Walking By

By Ari Keski-Loppi

Christmas means something for all of us. 

Some take it serious.

Some does not care.

What brings the spirit for the season?

This is a story when boy meets a girl. 

During the season of joy.

Merry Christmas everyone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ari Keski-Loppi
• Release date: Nov 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201872649

Book preview

Hello! my name is Spirit, Christmas Spirit!

People are looking for experiences nowadays. Faster, higher, stronger- the Olympic motto seems to rule our ideas of enjoying ourselves. Words like, ultimate and extreme belong in today’s human average, everyday vocabulary. Nothing is enough, more, more and more, me, and me and me once again. Those words one might have to say out loud whispering because of the team spirit society today. In the end, it’s nothing more or nothing less than you and you alone, with them ultimate experiences or not. And still, all the best things are free, all the best experiences come from within. I suppose you have all figured out my favorite time of the year by now. But what brings it? What brings Christmas. What is it? One might say that it is different things for one another. I say that it is them senses which bring out the Christmas. (I guess you think that I must, my name and all?). It is so, them senses, of course, that, and the feelings, loving, sharing the holiday with your family and friends. Now sit back and relax over there. I’m going to tell you all a little story, so...well, you can all figure it out yourself afterwards. Merry Christmas everyone!

WALKING BY

There are not many cities on the face of this planet which can change the normal ways of nature itself. Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America is one of those places. It is one of those cities which knows the true meaning of a windy weather. One of the reasons also why it’s called as it is, The Windy City. Believe me when I say that it is heavier that one might expect, the wind I mean. In the summertime, when it’s raining, and the wind blows from the lake, the rain meets you sideways and no umbrella will help you staying dry. And in the wintertime, like the way it is now, when this little tale begins, that wind together with them snow blizzards, made people walk on backwards to the wind. Otherwise, it would have cut their faces open. Now, that was the weather also on that day when this story started. Snow was falling, sideways, and on a very heavy speed thanks to the wind in a city which besides its little problems happens to be one of the most beautiful in the world during the holiday season, and on the other times as well.

The Christmas was only few weeks away. The snow covered the ground already and all those Christmas lights on the Michigan Avenue had been turned on. It must be one of the prettiest streets before Xmas. Each store had large posters on their windows. Xmas tunes were floating over the restless sidewalks, and everybody was just eagerly waiting for the upcoming holiday season. It was also the busiest time of the year around the city altogether, and it meant a lot hard work for each little boutique in the Downtown district, as well as on other areas of the enormous City.

On the corner of South Wells Street and East van Buren Street, just a block from the Sears tower and two blocks from the Chicago River is located a small family bakery. O’Leary’s was the name of that little corner-store. Almost as old as those tall buildings around. It had been there on that same very spot for almost 70 years, and it was originally founded by a native citizen of whom then died on the WW 2 and his wife had to sell the place finally for one Irish immigrant, Mr. Joseph O’Leary, who had moved into the States right after the world had ended in Europe. Since that, it had been O’Leary’s bakery and had remained in the family, passing from father to son. Mr. Joseph O’Leary handed the bakery to his son, Liam, and after Liam passed away few years earlier from the present time, it was his son, Noel, who took charge of the firm just like his dad before him. Liam and his wife Mary had named their first-born son Noel, because he was in fact being born in the Christmas eve. At first, they had thought about Adam, but it sounded like a name for an much older man, and decided to choose that Noel instead. It sounded better and suited the season when he was born as well, as sort of a remainder. Anyway, it was a little bakery on one corner in Downtown Chicago. It was owned by a man called Noel O’Leary, and it was just few short weeks before Christmas that year. And by then, our little story begun.

