Twelve Months of Kristal: 50 Loving States Maine

Even more shocking than that, Kristal is standing with him. And she has her sketchbook out.

My heart pangs when I see her drawing. She’s been worried about this party all day. She almost didn’t come after she heard about the pandemic because she didn’t want to spend the entire time handing out soon-to-be-departed sketches.

But for some reason, she isn’t looking sorrowful or apologetic as we approach. In fact, she looks happy.

25.12.2021

The date drops into my head all of a sudden. Buzzing like a zap of electricity. And a new sensation takes over my arm. It’s an urge, I realize. An urge to write something down. No, not something. The date in my head. I want—no, I desperately need to write it down.

What the…

“Hayato, you won’t believe this!” Kristal calls out when she sees me. “Check it out!”

She holds up a sheet of paper to me, revealing not a sketch of an adult… but a baby.

I shake my head, not understanding.

“You have a baby?” I ask Konstantine Galatas. Who will die soon? I add silently, too horrified to say it out loud.

“No, I don’t have a baby,” Konstantine grumbles. “Everyone here is being crazy. As usual. I knew it was a mistake to come back.”

“It’s not a sketch of a soon to be departed one,” Kristal tells me, her voice excited and breathless. “It’s a picture of someone who’s about to be born. Krista’s gift changed when she got pregnant. And I guess mine has too. For the much, much better.”

“Just remember. Pregnancy doesn’t erase your gift from Santa. It only changes it.”

Marian’s words echo through my mind. And suddenly I know where to write down the date buzzing inside of my head.

I solemnly take the pencil from the mother of my child and write down the date in the top right corner of her sketch.

Then I tear the sheet of paper off and present it with a bow to one of the richest men in the world, Japanese-style with both hands underneath the paper.

“Here, Kristos,” Kristal says beside me. “This is for you.”

“Also, you’re glowing super bright, which means your true love must be somewhere at this party!” Krista claps her hands in a way that reminds me of Marian. Even more so when she exclaims, “Oooh, I can’t wait to see who your True Love match is!”