"Ahh, got it. Tessa met Mark and helped him, then they became friends after that love." Scar is so happy -'I got'em'.

"Err, telling a story is a ridiculous job already, don't make me hate my decision" Jack now annoyed by her.

Scar's brown eyes twinkling with wiggling her eyebrows --"Hey, c'mon I got it right. Right?"

'Is it mesmerizing?' Jack lost at her fascinating face.

Whirling his noodles...'Why are you getting distracted by her eyes?'.

"Tell me soon."

"Nah, you are wrong."

"Ooh, then they fight at first sight-- that leads to love?"
Scar was amazed at her creation-'Wow, I should write a book.'

'Why I agreed to this, crackhead me Started THIS'.
Jack's invisible face palm shows his regrets.

"Please, Scar, don't ask anything in the middle, Just Listen." Jack pleaded with her, to be quiet.

"Okay got it, Why telling a story is ridiculous, according to you?" spaghetti in the mouth with eyebrows raising -Is she asking doubt or enjoying the food.

"It's an art where you can make your words like eyes, so a reader can see through it", Scar concluded while munching the noodles.

'Your beautiful red waves...' - wandering in the middle of the conversation is not new to Jack.

"Pass me, fries." Scar little yelled to wake him.

Jack snaps out of the daydream-"Ahh, what?".

"Nothing, you zone out as always. give me fries, please".

"Sorry! you just stop distracting, so I can continue" Jack composed himself.

Taking a breath,

"We're gonna have three rules..."

"One--Listen hereafter you gonna see it right away through my eyes."
"Two-- NO DOUBTS in the middle."

"Three-- It's one way, so don't open your mouth, pretty please".

Jack finished his ground rules.

Scar zipped her mouth with fingers and gave thumbs up.

___________________

Mark's fighting with snow stopped as he heard the voice, 'Is she?' his chin stumbled with her voice's essence.

" M. A. R. K...M.a.r.k? Tessa baffled the word because Mark had glass and white cane. 'How did he get blind?' was only swirling around her brain.

Mark had been going through a lot after his unforeseen accident happened a year ago.

When you have some difficulties there will be our God aka Our Life-Plotter. He always bestows some hints or abilities to overcome our crises.

In Mark's life, God offered him the pure sense of being attentive and his ability to smell than a normal range. His charms didn't dry up after all his struggles.

'He is a little paler than usual. Still, he has his cuteness'. Tessa thought and it was because of his surname 'Sullivan'. Sullivan is the name for an Irish Boy named for his charms.

Hearing one word full of a stuttering voice declared to him there, standing a woman. A WOMAN who he didn't seem to meet in ages appeared out of nowhere.

'Why are you back now?' He felt a bucket of ice hit his face with infinite speed.

He used to this voice. But it's strange, now.

Mark pulled off his strong posture and addressed the direction of the sound as "Miss?" while extending his hand for ethical standards. 'What are you doing?' he regrets.

"Tess ...T.E.S.S.A Greathouse " Tessa tugged Mark's hand. Mark pulled right away... Now it's Mark's time to shatter.

" T.E.S.S " Mark didn't dream that he would meet Tessa this year, her housekeepers didn't mention this to him. Unfortunately, he didn't meet them for a while. Tessa was away for more than years.

Mark and Tessa were the besties' goals of Brushwind Square. They went to the same school until Tessa transferred to Harvard for higher studies. Mark continued his studies in the neighborhood. On his way back to the candle shop from his college, he met with an accident. Six months passed sickly. Another Six months proceeded with working for his mate Jack --a Cop and it's me.

In a heartbreaking period, he didn't think Tessa would return for this year's Christmas. Tessa didn't show up even for Greathouse grand public events and family functions. Mark counting the events-- 'they will host 5-6 events, right?'

On the other side, Tessa is happy to see Mark --' wanna hug him right now'.

Tess nodded when he said her name...But Tessa couldn't understand:
-Why Mark is pulling away?
- Did he forget me already?
- HOW & WHEN, he goes blind?
...

"Don't you remember me, Mark?... When.. OH Gosh! sorry... Mark say something please?" --No reaction is the answer.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE NOW?" his shouting will pierce your ears if it was audible.

