9 Christmas and Gifts 2

Rachael opened the instructions note first and read it in her mind silently. She was surprised once she read the instructions. She quickly hid her emotions. Rachael was always an over thinker and she was finding it difficult to control her flow of thoughts and emotions. She had to increase the speed at which she concealed her thoughts.

The heart shaped diamond stone acted like some kind of button. She had to gently press it to know Ethan's feelings for her and at the same time Ethan would feel her feelings as well. She admired the magic or technology used behind it. But she did not care as to why Ethan gifted this to her.

She closed the instruction note and saw that there was another hand written note inside it. She did not dare to read it. She put back the instructions note inside the box and carefully placed the ring inside it after showing the ring to all her family members. Everyone admired the beauty of the ring.

She could not think much with so many people around.

She just thought to herself "Let me try this ring later. I am not sure if Ethan got the size right. I don't want to force it right now into my finger to break it." She put a break to her thoughts before her trail of thoughts went any further. And this thought she had intentionally put it in her head.

She diverted her thoughts and looked at Ray.

"Little brother now that my gifts are done, shall we check out yours?" she asked enthusiastically to which Ray replied "No sis, let's go with Ethan's this time and then I'll go next" saying this he winked at Ethan who had now become his best buddy.

Ethan smiled at him and slowly started opening his presents. He first picked the present gifted by his buddy Ray as he had bestowed the opportunity of opening the presents to him.

He opened the box to see a book which had a beautifully crafted outer binding. The title of the book read - "Magical spells befitting an Emperor- By Ray Pfeiffer". The book had a code system where Ethan could set a numbered lock in Roman numerals.

Ray knew from Rachael that the Roman number system was used on Zon. Apart from spells to run the administration of the empire smoothly there was one chapter dedicated on how to win the heart of a woman. And this chapter was like an odd chapter in the book.

Ray had stealthily sneeked into Ethan's thoughts and had a high level idea on what was bothering Ethan. He was not aware that something was not right between his sister and Ethan until Ethan had landed on Earth. It was too late now to peep into his sisters thoughts as he was the one who had given the thought concealing spell to Rachael.

Ethan had picked up spoken English but he never learnt writing it. If thing's got alright between Rachael and him, he had planned to ask her to teach him written English. But now he had Ray his pal, and he knew he could request him to teach him writing and Ray would not refuse

He looked around for help and he saw Ray closing his eyes and muttering something. Once Ray opened his eyes he asked Ethan to look at the book again.

The entire title including the content was magically transformed into the language spoken on Zon.

Ethan was astonished and when he saw the title. His face now had a big smile. He thanked Ray profusely for this wonderful gift. He knew Ray would have given the best of spells to run the empire smoothly but he was not aware of the odd chapter which Ray had put into the book.

He next pulled out the present which his mom-in-law had gifted him. It was quite humongous in size and this excited everyone. As Ethan carefully opened the gift wrapping, everyone's eyes were on this gift. It looked quite enormous and bulky.

As he finally finished opening the outer gift wrapping the first thing he saw something written in red. Ray was now sitting close to Ethan to help him with any instructions that came with the presents. Ray read it out loud so everyone could hear

"Delicate. Handle with care"

Ray's look and tone were hilarious and everyone burst out laughing.

When the laughter had finally died down, Ray got into helping his brother-in-law to open the present carefully. Inside was the actual package of the manufacture with the name of the product in it.

"Moley's Robotic Kitchen"

Everyone were awed at the thoughtfulness which went behind this gift. Rachael's mom had seen how Ethan had loved the dishes she made even if it was as simple as a cup of coffee. She had seen a sparkle in his eyes every single time he ate her dish or drank anything, even if was repeated.

She had browsed the internet and picked the best gift for Ethan.

Ethan never felt this motherly affection from his own mum. He couldn't hold back his tears. He went to where Rachael's mom was sitting and hugged her saying "Thank you so much mom, for the present and I love it" he said this from deep down his heart.

This was the first time he had called her mom and he meant what he said.

Everyone including Rachael had their eyes wet on seeing this emotional scene. They quickly wiped off their tears before anyone else could see them.

Ray went ahead and converted all the instructions for the set up into Ethan's language. But the only problem was that the entire set up was manufactured keeping the cooking ingredients available on Earth.

But now with multiverse travel made easier transporting the ingredients would not be a problem at all. Such routes could be accessed only by certain families, Rachael's family being one of them.

Ethan wanted to open Rachael's dad's gift next but he decided to open Rachael's gift next as he did not want to make things obvious.

He opened the gift box given by his wife which had two gifts within it. One was the latest iPhone which would prove to be quite useful especially for Ethan while he was on earth.

And the other was a book - "Conscious Loving: The journey to Co-commitment" by Gay Hendricks and Kathyln Hendricks.

Everyone were confused at the second gift selection and at once everyone wanted to get into Rachael's thoughts to probe what was going on. But Rachael was super fast in concealing her thoughts.

Everyone looked at Rachael demanding for an answer, and Rachael was not prepared for it. She had almost forgotten about the consequence of Ethan opening this gift in front of her family.

She had to quickly come up with a convincing answer around the book.

"Mom, Dad, Ray please don't get me wrong. I thought this book will help solving the issues of people on Zon. There is hardly any commitment left with normal people on Zon when they get married." She gave a pause to see if there was any reaction and when there was no response from anyone she continued "If you think this is not a suitable gift I'll exchange it first thing in the morning."

"Rachael is this an occa... " Ethan interrupted her dad from completing his statement. He took over the situation. Everything had gone quite well until now, and Ethan did not want to spoil the rest of the day.

"Dad, it's a wonderful gift from Rachael. I am glad that she has the best interests of people of Zon in mind. This book is still valuable to me in solving issues of people. We can become a role model to people on Zon" he gave her dad a quick smile and looked at Rachael " Thanks Rach, I'll treasure it"

With this statement where Ethan spoke about Role model, it was Rachael's turn to get surprised.

Now Ethan was only left to open Dad's gift. Ray stopped him right there "Hold on Ethan" Everyone looked at Ethan with a surprised look. "Let's play a little mystery game called what's in the box, before Ethan open his last present"

That got a smile on everyone's face.

Ray wanted to lift up everyone's mood, as after Ethan had opened Rachael's gift everyone's mood seemed to have dampened a little. And this trick of his seemed to have worked.

He continued "The rules of the game is pretty simple. Except dad, everyone else will have three chances to guess the gift. And that includes me. Even if all the answers are incorrect the closest match will win.

Ethan will be opening this gift at night after we return back from the Candle light service at the Church.

Dad will be the judge and he will announce the winner in the end. We will need to give all the three guesses to dad just before the gift is opened.

No sneaking around the gift allowed. So. I'll put an anti-sneaking spell on the gift.

The winner and dad will be treated by the rest of them in the form of kind, cash or treat. Only lavish gifts or treats to be offered to the winner. Deal? "

He looked at everyone and all of them chirped together like little kids "Deal" and splitters of giggles could be heard

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[Authors note: Dear readers, I have made additions to the chapter "Eve" to make it more Christmassy.

If you have already added the book to the library, and can't see the new updates, please delete the book from the library and read add the book back to see the updates]

Happy Reading!