A Short Story…
I had a great Christmas. I, of course missed my wife, Anna, who passed away two years ago. Our children called to wish me a nice Christmas, but a few nice words over the phone from several states away left me lonely no matter what I could have planned. But, when the doorbell rang, it was whom I hoped it would be.
I walked to the front door and was brushed aside by the wind and the young bodies of Maxine and Louise who whooshed into the living room. They hugged me, each in turn, as I followed them and watched them make my standard household decorations purely historic and most certainly boring. That would change fairly soon. While Maxine played the latest songs they had given me numerous years ago when my wife Shelly was alive, Louise danced into the kitchen and returned with a glass of their favorite wine for me.
Maxine was the first to really make me grin from ear to ear. She quickly told me the name of the song playing, which slipped from my mind fairly quickly. She danced around the room until she found my cane. She then danced with the cane and then gave me the cane and we danced together and laughed and laughed.
She had all the movements, while I just stepped a bit here and there. When the music changed my dance partners changed. Thank God, the music was a slower tune to let me rest. Louise hugged me and actually made it easier for me to dance, move, and walk at the same time.
Soon a more soothing song was playing. Each girl gave me the details of their studies as well as their friends and their current boyfriends. Both where looking forward to a college, local and affordable . . . and nearby . . . with hidden dreams of additional degrees.
My wife and I had met the girls when they were wild and really young teenagers. We saw they were wasting time and didn’t care about what life would bring them as long as they were having fun. As we helped them and explained what they could do with their lives, they became our private daughters. By that time our children had grown up and left home. We felt alone until by chance and by tiny efforts the four of us made our own little family.
As the sun went down my eyelids pretty much did the same. I had wrapped presents for the two girls, including a little bit of money for books and such. I don’t recall when I dozed off, but when I woke, our home was clean and nicely picked up. It was well past my bedtime. I made it to the bathroom and laughed when I looked in the mirror and saw the lip stick on either side of my face. I laughed and cried at the same time. Those sweet girls made my Christmas happy and much less lonely.
