December 21, 2013

News from Lake Pressinon

 

It’s been a quiet week back in my hometown of Lake Pressinon. We had our first real snowfall of the winter, and nobody is quite sure what to do about it yet. We don’t usually get much snow before Christmas so when it comes it catches us by surprise and we all sit indoors just looking out the window at the heavy blanket that has covered everything. Perhaps, if we just let it be for a while, it will go away. If we can just hold out long enough, life will return to normal and we can go back to our routines and shopping and holiday parties, and just wait until after the holidays to be ready for snow and cold and winter.

 

Except for Frank Young, who is outside dutifully clearing his driveway and cars. You see his wife, Julie, had worked in the office at Lake Pressinon High School, and left very early every morning. So whenever there was any snow Frank would be sure to clear it off right away so that she would be able to leave in the morning. It was just one of the things that he did over the years. As the kids grew up, Frank may not have been able to do everything, but this was something that he could do, something that he could do to make his dear wife’s day a little easier.

 

So Frank was out, as he always was, clearing all the snow. And the neighbors, as they looked through their windows to see if the snow was gone, would see Frank and just shake their heads. The thing is that just two months earlier, Julie had collapsed while doing housework. She had mentioned that she was not feeling too well, but would get the dishes done before she rested. She lingered in the hospital for just a day before she passed.

 

And then Frank was left to figure out what to do with himself. After so many years of serving and helping his family, he found himself without really wanting anything for himself. That will happen after some time, usually without you even noticing it. And then the kids all move out, and one fateful day you find yourself alone, not sure how to go on. So you try to keep doing what you have always been doing, even if you’re not sure why, but it helps.

 

So Frank was out shoveling, even though he was retired and did not have anywhere to go in the morning, because it was what he did whenever it snowed. He had the house decorated with all the Christmas lights, which he did right after thanksgiving like he always did.

 

But not everything can pass by so easily. You see he had been planning to surprise his wife with a new dishwasher for Christmas. He had been saving up for most of the year, and now with the irony of it he just couldn’t buy a new one. So now he has this money that he saved and Frank doesn’t know what to do with it. He kept trying to think of something else, but without Julie to help him decide, he didn’t know what to do.

 

Finally it was his daughter Emma who talked with him and reminded him of Julie’s favorite Christmas tradition. Every Christmas the Young family would go through their presents and choose one to give to someone less fortunate. Emma of course remembered this as it was one of her least favorite Christmas traditions. But her mother would always say that to be really thankful you would give the present you liked the most. Emma, however, always figured a needy child would be more interested in socks or pajamas than an ipod.

 

So Emma told her dad that the dishwasher would certainly have been mom’s favorite present, so he should give the money to someone who needed it more for Christmas.

 

So Frank Young did exactly that and took the money and gave it to Bishop Kimball to pass on to a family that could use some extra money for the holidays.

 

Now Bishop Kimball knew who to give the money to, the real question was how. He knew the Harris family had been going through a hard time lately, but Sam Harris was determined to make it through without any help.

 

Sam was the type of person who really believed in work. That hard work was the real measure of a man. It’s not surprising, when you consider his father, old brother Harris, was known until his dying day as a man who would introduce himself by saying “I work for a living, what do you do?”

 

So Sam had spent his whole life working, from the time he was just a boy. He grew up and worked three jobs while going to college just so he could get a degree and find a nice salaried position where he could work as much as he wanted and still get paid the same amount. So he finished school and brought his young family back here to Lake Pressinon where he worked at the Whitney’s store for years and years.

 

But then this last spring old man Whitney decided it was time to retire and move to Aruba. Now no one in Lake Pressinon had ever been to Aruba, or really even knew where it was. To be honest some people in town wondered if the Whitney’s really did move to Aruba, or if they just moved to the city and didn’t want the bother having visitors or phone calls, to just spend their last years in peace.

 

The problem was that none of the Whitney’s children wanted to take over the family business. Each of them had grown up and done their own thing with their life, and had moved on. So the Whitney store closed, and Sam Harris found himself without a job for the last six months.

 

Bishop Kimball had talked with Sam to see what help they needed, but Sam would not hear of it. He was going to do all he could and his family would make do with what they had. But the Bishop knew they didn’t have enough, the Harris boys now were always too busy to go on any of the scout camps, and he could see that the girls shoes that they wore to church were small and worn out. You know, there were clues. And he knew that there was not going to be much for Christmas at their house.

 

So Bishop Kimball devised a plan, which seemed simple enough. He was going to take his Priest Quorum 1^st assistant out later in the evening and have his assistant, Parley, run up to the Harris’s door, ring the doorbell, and leave an envelope with the money at the door. A classic doorbell ditch. How can Sam Harris refuse the money now?

 

What the Bishop also knew is that this plan was not as simple as it seemed. You see, Parley was one of those young men that was always very enthusiastic to attend activities, yet seemed to always fall into terrible misfortune. He was the scout that would fall and hurt his knee on the first day of a weeklong backpack trip. The scout that would rip his tent whenever it rained;  lose his glasses in the woods, and get poison ivy looking for them, and would always lose his buddy. Sometimes it seemed there were special rules of gravity just for Parley. That if he was standing next to a creek and happened to trip, which was not too uncommon, even if he fell away from the creek he would somehow, after he hit the ground, be inexplicably pulled into the creek. The Bishop could close his eyes and review what he saw and never be able to really explain how Parley ended up in the creek.

 

But you just never give up on these young men. As long as they are willing and will come you give them every opportunity, and just hope that in the end they will go on a mission and stay active, you have to keep this hope always when you work with the young men, otherwise you would quit after the first campout. So Parley was the 1^st assistant and Bishop Kimball just always had an extra prayer in his heart that things will not go too terribly wrong.

 

And in the case of the Harris house, it seemed pretty straight forward. The Bishop explained the plan and they drove over to the Harris’s house. The Bishop parked the car and turned out the lights at the end of the block and watched as Parley went running up the street. This made Bishop Kimball nervous, and as Parley approached the Harris’s house he realized he didn’t tell Parley to stay on the sidewalk. You see, the Harris’s had landscaping. And there goes Parley running through the yard, a foot of fresh snow and he is running right through it, and the Bishop is thinking “Noo, noo, you haven’t even rung the doorbell yet.” and then he gets to the bushes by the front door, and that’s when it happened. Inevitably Parley trips and in spectacular fashion flails across the front porch and into the front door with a loud yell.

 

Parley, though shaken and cold from the night air, starts to stand, and Bishop Kimball is thinking he just might pull it off after all. But no, the door opens and there is brother Harris looking terribly alarmed. He sees this boy standing at his front door, covered in snow from head to foot, and then he sees the envelope. And Parley knows that he sees it and can feel it burning in his hand. And for a long awkward moment they just stand there looking at each other. The night clear and crisp with the stars sparkling in the sky the way they do on cold winter nights. Their breath hanging heavy in front of them.

 

And then Parley does something that no one would have expected him to do. He starts to sing.

 

(sing softly)

Silent night, Holy night

All is calm, all is bright

'Round yon virgin, mother and child

Holy infant so, tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace,

Sleep in heavenly peace.

 

And then Parley reaches out his hand with the envelope and says “Merry Christmas.” And Brother Harris takes the envelope, and replies softly “Merry Christmas.”

 

And that’s the news from Lake Pressinon, where all the women are compassionate, the men are faithful, and the children are praiseworthy.