Farewell

At the party, the guests enjoyed meeting with Mr. Horus and his family. He also mentioned that he had to do the gathering on Christmas Eve as he would be leaving for Hong Kong the day after Christmas. So, he said that he would have limited time to prepare for his flight if the gathering was held on Christmas Day. Towards the end of the party, Mr. Horus invited all the guests to gather around the Christmas tree to hand out the gifts placed around the tree. The party ended with the countdown for Christmas Day and wishing each other "Merry Christmas".

Before leaving, at the entrance door, Mr. Horus and his family prepared some goodies and gave it to all of the guests as a token of appreciation for attending the party. Most of the guests invited Mr. Horus and his family for Christmas and Mr. Horus said if he had time the next day he would love to join them. Mr. Summer and his family were the last to leave the party as both of the families chatted longer than they expected. Before leaving, they also invited Mr. Horus to their house and he promised he would go there tomorrow. Oriana and Eleo exchanged smiles before they parted. After all the guests left, the servants started to clean up the main hall while Mr. Horus and his family went to sleep. They were exhausted by welcoming and socializing with the guests.

The next morning, Adrian ran towards the Christmas tree for more gifts from Santa Clause. Mr. and Mrs. Horus placed their gifts there for both Eleo and Adrian. Eleo also placed a gift for Adrian, he printed a picture of them as a family from last night's gathering and framed it as a gift. Mr. Horus asked them to unwrap the gifts at night as after breakfast they would visit some of his friends' houses. Mr. Horus went to some of his business investors' and clients' houses as they invited him formally. At each of their house, Mr. Horus spent around thirty minutes and they moved to another house. Lastly, they went to Oriana's house and it was already dinner time. Mr. Summer invited Mr. Horus and his family to have dinner together. They agreed and both families sat in the dining hall.

While eating, Mr. Horus and Mr. Summer had a small conversation where Mr. Horus told that he would leave Eleo under his aunt and uncle's care while they were in Hong Kong. He also added that he had some favor to ask from Mr. Summer. He requested Mr. Summer to take care of Eleo if he was in any trouble even though Eleo was under his aunt and uncle's care. Mr. Summer patted Mr. Horus's shoulder and agreed to his friend's request. Others remained silent and ate their food quietly. Oriana noticed Eleo's family members' faces turned gloomy when Mr. Horus mentioned his favor to her father.

Meanwhile, one of the servants was serving some cookies when her hands accidentally knocked the end of the chair and the cookies almost fell down. In a flash, Oriana stood up to catch those cookies. All of them were taken aback by her action and then Oriana realized she was tiptoeing with one of her feet while another foot was in the air. She managed to catch the cookies from across the table while doing that action. Her mother couldn't hold and burst into laughter. Looking at Mrs. Summer's laugh, others started to laugh as well. Oriana shyly placed that cookie in her mouth and sat back while munching it. The mood of the environment changed because of Oriana and they felt delighted about it.

Since Mr. Horus had a flight early in the morning, they had to leave Oriana's house after chit-chatting for a while. Upon arriving at the house, they went to their room to change their clothes and they gathered at the hall to open the gifts they received. Adrian impatiently started to unwrap the gifts one by one. He overjoyed when opened a gift from Oriana and it was his favorite cartoon character in a plushie.

He said, "Tonight I'm going to sleep with this plushie," and continued to unwrap other gifts.

At the same time, Eleo also opened his gifts and it was from his parents.

It was the latest PlayStation model set for him. Mrs. Horus sat beside Eleo and said, "We know you are not addicted to games but we want to give the best to you, Eleo. This is for all the hard work you put in your studies."

Mr. Horus walked beside them and stated that, "Remember son, efforts and hard work constructs the bridge that connects your dreams to reality, " while caressing Eleo's hair and his mom hugged him.

All of them sat on the sofa near the chimney while watching the twinkling lights on the Christmas tree. Adrian was sleepy and dozed off while in his father's hold.

Mr. Horus apologized, "I'm sorry, Eleo for spending less time with you. After I return from Hong Kong, I will compensate you."

Eleo just snuggled in between both his parents' hugs and felt the warmth that he yearned for a long time. The following day in the early morning, Mrs. Horus woke Eleo up and asked him to come downstairs. He saw his father holding Adrian who was still asleep with his new plushie and the servants putting all the luggage in the car. They had farewell hugs and kisses. Then, Eleo took a glance at the table in the hall, the photo frame he gifted Adrian was placed there. He gave that frame to his mother so that she can bring it to Hong Kong. Later, the car left. Even after they left, Eleo was still standing at the door looking at the empty road where the car was a few minutes before that. One of the servants advised him to go to his room and get some rest.

Upon arriving in his room, Eleo clicked his remote to slide open his ceiling. He saw a clear sky and lied on his bed while blankly staring at the sky. Suddenly something looking like an airplane flew over the sky leaving a white line across the sky, tears started to run down his face, and his heart felt heavy. He was tempted to give them a call but he knew that it would take more than a day for his family to reach Hong Kong, thus he intended to wait patiently for them to contact him first.