The Giving
With all your science can you tell me how it is, and whence it is, that light comes into your soul? ---Thoreau
He stepped into the office quietly, ducking his head down and peering around from under the brim of his hat. He nodded at Mary silently and continued to look about the room. Finally he pushed his hat back off his head.
"Is there something I can help you with, Vin?"
He nodded again, a quick, sharp nod. "I brought you yer present."
"My present?"
"Yep." He pulled his hand from the pocket of his coat and held out a small mason jar, filled with colored glass beads.
She smiled brightly and took it in both hands. She turned it over and around so that the little beads rolled inside the jar.
"Thank you."
"You gotta put it in the window."
"The window?"
Nodding, he reached out to her. She handed him the jar.
He turned and walked to the window, and set the jar on the ledge in the center, where the sun blazed through the glass pane into the office. Instantly the room was filled with a thousand colored strands of light, bouncing off the walls and the desk and the printer and Mary and Vin.
She gasped in astonishment. He turned at the sound and was saddened to see her eyes welling with tears. He turned back to look at the window ledge.
"There ain't enough color out here for a woman. Or a man, I reckon."
"I think there's just enough, Vin."
He turned back to her, smiled and nodded.
"I reckon. Well, Merry Christmas to ya, then."
He slipped quietly out the door to leave her standing there alone in a cascade of light.
The End