There was a corner store unlike any corner store I'd ever seen before I moved here. It was stuck in the middle of a residential area, no other stores around for blocks. In fact it looked more like a house that sold stuff than it looked like a store. On its side was a fading picture of some woman in a one piece swimsuit drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola. It had been painted a long time ago, in the forties maybe. And at the front of the building there was a sign saying 'pick up a carton of Coca-Cola.' Did they come in cartons once?

I did most of my shopping there. It was close and it was quaint. So it happened that on Saturday I was in there picking up cans of soup and milk and cheese when I saw Mr. Albert walk in. I came up to him and said 'hi' as he rummaged through one of the shelves.

Happy

"Did you just get back from your trip?" I asked. He nodded.

"How was it?"

Peaceful

"That sounds great. I was just thinking, actually, about inviting you to Christmas dinner tomorrow night. I know Christmas isn't for a few days yet, but...I thought you might be interested."

He nodded.

"Ok, great. It'll be ready about seven o'clock, so you can drop in anytime before that. Say five?"

He nodded. Anticipating

"Julie's all excited about the holidays. She even made me put up the tree the other night. It's just a plastic thing but she gets so excited about it."

Understand

"I don't know. It's hard for me to get excited about it. I remember when I was real young we had a real one. It reached up about forty feet into the air and there was so much more on it. Also, we planted some beans and lentils in a flower pot two weeks ago and built a nativity scene around the sprouts as was mom's tradition."

Beautiful

"Yeah, I guess it was beautiful. Oh well, as much as I'd like to I can't be a kid again, right?"

Mr. Albert shook his head. For a moment I got lost in those green eyes. There was nothing in there. No emotions. I felt sorry for him. But his box seemed happy.

"Hmmm," I thought about it, "Well, I guess I'd better be going. I'll see you then?"

He nodded. I went up to the counter and paid. Waving goodbye I stepped out of the store and trudged on through the snow on my way home.

I'd bought candles for the evening and strategically placed them around the house. I always liked how candles had originally been used on Christmas trees rather than light. I suppose it was only a matter of time before Fire Regulations did away with that fun. Still, candles really make the house feel warm and that night they gave a really orange glow off of all the hardwood, evoking in the rooms a closed-in feeling, like the walls were hugging you. And looking outside at the cold snow only strengthened the feeling. I'd set up the table in the room just outside the living room where the tree was.

Also, I bought some special cheeses, for cheese was a favorite food of mine. I'd bought red wine too. The color seemed appropriate even though we were having turkey for dinner. And I'd put on my dress. The one I rarely wore for it was long and draped, and was backless. I had a nice back. It was the kind of dress I never felt could be taken out of the house. It belonged in the home, on my body and only on a night like this. It felt very right. I had just finished making a quick check on the turkey when there was heavy shuffling heard outside the house and the doorbell rang.

"It's Mr. Albert!" yelled Julie.

"It's Mr. Albert!" yelled Ella, who had only heard of Mr. Albert but who was caught up in the excitement none-the-less. They ran to the door. I heard it creak open from the kitchen.

"Wow! Where'd you get that?!" asked Julie, "Amaljia! Come here. Look at what Mr. Albert brought."

I sashayed my way gracefully into the front hall where I met with what I saw with uncertainty and a little bit of hesitance at first. But then Mr. Albert dragged the enormous thing in and placed in down on the floor of the hallway. It was a beautiful seven foot long Christmas tree.

I smiled at him and he nodded looking at my dress.

Lovely

I smiled and stepping up to the door to shut it behind him I looked outside and saw the long pillowy trail the tree had made as it was dragged from Mr. Albert's house to mine. I shut the door.

"Let's put it up!" yelled Julie. Mr. Albert took off his jacket and mitts to reveal a very nice tuxedo. I'd wondered where he'd managed to find that. He was a man of many surprises. Nice surprises.

They dragged the tree into the living room and set it down. Mr. Albert looked at our plastic tree.

Pathetic

He started to take off the decorations. Ella quickly caught on to the idea and started to help him take off the bulbs and stuff. Mr. Albert found a bulb that had belonged to my mother. The only one that had survived Christmases with Julie setting up the tree. I don't know why my mother had it. She'd gotten it before she'd married, before she even celebrated Christmas. He stared at it a long time.

Beautiful

"It was my mother's," I say. He puts it away in the box and continues to strip the tree of the only dignity it has remaining until it is just a skinny, muscle-less knock-kneed boy standing there, naked and shaking. Ella and Julie took the tree and with Mr. Albert went to the back door. Opening it up they began to chant "One!" They swung it back, "Two!" they swung it back even further, "Three!!" and it flew, or I should say warbled into the air ungracefully and landed in the snow. The strong, cold wind was already starting to blow snow over it, burying it.

I went back into the kitchen several times to prepare things and each time I came back they had progressed a little further. The stand had come up. The tree was set up. It was beginning to thaw. They had even brought some ornaments over from Mr. Albert's house.

I had brought some wine out for both Mr. Albert and myself and I watched and sipped on wine as I sat on the couch and watched the tree go up before me. Julie and Ella were enthralled and thrilled by the whole event. And when it was finally done, the mammoth object huddled in the corner. It sort of reminded me of mother. In her early days, elegant and decorated.

We all stood back and admired it. The dim light seemed to slip in from outside and form a puddle on the floor. It looked as if the tree was standing in the middle of a lake. Then Mr. Albert pulled something out of his pocket and hung it on a branch. It was the cardboard Christmas ornament Julie had made in school, with the family on it and the cat. Mr. Albert was right. That was the final touch that it needed.

The oven buzzer went off and dinner was ready.