Finally, the last week of August arrived. Kirana, along with her mother and father, waited at the arrivals terminal of the airport, their eyes scanning the crowd for Stephan. They had been there for nearly an hour when Mr. Manalo suddenly pointed, his face breaking into a wide smile. "There he is!" he exclaimed, recognizing the young man from photos shared by his friend Jacob over the years. 👉
To Kirana and her mother, however, the tall, well-dressed man striding towards them was a near-stranger. "He's changed so much, I wouldn't have recognized him at all," Mrs. Manalo whispered to Kirana. The last time they had seen Stephan, he was a boy of barely four. He had moved to Canada with his father when he was five. Kirana had no memory of him, having been an infant herself at the time. Anisa, who was about three years older, had mentioned over the phone that she had a faint, blurry recollection of a little boy visiting long ago.
They welcomed him with warm hugs. After collecting his suitcase, they loaded it into the car and set off for home. Mr. Manalo drove, with his wife in the passenger seat. Kirana and Stephan sat in the back, the initial silence filled with a polite, mutual curiosity. 🤝
After a drive of several hours, they finally reached the Manalo home. They showed Stephan to his prepared room and the adjacent bathroom, ensuring he had everything he needed to settle in.
Understanding his fatigue from the long journey, they didn't overwhelm him with chatter. Instead, they offered him refreshing drinks and light snacks, their hospitality a quiet, comfortable bridge between his distant past and their present welcome, allowing him to decompress and acclimate to the rhythms of a home he had long since left behind. 🍹