No presents till the 25th

Josh definitely laughed at that sarcastic statement Pete made. Mom just smiled. Everyone's used to these two. Iyvonne and Pete are one kind of rivals you can't separate when they are fighting. So we allow it to subsidize before intervening.

Iyvonne looked provoked by Pete's dragonistic words.

“Dad can cook well,Mr Marshalls can cook, uncle Gabriel can cook, old Mr Winters can cook. Pete you are the only little man I have ever seen that can't cook anything, not even hot water without pouring it on people. You rather drag food with me forgetting that it's ladies and then gentlemen.”

“Absolutely!” Grandpa nodded, supporting Iyvonne.

“Daaad!” Mom whispered in a bid to stop him from adding fuel to fire.

Pete wanted to outsmart Iyv by eating the pasta in their grip but Iyv caught his hand midway and shoved the fork back into the plate. She glared at Pete,her long lashes flipping over like a hand fan.

“Ok ok kids, please let's not start this again. This is Christmas and you both just returned. Don't worry Iyvy,I will prepare your favorite ok. Just find some snacks in the refrigerator and manage.” Mom said, but neither Iyvonne nor Pete were ready to let go of the plate.

“But mom……..” Iyvonne wanted to protest more before the thunderbolt came.

“For goodness sake!”   That was aunt Carolyn.

She stopped googling with her phone and faced the duo. Her eyes wide open in anger. She really looked like a wizard with the pleasure of her red long hair. 

“What is always wrong with the both of you. Have you two gone university nuts? Why are you trying to ruin the environment huh! Look at you Pete. A grown up man with soon to come out beards striving for a plate of pasta with your sister. A food!” She yelled in anger.

The whole living room was as quiet as a cemetery. I chuckled on grandpa's body that I clung to. 

Iyvonne who was claiming all right before was now so quiet. Pete was just mopping from Aunt Carolyn to Iyvonne with a nasty smile on the corner of his lips. He wouldn't ignore a chance to scoop a fork full of pasta into his mouth.

Iyvonne's lips were pouted like a baby being rebuked for spilling her mom's bucket of milk.

“ You two want to give me high blood pressure eh! And you Iyvonne,stop being naughty,I don't like it. You are growing up and should allow your brains to grow with you. Now Pete give her that pasta now.” 

Pete didn't act grungy. He simply smiled and handed the plate over to Iyv.

Well we all realized what has gone wrong. The pasta in the plate was not any bigger than three forks.

He smiled and came over to sit beside mom on the couch.

Iyv's face was like one that was getting ready to cry. She stomped her feet all the way to the kitchen and came back empty handed. She picked up her iPhone and stomped upstairs.

Mom gave Pete a warning look and he smiled, revealing a dimple on his left cheek.

He relaxed on the couch and looked around. 

“I have really missed home so much.” He said and winked at me.

I got the message. I really got it. 

Mom once said that I and Pete communicate with telepathy sometimes.

Yeah!

I kind of agreed.

We understand ourselves. His wink just now meant that I had stories to tell and listen to. 

I got off grandpa's body and snuggled onto Pete's body. He was whispering into my ears. We all were engrossed in our different businesses. Aunt Carolyn was typing away on her phone, grandpa was reading his newspaper, mom was going through a food recipe magazine and I and Pete were whispering to ourselves. 

We were having a grand moment until Josh came up with his childish crazy question that threw us all off guard.

Josh was a kind of kid that loved racking his brain and finding answers to his questions all the time.

Sometimes I even dodged two or three minutes with him because I knew that I must answer a question.

Uncle Gabriel called it kids tantrums but dad thought otherwise. He often said that Josh would make a great researcher,inventor or a philosopher.

His question went like this,

“Mom, how many brain do I have?” 

Mom laughed. “Of course there is one sweetie.”

“Our teacher said that when I add ‘s’ to a certain single word like cup it will become plural.”

Mom nodded. “Yeah! Your teacher is right.” She replied without knowing where Josh was heading to.

Josh became quiet for a second. His brow furrowed. I knew he was probably thinking of something.

“ But she just said that Iyvonne has brains, meaning that she has more than one brain.”

“Who said that?” Mom asked.

 We all pecked up our ears eager to get the message.

“Aunt Carolyn did.” Josh said and silence befell us.

I saw Iyvonne stop dead on her track on the stairs. Grandpa closed his papers and pulled down his glasses to his nose region.

Pete and I exchanged glances and turned to look at aunt Carolyn.

Mom's mouth was partly pathed in surprise. 

Iyvonne's brow was furrowed up where she stood. 

What a blunder!

Aunt Carolyn's face was pitch black and white or should I say red. I was not sure of the color I was seeing. She gasped.

“ Ridiculous!” She fumed. She picked up her phone and went upstairs.

I guess she was embarrassed.

The English was not well spoken. Josh, ignorant of the air in the room, asked grandpa.

“Grandpa, what did you get for me?” 

“All presents will be opened only on Christmas day. For now,I have to rest. It was really a long way and I am tired.” He said and went upstairs. 

Pete and Iyvonne carried their bags upstairs and mom went into the kitchen to set the table after giving Josh a piece of advice. She hid the food she prepared because she knew Pete would run to the kitchen immediately he came back.

It was supposed to be a prank and a surprise but I guess it didn't go well just the way mom planned it.

 

Well,mom called everyone and we had  lunch. The air was quite awful but Pete was trying to clear it by engaging everyone in a chitchat and stuff like that. Iyvonne followed too but later went upstairs. 

Imagine two people that were quarreling earlier on now working together to make the family happy.

We were all upstairs until daddy came back from work. It was another nice fussy moment as grandpa was telling us how dad and aunt Carolyn grew up. It was really hilarious. 

Aunt Carolyn's attitude didn't just pop up, grandpa said she inherited it from grandma.And dad has a bit of the attitude, especially when he's angry.

I was with Pete all through the night gisting. Josh was off to Iyvonne. We were telling funny stories and laughing until Mom called us for prayers.

After the night prayer,I said goodnight to Pete and went into my room.

Josh insisted on sleeping in Pete's room and his request was granted.

Well today was just Josh. Another one is still coming up tomorrow,on the 21st of Christmas. By who you least expect it from.