It was one hell of a cold day in December, ten days before Christmas. I sat motionless in a bathtub full of bubbles relaxing, enjoying every precious moment of Winter Break. I sat in there staring at one of the tiles on the wall that was cemented weirdly; then I was daydreaming of when the snow would fall, and hoping that it would fall tonight, so then I could go skiing the next day. My mind scurried into reality as the phone suddenly rang, and my sweet thoughts were washed away. When the phone would ring, I would usually run frantically, and answer it hoping that it was my cousin wanting to come over and play . Vaguely, I recall hearing my mom saying right outside of the door, “Wow, you’re actually coming back?” I was slightly curious about the conversation, so I quickly dried off and put on my casual wear for the morning. Creeping on another phone I quickly placed my hand over the microphone so I wouldn’t spoil the conversation between my mom and the mysterious person. I then pressed the call button hoping no one would suspect anything over the phone.

“Hey, has he been a good boy this year? Does he deserve any presents this year?” This high pitched voice suddenly swam into my ear.
I wondered if this was possible. Could it really be true? The emotions in my mind jumped with excitement as I easily realized that the high pitched voice was my cousin from Germany, who I haven’t seen since Chinese New Year, five years ago. My cousin was always fun, loving and playful. I remember going to the park with the big blue sparkling lake with the giant ugly geese; watching and feeding them bread around one of the corners of the pond. I immediately remembered the fact that I needed to talk to my cousin before she hung up. I needed to devise a plan to get off of the phone, but without anyone in the conversation noticing that I was actually listening, because my mom always thought that was rude and would ground me for a week. I then wandered into the living room, wondering if my mom had found out that I was an unexpected third listener to their conversation. When I saw that bloody, twisted smile and that red face I was shocked, I knew I was going to get grounded.
“Mom who’s on the phone,” I whispered into her other ear as I tugged on her shirt.
“It’s your cousin Fong; do you want to talk to her?” my mom whispered back. (I wondered to myself why she even needed to say that when she knows that she’s one of my favorite cousins.)
“Really, Fong’s on the phone?,” even though I already knew.
“Hello!” I exclaimed
“Hey how ya doin bud?” said Fong
“Just taking advantage of Winter Break” I said.
“Guess what,” Fong said in an excited fashion.
“You’re coming for Christmas this year,” I yelled.
“Wow, how did you know,” she said.
“Lucky Guess,” I said.
“Well, see you soon; I heard you’ve been a good boy this year,” Fong said.
It was true, I was a good boy this year dash only compared to the previous years when I would argue and disobey everything my parents told me. I then turned off the phone and placed it in its charging place.
Tugging on my mom’s shirt again I asked, “When is Fong coming?”
“In four days, so you better clean up the guest room,” she said.
I totally forgot about the guest room. We use the guest room as a workplace, a room to do homework and to practice my cello. I ran up to the room, but saw a mess with paper clippings shattered everywhere, the bed messed up and my cello on the ground with my cello accessories scattered around the room. My first reaction was to clean the room and not procrastinate at the last minute. I swiped the paper clippings off of the hardwood floor, and also hung up my cello on a cello stand. The room looked tidy and clean after three hours of hard work.
Four Days Later
It was a blizzard on that day when Fong was supposed to depart from Frankfurt. The white chunks of snow just kept on falling, and when it reached the point where most flights were canceled I gave in to the fact that Fong’s flight was going to be canceled as well. There was no hope left. The vicious snowstorm just didn’t want to stop and Christmas with Fong would have to wait til another year.