Sally’s parents owned a chain of Macy’s Department Stores.
The one Sally worked at was in New York, where she had to deal with the hustle and bustle of everyday traffic and people.
Sally would take the Staten Island ferry and then the subway to Time Square where Macy’s Department was located.
Sally loved her job and the people but deep inside she was filled with emptiness over the loss of her beloved Jim.
Sally and Jim were college sweet hearts, they married right out of college and had planned to spend the rest of their lives together.
After ten years of marriage they still did not have children but hoped someday day to fill that void.
Jim was an engineer and he had designed many of the tall sky scrapers in New York.
Sally remembers that tragic night like it was yesterday.
The knock on the door, the two policemen saying I am sorry to inform you but your husband lost control of his car and was buried in the snow.
Jim had stayed late at work and was trying to finish up one of his projects and by the time he finished it snowing up a storm. The wind was howling, it was very dark and the roads were blanketed in snow.
Both Jim and Sally loved the outdoors and they had build a beautiful home two hours away from the city.
They also kept a small apartment in downtown New York when they kept late hours at work.
But tonight Jim wanted to be with Sally it was their tenth anniversary.
It had been ten years since Sally was widowed, with no children to fill her days, Sally turned to books.
Bye the time Sally had the fire roaring in the fireplace she could smell the hot coffee perking in the kitchen.
Sally put on her pajamas, poured herself a cup of hot coffee, grabbed a warm blanket and went to her library of books and picked out the latest novel that she had purchased.
Sally had settled in for the night when the ground beneath her house shook.
The sky lite up like a christmas tree, then total darkness.
Lighting bolded one after another.
Sally put her book aside and she started to shake. When Jim was alive he would take her in his arms and make her feel safe but tonight she had no one to hold her.
One of the lightening bolts hit the house and it caught on fire. Oh my! What am I going to do? She called the fire department but she lived so far out of the city that by the time the fire trucks arrived the house would be burnt to the ground.
Sally was racing around inside the house, trying to save her library of books when she heard the sound of a car.
The car stopped and a stranger got out and raced inside to save Sally.
Sally did not want to leave the house because of her books but the stranger pulled her outside.
The firemen arrive just in time to see the sky opened up and pour buckets of rain onto the house putting the fire out.
Sally looked at the stranger only to discovered the stranger was not a stranger.
Sally put the face of the stranger with the man she had been avoiding at the store.
Sally remembered the crazy day, that she had met the stranger.
One day at the store she was throwing a tantrum acting like a kid, she had made a horses ass of herself right in front of the stranger.
So, every time he came into the store Sally would run and hide, she was too embarrassed to face him.
Tonight she had to face him, he had saved her life.
The firemen made sure the fire was extinguished and it was safe for them to return inside.
The stranger stayed the night to comfort Sally and to make sure the fire did not rekindle.
Sally went to check on her books they smelled like smoke and the pages curled a little but other wise the books were still readable.
The roof had to be patched, the walls painted but that would be another day.
The young man stayed to help with the clean up and Sally was not long ashamed to face the man.
Could this be the beginning of a new romance.
Like Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca, “Here’s looking at you kid"
