Kevin had a difficult time shaking the uneasy feeling he had after talking with Peter. The situation with Josh had made him re-think his own behavior. Things he had said, innocent but maybe unwanted physical contact with women he worked with or saw most days. It made him wonder how he was perceived.
Judith may have also saved a few men from themselves when she stood up to Josh.
On his way out of the office that afternoon, Kevin stopped by Kathy’s desk. She had been very worried for Judith after what happened at the party that weekend. He wanted Kathy to know everything was going to be fine.
He pulled up a chair to her desk at receptionist counter. It was the end of th day, there as little chance a client would come in this late. Kevin liked talking with Kathy. She was honest and open, if not a little too trusting. He wanted to apologize to her for not doing more to protect her from Josh’s advances.
Kathy nearly cried when Kevin told her how sorry he was that he didn’t do more to keep Josh from bothering her. After what happened at the party, Judith had apologized too. She knew that Josh had been harassing the other women in the office and her decision to not stand up for herself, made him think it was acceptable to keep doing whatever he wanted.
She had thought about the situation the rest of the weekend. A long talk with her father, finally admitting to him what had been going on, helped make her feel better too. He wanted to kick Josh’s ass, stopped only by a coughing fit. Monday’s announcement that Judith wouldn’t be fired, was a great relief to her. That Josh would not be back for a while, possibly never, was like a dream come true.
Kevin saw the box of candy bars on her desk. Changing the subject, Kevin asked about Kathy’s son, Ryan.
She instantly brightened. She told him about how the little boy was now in second grade and had started playing soccer. Ryan was doing well in school, making friends and showing a innate talent for the piano. Now, that she no longer worried about losing her job, they were planning a trip that summer to Disney World.
Pulling out his wallet, Kevin bought the last two fundraiser chocolates, handing over several of the dollars he won that morning including one that was edged with red ink. He began to feel guilty about the office pool now. Wondering how Kathy and Judith would react to finding out the men had been betting on which one would be the first to physically respond to the office lech.
As they talked some more, Kevin began to see how pretty Kathy really was. when she smiled, her whole face lit up. She hadn’t smiled much lately. Hopefully that would change with Josh gone. Once outside the building and in his car on his way home, Kevin stopped off at a local florist. Using the remainder of the money he won, Kevin order a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to Kathy the next day. He asked that the card have a simple message: “Dinner tonight? Kevin” – hoping it wasn’t too simple, or too forward. Maybe he should send flowers to Judith too, thanking her for taking out Josh and giving him the courage to get to know Kathy better.
—-
Kathy waved to Kevin as his left the office. Smiling, she thought, “now, there’s a guy I could see myself falling for.” Before packing up her own things to go home, she put the candy bar box in with the other office recycling, and counted the money in the pay envelop. After recounting for a final figure, she wrote a personal check out for the full amount, sealing it inside the envelop with Ryan’s name and class information written on the front.
He wouldn’t be the top seller, but he did sell enough to earn the prize he wanted… a cheap handheld electronic game. He’d be happy.
She tucked the envelop into her bag and the cash into her wallet. She needed to stop at the post office on the way home, and now she could skip a trip to the bank. Her dad had asked her to bring him some postcards. He wouldn’t say who he wanted to send them to, only that he was going to need about a dozen of them.
The line at the post office was filled with people sending Christmas packages. Kathy quickly found two holiday packs of cards and stepped into line. All the registers were open and her wait wasn’t long. A quick exchange of cash, include an old dollar bill with red ink stamped on the edges, and Kathy was back on the road with her dad’s cards.
The moment Kathy walked in the door at home, her son Ryan was racing down the hall to greet her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he gave her a big hug. Reaching down to pull him into her, she kissed the top of his head, breathing in his little boy small. A combination of grass, warm milk and crayons. To her, it was the most wonderful perfume.
Dropping her bag on the foyer table, Ryan took his mother’s coat to hang in the all closet. They walked hand in hand to the kitchen, where her dad was putting the finishing touches on dinner.
“You’re going to make someone a great wife someday Charlie,” Kathy planted a kiss on his cheek, dipping a finger in the pot of her dad’s signature spaghetti sauce.
“Eh… stay out of that,” playfully smacking her hand, Charlie returned her greeting.
“How’ya feeling today dad,” Kathy took the can of soda Ryan got for her out of the refrigerator. Opening the tab, she sat at the kitchen bar to watch as dinner was served. “You had a doctor’s appointment today, right? Everything okay with you?”
