 |
|
It’s Christmas Eve and all through the shop, a party is waiting for
the workday to stop. The angels have come to lend joy and aid, to
the little old watch shop that’s starting to fade. Piltdown &
Sons is the name of the store, but after this Christmas they’ll do
business no more. Across from ground zero the watchmakers sit,
though their store was spared, their business was hit.
Gloria finds troubles in Mr. Piltdown’s finance, but she hates to
disrupt the song and the dance. But still he must listen, still
he must know, he must have the time to let it all go. When Gloria
tells him he takes the news bad, this is one more loss on top of
all that he’s had. Oscar, Chris and Agnes, his workers, his
friends, will they still be so close when their legacy ends? And
so Piltdown tells them, and know they all see that this is the
last Piltdown Christmas to be. Sadness and anger and confusion
all reign, to lose it all now causes such pain.
But in Andrew comes with one final chore, a Piltdown watch has been
found in the rubble next door. Do they know where it’s from, do
they know whose it is? They hope and they pray that perhaps he
still lives. They look through the books and check the old sales,
but it’s their memory of Joshua, in the end, that prevails.
Dialing the number with a big bated breath, they hope for a
life, but fear for a death. A woman’s voice answers, sad for the
season, this time of year there can be just one reason. Her
husband is gone, her son has no father, could they please fix the
watch, would it be such a bother? Piltdown, he thinks, as do
Agnes and Chris, should their last work together be for something
like this?
The answer is yes, what else could they do, what are their troubles
compared to those two? A mother and child of a father bereft,
this little old watch is all they have left. And all through the
night, the watchmakers toil, tightening and tweaking and winding
the coil. The angels lend spirit, and purpose and joy, to grant a
holiday wish to a poor little boy. And when the day rises and
Christmas is here, they’ve done their best work in many a year.
Mother and child arrive and thank them sincere, for a little old
watch that they’ll always hold dear.
|
