Christmas Surprises

"Hello?" Her voice was hard to hear over all the people talking around me and I had to hunch over my phone. "Nick?"

"Hey, Aunt B. Yeah, it's me," I said, thumbing up my volume to the max setting.

"Did your flight land early? We weren't expecting you for another forty-five minutes. Jim was just getting ready to head out to pick you up."

I puffed my cheeks and blew out a sigh. "Yeah, about that. There was a problem with the plane and I was diverted to Denver."

"Denver! Oh, God, I'm sorry," she said. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But I don't have much battery left on my phone, so I'll have to make this quick and see if I can hunt down a charging port. Everyone else had the same idea." I looked around hoping someone had moved, but everyone was crouched next to a plug, the floor a snake pit of white and colored cables. I silently cursed myself for having consumed too much of the battery playing games on my phone throughout the flight.

"Okay, Honey. What do you need?" I could hear her switching to her no-nonsense ex-Marine voice.

"Well, as I understand it, they are trying to get everyone rerouted on new planes. I don't have much information at the moment, but I wanted to catch you before you left to get me."

"No worries. Hold on a sec..." I heard her muffled voice calling out to my uncle and telling him to wait. There was a rustling noise and then she came back on the line. "So what are you thinking? Tonight? Tomorrow?"

"I have no idea. Might not be until tomorrow afternoon."

"Well, it's a good thing your visit is a surprise, otherwise everyone would be so disappointed. You just call us when you know. It doesn't matter if it's the middle of the night. Same goes for whatever time you are scheduled to come in. We'll come get you."

My phone beeped in my ear and I glanced at the battery warning.

Shit! I need to wrap this up fast.

"Oh, Aunt B, I'd hate for you to do that. You've got a ton to do tomorrow for the holiday and I imagine Uncle Jim does too. I was thinking... how about I just catch an Uber? Then you don't have to worry about the time and we can still keep the surprise. If I happen to get in tonight, I could just let myself in the backdoor downstairs and not disturb anyone's sleep. I'll just crash on the couch."

"Well, we can do that, I suppose..." She trailed off before putting more energy back into what she was saying. "But Jim and I don't mind if you need someone to pick you up."

"No, really, it's okay." Someone jostled me from behind as they walked by and I nearly lost my grip on the phone. I turned to look at them expecting an apology, but they just kept walking, a scowl tearing across their face.

So much for the holiday cheer...

"Anyway, I need to get going. The battery's almost dead. I'll just need a key or maybe you can leave the door unlocked or something."

"Okay, Nick. Tell you what... I'll put the key to the downstairs door under a pot that I'll sit on the hot tub cover. Then, when you get the key, you move the pot to the staircase on the deck. I'll be able to see it from the kitchen window in the morning and will know you're downstairs. You go ahead and sleep in and I'll make sure no one disturbs you. I'll tell them it's off-limits due to gift wrapping. Then, once you're up and ready, you can come upstairs and surprise everyone. Just give me a text ahead of time and we can work out the timing."

I hadn't thought of that--the downstairs was pretty much the entertainment room and I could easily envision one of the twins running down there and making a ruckus. "Oh, that's a great idea! You're the best, Aunt B!" I said. I meant it too. She was always coming up with some fun plan or another. Once you'd spent about 20 minutes with her, it was easy to see why my "never-gonna-get-married" uncle had fallen in love.

She chuckled. "Take care of yourself and good luck! We'll probably head to bed soon, but my offer still stands for you to call if you need something."

As we said our goodbyes and disconnected, I felt my stomach rumble. Apparently, my granola bar and that fancy caramel waffle thing they give you on the plane had long since been digested. I glanced around trying to get my bearings. Most places were closed at this time of night, but I could see a sandwich shop that was open further down the terminal. Red and green ornaments hung from the ceiling and silver tinsel lined the counters. I hitched my pack up off the floor and onto my shoulder and made my way over.

A short while later, with a warm paper bag in my hand and the nice smile from the cute serving girl still fresh in my memory, I got lucky and caught a seat back at my terminal. What's more, a plug was available nearby so I fished out my charging cord. My phone was now happily gulping down electrons so I sat back with my sandwich and began some recharging of my own.

