Chapter 7: The day before Christmas

The days went bye fast, and soon the summer turned to autumn, and then to winter. As the days became shorter and the nights longer, the temperatures slowly dropped lower and lower, eventually falling below zero.

It was monday the 23th of december. Ever since a week ago, snow had gradually started covering everything in town. At first it melted away, but as the days grew colder, the snow got stronger, and eventually it stayed.

Every year around this time, Tim's shop would turn from a quiet little shop in the back part of town, to a busteling christmas winter wonderland. All around the shop one could find little hand-carved christmas trees, reindeers and santas, all, the walls were covered with little red and golden christmas lights. Infront of the big window of the shop a big statue of Santa in his red sled, pulled by all his reindeers was on display.

These days a lot of people would come visit the shop to buy presents for their loved ones, some had even come weeks before in advance, just to ask Tim, if he could carve them custom statues, and Tim did.

Throughout the last moths, Connor had slowly started to upgrade Tims computer programms, making it easier for them to manage the shop, which in turn, enabled Tim to spend more time forcusing on his craft, which he was very grateful for.

Seeing all these people being so excited about Tim's creations, Connor couldn't help but get excited about the next day, Christmas.

Ever since he had met Tim, his life had turned to the better. Of course part of this was, that with working for Tim he had found a stable job that also allowed him enough free time, to continue to pursue his dream of becoming a programmer, but that wasn't why he felt this way.

In a sense, Tim had saved him. With Tim, Connor felt like he could talk about everything, where when talking to his parents or sister, he always worried that he would just make them worry over nothing. For Connor talking with Tim just had an entirely different feeling. It was more free, like he didn't have to worry about a thing.

Yes, Tim wasn't always necessarly able to completely understand his worries, but that didn't stop him from keeping an open mind, from not judging, and more often than not, that was all that Connor needed. For him, having someone that wouldn't judge him, or get extremly worried at the first sign of his distress, someone he could simply talk to, was worth so much.

Every day Connor came to work, he gave his absolute best, both to repay Tim for his kindness, but also to make im proud. To him, Tim had almost become like a second father, like the friend he had always searched for, but never found.

All of this just made him more determind to work even harder. However, Connor had found out soon enough, that no matter how hard he worked, he still had this infinite desire to just make Tim happy. And with Tim's birthday being still a long ways to go, and Christmas coming closer, he was very determind to find something that would make Tim happy 'till then.

This in mind Connor got to work, and after thinking for a while, he camp up with an idea. Thinking back, he had remembered that early on Tim and him once talked about their respective dreams, and Tim had told him, that the only thing he would still really like to achieve, was showing his craft to the world, to gift more people a smile.

Back then, Tim did also talk about how that dream is one that was bound not to come true, since with this city not being very big to begin with, and especially this part of the city being very run down, there was virtually no way for him to attract more people, than the ones who already knew about the shop.

Remembering this gave Connor an idea, that he liked very much.

"What if I could make a webside just for Tim's creations. Plus, I could try to enter some of Tim's work into competitions, and post about them online, I am certain that people would quickly get interested in them, given how beautifully crafted they are."

With an idea in mind, Connor got to work, and spend nearly all his free time working on the necessary peparations.

Now, with Christmas right ahead, everything was done, the webside was working and only needed to be launched, and the posts he had made about Tim's work had already gathered a lot of attention, going so far as to even be featured in a fancy art magazine oversees! Many people had already messaged Connor, asking where one could get these beautiful pieces of art.

The day went by quickly, and after closing the shop Tim and Connor sat down in the kitchen to have some chicken soup. It was the same soup that Tim had given Connor the day they had first met. Although thinking about the events of that day, about what had happened in his head that day, what he was about to do then, still scared Connor, it had also been the day he met Tim.

That alone already made him regard these memories not as bad, but as good ones, as the start of a new, better chapter of his life.

"It is really true what Tim told me, sometimes you have to first be at your lowest, before things can get better."

Feeling the delicious and warm sensation of the soup filling his mouth, he thought about all that had happened this year, and about how tomorrow he could finally show Tim his present.

"I know the soup is good, but you usually don't smile that much when eating it, what are you up to."

Looking at Connor, Tim was happy and proud. When he had found him at the bus stop that day, his hard had broken. Someone so young, that had all his life still left to live, had lost the flame in his heart. Although at that time, he didn't know what had happend to Connor, the look in Connors eyes that day spoke more than 1000 words.

Seeing him now, being happy, smiling, and having this look of infinite determination in his eyes, Tim couldn't help but be happy for him. The past months had shown him, how much of a passionate, kind and hard working person Connor was, and Tim was simply happy, that the world hadn't lost such a wonderful person to the idiocy of the world.

"All good all good. Although I won't lie, I am really excited for tomorrow!"

Happily slurping his soup, Connors smile widened more and more, baring his white teeth.

"By the way, will we open the shop, or will we keep it closed? I bet there will be people who would still want to buy some of your statues."

Amused by Connors eagerness, Tim couldn't help but smile, and said:

"Not tomorrow, I admire your determination, but tomorrow is Christmas, so we have to celebrate, so no work allowed!"

After chatting a little while longer about their plans for Christmas, and reminiscing about the memories they had made together over the past months, Connor took his leave, and after making the final preparations for the day after, he went to bed.

Before going to sleep, he couldn't help but to think about his family.

"I hope that my present will arrive by tomorrow. I bet Alice will be super excited to get some Squishies! And I hope that Mom and Dad will like the little game I have made them! It is a shame that we aren't able to meet this year, but than again, I am also super excited to spend Christmas with Tim. I wonder if that's bad?"

Wondering for a little while, he eventually came to a conclusion.

"It is not bad, yes of course I would love to spend time with my family, but that doesn't mean I can't also be excited to spend time with Tim, who is basically also family by now, plus I simply can't afford a plane ticket at the moment and I also need to help out in the shop. I will just visit them at Alice's birthday! Maybe then I can finally tell them the truth... they still think I am studying at university."

Tim shook his head.

"No, it is for the best if they don't know. I will tell them some day, but now is not the right time yet."

"But now I really have to go to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day!"

Excited, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.