Dollar Store Christmas

I dropped by the Dollar Store tonight and was browsing to see if there was anything I should pick up for my next charity box shipment. There was a young, not very well-off Hispanic guy in the craft aisle looking through the bunches of fake red roses and very carefully picking out the nice ones. This went on for a good 10 minutes and then, when I ended up in the craft aisle looking at stuff, he turned to me and said, "Four times seven is 28, right? Because I've got four stems and each of them has seven flowers -- that's 28 right?"

I told him he was right and he said with a rueful laugh, "You can tell I didn't really go to school." I shrugged and with a smile told him the only reason I had a clue was because I'd had some sugar and caffeine tonight. He laughed and looked at the bundle of roses in his hand. "Should I get, like, some leaves or something to make it nicer?" he asked.

"There's some baby's breath down here that I thought were really pretty," I offered. He looked puzzled, so I added, "The tiny white flowers they add to roses sometimes."

"Oh!" he exclaimed, liking the idea, and he headed over to check them out. He started selecting fake baby's breath as carefully as he had chosen his roses, and I went back to looking at watercolor paint sets and craft beads.

"I should get some ribbon or a vase to put them in, huh?" came his voice a few minutes later. He was holding the bouquet again, studying it and trying to decide what it needed to be perfect.

"If you're going to put them in a vase, they've got glass stones at the end of this aisle. They'll be really pretty in the vase and they help hold up the flowers too," I suggested. He wasn't sure what I meant by glass stones, so we walked to where the bags of shiny, colored stones were stacked beneath a selection of glass vases.

"Oh, I like that!" he said as he started sorting through the bags, looking for a color that would pair nicely with the roses. "Thanks -- it's a good thing you're here."

"Someone's getting a really nice present," I told him with a smile.

Crouched by the bottom shelf with his bouquet of dollar store roses in his hand, he gave me a brilliant smile, clearly thinking of the recipient. "She's worth it," he said sincerely.

I don't know if the flowers are for his madre or his novia, but I hope she loves them because they're the best Christmas present I've seen all season.