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“I’m telling you, you’ll feel great about it!”, Celina exclaimed, excitedly skipping towards the supermarket, pulling Aaron with her.
“No doubt, but why aren’t we just donating money?”
“Because this is so much more personal! And it goes to the people directly. Not just aid organizations.”, Celina explained, purposefully steering towards the supermarket’s angel tree.
It reached up all the way to the roof, so glamorously decorated that it was hard for her to focus on the notes.
All while Aaron was carefully examining each specific piece of paper.
He had already made his pick, two boys and one girls, as he realized that Celina was still staring up at the tree, seeming like she was realms away.
“Celina? Are you okay?”, Aaron asked, watching her snapping back to reality, smiling apologetically.
“Yeah yeah, sorry, I… I was just thinking. About something.”, she mumbled, waving him off but Aaron didn’t want to be put off like that.
“What’s going on?”
Aaron could see Celina contemplating for a moment, before ultimately giving in.
“Well… when I was a child, we… often didn’t have enough to afford a lot and.. well, sometimes my sister and I signed up for angel tree’s as well. And most years we never got anything but…”, she paused for a moment, a light smile making its way across her face. Were her eyes getting teary?
“But one year, someone got us everything we asked for and even more… We were so happy. That was… that was Blanca’s last Christmas…”, she whispered, quickly wiping a tear from her cheek.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
“No no no, don’t. You’re okay.”, Aaron quickly appeased, resting a hand on her shoulder.
“Thank you, Aaron.”
“No need.”, he smiled, giving her a moment to focus on the tree again.
“Okay. I’m done.”, he announced a few minutes later, prompting Celina to look up- and actively frowned in surprise as she registered the amount of papers Aaron was holding.
“Did you- take every paper?-”
“Yes. Because I can. And I don’t want a child to spend their Christmas with nothing.”, he stated and could see Celina’s lips tremble slightly, before she quickly covered them and laughed.
“That’s… I don’t… I don’t know what to say…”, she stuttered but Aaron shock his head.
“You don’t need to say anything. But… I do need your help choosing… because I’m not that creative.”, he admitted and Celina laughed wholeheartedly.
“That I can do… but still… Thank you, Aaron. Truly.”
“Anytime.”