A Life of Joy

A Life of Joy

An unfamiliar man in a fedora and long trench coat stood on the porch and knocked on the door. Emily was home alone and opened the door tentatively. “Hello, My name is Roger Warhall, I’m an estate attorney, are you Emily Parker?” She nodded. “I have something for you from Mr. Minkler. Did you know him?” She paused “I don’t know if I would say I knew him, but I passed by his house every morning on my way to school.” “Well,” the attorney said. “I’m sorry to tell you, but he passed away. He included you in his will and I’m here to give you this little black book.” Emily paused and then took the book from his hands,“Thank you” she said. He tipped his hat slightly towards her and said “You’re welcome, take care.” She shut the door and stared at the book in her hands.

For five years Mr. Minkler had been a staple in her daily walk to school. They had moved into a little farm house on his street when she was 11. She would see him in the second story window three houses down. The first time he saw her he waved and smiled. It was a small gesture, but she felt invisible to the world, and this somehow made her feel important. Their friendship developed over the next five years into leaving little gifts and notes for each other.

Emily was average in so many ways; she did well in school; she was cute but not striking with brilliant red hair, but often it washed out her complexion. People noticed her thick red hair but that feature was the only noticeable or memorable thing about her. Shy by nature, Emily tended to avoid eye contact. Although her smile was infectious, she rarely shared it.

Her life was remarkably unremarkable, until she met Mr. Minkler. She walked past his house on the way to the bus stop. When she saw him, he smiled broadly and waved at her. Mr. Minkler had a kind face with deep set blue eyes that sparkled from a distance, and he emoted kindness. There was a sadness behind his gaze that she felt but never understood. She smiled and waved back, and it was from that moment they became friends.

His house was modest, yellow with white trim, and a huge wraparound porch. He sat in a room above the porch every morning, looking out, greeting her with a smile and wave. One morning she picked a handful of wildflowers from the ditch beside the road. She took the ribbon out of her hair, tied it around the flowers and scribbled a little note on a piece of paper torn from her school notebook “Have a wonderful day Mr.?, My name is Emily.”

Mr. Minkler was 90 yrs old. He fought in both World War II and Vietnam, and was a widower by the age of 20. He was highly decorated, including two purple hearts, and worked his way up through the ranks of the army. His wife was his highschool sweetheart, but she fell ill and died while he was deployed. He never remarried, and after he retired out of the military he started a business building low income housing. Much of his life was spent alone, haunted with memories of war and loss. Routine punctuated his daily life. He remembered the first time Red walked by and waved, how good it felt to have some human connection again. She reminded him of his wife when they were kids. She had a similar smile and quiet way about her. He looked forward to the early morning exchanges between them.

He watched her approach the house with a bunch of wildflowers in hand, and heard her soft steps on the porch, a pause shared before the quickening steps faded away. Once she was out of sight, he went down to retrieve them. Emily, he read and then thought, I’ve always liked that name. His wife had always loved flowers, and they reminded him of her. That afternoon he decided to bake some bread so he would have something to leave her in the morning. This was the beginning of what would be years of leaving little gifts and notes for one another.

Emily stared at the book sitting on the table. She was afraid to open it, as if somehow not opening it meant he wasn’t gone. It had sat there for a couple hours until she finally worked up the courage to look inside. The first page was a letter “Dear Emily, if you are reading this I have passed away. You brought more joy to my life than you will ever understand. Watching you grow up to be the lovely woman you are has been one of my life’s greatest pleasures. Please follow my instructions in the book. You have three tasks I would like you to complete. I trust you to follow my instructions exactly as they were written. Take care my sweet little Red.”

Task 1, call this number and ask for Liz. When she answers you say “Mr. Minkler has a surprise for you. May I come over and bring dinner Saturday?” Call the Country Inn Diner and order the family dinner to go, tell them it’s Mr. Minkler’s order and they won’t charge you. On that Saturday, please take envelope 1 from the back of this book to give to Liz. Don’t open it. Pick up the dinner and meet Liz.

