Heartbeat by Iem_Aivlis

I heard Abigail's footsteps coming from behind me.

"Come on Mom, let's go. What is it, Mom?" Said Abigail who was standing beside me, pointing towards the floor of the terrace of this house.

What's in this gift box? Who actually sent this gift box? Abigail began to take the gift. She put it on the living room table. Abigail began to pull at the ribbon tied around the top of her gift. After the ribbon was removed Abigail started to touch the top of the gift cover. She opened it and saw a thin white paper covered on top. This looks like the tissue paper that was in Abigail's shoe box earlier. What's behind this tissue paper?

I heard footsteps approaching.

"Hey, are you guys ready?" Aunt Jane's voice was heard.

"Wow, whose Christmas present is this?" Aunt Jane's daughter asked as she entered the living room.

"So what's in your Christmas present this year?" Aunt Jane asked as she sat down beside me.

Every year we always get a mysterious Christmas present. More precisely, the Christmas present was for Abigail. Because every year the sender always sends different contents and all the contents of the gift can only be used by Abigail. That person always puts that mysterious gift in front of my door. Without leaving any message on the mysterious gift. Until now I still can't find the sender's identity and I don't know what his purpose is either. Aunt Jane once asked me, is it possible that one of my friends sent those mysterious gifts? And I can't think of a single person who might do that, because I don't have any good friends other than Katty. Maybe that person is a good person who likes to give Christmas presents to children. Maybe he is a Santa Claus.

"Wow, that's great." Abigail carried the backpack that contained the gift.



The backpack is ivory white. There are two small pockets on the front of the backpack and two more small pockets on the left and right sides of the bag. The bag is very beautiful because it is knitted with floral motifs on each pocket. Even two stalks of flowers were embroidered on the backpack's flap. Red and yellow are the colors of the flowers on the bag and green is also embroidered into the shape of leaves and flower stems. I'm sure this bag must be very expensive. I suspect that the identity of the person who sent all those mysterious gifts is a very rich person.

"And these are my Christmas and birthday presents," said Aunt Jane's daughter as she handed Abigail two presents.

Abigail accepted it and immediately pulled the hand of the gift giver to make her bow slightly, then kissed her cheek.

"Thank you, the most beautiful Aunt Katty." He said to Katty.

Katty is Aunt Jane's daughter who has been my best friend since Aunt Jane brought me to her house. For me they are my family.

"Let's go now. We'll be late for church," Aunt Jane reminded.

Abigail immediately ran to the bedroom to put down her backpack. I reached for my bag which was on the table. Then I put on my light brown coat. When Abigail came out of the room she was seen wearing her cream colored coat. Even though the weather is sunny, the air still feels cold in December. I immediately locked the door from the outside after we were all on the front porch. We started walking down the street. It looks like a pic-kup truck is going to enter this road. This road is quite narrow, but still passable by one car. We started to take the road to the side to let the pick-up truck pass first. The car stopped next to our house. It looks like there will be a new resident next to our house. So, the house that has only been empty for a few weeks is right to the left of our house. Meanwhile, Aunt Jane's house is located on the right side of our house.

"It seems like he's the new owner of the house." Katty's voice made me turn to her.

"It looks like he's going to be occupying the empty house tonight, if you look at the large number of goods being transported." Aunt Jane added to her daughter's words.

"Maybe they are a newlywed couple," I said to the two of them.

Usually, only small families occupy small houses like ours. The house just went up for sale a few weeks ago. The previous owners were an elderly couple who lived alone. I have had several conversations with the old couple who previously lived in the house.

They said that their two children were already married so they each had their own lives outside the city. Maybe one of their children brought them to live with them.

"Come on, hurry up Emily!" Aunt Jane called me after we reached the front of the road.

It turned out that Abigail and Katty had already gotten into the taxi that Katty had ordered earlier. I quickened my pace, then I got into the taxi. Aunt Jane sat next to the driver, while I sat in the back with Katty and my daughter. We started to enter the building which is one of the largest churches in the city. Many people have already filled this room. We even had trouble finding an empty place.Finally, Abigail and I sat in the right row.While Aunt Jane and Katty are on the left. We had to split up because there were only two empty chairs on each side of the room. Several people started walking into the room from the front. One of them who I believed to be a priest started to stand in the middle. I started to take out the two Bibles that I had brought from home earlier. I gave a bible to my daughter.Before the event started, the pastor spoke through the microphone to invite us all to pray together. Everyone in the room started to clasp their palms together and then closed their eyes. We started praying together.

***

"You guys go home first. I have a gathering with my friends at their house." Aunt Jane said after we were outside the building.

Aunt Jane left with her friends who were waiting outside the church. Now it's just me, Katty and Abigai. When we walked out of the church yard, there was a man standing leaning against a wall. The man closed his eyes perhaps because the sunlight was falling right on his face, so it might have dazzled his eyes. The man looked as usual. He wore an iron chain necklace around his neck. And today he was wearing a dark brown leather jacket that was not buttoned so that the black T-shirt he was wearing underneath the leather jacket was visible. He styled his curly hair in messy waves.



Katty started to glance at me. Then with a smile Katty asked me.

"You don't mind if I leave you two here, right?" Katty asked, occasionally looking at Abigail.

Hearing Katty's voice, the man's eyes suddenly opened. He started walking towards the three of us.

"It's okay, go!" I pushed her to the young man who I knew was her boyfriend.

"Hi, Emily. And hi, Bie. Merry Christmas." The man greeted us.

"Hi. Merry Christmas." I said to Katty's lover.

"Merry Christmas, Uncle Ton." It was Abigail's voice.

"We'll go now, okay?" Katty said goodbye to us.

After Katty left with her boyfriend, Abigail and I stopped by a cafe to buy drinks. Earlier I wanted to immediately look for a taxi to go home, but my daughter said that she was very thirsty. When entering this cafe The song 'Jingle bell' is played melodiously in this room and everything related to Christmas can be seen decorating every corner of the cafe. There is a medium-sized Christmas tree placed near the entrance. There is a wooden chair placed next to the Christmas tree. Maybe they deliberately provided a place for that for visitors who want to take pictures with a Christmas theme. My daughter and I started walking towards the cashier to order drinks. Usually customers have to pay first after finishing ordering food or drinks. After completing the payment, the cafe waiter will call the customer number listed on the payment receipt.

"Merry Christmas. What do you want, ma'am?" Greet the cafe cashier after we faced each other.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas. I'd like a latte and a hot chocolate." I said to this male cashier.

I ordered a hot drink because it looked like it was going to snow.

"Drink here or take away?" This man asked while typing something on the monitor screen on this table.

"Just take away." I answered while paying.

It didn't take long, the number on my payment slip was mentioned by a cafe employee. I took a plastic bag containing two drinks to get out of this room. But I didn't find Abigail. I examined every corner of this room, it turned out that my daughter was already sitting in one of the chairs.

"Let's go home!" I said to my daughter.

"I want to drink here, Mom." Abigail immediately took the plastic bag that was still in my hand.

She took out two cups of drink and then placed them on the table. She deftly stuck the straw into the lid of her drink. I forgot that my daughter was thirsty. I pulled up a chair to sit with my daughter. Suddenly a man pulled up another chair and started to join us.

"Can I join you guys?" A man's voice was heard asking.

I looked to see who was sitting with us. I thought maybe this guy couldn't find an empty seat so he was forced to sit with us. 

"Uncle, Christ?" Abigail screeched as if surprised by his presence.

*Continued*