I don't know if you've ever had a flight diverted, but if not, I hope you never do. You're stuck in an airport while the poor airline employees have to scramble to find alternative aircraft for the large influx of unexpected passengers. And if you've ever flown commercially, you know that it's not like there's just a bunch of extra jets and planes sitting around "just in case." Further, despite it being the 21st century where even refrigerators are connected to the internet (why, exactly?), passenger lists on a flight that's not supposed to be there apparently can't be digitally transferred or something. I don't claim to know the intricacies of flight logistics, but I do know there were two harried women frantically making calls, cross-referencing with printouts, and doing a lot of muttering amongst themselves... all while being constantly bombarded with angry customers demanding to know when it will be resolved. I had to roll my eyes when I watched this one older woman approach the counter for what seemed like the fifth time to ask the same question she'd already asked before.

Oh, I don't know... maybe when you stop harassing them and give them a chance to work it out?

Once my dinner was done and I got bored of people-watching, I sat back and tried to get as comfortable as possible... which is to say, not very comfortable at all. I contemplated going back to chat with Sandwich Girl since shehadn't been too busy, but was concerned that I'd miss an announcement from my airline. They were occasionally calling people up to the counter, so I knew it could happen.

So instead, I thought about my upcoming trip. I was pretty excited since I hadn't seen anyone for a couple of years. Years ago, I'd lived a lot closer to Uncle Jim and Aunt B. (Her name is Bernadette, but no one, not even my uncle, really calls her that.) We'd usually have family get-togethers at their house since it was quite large and the two of them truly enjoyed hosting and such. When I was younger, it was a lot of fun having all the family together. But over the years, it seemed like things started slipping away. Or maybe it was always happening and I just suffered the ignorant memories of youth.

The first to go was my mother. She suddenly decided that the Universe wanted her to express herself as Fawn rather than Angela and the celestial energies were directing her to live in harmony with other energies where they would combine to create the great everlasting something-or-other. And apparently, this great combination made much more sense than raising her fourteen-year-old son. Who was I to argue in the face of The Universe? Last I heard, she was in Arizona. Haven't talked to her since high school graduation, so it's been about five years.

Clearly, The Universe had different plans for my dad. Not surprisingly, Mom taking off and leaving him in the lurch had an effect. His energy focuses were less celestial and more sourced from grain alcohol. He never beat me or anything like that, but there was more than one implication that The Great Departure was somehow my fault. That was usually when he was so steeped in the drink that the fumes made my eyes water. Mostly, he just didn't take care of himself. If he hadn't wrapped himself around a tree in my Junior year, I wonder how long his liver would have lasted.

Sorry. I didn't mean for a Christmas tale to get so morose. Things weren't always terrible and there are certainly others in the world who had it worse. The only reason I even mention my folks is because it helps illuminate how wonderful my aunt and uncle were in my life. As I said before, I have many happy memories from my childhood. I even vaguely remember their wedding. I was six and remember being confused about how she could already have a four-year-old daughter if they'd just gotten married. I didn't know at the time that Tara was the product of a previous relationship Aunt B had been in before Uncle Jim. Don't worry... by the time the twins arrived (surprise!) eight years ago, I had a much better understanding of how the whole baby-and-marriage thing worked!

Because of my aunt and uncle, I have many happy childhood memories of holidays and summers playing in their house and backyard during family get-togethers. More importantly, Aunt B and Uncle Jim had my back when Mom and Dad had their issues. Aunt B did her best to help me realize that Mom leaving wasn't my fault (or at least as best as my adolescent brain could accept). Then when Dad died, they both really leaned in to help support me. It was hard on Uncle Jim, losing his brother in that way, but it helped us bond even more. The two of them probably kept me on the right track; I'm sure there were many opportunities for my life to be much different than it is now. Aunt B helped me write scholarship letters and then sent me care packages when I moved away for college. Uncle Jim always made sure I had enough money to get the things I needed. Despite never actually raising me, they were practically surrogate parents and mean far more to me now than my actual parents ever did.

