Christmas at Volt

Chapter 2

After Anita had brought Timothy to his bed, she decided to help Mildred in the kitchen. The men would be ready with the dirty dishes now and it was time for the grownups to have their fun. Once she walked into the kitchen, she heard Mildred and Melissa talking to each other.

"I'm alright, Mum. If you could just make some ginger tea, my stomach would be thanking you."

Anita smiled a bit. Even though her children were all grown up, Mildred couldn't stop worrying about them. That afternoon, Melissa felt a lot better again and even ate something too. "Why don't you go to the living room, Melissa? Your mother and I will finish things here."

Melissa gave her a smile and nodded. "Alright, I'll make sure everyone is ready for their gifts." and with that, she walked away.

Anita looked to Mildred. On the tray were a few cups of hot chocolate and some Christmas cookies. "Is everything ready?"

"You can take the tray with you, I'll take Melissa's tea in a moment."

Anita nodded, grabbed the tray and walked towards the living room. Arthur was talking to Victor about New Year's Eve. Victor and Anita wanted to stay at home that year and family and friends were welcome to join them.

After she placed the tray onto the coffee table, Anita sat down next to Alicia on the couch. Alicia had been playing with her communicator the whole afternoon. Come to think of it, it had been the last few weeks that Alicia had been easily distracted by that thing.

Suddenly, Anita figured out why Alicia was paying so much attention to the communicator. "So, new boyfriend?"

Alicia gave her a sheepish smile. "Something like that…" When she saw Anita's surprised look, she typed something into her communicator and showed Anita a picture. "I've been talking to her now for some time. She's really amazing and I think I love her."

Anita looked to the picture on the screen. There was a lady smiling back at her, standing on the beach. She had pitch black long hair, emerald green eyes and she was wearing a summer dress which showed her perfect curves. "She looks like a model, are you sure she's real?"

"Sure as I can be. She's in fact actually an IT person. She's extremely geeky… I think she and Victor might get along."

"That's not what I asked." Anita looked into Alicia's eyes. "Are you sure she's real? Not somebody just playing with your feelings?"

"We video chat once in a while. I hoped to bring her this Christmas along, but she already had this trip planned. And she wanted to take it slow."

Before Anita could say anything else, Mildred walked into the room. "So, it's time for our gifts now." she said with a big smile. Mildred gave Melissa a cup of tea and walked towards the Christmas tree were there were a few gifts left. "This one is for Alicia."

Alicia looked up and took the gift from Mildred. "Thank you." she smiled and opened the gift. For a moment, Alicia was surprised, but couldn't help laughing. "Why is there a toy sword in it?"

Anita smiled. "It is because you always love to play with Timmy and because you love your swords, we figured it would be funny to give you a toy sword as well."

Alicia laughed and she gave Anita a hug. "I love it." she said while she stood up. It was a small tradition, the one who got a gift, would get the gift for the next person.

It was a small gift which was meant for Anita. "Here you go, sis."

Anita smiled and opened it. It was a necklace with a small amethyst pendant attached to it. She looked to Victor and smiled. "Thank you, it's lovely."

In her turn, Anita grabbed a small package which was addressed for Mildred. "It looks like this one is meant for you."

Mildred opened the small gift and laughed. "What did I do to deserve this, Arthur?" She showed the cookbook which was inside the wrapper. It was a cookbook about cakes and pies.

"So you will make something different once in a while." said Arthur with a big smile. He got used to the mustard cakes, but it was all Mildred would make.

Mildred shook her head and grabbed a gift for Victor. "I hope you got something better."

Victor chuckled and opened the gift. It had two envelopes. One for him and Anita and the other was addressed to Mildred. "Okay, this is something new." he said, sounded very surprised. He gave the other envelope to Mildred and opened the one addressed to him. Inside was a black and white picture.

Anita stood up and looked at the picture, then at Melissa. "I believe this is your handwriting." she said with a smile.

Victor gave her a surprised look. "Do you know what this is?"

Anita nodded and she walked towards Melissa. "I think it's a wonderful gift." she said with a big smile and gave Melissa a hug.

Melissa smiled and she looked to her mother. "So, what do you think?"

"When…"

"In about twenty seven weeks, or something like that."

Alicia and Arthur looked at each other, feeling a little bit left out in this secret thing. "What's going on?" Arthur finally asked and Anita showed him and Alicia the picture. It didn't take him long to understand what was going on. "Are you two expecting again?" he asked Melissa and Richard.

The couple nodded and Arthur smiled. "That's certainly great news! Congratulations."

After Arthur had said it, Victor stood up from the chair and shook Richard's hand. "Indeed, congrats."

Richard smiled and he looked to Melissa. "We have talked about trying to get pregnant once again and it didn't take long. For now, everything seems in order."

"Apart from the morning sickness, that is." said Melissa before Richard could finish his sentence. "But you are right, everything seems to be alright with this small one. In just seven months, we hopefully have a new member in this family." she added with a big smile.

Richard stood up from his place and walked to the tree. "Well, there are some gifts left. We'll talk about the pregnancy later tonight."

And with that, the rest of the presents were being opened. But it already was the most magical Christmas of all…