Charlie spooned out three bowls of pasta, then ladled on generous amounts of sauce. He put a shaker of shredded Parmesan on the table along with another smaller jars of crushed red pepper. He and Kathy enjoyed a little spice in their spaghetti.
“Every thing went great,” he said, handing Ryan a napkins and pointed to where he needed to keep it in his lap. “Doc says I’ll out live you.”
Kathy gave her dad a hard look, never sure if he was telling her the truth, or holding back bad news to protect her. She made a mental note to call his doctor in the morning to find out the real story. When he came to live with her and Ryan, he signed over a power of attorney to her, so she knew she could get answers from the doctor she wouldn’t necessarily get from her father
“I stopped by the post office today, dad,” Kathy said in-between bites of pasta. “I picked up those post cards you wanted.”
“Thanks, sweetie,” shaking pepper flakes generously over his plate. “The Boy and I have a project in the works.”
Charlie winked at this grandson, and Ryan did his best to return the gesture, only managing to close both eyes in the process.
“Are you going to tell me what it is,” Kathy slurped a string of spaghetti, making a loud smacking noise, just like her dad taught her.
“Nope, it’s a secret,” Ryan, squirmed in his seat, sauce on his chin where he had slurped his own pasta.
Kathy told Ryan about selling the last two candy bars, putting him over his sales goal. he almost fell over in his chair from his celebratory seat dance, but did manage to knock over is milk glass. Neither his mom or granddad yelled at him, just pointed to the roll of paper towels on the counter. At his age, they still expected him to make messy mistakes, but he was old enough to clean up most of them himself.
After dinner, Ryan helped clear the dirty dishes off the tables while his mom loaded the dishwasher. Kathy sat down in the living room with her son, to read with him while her dad thumbed through the newspaper.
He had helped Ryan with his homework before Kathy got home, so after pleading for Kathy to read him a second chapter, he gave in to taking his bath without putting up too much of a fuss.
Once Ryan was tucked in and kissed good night, Kathy sat down with her dad to tell him about what had really happened at the Christmas party that weekend.
Her father was understandably irate about how Josh had treated his daughter, but whooped so loud at the description of Judith’s response to his roaming hand, Kathy was worried he would wake Ryan.
They both laughed at the idea of someone so professional and reserved as Judith breaking a man’s nose.
“Peter, even told her the company would pay to replace her dress, since Josh bled all over it and ruined it,” Kathy, wiped a laugh tear from her cheek. “Through all of it, Peter did try. After this, the Big Boss Guy can’t ignore what a jerk his son is. He’ll lose too many good managers and senior staff. Josh is gone, at least for now.”
“If the Old Man does ever let him come back to work there, he better put the putz on notice,” Charlie, jabbed the air between them with his finger, “or I’ll come down there and kick his bony ass myself.”
Kathy grabbed her dad’s finger, shaking his whole arm, “I know you would dad.”
“I just wish you had told me about all of this earlier,” Charles reclaimed his hand.
“I should have, I was just scared to make trouble, we need me to keep this job,” Kathy straightened up the school books Ryan had left out on the coffee table. “I wouldn’t have let him hurt me, I know at least that much.”
They talked some more about her job, and about how Ryan was doing in school. Without a father around, Charlie had stepped into that role easily. When Kathy had been Ryan’s age, Charlie wasn’t much of a hands-on mind of father. He wanted to make sure Ryan had a strong male role model, and had found he enjoyed being active in his school projects.
That’s why Charlie had asked Kathy to get some postcards. A project he was helping Ryan with for a history class.
“Are you going to tell me about the postcards,” Kathy finally asked.
“Ryan wants to surprise you, but he wants to do a balloon release,” Charlie explained. “It’s for a project for school. He’s writing his name, his teacher’s name and school address, along with a short note on each card. I’m going to help tie them to a helium balloon and release them. The idea is to see how many of his notes get answered.”
“That sounds really cool,” Kathy was impressed. “Does he need more postcards. the more he sends out, stands to reason, the better chance he has for getting more back.”
“I think the teacher has asked that each student only send out a dozen cards, so we have plenty,” Charlie said. “Ryan wants to make you a scrapbook for the replies. Once the project is over, then he wants to send more out. Maybe make up some to leave when we go on trips.”
“That sounds like a lot of fun, but I don’t think I like strangers having our home address,” Kathy went to get the cards out of her purse. She was standing in the foyer, wondering about Ryan leaving personal cards inviting anyone to send them mail.
