Lou lay in her bed listening to a voice singing “Joy to the World” and the tinkling of a bell, keeping rhythm. The clear sound drifted into her room and it felt as though she was being hugged, very gently, and it felt good. She wrapped her arms across her chest giving herself a self-hug and smiled. It was early still but she decided to get up to get the day started. Amazingly, the day after Thanksgiving, the bakery was busy as people seemed to want doughnuts and stollens to watch football games on T.V. She stood up from her single bed that was pushed against the wall across from the door that opened to the rest of the apartment. She approached the window, pulled the curtain back and looked across the street to see Mike talking to a woman on the corner of the gas station lot. As usual, he was using his hands. He had always talked with his hands, very demonstrative, when he was trying to make a point. He was looking closely at the woman. The yellow hood had fallen from her head and Lou could see that she had light blond hair that even from the distance between them, she could see that it was curly. The woman looked calm and she was smiling at Mike, politely listening, and then speaking back to him, puffs of smoke emphasizing the words that were spoken. Mike turned and made a small circle, hands on hips and returned to face her. Lou could see him nod to the woman, point his finger at her, turn and head toward the doorway of the store. Lou watched the woman as she returned to the corner of the driveway entrance to the gas station and stop next to a tripod from which hung a small black kettle.
“I wonder what that is all about,” she said to herself. At that moment, the blond head looked up at her, smiled, and waved. Lou waved back. As she dropped the corner of the curtain she was holding, she noticed candles burning in the lampposts. “Joy to the World, the Lord has come…” the singing restarted but this time without the tingling of the bell. Lou smiled to herself as she spread her feet, placed her hands on her hips and began to stretch, first to the left and then to the right. As she got into her morning routine, she caught herself humming with each Christmas tune sang from the clear voice from the street below.
Lou reached inside the kitchen doorway, flipped the light switch, and instantly the room filled with white, bright light. As she passed the tables that were centered in the room, she turned knobs of the two fryers already filled with clear, cooking oil, and the two huge convection ovens that stood next to them, to the on position, getting them ready to go for the day. She walked into her office and flipped that light switch, too, and the overhead light flickered on over her desk. She walked around it , sat in the chair that faced a window that looked out to reveal the kitchen she just walked through. In the corner of the office, a coffee maker stood on a small cabinet, and it was beginning to drip coffee into the pot just as it was pre-set to do. The desk had very few items on it. An alarm clock faced her from the far-right corner that told her the time. On the opposite corner were two baskets, one for incoming orders and the other, outgoing orders, for the day. A pen stood upright from one of those fancy nameplate holders and the name on it said “Andy”. It was her father’s holder. The pen she used but she was not going to change the name.
Her attention returned to the window as she heard the tingle from the bell that was over the corner of the front door. Her eyes were expecting to see one of her two bakers, Millie, and Louis, walking into the kitchen. Instead, it was the woman in the yellow coat. Lou rose from her chair and walked through the doorway of the office.
“Can I help you?” Lou asked stopping at the corner at the table closest to the office door.
“Hi,” the woman stopped. “I’m Kristy, Louise. Sorry, you liked to be called Lou, don’t you? For Lou Brock. Hi, Lou.”
“How do you know my name?” Lou’s defenses started to rise to the surface.
Kristy smiled at her and it seemed to Lou that her bright, blue eyes smiled, too.
“Kristy. My name’s Kristy.” She had continued to walk to where Lou stood and stopped right in front of her. “This is really a nice place. I smell coffee and I would love a cup. It is a little brisk outside. Shall we?”
For some unknown reason, Lou had relaxed and smiled back at this stranger. She stepped aside and motioned for her guest to precede her into the office. Kristy walked past her, stopping to grasp Lou’s hand, and making eye contact, they walked into the room together.
Lou scooted the chair that was placed in the corner to the front of her desk/ She began to walk around to sit at her desk. Her guest continued to the coffee pot and opened the cabinet doors below the pot and pulled out two ceramic cups. She removed the coffee pot and filled the cups with the hot brew. She carefully added two dollops of dry creamer into one of them and brought them to the desk. Lou watched this exchange from her seat, and she was trying to figure out just who this person was.
“Two spoons of cream, right?” Kristy asked as she set one cup in front of Lou.
Lou nodded and Kristy smiled at her. Lou watched her walk slowly around the office, pausing to look out of the window, to the water cooler in the corner to Lou’s right, and to the copier machine alongside it, and return to the chair placed in front of the desk and sat down.
“You could do better decorating your office. Make it your own. Brighter, homier. I could help you with that,” Kristy took a sip from her coffee cup that stated, ‘I’d Rather Be in Bed’.
“Who are you?” Lou asked, leaning forward.
“I told you,” she spoke into her cup. “Kristy.”
“No,” Lou removed her hands from her cup and folded them together in front of her nd said a little more sternly. “Who are you?”
“A friend,” Kristy took another sip for the cup.
“How do you know who I am? I have never seen you in my life,” Lou continued to pressure Kristy.
“I know a lot about you,” Kristy placed her cup on the desk and leaned forward toward Lou. “I just do.”
Lou sat back and instinctively folded her arms in front of her. She carefully stared at the woman sitting in front of her, thinking.
“Are you with Mike?” she finally asked her.
“Mike?” Kristy sat back and laughed. The laugh eased Lou and she uncrossed her arms. “No, I am not with Mike.”
“Why are you singing in his driveway?” Lou asked her.
The bell tingled from the front again.
“To change Candlelight,” Kristy finished her coffee and stood to leave. “We will chat more later, ok?”
“Sure,” Lou stayed seated as Kristy nodded, smiled, and left the room.
Lou’s eyes followed her through the window as she paused to greet Millie. She saw them both laugh. Kristy looked back at her and waved. She returned the wave. Kristy watched her separate from Mille and continue out of the kitchen. Millie walked toward the office, stuck her head inside and said, “She seems nice.”
The bell above the front door tingled again.
To be continued…
My First Stories 