Family Matters 2

"Welcome to Alan Brothers' Stone Engraving. How may I help you?" The man stood behing the marble counter with blue binders of endless samples stacked on top.

The couple walked into the store a bit apprehensive. Their eyes wandered throughout the relatively small corner store. They seemed unaware that the salesclerk was talking to them. As they approached the counter, the woman became aware of the clerk's presence.

"Oh! Sorry. Yes, I do think that we need help." The couple smiled at each other with slight embarrassment.

"What exactly are you needing engraved today?" the clerk asked.

The woman looked at the man, as if to say she wanted him to do the talking. "Ummm....well, brick. We are going to be putting it in a walkway-sidewalk thing. We would like our names and wedding date engraved into the brick," the man explained.

"Okay, that's a good start. Do you have the brick already or are needing to buy that through us also?"

"Oh, we have the brick," the man replied, pointing at his wife's purse. She reached into her bag and pulled it out.

"Yes, it's righ--" she began.

"O, it's not necessary that I see it at this point." The clerk cut her off. "We first have to decide what font and size and finishing. Why don't we have a seat right over there," he said, pointing across the store to a dim-lit corner, opposite to where they were standing now. He took several of the blue binders with him to the table. The chairs were simple office chairs, blue in color, and maple for the arm rests and legs of the chair. The couple sat, waiting for the clerk to get his paperwork situated. The clerk turned on an over-head light. "Let's start with a font. Did you have any type of idea of what you wanted?" the clerk inquired.

The man opened his mouth as if to start to explain what they wanted, but the lady cut him short. "Oh, yes. I've some idea of what I want. I want a kind of Victorian-cursive style handwriting font, not too big on the brick, but I still want it readable." She spoke quickly, without taking a breath.

The clerk flipped through the first binder and pushed the others aside. "Okay," his voice dragged out while he was still flipping through the thick pages. He stopped, stared intently at one page, and kept turning the pages. He sat up straight. Turning back to that initial page, he exclaimed, "I think I've found the perfect one!" He turned the binder to show the couple.

"Oh, that IS perfect. Isn't it, Darrel?" she looked at her husband for assurance, smiling sweetly, as if it would sway his decision.

"Oh, yes. It's absolutely lovely, dear. Yes, let's go with that one...if you want to," the man said, staring back at his wife, and then at the clerk, with a little nervousness showing in his eyes.

"Okay, I'll just mark this one down on my little paper here," the clerk said as he searched around for his tablet of paper, "...if I ever find it, that is. Hahaha."

The lady sat, waiting patiently, staring at her husband...who was instead looking at the samples in the binder. He stared at the same page for a while, but then starting flipping through the book. He looked at every page; then, leaning over to his wife, he whispered, "I don't see a price anywhere!"

"Darrel, stop worrying about the price!" she apprehended. "It's for 'us'; it's priceless."