Snow. It fell all around like dancing ice flakes, caressing the cool air all round. Maxwell tread on the snow covered pavement with as much care as he could muster. His breaths came out in white puffs of air. He glanced at the watch strapped to his wrist. The hands showed half past one in the morning. A grand total of twenty-two and a half hours till New Year’s, he thought dryly. He had woken up earlier to a rather nonsensical dream involving him opening a poorly wrapped Christmas present and being transported to some other point in time. Think along of ‘A Christmas Carol’ or ‘The Nutcracker’ and there you have it. After much ado, he found he could not sleep so he decided to cool his head by taking a walk.

Five minutes into his walk, he started to rethink his ‘brilliant’ idea of walking at this time of the night… or morning, for that matter. He had been smart enough to wear a jacket, but not smart enough to bring his gloves and scarf. His teeth were chattering and his fingers were no better. In fact, they were numb to the point he felt no pain even if he pinched them. Despite his misgivings, he still ploughed aimlessly down the street. His mind knew not the direction but his feet knew.

The pressing silence surrounding him made him reminisce. Christmas this year had not been such a pleasurable nor joyous affair. It gave Max the throbbing pain whenever he thought of it. Isn’t it ironic - how a time of happiness can also be a time of sadness? He lifted his head and saw a vague form of her laughing quietly, slowly disappearing into the snowy sky. He snapped his eyes close in hopes of chasing the image away. All he saw was darkness and he felt calm. His feet carried him towards town. The flurry of snow had painted the entire town in white. It settled on the road, sidewalks, rooftops, window panes and window tops. The town looked like a living Christmas Hallmark card. It was that picture-perfect.

Despite the late (or early, if you insist) hour, the town’s atmosphere doesn’t seem to mellow one bit. In fact, the sidewalk cafes were still brimming with customers (albeit a little less now) nursing a hot beverage and the streets were still filled with people milling about. Cafés still play Christmas carols into the night. It looked as if it was Christmas once again. Guess they really took the Twelve days of Christmas seriously. Max smiled to himself despite his less than giving mood. He glanced at his watch again. The hands still showed half past one in the morning.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me...” he muttered, adjusting his time piece. All efforts were in vain. Muttering obscenities under his breath, he headed to the nearest café to know the time. And what luck, it turned out to a Starbucks outlet. The warm air washed over him and he felt comforted already. The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted around him. The chatter was low and almost inaudible. He winced slightly when whosoever is singing hit a sour note in the song currently playing on the speakers. He looked around for a clock but found none. All he saw was a calendar hanging on the wall. It read ‘31st Dec 07’ in large, bold lettering. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought. Strange, don’t Starbuck usually have large wall clocks hanging on their caramel walls? Oh well, I might as well get cup of hot chocolate to warm myself up.

He rummaged in his jeans pocket and found adequate change. He smiled in relief as he approached the counter.

“Hello, sir. What may I get you?” a worker who looked no older than seventeen asked at him. She sported a silver Santa hat atop her dyed hair. Her right ear itself had more than three piercing. Max briefly wondered if she was new worker who was trying to fit into the ‘cool’ crowd. Regaining his thoughts, he studied the selection of beverages displayed.

“Um… I’ll have the hazelnut hot chocolate please.”

“Okay,” she keyed in his order. “Anything else?”

Max thought for a moment. He was still full from last night’s dinner. He managed to whip himself a rather scrumptious meal earlier. For his stomach’s satisfaction to last this long was a real testament to his cooking skills. He shook his head. She finalized his order and went to make his beverage.

“Here you go. That’ll be eleven bucks.” He handed the money to her.

“Thank you. Say, what time is it now?” he asked after he accept his cup of hot chocolate. The brunette checked her watch.

“It’s five minutes to two o’clock in the morning,” she replied.

“Thanks.”

“No prob.”

He looked around the café. Once again he was amazed at the number of patrons. Are they all pulling an all-nighter together? He scanned for an empty seat (or a table if he was lucky) nearby the windows. He sipped his beverage as he waited for an available seat. Alas, a couple left a table with two plush sofas (lucky!) and exited the premise, hugging each other. Watching them, Max was indirectly reminded of his sudden single status. Pushing the offending thought off from his mind, he sauntered over to the vacated seat. He gratefully slid into it. Forget the horrible music; he was blissfully sinking into the softness of the sofa with a nice cup of hazelnut chocolate in hand. All worries, cares and especially the biting cold were momentarily forgotten. He took a sip of his chocolate and sighed in bliss.

“Mind if I take this up?”

