We Can Help

“Hi! I’m Sandy and this is my sister Mandy. Recording us is our father Danny and this is our audition for our own home renovation show. Do you have a nightmare project and don’t know where to begin, ‘We Can Help’. Before we tear down this wall, we’ll have to check to see if it’s loadbearing but, in the meantime, we can still poke holes. That’s one of the best parts of this job: Demo! Mandy, would you mind handing me the hammer? Thanks, Man. Alright, so this wall is plaster and as you can see there are already some cracks in the wall. Just a few swings of the hammer should easily break it down.”

Mandy, along with her father who was recording, took a step back while Sandy prepared a swift swing of the hammer into the wall. After a few swings and the plaster wall falling ever so satisfyingly, Sandy turns to the camera to let out a celebratory shout. “Who says women can’t do a man’s job?”

“Hey, San, maybe don’t say that.”

“Why not? Women can do what men do.”

“Yea, but it’s not what you said it’s more how you said it. Maybe say something different but with the same message. Know what I mean?”

Sandy took a second to rephrase and nodded to show she was ready.

“Re-do your shout and we can edit out this part. Go when you’re ready.”

Sandy repeated her celebratory shout and this time followed it up with, “Women; we’re breaking walls and ceilings everywhere!”

“YES! That was much better. I actually really like that. What do you think pops?”

Danny was a man of few words, but his facial expressions always gave away what he was thinking. A small and subtle nod of approval was enough for his daughters.

With the plaster wall now down, the wood supporting the ceiling was exposed along with it some surprising finds.

“Wow! This is exciting! It seems there were some goodies hidden in this wall. Come closer and let’s check them out” Sandy said to the camera.

Mandy crouched down to pick up an item that had fallen, but everything else was still intact. While she was busy with her one item, Sandy was talking to the camera discussing everything that was found which included a pocket watch, some photos, a rattle, and a pacifier.

“Do you want me to keep recording” asked Danny?

Sandy gave a resounding yes, but Mandy said to stop.

“Why would you say that? This is perfect for our audition tape!”

“First of all, it’s going to come across as staged and second of all, you two need to see this.” Mandy rose from the floor holding a piece of paper in her hands. Shattered glass lay on the floor at her feet. “When the wall started to come down, this came down with it. I’m pretty sure it was a message in a bottle! You both need to read this. Pops, stop recording for a minute.”

The three of them walked over to their kitchen table to sit and read the message. First Sandy then Danny. Once they were finished reading, the sisters looked to their father asking if they knew anything about what the message said. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. They urged him to think harder and to try and recall any memories that may ring a bell but unfortunately nothing helped.

“When was the last time you spoke to Poppy” asked Sandy?

“We just spoke last week” he said.

“Then we need to see him. We need to show him what we found.”

“My father never spoke about what’s in this letter to me or my siblings. I doubt he’ll speak of it now.”

“So much time has passed though, and you’re all older now. We have to at least try.”

“We can try” said Danny, “but I doubt he’ll want to discuss it.”

With that, Mandy went to the exposed wall and grabbed the remaining items and looked around for any other ones that may have slipped through the cracks. Assured that she had found them all, she went back to her family and placed the items in a small pouch. “The audition needs to be put on hold. This is our new priority” she said.

Sandy groaned, “No! Why?”

“It needs to wait and you know it. This could be good for Poppy. Come on.”

Everyone cleaned up and a few hours later they all drove together to see Danny’s father, otherwise affectionately known as “poppy”. His wife had passed away about seven years ago and he was still an active and agile older man. Once his wife passed away, he knew he especially needed to focus more than ever on his health and maintaining it. He was healthy his whole life and old age would not be the reason he would stop taking care of himself.

An hour or so had passed and Danny and his daughters arrived at Poppy’s house. It was a nice surprise for him seeing his son and granddaughters.

“Come in, come in” he said at the door as they all hugged each other. “I’ll put on tea for everyone. I switched to decaf, but I’ve got regular if you want it. Oh, I’ve got some pastries I just picked up yesterday too!”

Danny and his daughters sat on Poppy’s oversized couch waiting for him to return from starting the tea kettle. He took a seat in his rocking chair. “What do I owe the pleasure?”

Danny shook his head signaling it was up to his daughters to take the lead on this. They wanted to come so he left it up to them to initiate the conversation.

