I'm fine

    His name is Callum; he's a thirty-four-year-old who works in a big bank office.

    Like every day since nearly fifteen years, he woke up early, at half past five, got quickly dressed and went to the kitchen in his small apartment near the big city for breakfast and to read the newspaper.
    Once finished, he caught his bag, locked the door and took the public transport during near an hour.

    Callum knew most of the people who were taking the bus with him. So, like usually, he begun to talk with them by asking how they were. “I’m fine”, he replied with a smile when they returned the question.
    He often helped the other when he could; he particularly remembered a day which a young boy was hungry because he woke up too late and hadn't enough time to take a breakfast. So, the man gave him the croissant he bought for his pause.
    However, nobody needed help this time.

    Afterwards, he walked about ten minutes and stopped in front of a small store. The man stayed staring at the store window for a long time, like usually; he was hesitating. As he was leaving, he finally stopped, turned around and entered the shop.
    A few minutes later, he came out with a small smile, his pocket rounded.

    At ten to eight, Callum entered to the imposing building where he worked. He greeted his colleagues, discussed a bit and begun his work.
    When his colleagues had a problem, they often asked him for help, what he always did merrily.

    At the pause, everybody discussed about their family, weekend or simply about the news. One taught them that his mother was severely ill. We could see the sadness on his worried face, so Callum comforted and supported him.
    That was one of the reasons why everybody loved him: he was always here when somebody needed help, even when he didn’t know the person.

    During the morning, the boss visited him; he ordered the young man to do extra work because of a deadline.
    A colleague, who was listening, proposed him to do the task herself, arguing that callum did help her the last week. However, the man responded softly "I'm fine with it, Anita, but thank you for the offer". She may did insist but nothing made him change his mind.

    Noon arrived; everybody leaved the building to eat. Usually, Callum went with them to a restaurant near the office but, this day, he came to a bakery and bought a ham sandwich.

    He ate it in the small parc of the centre town, watching at the children playing at hide-and-seek.
    As he was finishing his food, the kids stopped their game: the travelling ice cream seller was installing his stall. They all went to buy one except a young girl, who was sadly looking at her wallet.
    Callum stood up, went to the child and asked her what was wrong. She answered that she hadn’t enough money to buy an ice cream then looked at his friends.
The man laughed.

    “If it’s just that, take them!”, he said, handing her few moneys. She looked up, astonished.
    “Really?”
    “Really”.
    “Don’t you need it? I mean…”
    “I’m fine, I’m not short of money”, he stopped her, putting it in her hands.
    “You know what? Keep the change to buy something for you and your friends, ok?”
    Tears shone at the edge of her eyes. She threw herself on him and gave him a hug. She wiped her tears, stammered a few words of thanks and went to the ice cream seller, jumping for joy.
    The man smiled and went back to the office.

    The afternoon passed quickly; the only special thing that happened was a colleague asking if he could finish a part of his job because he had to leave earlier that evening, promising to give him a hand in return, which he accepted gladly.

    Six p.m.; The office slowly emptied. Several minutes later, Callum was the only one person remained in the building. He absolutely wanted to finish these few folders.
    When he finally done it, it was nearly eight o’clock. Exhausted, he went out of the building and walked under the flickering lights of streetlamps.

    Instead of heading to the nearest bus station, he returned to the small parc and stopped in front of a giant-old-tree; a weeping willow he noticed at noon, a beautiful shaft that stood proudly in the middle of this corner of calm and nature.
    He sat on a bench near it. The man sighed slowly, bent his head back and stared at the nascent stars. From his eyes came a few tears as he was passing his hand through his pocket. A thin, sad smile split his face. He closed his eyes as tears ran down his cheeks.
    “I’m fine”.
    He laughed pitifully.
    “I’m fine”.
    He took a rope out of his pocket, walked slowly towards the tree and make a node.

“I’m fine”.