AARON
I had been sitting at my desk going over some reports Janice brought in when my computer made the little noise it makes when I have new email. Not intending to read it unless it looked like it was something of earth-shattering importance; I looked up at the screen. I was surprised to see the email was from Robyn. I sat there for a few seconds wondering if I wanted to open it or not. Finally curiosity got the better of me and I did. She was wishing me a good day and telling me to ring bells. I had no idea why she wanted me to ring bells, so I asked her why. Several more seconds later I got another email that said,
“Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.” I completely forgot about the work in front of me and I stared at the screen. I still didn’t get it. I decided to forget about it and re-focus on my work. That lasted less than five minutes before I was looking at the computer again. Finally, I cut and pasted the sentence into my browser and came back with about a bazillion hits. It was a quote from a Christmas movie. The movie was called “It’s a Wonderful Life” and it had been made in 1946. I stared at it for a minute and a vague memory came back to me. My mother…who loved Christmas, singing in the kitchen…my father who also loved Christmas hanging up the lights and me, sitting on the couch eating homemade chocolate chip cookies and watching a black and white movie that for some reason made my mother cry. For over twenty years I’d done my best to stuff those memories down deep. My parents were long gone and no amount of thinking about them would bring them back. I’d decided long ago that if it wasn’t helping, it was hindering. It was keeping me from moving on. I let it go and now this woman who I’m completely infatuated with wants to put it back in front of me and make me re-live it.
I was torn between being grateful to her for treating me like a human and easing my loneliness, and being angry that she wouldn’t let this Christmas thing go. I had to wonder what she had in store for me on Saturday as her hired hand.
I didn’t finish up my work that night until after seven. I called Jeffrey and told him I’d be down soon. I packed up my things and rode the quiet, lonely elevator down to the lobby from the tenth floor. When the doors opened I found myself thinking of Robyn again and the first time I’d seen her in the elevator. I didn’t know her name and we had never spoken a word, but even then I’d felt a connection. As I crossed the lobby I saw Jeffrey waiting by the car. He stepped over and opened the door for me.
“Hello sir, how was your Monday?”
“Hello Jeffrey. It was busy, as usual. How was yours?”
“Busy as well sir,” he said. I started to get in the car and suddenly I completely lost my mind. That’s how I like to think of it anyways. I saw one of those Salvation Army buckets outside the lobby window and currently unmanned. The bell they rang all day was sitting on top of it and without giving myself time to think about it I picked it up and rang it.
I sat it back down and stepping in front of a confused Jeffrey, I slid past him and waited for him to close the door before I smiled.
The rest of the week passed quickly and every evening about the same time I found an email waiting in my inbox from Robyn. They were short and simple, but they made me feel like someone was thinking about Aaron Winters the man and not just the business guy or the boss or the paycheck. They were nice and it made me feel good to read them. She made me smile from six floors down.