The Gloves

“The only thing I want for Christmas is to have lunch at the American Girl Doll Store in Chicago” she pleaded.  At ten, she was smart, cute and knew how to tweak mom and dad’s hearts.  So on Christmas morning, the only gift Emmie got was a plane ticket to Chicago. 

It was hard to wait for the trip.  Everyone else got to play with their toys and gifts but Emmie had to wait until January 14th for hers.  By the time she and her mother boarded the plane she was so keyed up she could hardly sit still.

The flight was only an hour, and once they arrived in Chicago they boarded the train to go to their hotel.  The noise, people and sights enthralled Emmie.  There was nothing like this in her small town.  The room was comfortable and they ordered room service for dinner.  Then Emmie and her mom wandered down to the Navy Pier.  They looked at all the shops and rode the Ferris wheel even though it had started to snow.  It was a joyful and fun evening.

Emmie and her mother walked to the store in the morning.  It was cold – so cold the sidewalks looked white and it hurt to breath very hard.  When they arrived at American Girl they were shocked at the number of people – it was loud and crowded and there were dolls everywhere.  They signed up for lunch right away and only had to wait about 45 minutes. 

Emmie was enchanted.  The restaurant was charming and the table had a special chair for her doll.  The waiter treated her like a princess and asked for her doll’s order as well.  Lunch was fancy and didn’t taste quite as good as it had looked on the menu, but Emmie didn’t care.  She had dreamed of this day for so long it just felt good to sit at the table and gaze at all the people having fun.

For Christmas her aunts and uncles had given Emmie gift certificates she could spend at the store.  She had felt rich when she received them, but once she started shopping she realized her money would not go far.  She carefully picked out two outfits and gazed wistfully at the girls who were able to fill bags with their selections.  Her mother knew how big a day this was so she splurged on a picture of Emmie and her doll on a magazine cover as a souvenir. 

They were tired when they left the store.  The number of people, the noise, the restaurant and the amount of money spent there was a little overwhelming for both Emmie and her mother.  They were quiet as they headed back to the hotel to pick up their things before heading back to the airport.  Their heads were down to protect their faces from the wind.

Something made them look into a doorway.  There was a woman standing there; shivering.  She was wearing slippers on her feet, a long bathrobe and light clothing.  Her face was red with the cold and she was not wearing any gloves or a hat.  She didn’t say anything. 

It was instant.  Emmie’s mom took the gloves off her hands and gave them to the woman without a word.  She could feel the warmth in them as she wrapped the woman’s freezing hands around them.  The woman said thank you, tears in her eyes.  Emmie watched.  She looked back as they walked down the road to the pharmacy where her mother replaced her gloves with a dollar pair off the nearest rack.

They picked up their suitcase and road the train back to the airport, again surrounded by the noise, people and the sights of Chicago.  But they were quieter, and sadder too.

It was a Christmas gift to remember.  But if you ask Emmie today what mattered on that trip it won’t be the lunch, it won’t be the dolls or the souvenir picture.  It will be the gloves.