With all that had happened last Christmas, I really hated this European client the firm had. He wouldn’t bother the firm and particularly me during the whole year, but come Christmas and he would call upon our services on urgent basis. Maybe he had a problem with Christmas itself. Nonetheless, he was important and hence we had to oblige. This time, this client was cursed not only by me, but Yvonne, my family and my friends. Just days before Christmas, he had called me to London for work.
But this time, I had decided to stand ground, he had almost destroyed my Christmas (which was rescued by Yvonne by enlisting the help of my iPhone). I told him that no matter what, I will have to be on American soil by the dawn of the 24th and somehow, he had obliged. Hence, I went through completing his task as fast as I could and by the 24th was done with all the work. The plan was that Yvonne would catch me up in my hometown to spend the Christmas with the whole family.
I knew that Yvonne would lose her patience if I didn’t make it home by the 24th ‘day’. That’s why, I had booked an early flight from the Heathrow that would put me in New York by noon. But as luck would have it, when I reached the airport, I found that there were many cancellation of flights to US due to an anticipated storm, my flight was amongst them. I called up Yvonne to let her know about the cancellation and contrary to my belief, she kept her calm and asked me to see if something could be worked out. I told her not to worry and that I’d be home for Christmas.
After hours of searching, I couldn’t find anything and told Yvonne about the same and she calmly told me to try something and this time, she curtly added that we would have to cancel the plan and yet, she still would want to be home for Christmas, else she’d be really disappointed. That was some silent threat which meant that it was time for me to get scared. But still I made a hollow promise to her that I’d be home for Christmas.
I looked around and I questioned myself as to how I was going to deliver on that promise. The airport was packed with people trying to get home to their loved ones. Just them, my phone rang; it was the European Client. Keeping my anger under tab, I answered the call. He said that he was concerned if I had reached safely because he had heard the news of the storm. That was a shocker, a new from him and I curtly explained my situation to him. Getting back to his weird self, he immediately told me that he’d call me back in sometime. I was least concerned, all that was riding my mind was getting home.
He did call after sometime and told me not to worry and that he had arranged for me to reach home before midnight and that his assistant would be calling me with the details. I thanked him, albeit in disbelief. His assistant called as soon as I hung up and explained me the things but she didn’t manage to lift my mood. Her arrangement put me at the LaGuardia around 11.00 pm which would hardly make it possible for me to reach home on time. Nonetheless it was something in these turbulent times. I once again made the call to Yvonne to make that hollow promise that I will be home for Christmas.
I don’t know how they did it, but they got me on a flight and I was heading home. All through the flight I was worried how my brother would be disappointed in me for breaking the tradition for the second time. I thought how mom and dad would be sad that I didn’t uphold their upbringing and was already forgetting them and their legacy. Lastly and importantly I realized how disappointed and sad Yvonne would be, it was going to be the first time she would be meeting the family and my work took away that opportunity from her.
I landed at LaGuardia around 11.00pm and immediately called up Yvonne to inform her of the same. By the time I got out, it was already 11.15. The clock was ticking and my heartbeat began to race. I ran out, got into the cab, asked him to take the I-278E route and told him to push it. I called up Yvonne again to let her know my whereabouts. We hit some traffic and I was at the edge of my seat, my eyes constantly on my ticking wrist watch.
The cab came to a screeching halt at my apartment at 11.50 and paying him, I got out to get the luggage. I (tried) ran up all the way with the luggage and before I could knock on the door, she opened it. I dropped the the luggage and simply hugged her, felt different but I didn’t let go.
“Just don’t kiss me in front of all these people; OK” Dan said in my ears as I heard a roar of “surprise” behind me.
I let go of him and embarrassed, got inside. The next to hug me was my brother and I was shocked to see him there. The whole gang was there including Jason, with a date for a change a few other colleagues and my family. My nephew and niece came jumping at me and I cant tell you how lucky and happy I felt at that moment.
Lastly, it was Yvonne who came close, I gently took her, my heart beat slowing down as the chanting of countdown began behind me and whispered,
“Told you, I’ll be home for Christmas”.
We kissed – Merry Christmas.
After the party had settled down, I found out that my brother and Yvonne had hatched the whole plan. But when I complained to my bother of not spending the Christmas at our family home, he reminded me that the values mom and dad taught us gave importance to the family and not those four walls. So wherever we are together, we are preserving those values.
