21 minutes
484 words
Two newlyweds
Two holidays
One tree
Margaret Eppes had always wanted a Christmas tree, and Jewish or not, Alan Eppes was going to honor her wishes. The problem was, he really didn't know much about Christmas trees. His family had been religious Jews, and were scandalized when their little boy became a hippie. He hated to think of their reaction when they came to visit and saw the tree.
He walked down the aisle of the discount store, overwhelmed by the selection of lights, doodads and decorations. If he'd had half a brain, he would have brought Margaret along. But, no, he wanted to surprise her. She was taking her bar exam today, and he thought this would brighten her day.
Speaking of brightening, he was going to have to pick out some lights. He picked up a package of big multicolored lights. The tree tied to the roof of his car was only five feet tall. These lights would overwhelm the little Charlie Brown tree. Next to the big lights were little twinkle lights. Those would work. Now to figure out how many packages he'd need. He tried to picture the circumference of the tree and estimate how many feet of lights he would need. He settled on four packages.
Ornaments. The individual ornaments caught his eye first. But when he figured out how many he'd need, he knew they would be way too expensive. He settled for eight boxes of shiny balls. Someone had said that you should put large ornaments on the bottom and smaller ones at the top. So that implied that he should buy various sizes. Then tinsel. He got the impression that tinsel was mandatory. Though he'd heard you shouldn't use tinsel if you had a cat. Well, he and Margaret had no pets, so the tinsel should be safe. He tossed four boxes into the cart.
When he got to the checkout line, the clerk glanced at his collection and smiled. "First Christmas tree?"
"Yes ma'am. I'm Jewish, and my wife, well, she wants a tree. So I had to start from scratch."
"What a sweetheart you are," she said. "Do you have your tree already?"
"Tied to the roof of my car," he said proudly.
"How about a stand?"
"A what?"
Glancing at the line of impatient shoppers behind Alan, the clerk called the bag boy over. "Tommy, would you get this gentleman a Christmas tree stand?"
"Sure Miss Davis. What kind?"
Seeing Alan's panicked expression, Miss Davis said, "Grab him the P-100. It's exactly what he needs." When Tommy headed off for the Christmas aisle, Miss Davis continued ringing up the rest of Alan's order. She glanced up at him, smiling, "It's also our cheapest, sturdiest stand. You go to this much trouble to please your wife, and the two of you will be enjoying that stand for the next fifty Christmases."
Alan chuckled. "From your lips to God's ears."