His Name Was Bobby
Posted by: tz8cy5 <tz8cy5@...>
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 house hold 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, looking into each decorated window. Everything
seemed so beautiful and so out of reach. It was starting to get dark and Bobby
reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught the glimmer of the
setting sun's rays reflecting off of 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 and 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 stem, 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,
Bobby heard the shop keeper say, "Merry Christmas, son." As the shopkeeper
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.