events where his house were evaded by strangers.. It was noticeable when Cornelia made the phone calls earlier to invite people over that Martin doesn't really have many good friends outside of the household... Most of the people on the list were friends of Cornelia, Beate, Noah or Tay....

Anyway, the first guest to arrive is Emilia who had just invited Noah to the school ball a few hours earlier. There's no romantic relationship between them for the time being, they are just good old friends having gone to the same school together since they were children.

The second guest to arrive is Bhavan, the local irresistible fire fighter that everybody loves, but that nobody loves as much as Beate, so here there definately is a romantic relationship.. they both have a mutual wish to get married to each other, but that is going to require that someone takes some kind of action to make it happen...

Then more and more guests arrive, and the hostess does her best to greet everyone to make sure they feel welcome and included. Everyone that gets invited to her house is like part of one big happy family, so it's important that everybody enjoys themselves and has a good time!

 

The house is filled with the smells of all kinds of different food that the guests have brought and gift pile is getting bigger and bigger as everybody empties their pockets to add one more to the pile.

When the last gift is on the pile, Cornelia calls all the guests to have a bite of the delicious christmas hamburgers she has prepared for them, and the two turtle doves make sure to immediately grab a seat right opposite of each other before anybody else gets a chance to sit down.

 

Martin has retreated to the kitchen in the background to eat in solitude, while Beate once again does not beat around the bush and dives headfirst into the topic of having children..

 

Not so fast though.. we first need to get settled under the same roof, in a house that is nothing but ours. Beate couldn't disagree with that statement. Bhavan already had his own house, and it was most certainly big enough for a child or two, and there were plenty of room for house expansion...

 

Their conversation ended rapidly however once her younger brother sat down with them and started talking about computers, as they both got up at the same time to pick up their plates to go do the dishes, perfectly mirroring each others movement...

To bad they both aimed for the same sink as well, and a sink can only handle one person at a time..

 

..and as it were this gave Bhavan the perfect opportunity to change into his fire fighting outfit. 'Duty called' he said as he excused himself to Cornelia, who was busy on the phone talking about the prospect of grandchildren..

 

Beate of course thought he was just absolutely smashing in that fire fighting outfit, there was no doubt about it, he was the man.. but why did he put that on now – on christmas eve? He wasn't going to..? She knew how important his fire fighting career was to him, but he couldn't.. not now, unless there was an emergency going on..

"Hey sweetheart, where's the fire?" He was clearly headed for the door, and she had to stop him before he could leave..
"Sorry, got to go, work calls." His voice was determined, as if he had a very important reason to leave.

"Hey, hold on! What? You can't just leave now!" she called for him hoping he would turn around, without realizing she was shouting loud enough for everyone at the party to hear. This made him stop and turn around as he understood from the tone of her voice that she wasn't going to let him leave to easily, or without following him to the fire station..

 

"Bhavan! What's going on? Why are you running away from me? Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I just had to... go to..."

 

"Look, Bhavan, we can spend some time here on the porch if you need to get some... fresh air.. It's ok, just promise me you won't leave.... ok?"

Bhavan is a brave man with little to no issue putting his own life and wellbeing on the line to help and rescue others, something he's had going for him ever since he started school and quickly became the one to defend his peers against sometimes even much older bullies, but even the bravest of heroes has an achilles heel or two, and for Bhavan this was any major gathering of people..
Beate knew this, her father was the same way, but atleast Bhavan wasn't grumpy about it, isolating himself while hating everything and everyone, like her father sometimes did...

Bhavan just had his moments where he needed some... fresh air... that was all..

 

Bhavan didn't answer her questions directly, but she knew he wasn't going anywhere now when he pulled his usual line "You know.... I am a fire fighter..."

 

..and that was all he needed to say. It worked everytime, as if she didn't know... but honestly, he did have her heart pumping there for a while. If she hadn't managed to stop him it would have completely ruined the evening, and it would have been the worst christmas... but now she was thrilled, because there was still hope..

 

..but she had to act now, while she had him out here alone.. or well, mostly alone... because of course, Emilias evil little brother had been out with them on the porch all along eavesdropping on them.. and whatever was said there, she knew that he would gossip about to Emilia.. which again would tell all about it to Noah, but right now she didn't care..

 

..she had to act now while the situation was still hot, though it was pretty chilly outside, so she once again didn't hesitate to speak her mind and suggested that Bhavans car might need some heating up as she noticed the windows were getting... a little frosty... She couldn't speak to directly, there were children present after all...

 

Now, going for a ride in the car (or anywhere else...) wasn't her plan for the night, well atleast not to begin with, but now was the time where she had to get him in the mood to get something popping.. err.. to pop the question...

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* Footnote: I might not actually play through this part with the school ball though. It depends which household will be the active one when the time comes.