A Promise Kept…

About three years ago, I stopped and said hi to a new neighbor. She’d just had a baby girl. Later that day I saw her again on my way up the footpath to the shopping center. I stopped and said hi again. I scared her. Or just creeped her out. Sometimes that happens. I look like I just walked out of Folsom after half a century. Okay, actually it happens all the time.

One night, maybe the same night, she walked by with her husband. I was sitting down the steps by my door having a smoke. He stopped at the top of my steps on the main sidewalk, kissed her passionately, and that was sweet. It’s something I’ve seen before, though. It’s a guy thing. A signal to another guy. Or guys: stay away.

I left them alone after that. I understood. And there’s never anything you can do about it; a wall has been put up. It was okay with me.

A couple of months ago, I was outside talking to my next-door neighbor. He lives closer to them than I do, so they know him. It seemed awkward for me to be standing there while the mom and the girl, now walking and talking and as precious as she could be, said “hi” to Chris but not me. It was still okay, I understand these things. And I’ve probably gotten far less pretty these fast few years. I’ve taken to shaving with the lights off. So, it’s all good.

One day the girl mistook me for Chris. Which I took as a heartwarming compliment. Oh, to see through a child’s eyes. I remember what that’s like. I said “Hi” to her and and Chris came outside and so we both were talking to the mommy and her girl.

I even met the mom’s dad, an Asian-American man close to my age, and I liked him and his infectiously wonderful laugh and easygoing nature. I got to know the family just a little. And that’s how the promise got made.

The girl’s mom mentioned that her daughter loved Christmas lights. Funny. I’ve had lights up every year I’ve lived here, but last year a section of one string didn’t light, so at the end of the holiday season I took them down and tossed them. And with my son gone, I figured Christmas was a bad day for me anyway. Christmas day 2017 was the last time I saw my son alive. I guessed it was just time to put it all away.

But when I heard my neighbor say her little girl loves Christmas lights, I said, “Well, I wasn’t going to put lights up this year, but you know, just for her, I will.”

Her mom is young, but I found her friendship touching. Her husband is a strapping, really sturdy guy. I thought of him as a type-A male with an attitude. But he’s been nice. It’s good to know names and be okay to say hi when you see someone. Because that’s what makes life easier, less lonely. And it’s how I wish everyone could be.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours washing windows and stringing the lights, which have to be run on the inside because the condo has no outside outlets. I saw the mom as I was taking a break. She and the little one were outside and I had not seen them in a couple of weeks. She had been sick. I said I was putting the lights up. She pointed to them and the girl’s eyes went wide, and she smiled.

After dark, when they were on, there was a knock on the door. Mom and the girl were there and the girl said, “Thanks, Mike!”

And my heart melted.

So here’s where I’m going with all this. Sometimes making friends takes a while. Be patient. Sometimes, good things really do happen.

Two reels of Christmas lights: $50.00

One extension cord: $9.00

One package of tinsel: $0.99

Seeing a child smile and say “thanks”:

PRICELESS.