Although O’Leary is a common name in the northern parts of America, and in Chicago as well, it always puzzled young Noel when he was still growing up that none of those O’Leary’s around weren’t at any relation for them, for his own family. A lot of O’Leary’s had moved over to the land of hope in their own hopes of a better life for their families after the War had ended. Noel couldn’t understand how his grandfather managed to find a place where O’Leary was a very common name, but that none of those folks happened to be his relatives, at any way, well, being blood-related at least. It was a little miracle, Noel often wondered to himself when other kids on their block, having the same last name and all, kept asking why he wasn’t related to them. Noel’s dad, Liam, always explained it to the little Noel the way he knew the best. He just said that it was better none of those other O’Leary’s had a thing to do with them. For his father it was one burden that he would have wanted to live without. His part of the family, O’Leary’s in the Ireland had been nothing but trouble. Liam’s father, Noel’s grandfather, Joseph, had three brothers and four sisters and what little did Noel’s father ever tell his son about them was that they were all no good. It was one subject Noel learned to stay out while growing up. In a country, and a city especially filled with O’Leary’s he just needed to fit in, not to stand out really. Noel heard that famous story about other O’Leary’s in the City of Chicago. About a thousand times or so when he was a kid still. A story about a cow which kicked a paraffin lamp over to the stack of hay and so happened to start a fire which accidentally burned down over 17 000 buildings and lasted more than a day. It was put out by a sudden rainstorm, another famous Chicago landmark one might say. This took its place in the October 8th of 1871, and it started from one stable in which the cow was in. A stable which belonged to one Patrick and Catherine O’Leary in the West Side. After it was all over, the Water Tower and that O’Leary’s stable were still there, without any major damage. Well, at least that’s the word on the street still. Nevertheless, little Noel had to find out once again that those O’Leary’s weren’t at any relation for them. At that point it felt only good, after all, people who had the same last name as they had accidentally or not, burned down entire City once. Noel had felt like some might still be pretty pissed off thinking about the name O’Leary.

It was a normal, busy day in the bakery of O’Leary’s that morning. Noel was indeed in charge of it all, and he had worked there for as long as he could remember. At first, he had been delivering stuff, running other errands and so on, but after a while his father had taught him the very secrets of baking. As well as other important parts of running a business of one’s own. It had been always so easy for Noel, learning the trade as he went along his dad, business ways and others. All those tax details and that bureaucracy overall as well as all of them little things, like how to keep on good terms with all their suppliers, customers and so on. It was all a very important part of the business and handling it on one’s own. Noel’s father had been very proud of him, Noel knew that. His mother on the other hand wanted his sister, few years younger and only one on that matter, along on his side to the bakery but Liam, Noel’s father didn’t like the idea at all. He was always sure that his daughter didn’t share the same enthusiastic spirit for baking and hard work like he knew Noel did. He only let her work in the little boutique along the bakery in which they sold out their freshly baked goods. One might easily say that Noel was his father’s favorite and like probably in a lot of families, it caused bad blood between them siblings, whether Noel wanted it or not. Mother took the side of Noel’s sister, Bree, and together they both started to build their plans against Noel, the number 1 son. Noel on the other hand tried to never mind the hatred towards him while his father was still alive. He did know however that his mom disliked him because his father’s love over him. He often wondered it, tried to be as good for both sides, for both of his parents as he could but always seemed to fail in his mother’s eyes. Noel couldn’t understand why his mother disliked him so much. In his mind he had done nothing wrong, at least that’s what he figured to himself. Every now and then his father caught his mom when she was giving him a hard time for no reason, any that had something reasonable aspects at least. She often made Noel do things his father had asked his mom or Noel’s sister to do, and it always just caused them problems to get even bigger and the cap between Noel and his sister along his mom to increase more and more. And the result was that they just hated him even more. But it had all been alright, for Noel as well as the whole family because his father, a very direct and old-fashioned man, perhaps a man who spoke his mind out, if necessary, one might say, was also a very fair man. Surely, he corrected his son as well if needed but he also managed to keep the family together. He had been a good provider and a god man overall. It was the time when Noel’s father passed away, a few years ago, the time when all his real problems started to emerge. All the hate buried underneath during his father was still alive came up to the surface. It had been all piled up for so long that it had to happen eventually and when it did, it rushed into Noel’s life and filled it to the top. It begun only a week or two after they had buried the former head of their family. It was then when Noel’s life got stuck, literally between a rock and a hard place, between his sister and his mom, his only living relatives.

