I Shall Try To Keep It All The Year

by Jeff Baker

“I can’t believe this,” Marty Roths said. “I’ve been working for the city for almost twenty-five years and we’ve never forgotten to do this.”

“Hey, it was the Holiday Season and we got busy,” Zander Black said as he steered the pickup truck with “City Of Dartagnan” emblazoned on the side inside an outline of the State of Kansas.

“It’s not like nobody ever goes down this street,” Marty said. “Hell, I used to live right near here.

“Remember how small Dartagnan is?” Zander said. “Every street is right near here.”

The truck turned at the edge of downtown where there were several empty warehouses and the flower shop and the street sign: Elbridge Gerry Street.

“Elbridge Gerry,” Marty said. “When I was real little I wondered why there was no bridge on Elbridge Gerry Street.”

“I wondered why someone would name their kid that,” Zander said. “Hey, there it is.”

Pressed up against a small building that had been a liquor store and was now a bakery was a light pole. Attached to the metal pole on top that extended the light over the street was an outline of two striped candy canes with a Christmas bow wrapped around them. Metal lines and Christmas Tree bulbs. When it was turned on, the decoration was all festive bright reds and greens. Now it was a dark silhouette against the blue April sky.

“Yup.” Marty said. “We left this one up. For four months.”

“Too bad the lights weren’t turned on after dark anymore. Would have looked really pretty for Springtime.” Zander said.

“The colors would have gone well with the flowers in the yards.” Marty said. “You got the ladder?”

“I hope.” Zander said, opening the truck door and climbing out.

“Maybe some good came out of this,” Marty said. “Maybe people saw this and it reminded them. Why we celebrate Christmas.”

“Yeah,” Zander said, looking for the ladder in the back of the truck.

“Remember the line from near the end of ‘A Christmas Carol?’” Marty said. “Scrooge says something like: ‘I shall honor Christmas in my heart, I shall try to keep it all the year.’ Maybe this decoration did something like that for somebody.

Zander walked the ladder over to the pole. “There’s a line in there about Tiny Tim hoping people who saw him would be reminded of the man who made lame men walk and blind men see.”

Marty stopped and stared. “I didn’t know you read that book. I didn’t know you even read anything.”

“I’m multi-faceted,” Zander said. “Comes from growing up in a town with a literary name.”

They leaned the ladder against the building right next to the light pole and steadied it.

“Did we really forget to take this one down?” Zander asked with a smile.

Marty just smiled and said nothing.

–end–

AUTHOR’S NOTE: We met Zander and Marty in my Christmas story “Zander And Marty’s Advent Calendar” a couple of years ago. https://authorjeffbaker.com/2024/12/05/zander-marty-and-advent-friday-flash-fics-by-jeff-baker-december-6th-2024/ This is sort of an April Christmas story. Oh, and Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is one of my favorite books. If you haven’t read it, you should!

—-jeff