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll have him use my Post Office Box address,” Charlie reassured her. “Our town will be given away, but not our home one, and Ryan was only going to initially only use his first name.”
“That would work,” Kathy handed the packages of cards to her dad. “Who knows, Ryan might be able to turn this into a book. He’d be famous.”
—
Wyatt had been with the postal service for the past 25 years. First as a carrier and now, the last five as a front line supervisor. He preferred being on the streets, less chance of having to interact with the customers. He’d get a few who liked to meet him at their mail box, chatting him up like they thought they knew him, but most of his day was spent driving around town listening to his sport talk radio and enjoying the fresh air. Even on rainy days, it was better than being cooped up inside with complaining customers and co-workers.
He did occasionally get alone with regulars like Kathy. She would come in for a book of stamps or to pick up an oversized package, and was always pleasant, always smiling. She is a person who said ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ Where when most people called him ‘sir’ it was meant as a insult, when she said it, it sounded genuinely respectful, as if she could actually say it with a capital S.
She told him she was stopping on her way home to buy postcards for her dad. Wyatt liked that, that Kathy was so helpful to her father. Most adult children nowadays abandoned their older parents, especially if they needed any sort of medical attention, like Kathy’s dad. Not like his own son, who never called, never came by for a visit, ungrateful brat.
Kathy handed Wyatt two packages of postcards, and several loose dollar bills, apologizing for so many ones. He shrugged her off, telling her ones spend as easy as bigger bills, it was all good. She thanked him, wished his happy holidays, and was gone. Not for the first time, he wished his kids were more like Kathy.
After she left, he took his time calling the next person in like, He methodically turned each of the dollars Kathy gave him in the same direction, George facing up and to the right. That’s when Wyatt spotted the odd bill marked with red ink.
Setting it aside, he pulled a replacement from his jacket pocket to put back into the register, then waved the next customer to his station. Holidays always meant long lines and difficult customers. He just tried to keep his composure and not reach over the counter to throttle anyone. Some days were harder than others, but finding interesting bill like that one, made it a little more tolerable.
He kept a stash of ones in his pocket just for occasions like this. He had found a couple silver certificates this way. Most people don’t pay attention to their money, especially the lowly one dollar bill. It was like the penny of paper money. You can’t buy much today with only a dollar, even drink machine require an extra quarter most times. It was easier to just drop five coins than try to feed a crumpled dollar into the slot.
He didn’t think ink on the bill made it particularly more valuable, but it was worth a closer look later. Despite that, he planned to take it out of circulation, keeping it as a part of his collection, not as an investment, but as an oddity.
Once he saw that the line had grown by a another half dozen, harried customers, Wyatt finally called the next in line. He plastered on a fake smile, and tried to make it until his break.
The day was brisk, but the sun was out and there was no wind, so Wyatt panned to take his lunch outside. Most of his co-workers were too wimpy to dine outdoors in winter, but he enjoyed it. The cold would keep the others indoors and he’d have the picnic pavilion to himself. Taking his packed sandwiches, a thermos of coffee – his only concession to the chill in the air, and his newspaper, Wyatt clocked out for the next hour.
Spreading out the Daily News, Wyatt opened his thermos and began to read what was happening in the world. He checked out the box scores of ball games he missed the night before, then perused the local news. It all disgusted him. The world was run by a gaggle of idiots.
Closing the paper, he dug out the old bill to give it a closer look. Other than the red ink stamped on the edges, it was rather unremarkable. It was early 1960s G series out of
Chicago. The lettering itself was only a website. Wyatt speculated it would allow him to track the movements of the dollar bill. It could be interesting, but otherwise pointless.
Suddenly the wind picked up, and the air became preceptively colder. Wyatt’s newspaper fluttered violently and took off across the yard. He had to chase after the pages before the whole thing disintegrated, leaving litter across the entire parking lot. As he tried to stop the arrant pages, he forgot about the dollar bill he was holding. Reaching for the last sheet of news paper, he let go of the paper money and it flew off on the wind.
Already tired from pursuing the newspaper, Wyatt watched it go without regret. It was not worth the extra time he would need to track the dollar down before it was lost forever to him. He watched as the wind whipped it around, swirling across the street and down the sidewalk.
Freedom!
I was not meant to be hidden away. My purpose is far greater than that. I am the catalyst for change – good, bad, virtuous or evil.
My time is done here, it is not destined for me to be held captive again. I have more to do. More lives to pass through, more changes to evoke.
It feels good to be on the wind once again, floating, twisting, drifting on the thermals, flying above the street. Looking for yet another life to transform.
