Joe Willie On The Shrimpbox; "One Dime"

"One Dime"

Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his back yard in the snow.
Bobby didn't wear boots; he didn't like them and anyway he
didn't own any. The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in
them and they did a poor job of keeping out the cold. Bobby had
been in his backyard for about an hour already. And, try as he
might, he could not come up with an idea for his mother's
Christmas gift. He shook his head as he thought, "This is
useless, even if I do come up with an idea, I don't have
any money to spend."

Ever since his father had passed away three years ago,
the family of five had struggled. It wasn't because his
mother didn't care, or try, there just never seemed to be
enough. She worked nights at the hospital, but the small
wage that she was earning could only be stretched so far.
What the family lacked in money and material things, they
more than made up for in love and family unity.

Bobby had two older and one younger sister, who ran the
household in their mother's absence. All three of his sisters
had already made beautiful gifts for their mother.
Somehow it just wasn't fair.

Here it was Christmas Eve already, and he had nothing.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Bobby kicked the snow and
started to walk down to the street where the shops and
stores were. It wasn't easy being six without a father,
especially when he needed a man to talk to. Bobby
walked from shop to shop, peeking into each decorated window.
Everything seemed so beautiful and so out of reach.

It was starting to get dark and Bobby began reluctantly to
walk home when suddenly his eyes caught the glimmer of
the setting sun's rays reflecting off something along the curb.
He reached down and discovered a shiny dime.

Never before has anyone felt so wealthy as Bobby felt at
that moment. As he held his new-found treasure, a warmth
spread throughout his entire body; he walked into the first
store he saw. His excitement quickly turned cold when the
salesperson told him that he couldn't buy anything with only a dime.

He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line. When the
shop owner asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the
dime and asked if he could buy one flower for his mother's
Christmas gift. The shop owner looked at Bobby and his
ten cent offering. Then he put his hand on Bobby's
shoulder and said to him, "You just wait here and I'll see
what I can do for you."

As Bobby waited he looked at the beautiful flowers and
even though he was a boy, he could see why mothers and
girls liked flowers. The sound of the door closing as the
last customer left jolted Bobby back to reality. All alone in
the shop, Bobby began to feel alone and afraid. Suddenly
the shop owner came out and moved to the counter.
There, before Bobby's eyes, lay twelve long-stemmed red
roses, with leaves of green and tiny white flowers all
tied together with a big silver bow. Bobby's heart sank
as the owner picked them up and placed them gently into
a long white box. "That will be ten cents, young man," the
shop owner said, reaching out his hand for the dime.
Slowly, Bobby moved his hand to give the man his dime.
Could this be true? No one else would give him a thing for
his dime!

Sensing the boy's reluctance, the shop owner added,
"I just happened to have some roses on sale for ten cents
a dozen. Would you like them?"

This time Bobby did not hesitate, and when the man placed
the long box into his hands, he knew it was true. Walking
out the door that the owner was holding for Bobby, he heard
the shop keeper say, "Merry Christmas, son."

As he returned inside, the shop keeper's wife walked out.
"Who were you talking to back there and where are the
roses you were fixing?"

Staring out the window, and blinking the tears from his
own eyes, he replied, "A strange thing happened to me
this morning. While I was setting up things to open the
shop, I thought I heard a voice telling me to set aside a
dozen of my best roses for a special gift. I wasn't sure
at the time whether I had lost my mind or what, but I set
them aside anyway. Then just a few minutes ago, a little
boy came into the shop and wanted to buy a flower for his
mother with one small dime. "When I looked at him, I saw
myself, many years ago. I, too, was a poor boy with nothing
to buy my mother a Christmas gift. A bearded man, whom I
never knew, stopped me on the street and told me that he
wanted to give me ten dollars. When I saw that little boy
tonight, I knew who that voice was, and I put together a dozen
of my very best roses." The shop owner and his wife hugged
each other tightly, and as they stepped out into the bitter
cold air, they somehow didn't feel cold at all.