Something comes out of an elevator

the gift in the middle?

I met a man 
I'll call him Henry
and his hair was as white as white can be
His eyes were hazel-gray, white and hazy
His skin was chapped dry from the sun in Miami

I could see it was peeling 
as he stepped out of the elevator
He told me he was almost ninety

He said he had an appointment with someone
but the girl was asking for identification
so he went out to get his wallet 
from the car to check in

but the thing is
he was on the wrong floor
I wasn't that girl
and we just don't service what he was looking for

My first thought was,
"Do you have an appointment here?"
and I said that really

because again
I was looking at the next task
the next person to help get inside Pilates

The more I got lost in 
his stream of consciousness
halfway through that conversation
where I wasn't even talking

I realized that question 
need not be answered
Maybe he stepped out of the elevator 
for another reason

He said
"Raise your hand if you want to talk
I'm going to give you a test later"
but I wasn't his pupil either

He started telling me stories
Miami
New York
California

The scenes just kept changing
The timelines just didn't align

One moment, World War II
then the other, integration as a teacher in North Miami
then back to New York again
maybe as a banker on Wall Street

then in California
where he was paid a salary for a job 
that didn't match its description

He had also met a girl
He said one as sweet at that, as one can be
that wanted the beaches down south
or so it seems

to make her smile
he decided to pack their memories
and send them all to Miami

He started talking about his friend named Junior
who signed up for the army
Was it World War II again?
I do not know
I didn't ask

But one thing he did say was this:
his friend said, "Henry, I'm changing my name 
and joining the army"
Henry asked him, "Why?"
then he said, "Honor for family"

I stared into those gray eyes
for some meaning
to anchor the biography
with some dates, maybe

But with no intermission, he said,
"I'm going to give you another quiz in French,
so don't take off your jacket,
because that would be cheating"

Then I realized something
from those scattered memories

I can't help but think, over and over,
there's a gift in the in-between
that this job in itself somehow is a gift
because I got to ask myself the real question:
"What to do with what God 
has placed in front of me?"

I know I have not mastered
this art of being present in the middle

But I can't stop 
seeing those lines vibrating in the air
when I close my eyes
I had to go to work that day to meet Henry

because there are so many blessings
that one cannot purchase with insurance cards
the gift of memories
that seem to flow linearly

And you may wonder
what happened to Henry that day
but I'll keep it a secret
because that wasn't the meaning of the story

He came out of the elevator
with no intermission
organizing scenes
that he couldn't remember

He said
"I'm going to give you a quiz"
But
he gave me a lesson.

---

Heart Call:

Your everyday blessings too my friend are a gift from God. A Sound Mind. Health. Family. Job.

• Are you looking at the blessings in your life for what they actually are?

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Photo Credits: Photo by Zakaria Zayane.