“So Poppy,” Sandy started, “we decided to audition for a home makeover show, Mandy and I. You know how much we love doing that stuff. Well, we started our audition by knocking down the wall in the living room.”

“That’s fantastic” replied Poppy. “It’ll really open up the space. Nice choice.”

“Yes, we thought so too” inserted Mandy “but that’s not why we’re here; we’re not here to tell you about the audition. We found some things in there that we think you should see.” She pulled from behind her a small cloth pouch and handed it to Poppy. He placed the bag on his lap and opened it, inspecting the contents closely. The first thing he grabbed was the photos. A tear began to slide down his cheek while shuffling through them. Once finished, he placed them back in the bag and pulled out the stopwatch and pressed it against his chest. He clutched it tightly in his left hand while pulling out the rattle and then the pacifier. He cried more heavily now, unable to hold back his emotions.

“There’s one more thing that we found when we knocked down the wall. Please forgive us, we didn’t know what we found until afterwards. There was a letter that we believe was probably in a bottle because there was broken glass around it.” Mandy handed Poppy the letter. He unrolled it and unexpected to his son and granddaughters, he smiled. While reading the letter, Poppy was still crying but this time there was a clear difference thanks to the big smile on his face.

“Thank you for this,” said Poppy. “You don’t know how much it means that you brought me these, especially the letter.

“Do you want to talk about it? Clearly those things mean a lot to you. We’d love to hear about it if you’d like to tell us,” said Sandy.

“You know, for the first time in a long time I think I would like to talk about it,” said Poppy. “His name was Andrew. We met a long time ago at Coney Island and there was this instant connection. Right away we knew there was something special. We were young and pretty sure we were in love, but we were scared. We didn’t know how to be ourselves around others. It became uncomfortable and we began to act differently. Our friends would ask us if we had fought or if something happened. We always said no and that everything was fine. When it was just the two of us though, it was as if the rest of the world faded away and we forgot time existed. One day, he introduced me to his parents, simply as his friend, and I was ok with that, but his parents must’ve known something or sensed something because they told him we weren’t allowed to be friends. He fought for me, but ultimately, he had to listen to them. They were kind enough to allow him to say goodbye one last time, so he did and gave me all these things you found. And yes, this was a message in a bottle, but I never read it until you brought it to me today. Thank you for this. I know this isn’t what you expected or maybe even wanted to hear but it’s the truth.”

“Did mommy know” asked Danny?

“She did, but not till later in life once you and your brother and sisters were grown and began your own families. It wasn’t easy. She didn’t speak to me for a few days, but we came out better from it. My love for your mother was real and I still miss her. She was my best friend and I loved her. I still do but I also loved Andrew. One doesn’t cancel out the other.”

“Poppy I’m just sorry you and Andrew couldn’t be yourselves when you were younger. Did you ever reach out to him?”

“No. I wouldn’t do that to your grandmother. I made a vow to her, and I intended to keep that vow and I have.”

“How did you get those things in the wall” asked Mandy?

“Mandy” shouted her sister! “That’s really what you care about?”

Poppy gave a little chuckle. “It’s alright. That’s a valid question. The day Andrew brought me these things, we were fixing the walls in the house, but when he gave them to me, I didn’t want anything to do with them so I asked the men fixing the walls to put them in there so I’d never have to see them again. I was sad and hurt. I didn’t want to throw them away in case my parents saw them in the garbage. I was sure nobody would open up the walls or even attempt to, until you two that is.”

“Do you think you’d want to see him now” asked Sandy?

“What about now” asked Poppy?

“Poppy, you kept your vows. You were faithful and true to grandma but not to yourself. Maybe you can make a new vow, but this time to you? Vow to be your authentic self. Me, Sandy and Pop want that for you, but you need to want it for yourself.”

A melancholy look washed over Poppy’s face. “Why bother? Who knows how long I have left here? I could go tomorrow!”

“Or you could live for many more years being your most authentic self” replied Sandy.

Poppy let out a sigh. “I don’t even know how to be that version of me anymore.”

“I think your first step is to follow that letter from Andrew. He’s the first step Pop” said Danny. “I think you need to find him.”

Sandy and Mandy let out an audible gasp and shouted in unison, “We can help”.

The End