As instructed, she called Liz who seemed surprised to hear from her, but was available for dinner on Saturday. They had met over the phone, but when Emily arrived on Saturday she said “It’s nice to meet you Liz, I’m not sure why I’m here, but I’m following the instructions Mr. Minkler gave me.” Liz responded “Well, knowing what I know of Mr. Minkler, never be surprised at surprises.” She introduced her three young boys. “I’ve been raising them on my own for the past five years. I work at the Country Inn as a waitress and, well, it’s been hard.” “Well, per instructions I bring you all dinner and an envelope.” Emily said. As they sat down at the big farm table Emily handed Liz the envelope. Liz pulled out a letter and read it out loud “Dear Liz, I had the pleasure of building your house many years ago. You were kind, generous and always fed me a warm lunch. I was honored to be part of your family during that time. I know that you were struggling raising the boys. I want you to know that I have created a fund for the boys’ education. You do not need to worry about how they will get through school. I hope freeing you of this burden helps. Best of luck, Mr. M.” Liz’s eyes welled up and the boys ran to her. Emily watched as the oldest boy looked in his mom’s eyes, and said “See mom, you don’t need to worry.” Liz looked at Emily and smiled, “Never put anything past this man, he was an amazing person.” They ended the evening with hugs.

For your second task, go to the animal shelter, volunteer for a day, and find Maggie. At the end of the day, give her the envelope marked with a 2. Emily pulled up to the steel gray building that looked more like a jail than a happy place for animals. She walked through the heavy front doors into a cavernous lobby and asked for Maggie. Loudly bustling around a far corner came a short stout woman with a sleek brown bob haircut peering through thick rimmed black glasses at Emily, she said “I’m Maggie, what can I do for you?” Emily introduced herself and went straight to “Do you know a man named Mr. Minkler?” “Oh yes, of course I do, Mr. Minkler often adopted our senior dogs. He had a lot of them since they often had health issues, and they didn’t live very long. How is he doing? He quit adopting when he couldn’t walk them any longer.” Emily’s eyes dropped. “I’m sorry to tell you,” she said, “He passed away a couple weeks ago.” Maggie’s smile fell, “Oh no, he was such a lovely person, I’m sorry to hear that.” Emily paused and then “I am here because after he died I received a book with a list of things he wanted me to do. He wanted me to give you something but asked that I volunteer for a day. Is it possible for me to help out?” Maggie’s face brightened, “Of course you can help out any time. We have so many tasks here, and I never have enough help, do you want to help today?.” Emily reached for the envelope in her bag. “This is yours, but he asked that you don’t open it until I’m done volunteering.” Maggie took the envelope and laughed, “I’ve got lots of things you can do. Let’s start with a bunch of orphaned puppies, are you comfortable playing with them?” “Who wouldn’t be?” Emily replied “that sounds amazing!” They went to a back room where eight puppies whirled around like furry tumbleweeds in a dust storm. They ran over to Emily and she snuggled each one. Maggie stood and watched while they competed for her affection. “Spend some time with them and come up with some names, will you? Unusual ones would help.” Emily picked up the littlest blue eyed boy who had run to her first “Can we name this one Mr. Minkler?” she asked with a smile. She spent the rest of the day at the shelter feeding, cleaning, and playing with the dogs and puppies. It felt good to be needed. She agreed to come back once a week.

She watched as Maggie opened the letter. She didn’t read it out loud, but tears streamed down her cheeks. She looked up “Emily, he’s bought the building for us… you have no idea what this means… we’ve had difficult years here, we are a non-profit and the expenses for running a no-kill shelter are staggering. If we don’t have to pay the rent any longer it means everything....” Emily’s heart was filled with joy for her. “Oh wait! You must be THE Emily!” Maggie said “I have something for you.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a dog tag. It had the name Sparks written on it with a phone number. “When Mr. Minkler’s last dog died, he brought me this tag and asked if I would hold it until someone named Emily came in. He said to me ‘She won’t know she’s here for the tag, but you’ll know it’s for her.’” She handed Emily the tag. They hugged goodbyes. As Emily slipped the tag onto her key ring for safe keeping, she wondered about it’s meaning. “Sparks”, she thought, “why does he want me to have that?”

For your third task, go to my house. Under the mat, another envelope will have further instructions for you. There it was, just like all the notes he’d left before. She stopped and looked up at the second story. The reflection of the mirrored sunset cast a brilliant palette of color on an empty room window, and loneliness hit her like a freight train. She thought of all the shared smiles between them, then stepped off the porch reading his last words with tears streaming down her cheeks: walk to the oak tree, follow the largest root until you reach the end, from there take ten paces and you’ll find a white rock slightly buried. Dig two feet down and find the box. Put the number from Sparks tag in the combination.

Emily followed the instructions and as she opened the rusty box. There was an envelope marked For Emily. Inside was twenty thousand dollars in cash and a note, Use as you wish to create joy.