The Unified Soul

New Year, New Life

Later as the night came, the New Year's Eve party was in full swing. Everyone was having fun talking, dancing, enjoying Sylvanna's famous Tamales, and just having a good time. Airis was having fun laughing with her family, enjoying the festive night. It was one of the happiest times of her life. She had a family and she was safe and loved.

"Airis!" Aphmau said calling over her daughter, "Come on over here! You've gotta try these Tamales!"

Airis happily ran over to Aphmau and stood on a stool next to Aaron. Aaron looked down at his daughter and smiled.

"You ready to try one, Airis?" He asked.

Airis nodded excitedly and took one of the beef tamales while Aaron took one of the chicken tamales. They both looked at each other and smiled before nodding and taking a bite of their tamales. Immediately after tasting the tamale, Airis' eyes widened at the delicious food that she was lucky to have. It didn't take her long to take a few more bites before the entire tamale was gone and she reached for a chicken one.

Everyone around the table laughed at her eagerness to eat more tamales, even Rachel was amused by how the little girl as behaving. Over the past few days, Rachel started to warm up to the little girl, reminding her how wonderful children were. She even started acting like a grandmother, allowing herself to have a little more fun playing games and talking with Airis.

"Well..." Aphmau said.

"It's great." Aaron said with a smile.

"These are amazing! Thank you Abuela!" Airis said as she swallowed another bite.

"Great!" Sylvanna said, "I'm glad you enjoyed them."

"Yeah, that's an understatement according to Airis. Just look at her face, it's covered in tamales." Aphmau laughed, handing Airis a napkin so she could wipe her face.

"Well, I might have had to not allow you to date my daughter if you didn't." Sylvanna joked, or at least Aaron hoped that it was a joke.

"Who would even want to be around you anyway?" Rachel snickered

"I heard that." Sylvanna growled.

"Well, I'm gonna go outside and see what I could to help Eric." Aaron said.

"He's still out there?" Aphmau asked.

"Yes. He's still out there." Sylvanna sighed, "He thinks he can make that hot tub work."

"I didn't even come prepared to get inside a hot tub." Rachel added.

"Neither did I." Aphmau said.

"That's Eric for you. Once he has his mind on something, he has to do it. Even if it gets in the way of already made plans."

Airis chuckled at hearing Eric's attitude toward getting things done. Airis always thought that he was funny and enjoyed spending time around him, especially if he was teaching her how to make strawberry puffs.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that since he's been working on it since we started this morning. I just want to lend him my hand one last time and try convince him to come back in."

"All right. Just don't outside for too long. It's almost midnight." Aphmau reminded him.

"Of course." Aaron smiled then glanced down at Airis for a second, "I'll be back soon, Babe. Promise." Aphmau smiled at him and Aaron left to go help Eric with the hot tub.

"I'm gonna go see if anyone needs a refreshment or anything." Aphmau said, "Mom, could you watch Airis for a second?"

"Of course, Mija. And thank you so much for helping set up this party." Sylvanna said gratefully, "You've already helped Eric and I a lot."