All that to say... I missed seeing them something fierce. I had decided to focus and school kept me pretty busy, even through summer. That allowed me to be able to graduate a year early. Then I landed my job at Marvis Analytics (thanks again to Aunt B for helping me write my application letters and practicing interviews over Facetime). Being lowest on the totem pole, I had few leave credits and no seniority. So this year, when the opportunity came up to go back and visit, I was excited by the chance.

I closed my eyes against the harsh glare of the overhead lights and thought back to my conversation with Aunt B a couple of months ago...

"Hey, Aunt B! It's Nick. I was wondering what your holiday plans are this year. I just got notice that my leave was approved. I was hoping I could maybe visit over the holiday since it's been a couple of years."

"Oh, Nick! It's wonderful to hear from you! We'd absolutely love to see you! You're always welcome here."

My heart was elated. "Will it just be you five? And I assume Nana will come over for dinner? I don't want to be a burden."

"Oh, no, actually, this year your Aunt Carol will be here. And her fiance Erik, of course. Plus the two kids. Well, Carol and Erik will be married by the time you see them. They are going to go on their honeymoon after Christmas and we are watching the kids while they are gone. So I was planning on feeding nine people. One more won't be a burden."

I did a quick calculation in my head. "Wait, nine? Shouldn't it be ten? There's you five, plus Nana, plus another four with Carol and family."

"Oh, sorry. No, Tara won't be here. She has to stay at school to work on her graduation project. She's terribly disappointed that she can't make it."

I felt a pang of disappointment. Tara and I had been friends during my childhood and always had fun together when our visits coincided. Plus, she was only a couple of years younger and I was looking forward to having someone closer my age to hang out with. Don't get me wrong--I don't mind playing with my young cousins, but there's only so much overlap in our interests to carry me through a day. "Oh, that's too bad," I said.

"Yeah, it is, but we understand. You kids grow up and start having lives of your own," she chuckled. "And how about you? Will you be alone or will you be bringing a young lady, perhaps?" I could hear a bit of a teasing smile in her voice. "You're welcome to bring a friend."

"Haha, no, it'll just be me. No young ladies to invite."

"Well, that's a shame," she said with a tone of disappointment. "Well, if that changes between now and then, just bring her along." We then began to discuss the nitty-gritty details.

"...McIntyre?"

I started awake. I hadn't realized that I'd dozed off. I glanced at my watch, blinking to clear my vision.

Damn! Time flies when you're having fun...

"Nicholas McIntyre?" The PA system was calling my name.

I glanced over at the ticket counter. One of the ticket agents had the telephone handset in her hand and was scanning the room. I stood up and raised my hand to get her attention. She put the mouthpiece down as I collected my phone (now reasonably charged), charger, and backpack.

"I'm Nick," I said as I approached, showing her my old boarding pass on the phone app.

"Oh, good, I'm glad I caught your attention. I was about to call the next passenger on the list," she said, typing something into her console. "So it looks like your lucky night! Since you're traveling alone and have no checked luggage, we can fit you into a small commuter flight. It's not as fast, but the extra time of the flight will be more than made up compared to the time you'll likely spend waiting for a commercial jet. Oh, and there's no food service or anything. Does that sound acceptable to you?"

"Absolutely!" I said with a grin. "Thank you so much! One more down and..." I looked around and grimaced. "...a lot to go."

"You're welcome," she said as she printed out a new pass for me. She then gave me some instructions on where I needed to head to find this flight. It wasn't nearby. "I'll call them and let them know you're on your way."

"Thank you again," I said enthusiastically. "And best of luck to you in clearing up this chaos soon. I know you were thrown into this mess and are working hard at it. It's much appreciated."

Her smile was more genuine this time. "Thank you."

"Have a happy holiday," I called out over my shoulder and began my hustle through the airport.

*****

It was after midnight when I closed the car door and watched my Uber driver take off through the snow on the asphalt. My aunt and uncle's house is on an extended driveway set back from the main road, so other than the two tracks that the car had made coming in, the road was completely white. It looked like about six or eight inches of snow had fallen. This is not normal for the area and, while it's possible that Aunt B just forgot to mention it, I highly doubted that. She's just too sharp and I suspected that she'd opted to keep the snow a surprise. I smiled.

