I was walking down the sidewalk. It was a lovely evening, and I passed an old movie theater. The kind you rarely see anymore, and that reminded me of going to movies when I was a teen and younger. It looked like someone was renovating it, and I hoped that was so. I stopped to look closer, and a man, probably in his late 30s, early 40s, came out carrying a ladder which he set up under the marquee beside a cardboard box.
“Evening…” he greeted me.
“I love to see this kind of thing…” I gestured at the work done on the building facade, its repaired stone, and then up at the marquee with its vertical neon sign above. “That’ll be beautiful when you light it up.”
Pausing before he climbed the ladder, he turned and grinned. “She’s a unique lady.” He was proud of the work he’d done. Rightly so. “I’m just about to put lettering up and test it.”
Thinking about what tomorrow (now today) was, an idea came. “This is so lovely… like you said she has style.” I stepped over to the box of letters, some already spread out next to it for him to select. “It makes me think of a particular lady with those same qualities. If you don’t mind… could you put a message on the…” I pointed up, overhead, “for me?”
He paused, and I bent and sorted the letters spelling out what I wanted. “Please,” I smiled.
He looked at me, up at the marquee, then back and grinned.
“Well, we have to appreciate the special people in our world, don’t we?” He started up the ladder. “Hand me the letters.”
Once done and with the lights on, it was beautiful. Just as I knew it would be.
