Chapter 1:6: Winterfest

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Nacho: meow!
Stuart: (yawning) okay, okay I'm awake, you see?

Even today, although I could have slept all day long, this feline decided to wake me up at dawn. Sometimes I just don't understand him...

Why am I not at work today, you may be wondering? Well, it's Winterfest. Not even I would go to work on a day like this, obviously. Actually, I don't have any real plan for the day, I was thinking of just taking a look at the data I  collected yesterday during that measurement on the...

Knock knock!

Surprised, I turned to the door. I wasn't waiting for anyone, who could it be?

Sylvia: Hi, Stuart!

Stuart: (puzzled) Sylvia?

Sylvia: I went to see how Nacho is doing. You're treating him well, aren't you?

Stuart: You can judge it by yourself, here he comes.

While she picked up Nacho and cuddled him, I took a few moments for reasoning, I needed to understand the situation. 

Usually people spend Winterfest with their family, don't they? Why did she come to my place then? Did she, just like me, have no one else to celebrate with?

Stuart: If you don't have any other plans, you can remain here. I mean, if you want to...

Sylvia: well, why not!

Sylvia seemed to have quite clear ideas about how she wanted to spend her day, and she immediately decided to decorate the kitchen with a large garland ("I was sure you hadn't put on any decoration!", she commented). Nacho seems to like it too, don't you agree, my dear diary?

Stuart: So, what do you think about it? Is the garland okay there?

Sylvia: Yes, the atmosphere has already improved a lot, don't you agree?

Sylvia: Well, I also brought a bit of roasted ham, I cooked it yesterday. I always had it at Winterfest when I was a kid, so...

Stuart: (impressed) seriously? Probably it took forever to cook it!

Sylvia: but it's Winterfest! Didn't your family do that?

Stuart: (vague) ... well... It wasn't really our style.

Sylvia: (cautiously) you never talk about your family... Are you on bad terms or something like that?

Stuart: Always straight to the point, huh?

Sylvia: I was told so.

Stuart: Well, there isn't much to say. I'm an only child, and my parents divorced when I was a kid. We haven't celebrated together since when I went to college. Not that we cared much before, anyway.

Sylvia: ... I see...

Stuart: (cautious) what about you instead?

Sylvia: well, it's a quite similar story, after all.

I thought about it for a moment. I had never seriously celebrated that holiday, to the point that I always ended ignoring it altogether. But she seemed to really care instead, she had even cooked that roasted ham! Most likely, the thought of celebrating that day alone made her sad...

Stuart: Well, during Winterfest people exchange gifts, don't they?

So we spent the afternoon singing holiday songs and exchanging gifts. Singing Jingle Bells out loud made me feel stupid as never before but, all in all, it was also funny. And, above all, Sylvia seemed much happier than she was that morning.

Stuart: Probably it was a quite unconventional Winterfest, but it was quite funny, wasn't it?

Sylvia: Yeah, that's true...

She hesitated a moment longer, before hugging me tightly and adding:

Sylvia: (whispering) thank you.

I already wrote that when I'm around her I just lose my train of thought, didn't I? Well, at that moment I simply couldn't compute anything anymore. And I just...

This morning I certainly didn't expect the day to turn out like this. Winterfest is not so bad, after all... Don't you agree, my dear diary?

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