Noel’s father had hoped of course for him to take over the bakery one day. It had been a dream of his and Noel knew it. They had been talking about it many times over the years. A dream of his, a wish more likely and being a smart man he was, he wanted to leave a way out for his son too. He didn’t want to force him to do anything he really didn’t love of doing. He loved to bake himself, a whole lot, just the way his father before him and he knew that he couldn’t have picked a better job from all the world. He had a perfect job, for him that was, and that was one thing he always wanted that his son would have as well, a job where he would feel content. He had known that he was very lucky that way. And he also realized that it was important to really love and enjoy one’s work. Otherwise, he always said out loud, it was just only a total waste of one’s resources and time. One must really love his work, no matter of what it was, it had to give satisfaction to the one doing it, it had no point otherwise, it was almost useless in a way. Noel loved his father, his wisdom, and his ways of doing things. He knew that it was his wish that he might take over one day but that he had to do other things, other stuff concerning life itself while young at first. Things like travelling, a little bit here and some over there, maybe even find a nice girl somewhere, to fall in love, to raise a family of his own and then perhaps, if the heart says so, says yes, alright, might take over the old business. Noel’s father had been one smart man. Noel had come to realize that after those long talks during the wee hours in the bakery with him. A baker had to wake up early because people needed their fresh bread first thing in the morning an of course it takes some time to make it happen. Noel had always loved those early morning hours with his dad in the silent, cozy, and still a bit dark bakery. The smell of a freshly baked bread, one of the most distinguished smells on that matter, at least for him and his father it was. That all, together and mixed up with the fresh aroma of coffee around. Noel just loved to sit on the pavement outside the store with his dad, a cup of fresh coffee on the one hand and a straight from the oven still hot croissant on the other. It was life at it’s very best. To talk to your father in the morning, working side by side with him, waiting for the other deliveries to get done in those large ovens, having a little brake like that with your father, talking nonsense, about the score of yesterdays ballgame, about that pretty girl down the street and so on. Just hanging out with your old man, in between the work they both loved, sitting there on the pavement watching the City’s still empty streets, waiting for it to wake up for another day as well, like they had by then. Father used to tease him a lot about girls, it was just his way of showing that he wanted him to find a loving woman one day. It was important to love, he always said when it led into the subject, but as important as loving was, it was also very necessary to feel that you are loved indeed. Noel never asked his father, but he pretty much figured out that his dad was talking about his own marriage sometimes. It hadn’t turned out the way it was supposed to, at least that’s what Noel thought. He had promised his father to make sure that he would love the woman but before ever marrying her, he would make sure that she felt the same way. His father had often laughed on those silly teenage promises, ideas of his of how to deal with love when it found you. He wasn’t making any fun of him, but he tried to make Noel realize as well as understand it inside that when a certain woman would just smile for him, he’d be gone, forever. There was no turning back on that point, his father tried to tell then. It had happened to him and many others on this planet. Liam, Noel’s very old-fashioned dad was often laughing so hard to his son’s wild ideas of how to catch a perfect woman, a perfect pride that he had to wipe his flour filled face clean off from them joyful tears with his apron. One day you will learn the matters of the heart son, he always laughed out loud, and then all the speculation you might have had or have been doing in advance will turn out to be useless. When a heart find’s it’s match, nothing else matters anymore...everything seems unimportant, everything. All you can see is her, all you can smell is her, all you can really think about is her...But son, father had always told him, remember one thing when all that happens...You must love her son, you must love her the way she is...Don’t ever try to change her into something she isn’t. You just must be yourself and love her the way that she is...That, my son...is the secret for a long-lasting relationship between a man and a woman. But son, dad used to say after that little testament of loving and it’s way’s...one day you’ll know what I mean, one day you’ll just know!

