2014/12/23 A Christmas Story...Retread
A few years back Gigi and I were in Vero for
Christmas. The “Woman with the Brown Coat” is one of my favorite
stories so you get it again whether you like it or not..and it
happened just the way it was written. As a matter of fact, I liked
it well enough I'm gonna publish it on the blog and send it as an
email since some of you follow the Blog and some the Spot only.
Sorry about not sending photos but broadband is not very
broad in the Bahamas. Photos will probably have to wait until we
“reach” Black Point where they have real wifi.
Woman With the Brown Coat:
It was a couple of days before Christmas and
Gigi and I had taken the bus out to the mall to see “Lincoln”
(must see movie, by-the-way). The bus's air breaks had just
announced a stop near Publix Super Market and I could see a short
stub of a lady in a brown coat standing near a grocery cart with 4 or
5 heavy bags of groceries inside and a young black man standing on
the opposite side of the cart.
She was a short roundish woman with bowling pin
legs, a pair of black, road weary shoes and white stockings rolled to
the knees like tight garters. Her hair was clean, stringy and of the
salt and pepper variety that hung to the shoulders of her dusty brown
coat. She was one of those ladies that could have been 50, 80, or
anywhere in between nor could her “race” be known simply by
looking. She might have been Black, White, or Latino but I could not
tell. Her eyes were cold black with a twinkle of arthritic pain set
in a round face with a smile that gave your heart a lift just by its
presents.
As the door opened to the bus the young black
man on the other side of her cart grabbed his single bag of
groceries, bolted for the door, pushed his way inside, and slid into
a seat toward the middle of the bus. The Lady In The Brown Coat had
barely been able to awkwardly turn, square her self with the cart,
and start her struggle to lift her heavy bags by the time the young
man was seated. She was in obvious pain and loosing the struggle.
My heart said, “help her” but before I
could move two young Black Men with the grace of gazelles cleared the
door as if floating on air and were at her side in an instant. One
gently touched her shoulder, she looked up with questioning eyes that
broke into a Christmas smile as one man took charge of the bags and
the the other young man helped her to board the bus. The young
White Man in front of me quickly moved his bags from the seat next to
him and slid over to make room for The Lady With The Brown Coat near
the front of the bus to make it easier for her on exit. Her young
helpers, without so much as a word, simply vanished into the
anonymity of the bus's interior as the bus pulled away from the curb
headed for the Hub to transfer its inhabitants to waiting buses.
The last I saw of the Lady With The Brown Coat
was at the transit hub when a young White Woman scooped up her
groceries, helped her down the steps, and began chattering away as
they slowly made their way arm in arm to the next bus.
Neither, race, nor age, nor the lighting speed
of today's society had mattered. The spirit of Christmas was on that
bus in Vero Beach that day and had warmed its way into the hearts of
most of us (one young man excluded). Christmas spirit, humanity,
common decency, whatever you want to call it hangs around this
time of year, every year waiting... just waiting... to warm the heart
of an unsuspecting passersby. More often than not it succeeds.
Merry Christmas,
Fairwinds & Rum Drinks,
Vic
PS - I will get out a Blog on the crossing...when I decompress a bit.
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