A subtle voice asked. Glancing up, he saw the voice belonged to a rather aged man with white hair and kind eyes. He was rather short and was clad in the simplest of winter attire. He held a walking stick in a hand and was balancing a saucer of coffee in the other.

“Oh, not at all. Please, do sit.” Max warmly gestured towards the sofa opposite him. He gently took the saucer from the man’s withered hands and placed in on the table.

“Thank you, young man.”

“No worries, my pleasure.”

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, sipping their beverage. Max stared out of the glass window at the white snowy night outside.

“Do you believe in miracles, sonny?” the old man asked. He laced his fingers together and rested his weathered chin on them. Max turned to stare at him.

“Miracles?” he asked, clarifying. The old man nodded amiably.

“Yes. Do you believe in them?”

Max looked questioningly at the old man. He thought the question over. “Well, not exactly… but I heard from somewhere that you don’t need a miracle unless a disaster strikes you.”

The old man let out a chuckle. It sounded rather wholesome, so to speak for a man of his age. “Well said, my boy. What’s your name by the way?”

“Um, Max.”

“Well, Max, believe it or not, a miracle is about happen to you right here and now.”

He winked at Max. If the conversation wasn’t weird enough, the very thought of an old man winking at him was short of unnerving. No matter how friendly that old man is. Max nervously took another sip of his beverage. However, curiosity got the better of him.

“What do you mean?” he blurted.

”The fact that you’re sitting here at such a late hour on Christmas Eve. Isn’t that a miracle by itself? I get the impression that-”

“Ahaha. Right. It’s New Year’s Eve not Christmas Eve, gramps,” Max interrupted good-naturedly.

“Really? I get the impression that it is Christmas Eve.”

He gestured at the calendar hanging on the wall. ‘24th Dec 07’ it read in large, bold print. Without even looking around, Max sensed more than he saw. Something was different about the café’s atmosphere. Glancing around, he saw that the patrons he saw earlier were gone and replaced by a different crowd altogether. Max furrowed his eyebrows at this. What the…? When his azure gaze landed the outside, the sight of last minute shoppers gracing the streets made his eyebrows go up. The old man merely took another sip of his cup. Max stared hard at the old man sitting before him, smiling enigmatically. Impulsively, he glanced at his watch. The time now is eight o’clock? From the corner of his eye, he spotted a large clock hanging behind the counter. Its hands also showed eight sharp. His eyes widen to the size of saucer plates. The wall clock wasn’t there when I came in! The old man watched Max with amusement twinkling in his kind eyes.

“I daresay something happened to you not long ago, sonny.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” he muttered under his breath. Okay, this is getting weird. Am I dreaming? Max pinched his thigh. The sudden pain which pierced his thigh proved him otherwise. He was awake.

“Am I dreaming?” he asked dumbly.

“Dreaming? Nah. You wouldn’t be dreaming of an old man like me even in your wildest dreams now would you?” When the old man smiled, his eyes crinkled at the corners.

“Oh yes, I might. In my weirdest dreams I bet.” Max laughed shakily even as he felt confusion and panic gnawing inside him. Suddenly he was compelled to ask a rather stupid question.

“What year are we in?”

“Why, isn’t that an obvious question? It’s 2007, sonny.”

“Did we travel back in time?”

“Oh no, that is certainly not possible.”

“Are you an angel?”

“Ha-ha, you’re real a joker, sonny. I’m too old for that.”

“B-but… what’s this?” Max gestured towards the unsuspecting crowd, obviously lost for words. “This certainly wasn’t the crowd we had just now.” He pointed to the clock hanging on the wall. “It wasn’t there when I came in. Moreover, I’m more than certain that the calendar read ‘31st Dec 07’and not ‘24th Dec 07’ just now. And I’m certainly not dreaming.”

Gramps just downed his cup of coffee and wiped his mouth daintily. Grabbing his walking stick, he heaved himself to a standing position. Looking pointedly at Max, gestured him to stand up as well.

“C’mon, Max my boy. We have many places to visit within a short period of time.”

“Wait. What’s your name, gramps?”

“Ah, them used to call me Gabriel – Gab for short,” he winked as he shifted his weight to the other foot. For the first time in their brief encounter, Max noticed the gramps’ attire was either in white or cream. “Remember when I said something happened to you not too long ago?”

“Yeah, but what does that have to with whatever is happening right now?”

“Everything, sonny. C’mon, follow me.”

Till this day, Max never knew why he complied. It didn’t strike him as bizarre that an old man would walk into a café at 2 o’clock in the morning and have a cup coffee with him. The next thing he knew, he was following this old man to who knows where. Strange as it seems, all he knew that something was drawing him. And he wanted his curiosity satisfied. This was going to be some night (or morning)