That day never came, not for Noel, at least. After his father passed away, he had to start working, taking care of the family business. It was nothing they had planned with his father. He had told his dad about his wishes to go into college and then after graduating perhaps going to Europe to do some travelling in the old continent. Maybe even into Ireland. He had always wanted to see his family’s old ground. And after all that he wanted to work in some other fields as well, rather than to be a baker for the rest of his life. All and all, besides all this, he had promised that if something would happen to his father while studying that he would come to help immediately. He had given his word. And it had meant to be an insurance so that the business could still be going on even if his father might get sick or something. His father wanted him to do as he wanted, not what he or others expected for him to do. And then we he died, well, Noel’s mom and sister blamed him for his death. They poured all the quilt of the incident on his shoulders and soon after the funeral and all practically forced him to quit his plans of studying in the college from that day on. Noel had started his studies when his dad suddenly died on a car accident which Noel’s mom and sister considered to be somehow his fault. He knew of course that it wasn’t so, accident’s do happen but when his mom pulled up a card from her leave, yet another one, Noel just couldn’t say no to the request of taking over the business and carry on his father’s work. His mother had overheard one day them talking about whether he would come to help on the bakery if something went wrong or get seriously sick or hurt otherwise. Noel had promised of course. His mom used that then. Noel had no choice but to admit that he indeed promised to take over the business if something happened. He had given his word to his father and that was the reason why it had come to that. The promise weighted on the scale of Noel’s life way too much to do anything else, anything else he might have wanted to, desired to even. He hated the idea of letting go of his father’s entire life, his little bakery, the one thing he had loved so much. Noel couldn’t brake up the promise on him, not even when he knew in his heart that his father would have understood. He had given his word.

That all happened almost 5 years ago from today. Noel had stopped his studies, moved back into their old house with his mom and sister, although he practically lived in the bakery. He even had a mattress there for the busiest season like the one at hand right now. He didn’t have to spend an hour on the car each morning. Well, one might say that night as well as late night when going home after work. Christmas time was most definitely one of those seasons, no doubt it was the busiest for the little bakery as well as stores around Downtown district. It meant hard work, not that Noel was afraid of that. He worked like that almost day in and out. Christmas probably meant even longer hours for him as well, and many more orders had to be made during the holiday season. People needed their bread like any other day of the year, Christmas or not. Noel had prepared on that as well; he was pretty used on the idea of working through the season. It had become one of his own Christmas traditions really.

Anyway, Noel had stayed over at the bakery once again. He had his normal morning routines going on when the supplier truck honked its horn outside the bakery on the dim, and stormy, air full of snow kind a weather. Noel waved his hand to the man beside the wheel. He wasn’t going to come out the vehicle, again, Noel thought. He walked hurrying through the room, opened the front door and stepped into the freezing pavement. He was right on the fact that the guy never moved his body outside the car. Noel just opened the rear on the delivery truck and got out all the ingredients he needed for his upcoming baking on that day as well as the next. He pushed the door down, waved his hand for the man inside and watched him taking off as soon as he could. Noel whistled once, standing still in the middle of the pavement with some parcels on his hands. He looked over his shoulder to one corner of the bakery, just besides the counter on the store, along them long and warm ovens.

Come on boy! Noel shouted and a dog looked back at him from it’s cozy sleeping blanket along the oven. It didn’t even lift its head to show any kind of an interest of stepping out into that snowstorm. It just stayed still, closed peacefully it’s big brown eyes and probably fell asleep once again immediately after it had had to open his eyes for something like that. The dog was lying so still on his blanket that one might have thought it was dead. Its big head was down on it’s paws and the image of that made Noel think whether this animal of his was at all a dog of some sort.

Come now! it’s not that bad, Noel said and walked inside the bakery. He had pushed the door into a hook, so it was easier to carry on those parcels and supplies without fighting the door each time.

Dum-Dum! Noel asked, now with a bit louder voice.

Move that old butt of yours and go out to read the latest news on this neighborhood.

The dog breathed out heavily, like it was saying; Do I have to? After a while of heavy breathing, it finally got up, begun its very slow walk towards the door of which was still open letting the freezing air inside. That chilly breeze obviously made the dog to weigh its options and desires. It walked past Noel even and then stopped on the doorway. It looked out, and then slowly over to its other side, where Noel was still standing, and watching his lazy dog going through this slow but normal ritual.

