FanStory.com - The Christmas Presentby BethShelby

It was the week before Christmas in 1952. I sat perched on a stool in my uncle’s coffee and sandwich shop, staring at the refection of colored Christmas tree lights blinking on and off in the rain-soaked plate glass window. I was fourteen and bored because I had brought nothing along with me to read. At the moment, the shop was empty of customers. It would be hours before my dad would get off from work and come by to take me home.

Aunt Eva, my bachelor uncle’s unmarried sister, sat in the back room chopping onions. Uncle Willie sat on one of the stools smoking a cigar. He rose and went over to the jukebox, dropped in a quarter and pressed five selections. Hank Snow began wailing something about an old Christmas card. I could hardly believe in only a week Christmas would be history. The music eventually stopped and my uncle put the remains of the cigar in an ashtray and walked back to the kitchen.

I continued watching the cars pass on the rain-soaked streets outside. Suddenly, the front door opened, and a man, who looked to be in his early thirties,entered shaking the coat he had held over his head like an umbrella. He sat on one of the counter stools. I got up and walked over and asked what I could get for him. I wasn’t an official waitress, but no one stopped me when I pretended to be one.

He asked for a cheeseburger and an RC Cola. I walked back to the kitchen and gave the burger order to my uncle. Then I pulled up the lid on the drink box and located the cola among the floating ice cubes. I opened it and passed it over to him, still in the bottle.

The man appeared to have a sad expression on his face. He had curly auburn hair and a trace of freckles. He wasn’t bad-looking. I wondered if there was a way I might cheer him up.

“Your order will be ready in a few minutes," I said. “The rain is really pouring down out there, isn’t it?”

He offered a slight smile. “Yeah. It sure is, I got pretty soaked coming from work."

“You work around here?”

“I work at the Harrison Machine Shop around the corner.”

“Oh, here comes your order, I hope you enjoy it,” I said as I handed over the cheeseburger my uncle had passed through the opening from the kitchen.

I had only recently become a bit more outgoing. My self confidence had been boosted by the fact my body was starting to mature. I had noticed the guys were viewing me a little differently. At school, all of us girls were getting second looks, but there were so many of us, the competition was stiff. At a place like this, I was the only girl around. It was easier to get the attention which I was beginning to enjoy. It dawned on me there was a certain kind of power females had in the male dominated world.

The problem was the little café was no hangout for the high school crowd. Mostly, it was the older blue-collar workers from the factories and shops who patronized this place. My parents hadn’t realized yet that their only daughter was starting to mature. The truth was I was tongue-tied around guys my own age. I’d been around adults all my life, and I found them to be a lot less intimidating.

I didn’t see a ring on this guy’s finger so I figured he was fair game on which to practice the art of learning how to flirt. I moved in to see if he’d take the bait. “How’s your burger?” I asked.

“Fine! Just the way I like it. Really good. You a student over at the high school?”

The conversation was on. We kept making small talk long after his meal was finished. Once or twice, I even had him laughing. He seemed far more upbeat than when he’d first walked in. I figured I had done a good thing.

The rain had slacked off by the time Dad came from work and took me home. I soon found something to read and forgot all about the man until the following day. My aunt, who lived in the next house over, told me she had something for me. She handed me a beautifully wrapped Christmas package. She told me the man who I had been talking to the previous day had brought it in and asked her to give it to me.

Like any kid with a gift, I excitedly ripped off the wrapping paper and found a comb, brush and mirror set. I hurried back home to show it to my mom. Her reaction was not, at all, what I had expected.

“YOU GOT THIS WHERE? A Man? What man? Are you crazy? You can’t take gifts from men! You take that back right this second. Tell your aunt to give that gift back to him and to let him know you’re just a child.”

I was humiliated. Tears rolled down my cheeks. “It’s not like it’s anything expensive. It's only a dresser set. We were just talking. I didn’t know he was going to get me a gift.”

“I don’t care what it cost. You’re not taking it. I don’t want you going back over there to that place. From now on, you need to ride the school-bus home every day. You don’t need to be hanging around in town, talking to strangers.”

My poor aunt was as embarrassed as I was over the situation. She didn’t like talking to men. She’d
never had a man in her life, other than family, and she didn’t understand them.

She told me when she returned the gift, she had let him know it was my mother who wouldn’t let me keep it. She said he cried. He told her his wife had passed away the month before during childbirth. They had lost the baby as well. He said he didn’t mean anything by it. He knew I was young, but it was just that I had been nice to him. He said he didn’t have anyone else to buy a gift for at Christmas and wanted to show me he appreciated me talking to him.

This made me sad. I realized my action had hurt more than one person. I decided to lay off practicing my flirting skills. I might end up an old maid like my aunt, but I couldn’t risk this happening again.

Of course, like all my New Year’s resolutions, this one only lasted until February. When I was sixteen, I was at it again, and this time I met the man I would later marry at the same little café. He had just gotten out of the service, and he wasn’t quite nine years older than me. But that is a whole different story for another time.