In the end, she pulled out the cane with some struggling. Mark knew what was happening, yet stood away without changing his demeanor. He couldn't help but do silent-cry in this situation.

Thank god, he turned away from Tess. His Tess-- 'What? he couldn't think of rekindling his old affection for HIS-Tess. Mark advised himself.

Tessa handed over his WHITE CANE. Mark's reluctant way of avoiding her gaze and hand didn't go unnoticed by her.

"Thank you" came in a small voice. With that strode away only to meet with the Christmas tree at the frontier of the supermarket. Ashamed Mark hurried into the supermarket.

"Are you a coward now?" Mark sneered at himself, Then got hit by a lined-up trolley.. "Ahh... hit me, hit me-- a punching bag now?"

In his stay in China, he learned Martial Arts with his Uncle Chang. He prepared for his misfortune ignorantly.

Mark can walk without support but doubts his situation now.

'I envy my damn eyes'

"How does she look now? " Mark hears his vulnerable voice, after many years.

"SO HE REALLY CAN'T SEE ME..."

'But, even his ears went dump?'.
Tessa couldn't move, she felt fixed to the snowy ground by an invisible glue 'poor Tessa'.

Tessa just stood there for a while, but anyway she wouldn't let her freeze. She drove into her house. Her parents were busy with their year-end calculation of the company production.

Saying 'hi' to them is letting them know 'she is back'. Handed all her things to the servants and decided to take a nap.

Tessa put up her nightgown. "Finally, time for comfy..." Tessa sat on her old yet renovated bed. "what is in the drawers?"

Her room door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman in maid robes. "Miss. Tessa" ..." How are you, dear?" the Chief maid greeted with stretched-out hands. Tess was brought up by the Chief maid because of Mrs. Greathouse's busy schedule. Tess ran immediately to her hands.

Mrs. Thompson's instant hug made Tess cry. She missed this motherly embrace for four years. "I am still eating chocolate even after my dental problems Lucy". Lucy caressed Tessa's hair and chuckled at her unchanged phenomenon of answering questions.

"Chocolate is bad for your teeth, are you still eating it?" Lucy stood with hands on her hips...

"C'mon Lucy, it's winter-- how about hot cocoa now?"

They went to Kitchen, Lucy can make special hot cocoa only for her J2.T.M gang.

Lucy the Chief maid and Mrs. Sullivan went to the same school and ended up as best friends___There we could know how Mark and Tessa ended up as besties.__

Lucy and Tessa spoke until dinner time. Through her, Tessa came to know about all the things that Mark did in her absence.

"Mark had to go through all this, it's fate but the kid is fighting fair" Lucy concludes the story about Mark. Tessa put off a sympathetic look but her heart said 'Mark needs his best friend now'. in a broken voice.

Tessa told her meeting with Mark on the road. Lucy's nonchalant nod at Mark's actions urges Tessa to find. 'What is struggling Mark deeper than his blinded eyes.'

"Shall we surprise Mrs. Sullivan?" Tessa wants to meet him soon.

Shaking her head, Lucy shooed Tessa to her room.
" Why not? Let's surprise your charming bunny instead?; go and sleep. I'll inform her of our arrival".

"Is he doing like this, after the accident?" Tessa couldn't sleep.

"Will you make him normal? Like our bunny in his childhood days?". Lucy answered it with questions.

" Seeing him like that... left me broken, Lucy." 'He even not recognize me.' Tessa's eyes welled up.

Lucy's quick hug provides Tessa a warm feeling-- "Only you can make him straight".
"He got scared of you, that's why went into that supermarket."

"Go get him"
"Don't let hope go" Lucy caresses the brunette in front of her.

Lucy is in her mind-- 'I want to see him like those times when he was our whole town's apple of the eye'

"Mark, let me speak."

"Lemme see your sorrows."

"Your bestie is coming for you." Tessa cuddles up with her pillow and recites her thoughts.

She fell asleep imagining their childhood days.

All the people of Greathouse slept without knowing their Vineyard farmhouse was burnt.

_______