Oh, come on boy! Just a quick walk around. Noel started to when he noticed his dog’s feelings about going out into that wind and blizzard. It moved out slowly and even more slowly to the first light post there was, did it’s thing and then walked as slowly back inside the store and into the warmth of those ovens. It just fell to its other side there on it’s blanket by the ovens and probably fell back asleep on that very second. Noel swore on his mind that he had never seen a dog as lazy as Dum-Dum was. Of all of them dogs in the world he had to save this one, Noel thought while carrying still some of the packages.

You’re a lazy boy, you are! he yelled to his dog while walking out for the last time, to get the final pack of flour from the pavement. That delivery man had not come out and Noel just had to leave those parcels on the pavement while he tried to make his dog to go outside and do it’s thing. After Noel had carried all the things inside, he locked the front door and realized once again that he didn’t even sign off those things. Well, he thought to himself, whatever...if that cold wind and snow stays outside. At least I got what I had asked for. Noel carried them parcels and flour packages into their places on the store and finally when he was done doing that, he poured himself a fresh cup of coffee, checked them ovens on his way into the store and moved aside to the long baking table on the other side of them ovens. The little store was still silent like anything on that hour. Only the dog kept snoring on Noel’s feet, only few of them away of him. He took a chip of his coffee and looked at the dog on the floor.

Dum-Dum, he whispered and shook his head.

Try to understand boy...I’m not a mean man...pushing you out into that weather...but boy...you could at least try? The dog just laid on the blanket and breathed in and out in it’s sleep. It had no idea what that man beside it was saying. Heavy snoring echoed whenever the dog took the warm air in and pushed it out.

Yeah right! Noel figured out once again. Keep talking to yourself, he smiled to his sleeping dog. I’m just going to stay here the whole day. You humans are so irritating with those little problems of yours. Why can’t you do like us dogs...it was pretty much what Noel figured that his dog, Dum-Dum, might have had said to him if being able to. After finishing his coffee, Noel looked at his hairy friend once again and realized that all that had been a very wishful thinking. That dog didn’t worry about anything, Noel knew it. Everybody kept telling him how stupid his dog was and how moronic it even looked. Noel defended his best friend by saying that it was a bit slow on it’s moves that’s all. Well, the truth was that the dog really wasn’t all that bright as they can be. It was still on the floor where it was warm. It had turned on it’s back with it’s legs pointing to the roof. It was just enjoying the warmth of the oven, sleeping like a baby, without a care in this world. It sure wasn’t a prize-winning individual on the line of it’s breed, I have to say that Noel shook his head. It was some kind a mix breed, one of the famous topics on his little bakery. People would come and most of them would try to guess what kind a parents would turn into that. Noel didn’t even try to figure that out, all he knew was that Dum-Dum, name after a dog, had a heart of gold and that it would never leave him, probably, no matter what. The kind a love he received from a bit funny looking, hairy friend was that unconditional kind. That animal loved him, period. Noel had saved it when a car had run it over a few years ago, not far from the store really. The driver didn’t even stop to see what it was, after hitting the dog. It had looked so helpless on the street that Noel just couldn’t let it to be taken to the vet and put out of its misery’s. it was a stray dog altogether so it would have been its destiny, no doubt. Noel took care of it until it got better. His mom and sister though wanted to get rid of the damn fleabag but instead of doing so, Noel decided to keep that old and odd and a bit slow on the head kind a creature. Noel never had to tie the dog up or anything. It didn’t even bark like dogs do, people guessed that it was just too stupid to do so. It didn’t know how. Surely a lot of people who came into the bakery made fun of his strange dog, but they didn’t really mind about that. Noel knew that Dum-Dum, with its faults and all, was a good friend. He could talk to it, and it would listen, and it would never leave him, well, at least if he kept feeding it and gave that warm place to lay down. It could just enjoy those dog years of its real fascinating life of a retired stray dog it was. Noel felt happy of having a dog, having a friend to talk to, since his dad there hadn’t been anybody whom he might open to. It had been all work, work, work, and his plans of going out into the world, to find himself a nice woman somewhere, the way they had been joking about with his father, had already vanished over by the years. Noel didn’t really have any spare time outside the bakery. That little business was about the only place he spends his days.

So, this was