Home Coming 

The day of your arrival had come, we'd been waiting for it for so long.  Had it been more than 15 years, since your last visit?

One day, you called to ask if you could come to our house and stay with us, my mom said, 'of course,' you said, 'maybe this Christmas.'

My mom said, 'come, whenever you feel like it, you are always welcome.'

You always stayed with us whenever you came home from wherever you had been working abroad.  I grew up, with you always had been with us. Yet, as a courtesy to my mom, you still asked, even if you knew what the answer would  be to your request.

My mom and I were glad to hear that you were coming home at last, after all these years being away from home. You made a life in Canada with your family, but you always dreamed of coming home to visit your birth place.  We were already thinking of your favorite foods we would be preparing for you, just like the old days, when you'd come home from your trips. We were already planning that you'd be staying in my mom's room, because that was where the aircondition was located,  knowing you came from a very cold place you'd be feeling too warm, and that mom would be sleeping in my room. You'd only seen the old house, but not this new house we currently had been living in. We're so happy for you to finally see it.

We told relatives, that you had a plan to come home for a visit this Christmas, and everyone was joyful to hear the news, and planned to come over to meet with you, even planned to have a party for your home coming. Everybody was thinking of a big celebration, a big get together.

The telephone was busy, with all the communications being exchanged. 

Sigh.

But, alas, the home coming we were all thinking off was not what happened, and the get together was not a celebration. 

Your ride home was not easy, due to the holiday season, it was not easy to get a booking for a flight. It was late in the year, Dec. 29, that a flight could be booked for you and your family could come home together. 

Plans were made to meet you and your family at the airport, but the vehicles available for us to use could not be used on that very day of your arrival, due to color coding implemented by the government. So we opted to have other people meet you and your family instead, and we would be travelling ahead of you by a few hours to the province. A six hours ride, just to see you, and be with you. 

There will not be a stopover for you to our house, your home, but instead, would be travelling straight to the province. 

I wanted to see your smile, and hear your laughter.

Thought, would I receive a hug or a kiss, or would you put your hand on my head or would you stll be ruffling my hair?

I wanted to see you with your luggage coming through our doorway. 

I should had been happy, yet now I dreaded the day of your home coming.   I knew, you were coming home to rest, after all the traveling you had done your whole life. I wanted so much to see you, now . . I was afraid, to take that peek at you. Afraid, of what I might see. 

Sigh.

There were seven of us in the vehicle, my mom, an aunt, who flew from a province just to be with us, another aunt, who came from the United States just happened to visit the country for her vacation, my cousin, my real older sister, my uncle, a cousin of my mom, drove for us, and me. 

Often times, when I took a trip to our province, I took naps because of the long trip and I suffer with motion sickness even if I had drank a medication for it, but this time I was not sleepy at all, I was wide awake. Though I did drink my medication, but this time, I did not feel any motion sickness one little bit. 

After the long drive, we arrived safely, and, uncle and his family were not yet there, as expected.  We were told beforehand that a whole house was reserved for us to stay, a neighbor was kind enough to offer the use of their house, which was not occupied, because they were currently living in their second house somewhere else.  My mom was too tired after the long trip to climb up the stairs and stayed by the vehicle, so I went up to the house of my uncle's mother-in-law,  to say my respects, greetings, and to say we just arrived.  She told me that the house just across from their house was ready for occupancy.  I said my appreciation and said I should be heading to the other house to help in carrying our things. She went with me to the other house, even though she had a hard time walking because of her operations on both of her knees. 

We entered the house, and there were people there who had food on the table ready for us. She arranged someone to cater the food for us, and the other relatives, who were also coming.  But, we already had our lunch along the way, because it was already late in the afternoon when we arrived.  I saw no one was eating in the dining area, and the food were left untouched. I could hear voices, thinking it was coming from a bedroom somewhere, probably my mom and my relatives, I said my excuses to my uncle's mother-in-law, and went to check it out. 

In few occasions in the past, I had been inside the house, but only in the living room, dining area and the kitchen, it was my first time to go to the bedrooms, there were two bedrooms I saw as I passedby following the voices, they were at the end of the small hallway. There was a bathroom in my left before I reached the room at the end of the hallway, and also a stairway going to the basement next to the bedroom door. 

I opened the door, and my mom and female relatives were sitting there on the bed chatting. I waited for a few minutes, then I told them that uncle's mother-in-law was in the living room and came down with me.  I went out to talk with her, but when I got there she was not there anymore, and so were the caterer.  Maybe, she thought we were not coming out, I was sorry to her. I went back to the bedroom and lay down on the bed with my mom and my two aunts.  The others probably went to the other bedrooms.  But I remembered, we still hadn't brought our laugage down from the vehicle. So I sat up and then stood up and went out of the room to go and get the bags, I saw my cousin and sister carrying things, so I helped them.

After we brought all our things inside the house, I went out to explore a bit, walked up the street where there were a few people there, probably also waiting for my uncle. I saw a tent set up on the side with tables and chairs, as I came closer I saw through the door that the place was already prepared. 

I said my greetings to the people I met, there were relatives, neighbors, and friends of both sides of the families. A gathering, and soon, many more will be coming. 

I went back to the house to drink some water, after drinking I went to the bedroom and told my mom that I went out and found relatives were up there waiting.  She told me to go get them and ask them to come down to the house to eat. So, I left again to invite our relatives to the house we were in. At first they did not want to come, but after awhile they agreed to come down with me. 

When we entered the house my mom and  the relatives who were with us were there waiting for them, each one hugged my mom and aunt from the USA, and introductions were made for my aunt from the province.  I left them and went to the bedroom to get some candies from my bag. My cousin and sister were busy in the dining area and going back and forth from the other house.

When I came out from the room, I saw my aunt, my uncle's wife in the dining room, I guess they had arrived, I went to her and hugged her. She said my cousin was upstairs in the other house and soon will be coming down. She said uncle will follow soon, there were some delays. My aunt turned  to our relatives in the living room to chat with them. Not long after, I heard some noise coming from the front door, I went to look and my cousin was there, I went out and gave her a tight hug. When I let go of her and looked at her face, she looked tired and haggard from their long flight. I asked her if she was alright,  with her head bowed a little and without saying a word, she shook her head a tiny bit and from her facial expression that I saw, which meant to say, 'not really'. I gave her a pat on the back before I ushered her inside the house, and relatives greeted her and she greeted them back. 

She brought her dad's laptop, and she said she had tons of pictures in it. I told her to open it and show it as slides to our relatives. 

I told everyone that there were pictures that they could view, and my cousin proceeded to open and prepared the laptop to show the pictures. Everyone took a seat, and prepared to watch the slides of pictures. Everyone was quiet. And, when the slides started, my cousin also told things about each picture she remembered, when it was taken or where they were at the time. Curiosity was killing all of us, and we all can't help ourselves. It was pinching our hearts, but  we were all willing to take it. 

Just in time we finished all the pictures, someone said, uncle was on his way.  

I thought, I heard one deep breath from everyone.

We all prepared to go out of the house one by one, I was with my mom to help her up the road. We all slowly walked towards where we all would be waiting for him. Finally, we would see him at last.  We were standing by the doorway, the others went inside to wait for him.