Christmas

The Church Bell

Joyce Peterson

The boy stayed awake until it was after eleven o'clock. He was too anxious to wait any longer. After all. he was 10 years old, he should be able to do this. His mother was asleep. She slept soundly because she had taken on 2 jobs. Since his Father had been killed in the war, she was tired and sad most of the time.

He crept downstairs, so he wouldn't fall and wake her, closed the door quietly. The old church was only two blocks away. It was old because no one went there any more. Last summer the new church was opened in the suburbs and everyone, well, almost every one went there now. He and his mother had gone until she took the Sunday morning job, now, they couldn't. Jimmy spent Sunday mornings remembering the good times he had there in the past.

He put his hand on the brick wall and drew it along until he turned the corner. The steps leading into the church were in the middle of the front of it. The light on the corner showed him that there was an old man sitting on the steps. He wondered if he should sit down beside him. Mom had always warned him about strangers. But he didn't think she meant an old man.

Sitting down beside the man, the boy thought there was something familiar about him.

The old man looked at him and said, "You're Davy Sampson . You used to go to this church, didn't you?"

Recognizing the old man, Davy almost shouted, "Pastor Rigby!! You were the minister for a long, long time, weren't you?"

"Twenty-five years, but when they built the new church, I knew it wouldn't be the same. I'm Pastor in a different place now, but this old building, with the bell ringing at midnight on Christmas Eve, drew me back. I know the bell won't ring tonight but we can imagine, can't we?" the Pastor paused before he said, "I was sorry to hear about your Dad, Davy. It was just about the time they opened the new church, wasn't it?"

The boy sniffed and tried to keep from crying. "Yes. My Dad always rang the church bell on Christmas Eve. After the service, everybody left before 12 o'clock. Mom let me stay up so I could go with him. One time, when he rang the bell, I asked him why. You know what he said?" Pastor Rigby shook his head. "He told me that as long as we could hear the bell at midnight on Christmas Eve we would know that everything will all right. I know it won't ring tonight but, like you said, we can imagine."

As Davy was talking, the Pastor had pulled keys from his pocket and was going through them. "By golly, he said "I've still got it."

"What?" Davy asked.

He held up a single key. "I still have the key that I had so I could let myself into a side door when I wanted to go into the church." Davy was looking at the Pastor so intently that he patted the boy on the head as he told him, "We can make the bell ring tonight, Davy."

Davy was overjoyed. "Then the whole city will know that everything will be all right. Let's go."

The man started to go around to the other side of the building. "The door is over here."

Pastor Rigby shuffled, and the boy ran to wait at the door for him. It would be great to be able to run up the steps to the Bell Tower.

The old man slowly followed the boy who had run up the stairs. He was already there, holding the rope that pulled the bell. When he saw the old man, he tugged at the rope but couldn't budge it.

The Pastor took a deep breath as he looked at the illuminated dial on his watch. "Hold on, Davy. We've got a minute to go," he said. "Bells in the new churches can be rung…" He searched for a word.

Davy asked, "Technically?"

The Pastor laughed. "It takes you youngsters to know words like that." After he felt he had enough breath, he placed his hand on the rope as he checked his watch. "Let's do this together, son. I didn't climb all those stairs for nothing. Now, let's both pull as hard as we can."

They both pulled on the rope and, after a few tries, the bell rang so loud, Davy was sure the whole city would hear. They rang, and rang until the Pastor said, "I think that should be enough and you better get back home. If you mother heard, she's probably looking for you." He took the boys hand and started for the stairs, but Davy pulled away.

"Wait," he called as he headed for one of the open spaces around the tower. Looking up, he thought he saw a star wink at him.

"Did you hear that, Dad?" He shouted. "We rang the bell." When he heard the Pastor call to him from the bottom of the stairs, he looked again at the stars and said, "I better go now. Mom will be worried if the bell woke her up. But won't she be surprised when I tell her how Pastor Rigby and I did it?"

Davy rushed down the stairs calling the Pastor's name but when he reached the bottom, the old man had gone. "I'd better get home in a hurry, " he thought as he closed the door to the church and took off in a run.

When he got home, his Mother was waiting at the door as he entered.

"Where have you been? I've been looking for you," she scolded him. "I heard the bell ring. Someone must have got into the church, somehow."

"It was me, Mom. Me and Pastor Rigby. He had a key and he helped me." Davy tried to explain as he climbed the stairs to their apartment.

His Mother stood in the open door and looked at the sky. "How do I tell him, Dave? How do I tell him that Pastor Rigby died this past summer, too? Who helped him ring the bell?" She saw a star wink at her and she laughed out loud for the first time in a long time.

Davy stopped and looked back at her, "It works, Mom. Everything is all right."

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