329 Pies

December 19th 7PM: 6 Days Until Christmas

December 19th 7 PM: 6 Days Until Christmas

"Hey, Drew?" Mr. Mathews called. Mr. Mathews was hard at work in the other room packaging the pies we made yesterday and labeling them with the correct names and addresses.

"Yes, sir?"

"Can you run down to the Chinese place next door to get some food? Get yourself something too. Ms. Bailey Yanelli?" he said cheerfully.

"Yes, sir?"

"What would you like, darling?" he asked.

"You don't have to get me dinner, Mr. Mathews," I told him.

"I said; What would you like, darling?" Mr. Mathews smiled.

"Pork lo mein please," I gave in. Mr. Mathews threw Drew his wallet.

"We'll take our dinner break now," Mr. Mathews announced. I washed my hands and wandered into the store. We were all closed up for the night. My eyes went to Mr. Mathews huge picture wall. "You like my pictures?" he asked. I nodded. "You know you might see a familiar face in a few of them..."

I studied each picture. They weren't organized by year of by people but by something else.... Feeling. Most of the pictures were from family parties. I searched for that familiar face. Finally, I spotted it. Drew. "Drew!" I smiled. "When was this taken?" Mr. Mathews gently peeled the picture off the wall and turned it over.

"Mathews Christmas Party 2016," he read. 

"Wait a second! Are you and Drew related?" I asked, studying the picture. Every person in the picture was filled with laughter. I could tell it was hard to harness all that energy into one single picture.

Mr. Mathews put the picture back in its place and took down several more from the board. All of them included Drew. "Family isn't always blood," Mr. Mathews told me.

"You spend Christmas together?" I asked.

"Yes, every year. Drew's the grandson I always wished I had." Mr. Mathews told me. "You'd think a kid like him wouldn't want to have anything to do with family,"

"A kid like him?" I asked suddenly getting noisy.

"His father was always working. Always. You would never see his parents together. I swear I never did. So, it wasn't a surprise they got divorced two years ago. The father never had much of a relationship with Drew. Drew's mother told him that the sight of her son reminded her too much all of the years she wasted in an unhappy relationship. The family split apart almost instantly. I think his parents have new families of their own now. And me. My wife and I could never have children, even though we prayed for years and years to have a kid. Some things are meant to happen, some are not. Some people aren't as lucky as most. That's just the way the world works, I guess." Mr. Mathews explained.

"Everything happens for a reason." I smiled.

"Life's crazy like that. I have lived across the street for the longest time and never knew him. And then one day-" Mr. Mathews said.

"Sometimes things happen just when you least expect them to," I smiled again.

"You know for a young girl you sure do know a lot about this crazy world we live in. You're very bright, Ms. Bailey Yanelli." he told me.

"I wish people would see that," I sighed. Drew burst through the door with bags of food.

"I come with food!" Drew cheers plopping the bags on the counter. "Mrs. Lee says hello by the way,"

"What a wonderful lady! You know she's older than I am.... and that's hard to do!" Mr. Mathews smiles.