I've always loved being outside at night in the snow. The snow absorbs so much sound and everyone's asleep, so it almost feels like you're the only person on earth. There's a

quiet

so thick that you can feel it. I stared straight up, the gently falling flakes lit by the yellow-white glow of the lamp post nearby. It was hypnotic and I closed my eyes for a moment to just listen. I could almost hear the silent hiss of the flakes as they gently fell to my feet.

It was also, however, quite chilly. While it wasn't the bone-soaking wet cold that seems to just seep into you no matter what you wear, I didn't have a heavy winter coat on. Why? Well, for one thing, I had made assumptions about the weather based on previous experience, and two, I was trying to travel light. Before you judge, remember: my traveling light was what let me escape that airline nightmare back in Denver.

I shivered, which yanked me from my reverie, and turned to face the house. It's a large, Craftsman affair that my uncle had custom-built a couple of years before he met Aunt B. All of the windows were dark eyes staring down at me, as if to say, "Welcome back." The snow was crunching and squeaking as I made my way toward a dark SUV parked in front of the garage. I assumed it was Aunt Carol's rental and was just getting close when a motion detector spotlight above the garage door snapped on, flooding me with bright light and temporarily blinding me. That was new!

I covered my eyes and quickly made my way around the corner of the house, pausing once I was back in relative darkness and blinking the painful purple after-images away. Once I was relatively certain I wasn't permanently blind, I continued on the walkway and cautiously made my way down the icy steps to the sunken rear of the house. The land had been terraced so that the first level of the house was even with the drive, but the rear of the house was down a level, creating a walkout basement. A deck stuck out from the first level over this area creating a covered patio outside the basement entryway. Stone supports ran the perimeter of the deck above. I transitioned to the concrete patio and quietly knocked the snow from my damp shoes.

I stepped over to the hot tub and picked up the inverted clay pot that was sitting on the cover pad. Underneath was a key. I slipped it into my pocket and set the pot down on the concrete. Curious, I lifted the corner of the hot tub cover. A cloud of steam wafted out as an acrid wave of warmth hit my face. I dipped my fingers in to test the temperature and definitively decided that I was going to be sitting in here one of these evenings. With a sigh, I replaced the cover and grabbed the pot. I made my way over to the staircase and looked up at the kitchen window as I put the pot on the step. I hoped the continual snowfall wouldn't completely bury it because I was looking forward to surprising everyone in the morning.

Making my way back to the basement door, I pulled the key from my pocket and gently slipped it into the latch. This would be the true test: would I be able to get in without Trixie, their extremely smart but also extremely loud miniature poodle, hearing me? I eased open the door and slipped into the house, gently pushing the door closed behind me with a quiet click. I stood stock still, my ears perked, listening for the characteristic yips and barks echoing down the staircase. I was met with nothing more than the quiet hum of the small fridge under the minibar in the corner. Success!

As I removed my shoes, I took a moment to take stock of the room. And while you'd think the visuals would be the first thing I registered, it was strangely the smell. As I inhaled, it immediately triggered memories from my childhood. And although I'd never actually lived here, it just felt like

home

. I smiled as a sense of calm washed over me. God, it was good to be back!

Taking off my jacket, I looked around me. Aunt B (I assume) had turned on the pendant light over the minibar in the northwest corner so that I'd have something to see by. The room had been designed to be a home theater and I knew from experience that if there was no light on in the room, it was pitch black. It must have been on a dimmer switch because the light was soft and low. The south wall I'd just come through and the opposite with the staircase going upstairs were still modeled after a movie theater, with thick purple curtains framing alcoves. Each alcove had a framed movie poster: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, and Star Wars were my favorites. A large bookcase lined the west wall between the minibar and the door to the bathroom.

The layout was as I remembered, but there were a few notable changes. The old television and coffee table that used to be up against the east wall had been replaced by an enormous flatscreen with a modern-looking cabinet underneath. A PS5 controller sat haphazardly on the top. Facing the television was a graphite U-shaped sectional that looked incredibly comfortable and inviting. A pillow and blanket had been neatly stacked on the back headrest. In the southwest corner to my left was a low table with some sort of Lego tower structure rising from a pile of loose bricks like Botticelli's Birth of Venus.