A Maintenance Shop Christmas

It was a maintenance shop, like any other.  There was grease, dirt and tools.  There were men who worked with their hands.  Sometimes their words were coarse.  Usually they didn't care.

It was the twenty-third day of the month.  The holiday was two days away.  One of the men was single and would spend the holiday at home with his parents.  Two would be with their spouses.  One would visit his brother and sister-in-law, and their two young children.

Rob had brought two unfinished gifts, for his niece and nephew, into the shop.  The other three came and gathered around, cups of coffee in hand, to offer their opinions and suggestions.  

"Gonna take some cleaning up," Rick said.

"And I have paint," Rob added.

"You plan to paint them in here?" Rick queried. "The paint smell will go right up the hallway.  Pete will have a fit."

The verbal response to Rick's words was colorful.  All four decided they would deal with Pete's wrath when, and if, it happened.

"I have pink paint and blue," Rob said. "There's some WD-40 and some heavy duty cleaner in the back cabinets.  I figure the paint will have plenty of time to dry overnight."

"What about ventilation?" Ernie asked.  He was the oldest of the group, the one with the most wisdom.

Rob answered, "Well, if we paint these with the door opened, Pete will know right away.  We need to be careful about how long we keep the door open to air this place out.  When we are working, we'll need to keep the door closed."

"It's cold out, but we could open the exterior door... a little," Ernie suggested.

"The cold air's gonna go right up the hallway," Dave added.

There were shrugged shoulders.  They were vested, regardless of any wrath from their manager.

"We'll deal with that when it happens," Rob replied. "What we'll do is work in shifts.  When we open the shop door, we'll crack open the exterior door... for a few minutes.

And they began.  Rob and Dave used cleaner to remove the grime from the metal.  The chrome was in better shape than they initially thought.  A little steel wool cleaned off the rust.  Rick and Ernie took a turn while the other two stepped outside with fresh cups of coffee.  Thankfully the day was slow.  There was little to do, except wish Merry Christmases to co-workers.

By eleven o'clock in the morning, they were prepping to paint, one pink, one blue.

"I'll let these dry overnight," Rob said to Dave as the sprayed the frames of the gifts. "I'll come by and pick them up in the morning.  Bring them to my brother's tomorrow night."

"Why?"

The question had been hanging out there all morning.  Dave just happened to be the one to ask.

"My brother lost his job.  He had planned to buy the kids each a new tricycle.  My nephew wanted a blue one, typical boy.  My niece loves pink.  This close to Christmas... I couldn't find ones.  Not those colors anyway.  I found these.  They'll be good as new... right."

"Better than new," Dave said.

They finished painting.  All four stood assessing their work, each with an afternoon cup of coffee in hand.  The bikes were perfect.  Rob had purchased some streamers for the handlebars.  He put them in place.

"Much better than new," Ernie stated. "Because these were gifts were made with love."