The night raged on and went deeper as the hours ran on its course. But the vibe and energy of the streets near my abode remained relentless and undiminished throughout the evening. With two of my hands all occupied with food I would feast when I arrive home, I jostled against the people both in the same and opposite direction as mine. From afar, I could only see blank, colourless faces and similarly-shaped bodies outpacing each other and even themselves in different directions. However, as my legs move forward swiftly, my eyes were able to get a clearer and closer glimpse of them. I saw women with long, straight hair with paralysed faces with their lips shaped like a slightly bent thick line yet with eyes that appeared to gleam with excitement and joy over the things they have bought in the mall nearby. I also took notice of men, some walking with their friends, some with their significant loved ones, and others traversing the concrete streetwalks on their own and looks as if they were minding their own business. The pavements my feet stepped on during the night were adorned with trees wrapped by vines of colourful, blinking Christmas lights standing beside the equally busy yet lively roads of my city, which I would rather not give a name. There were only a few street lamps in the sidewalks since they were deemed too old to function and therefore decommissioned by the local government as far as I could remember. However, those that remained shone just as brightly as the front lights of the cars that ran through the boulevards beside the sidewalks. Furthermore, wires of Christmas lights were also clung to their thin foundations and added to the bright that the lamps were already providing. The sound of my feet tapping on the cracked concrete tiles of the pavements mixed with the incessant steps coming from the other strangers walking with me on the same surface we were all in. As I approached closer to home, the people who strolled in the same and opposite direction as I did became fewer and fewer. The surroundings also turned more quiet and serene. I saw that the darkness completely engulfed the skies, and the moon was nowhere to be found, signifying something sinister and sorrowful. I could not check the time as my hands were all occupied with the food I was bringing home and it never became my habit to bring my smartphone when I am going to places near my home, such as in the restaurant. But basing from my own instincts, I could tell that the time was approaching seven in the evening, although of course it was just as assumption, and so I could not fully trust it. I still had to check for myself. Around some minutes later, I was nearing the building that housed my room, a small, studio-type condominium my mother bought with my father's approval a year ago. Before, I used to live with them on a two-storey townhouse not so far from my current home but as the necessity to work abroad became at-large, I needed a separate place to live since the townhouse we used to reside was a family property, and therefore the ownership should be transferred to another member of my family. The last time they were in the country, they stayed in the condominium for some time but for the most part, they preferred to stay in the old townhouse with their relatives, and I was still left on my own in the room. This is how I learned to live on my own, and I did owe my parents for that.

Some time later, I walked towards the elevator of the building and I used my elbow to press the button and wait for it to go down. The interior of the building was silent in a somewhat eerie manner, and it's large empty space made circulation of the cold, dry wind of Christmas around me possible. The walls were painted mostly white, and the floor was made of a combination of white and brown tiles. Almost a minute later, I noticed a ding from my front, and the metal doors of the elevator soon opened itself, revealing an empty cell. I walked inside the elevator and pressed the button containing number 6 before having it closed. The building where my condominium was located had twelve floors, all of them having more or less a residential role. The building also had two more of equal height beside it, turning the area into a large community. In the middle of it was the clubhouse, where a small gym, basketball court, and a swimming pool were located. As the elevator raised itself, I had a feeling as if I stood on some stable land, not feeling any movement at all. I have read a few of Einstein's theories especially about a thought experiment on elevators, and I guess he was right at all when he postulated about how an elevator going up feels more like standing on ground and how a descending elevator felt more like floating on space or in microgravity to be exact. Some seconds later, the elevator stopped and another ding rang around once more before the doors opened on their own. I stepped outside the elevator soon after and walked on the hallway until I was in front of the door of my unit. I placed the food I bought on the room for a while before I reached for my keys inside my pocket. It did not take me long before I managed to find them, and when they were on my hands I inserted it on the doorknob then turned it around. When I heard the sharp click as I unlocked the door, I pushed it away soon before I flicked the lights on and brought the pasta and the pizza I bought on the restaurant then closed the door. I wasted no time and while the sweat flowing from my face were still dripping to the other parts of my body, I went to the kitchen to get some plates, glasses, and utensils right after I put the pasta pans and the pizza boxes on the table I cleared minutes after I left the house. I removed the pans from the plastic and opened them one by one. When I unwrapped the aluminium foil that covered the pans, the strong and pungent yet delicious aroma of the pastas roamed around the room and provided more colour to the bland, brown table that was the only feature of my dining room along with some wooden, black-painted chairs on its sides. I then separated the two pizza boxes from each other and put them on separate sides of the tables near the pans. The mouth-watering smell of the food became stronger when I lifted the cardboard cover of the pizza boxes, and what was shown to me were two thin and broad circles with tasty combinations of cheese, dough, preserved meat in the case of pepperoni pizza and fresh sliced tomatoes in the case of the margherita pizza. I set the pans aside and placed a large porcelain plate on the side where I would sit in before I removed my t-shirt that has been soaked in my own sweat before I wiped it on my face and body and then replacing it with a new one, a soccer jersey shirt my father gave me as a present when he and mom were here the last time. I took a bath before I bought food for the Christmas Eve, and this gave me a cool feeling even after some hot time outside. I turned the television on before I opened the fridge and taking the one and a half litre of coke I had made frozen inside and then sat down and put forks and knives on the food I bought and poured some soft drink on the glass immediately after opening the bottle. I scooped a few portions of each pasta to taste and grabbed one slice of the pepperoni pizza before I focused my eyes on the news that was on the television. It happened to be Tuesday when the Christmas occurred, and so the usual programming schedule was on place during the Christmas Eve. Even at Christmas, it never ran out of bad news. Car accidents, buy-bust operations, murders, corruption scandals and other political blunders, showbiz intrigues. Life, I guess, had always been a bad news and the only way to deal with it is to accept such fact. As my fork pierce on the pasta that I ate and my knife cut through the pizza I chewed, memories of my mom and dad suddenly came into my mind. I missed them in all of a sudden. On the empty chairs beside me, my mind showed apparitions of both my mom and my dad beside me, laughing, chatting, and eating in an enjoyable manner. I smiled as the nostalgia and the remorse surged in my heart, that on one of the most important holidays of the year, the people I love were not with me that day and that an ultimate sacrifice has to be made in order for a good life to be ensured. Tears did not fall down my cheeks as I became too weary crying that it gradually lost its purpose to me. I got used being alone, even at times like these where in happy bonding was highly expected. I continued on eating. There were already some instances when I celebrated the holidays, both Christmas and even New Year, entirely on my own. Two years ago, I was also alone when I celebrated Christmas, but unlike last year and this holidays, I got to cook my own Christmas feast. Relatives from both my mother and father’s side didn’t always pay me a visit, even at holidays. If they would do so, that would be when my parents would return home from abroad for a short vacation. At first, I thought that they came to receive them just for what my parents could give to them as presents, but as time passed, I didn’t thought too much about and tried to understand them instead and recognise the fact that all my relatives from both sides of my family lived in the provinces, far away from me, and that they also had families of their own.

Nevertheless, I did not regret buying food at the Italian ristorante instead of cooking on my own for Christmas Eve, as I did enjoy the food that I ate. I drank some coke after eating, and I went on to dine more as I watched the news on television. I could hear faint sounds of fireworks outside the building, signifying that the celebration of Christmas was now underway.