Two Christmas stories, two different endings.
We must help the poor as Christmas approaches.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Christmas Eve in Brooklyn. It is snowing. an old beggar is walking with difficulty. He is clearly exhausted, probably due to the freezing cold and malnutrition.
A Rolls-Royce pulls up alongside him, and the rear window rolls down.
The poor man looks inside and recognizes a childhood friend. The passenger also recognizes him, gets out of the limousine, and asks his driver to wait for him. He takes his friend by the arm and suggests they walk a few steps together.
The beggar said to him:
– “I see you’ve done well in business.”
– “Well, tax problems like everyone else, “they” want to steal all my money, but overall it’s not going too badly, and how are you?”
– “I have to say it’s not going very well.”
While walking, the rich friend is intrigued by a “click clack” that is heard with each step the poor man takes.
– “What is this ‘click clack’?” he asks her.
– “The front of my shoes is unglued and I can’t afford another pair.”
The rich man takes a large wad of €500 bills from his pocket, wrapped in a rubber band. He removes the rubber band, gives it to his friend and says:
– “Here! Put the elastic band on!… It won’t make a “click clack” sound anymore.”
But it’s Christmas and I don’t want to give you a bad impression.
About Christmas stories….,
Last year on Christmas Eve, the restaurant “Le Pamplemousse” in Las Vegas was packed. Late in the evening, the door opened and an old man with a white beard came in, wrapped in a long, used coat. Although there was no snow, it was very cold outside (by Las Vegas standards). I thought I recognized Santa Claus, exhausted from his long tour. He seemed really exhausted. He stood in the entrance and said to me:
– “feed me!”
In principle (and it’s unfortunate) but we don’t give this habit to beggars because we would have a queue every evening in front of the restaurant, especially during rush hour. There are places for that in Las Vegas. They all come here hoping, I think, to find a rich childhood friend with lots of rubber bands around their bills,,, ?) And then also we have a “dress code”, a formal outfit required, especially for Christmas Eve and we have the right to refuse anyone who has no respect for the attire, especially towards those who dress for the occasion. We often have Rolls Royces with customers with bills wrapped in rubber bands…
I tell him I’m sorry but it’s not possible at this point… I feel especially embarrassed for the customers who are all well dressed for the occasion.
< Feed me !>
I tell him again that I’m sorry.
– <feed me, I have money> (feed me, I have money…>
I felt that he was not going to take another step and perhaps even take root.
It was especially important for me to move it out of the way because it was in the way as customers were coming in and the waiters were trying to get through with the dishes to serve the second room.
But I can’t take it to the back room because it’s very small and it would interfere with the service.
I then asked him to excuse me and let my last two customers pass, hoping that he would leave while I was gone.
A waiter came to see him and told him that he had to leave, but he didn’t budge.
When I came back I saw that it had really taken root and that I had to do something.
Call the Police?
They would be there in minutes and take care of him. He would spend the night in jail but he would be fed unless they just took him to the workhouse?
<feed me!>
He was visibly exhausted. I felt he wouldn’t be able to go far, and I didn’t want to use force. I still remained kind to him, having a sort of respect for this old man with the crazy gray beard. He really looked like Santa Claus, but in a poor, black-and-white version, standing by the fireplace in an old inn setting on Christmas Eve.
So, without thinking too much and especially in order to avoid the pain of seeing the police take the poor man away on an evening like that, I invited Santa Claus to follow me.
Without thinking too much and not wanting to be rude to the poor man, I asked him to follow me. I had one table left at the back of the restaurant where he would be out of sight, but I had to cross the room.
His back bent, he dragged his steps. I felt the eyes fixed on us….Customers watched us pass, wondering who this waiter in a tuxedo was walking slowly in front of this poor man with the long gray beard.
Walking over to the table in the corner, I made a knowing face at the customers sitting next to me, as if to apologize. They understood my embarrassment and just looked at us, with, I must say, incredibility in their eyes. It must be said that this is quite unusual because, after all, it’s not every night that we get a visit from Santa Claus.
He sat down, still wrapped in his coat, and as if to apologize, he repeated that he could pay.
He simply wanted a bowl of hot rice. He must have dreamed about it because he told me this with the greedy look of a child amazed to see a treat.
As I turned around I silently apologized to the couple at the next table and they gave me a sign with their eyes that everything was fine.
At the end of dinner, I offered them dessert as a thank you.
I served the old man quickly, more out of a desire to see him leave quickly than out of concern for good service.
I brought him his bowl of rice with a bowl of hot soup, and as I served him his bread, he asked me for the bill. I think he was aware that his presence might bother some people, and I was grateful. I told him it was on the house, and I saw his neighbor wipe away a tear.
I leaned over to him and told him it was on the house but that this was an exception for Christmas Eve. (I didn’t want him coming back every night.) He nodded gratefully and without further ado wished us a Merry Christmas and went back out into the cold to find his reindeer and sleigh.
As I closed the door behind him, I saw the customers’ gazes fall on me. The men nodded. The women wiped away tears. One of them put her hand over her mouth as if to keep from crying. No one complained, and as I left, everyone congratulated me on my action, telling me I had done the right thing. It was almost as if everyone felt they had participated in a good deed.
It’s been a year now and I never saw the good man again.
But it’s December 23, 2018, tonight we’re having a full house at the restaurant for New Year’s Eve and we can’t know what the cold wind will bring to our door…..
Pierre-Jean Maisondieu-Laforge
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.