Retirement Day

On his last day of work before retirement, Tony was in no rush to go home to his wife, Mara. After decades of meeting people on the roads, he wasn’t ready to be cooped up at home. He pulled up in front of the old Toyota that would be his last call.

The driver’s door opened and out came the client, looking frazzled. “Hi!” her voice was overly friendly. “Tony?”

“Yeah.”

“Hi, I’m Lakshmi by the way. I’m not too sure what happened here. It just stopped driving?” she cut herself off with anxious laughter.

“We can check it out at the shop.”

Lakshmi chewed on her lip. “Right, right,” she mumbled. She had already lost an hour waiting for the tow truck. She couldn’t lose any more time. Lakshmi gathered her resolve, straightened and met Tony’s eyes. “Actually, I have what might seem like a weird request. I don’t know if you’d be able to drive me somewhere before towing me back to your shop?”

“This isn’t a taxi service.”

“Right, I know that. It’s just an emergency,” she began rambling, the words spilling out of her. “My boss is dying and I need to get a few things in order for her and I’m usually really good with planning but this was a huge project. Like, I’m not from here and - “

“Okay, okay.” Tony cut her off. She looked like she was about to talk herself into a meltdown. Besides, he had been looking for an excuse not to go home yet. “I’ll hook this up and we can go.”

Lakshmi let out a sigh of relief. “Oh my god, thank you. And I’m not just asking for a favor or anything. Just name your price! You’re saving my life right now.”

“Yeah, we’ll figure that out later.”

With her car rolling along behind them, Lakshmi was seated next to Tony, anxiously drumming her fingers. She unzipped her duffel bag and brought out a small black book that she began flipping through. Brow furrowed, she traced a finger over a handwritten paragraph.

Tony fixed his eyes on the road. This was none of his business. He was getting the long drive he wanted and some extra cash to boot. But the address she had put in was an old house up the road that he was fairly certain had been abandoned. They drove on in silence, Lakshmi’s leg bouncing in agitation. When she finally stopped reading, Tony’s curiosity got the best of him.

“So what’s going on here?”

“Huh?” she looked up at him. “Oh, right. Basically, my boss has me running some errands and as her personal assistant I need to get her affairs in order.”

“Because she’s dying?”

“Yeah, she’s older. She’s really sweet though and - take a left here!”

Tony turned the truck and came to a stop in front of the rundown house. Lakshmi heaved her bag down, hopped out and dragged it inside.

“Hey,” Lakshmi peaked her head out. “I could use your help here, if you don’t mind.”

He paused at the door, watching as she emptied the bag of mirrors and squares of glass.

“There are more supplies in the trunk of my car - could you grab them? A box and a couple bags.”

Hauling the various tools inside, Tony grew suspicious. “Look kid, I-”

“I’m thirty.”

“Okay, look, lady, I’m not trying to do anything illegal here. So you better explain yourself.”

Lakshmi checked her phone. She’d have to be quick. “Okay,” she sighed, “Grab that black book. On that table. Find the layout of this house.”

Every page of the book was filled with shakily handwritten notes and diagrams. Near the end was a spread titled “Final House” with a detailed floor plan of the living room.

“See it?” Lakshmi didn’t wait for Tony to reply. “Basically we need to follow the drawing and create that set up. Nothing illegal, but we are on a deadline. I need to have it ready for a test run by sunset. The blue lines are glass and the red lines are mirrors and we need to get the angles exactly right. The sun should set through that window.” She pointed. “We want the sunlight to bounce off the mirrors, concentrate through the glass and hopefully start a fire in the fireplace.”

Baffled, Tony raked a hand through his hair. “How -”

“It should work. My boss spent years calculating and ordering everything. I just need to set it up.”

“Great. But why-”

“We need to finish by sunset. I promise to explain once we’re done, okay?”

She seemed to know what she was doing and she seemed like a good kid. Maybe she was asking a little too much of her tow truck driver, but he was in no rush to get home. “Fine. Where do we start?”

“Tony, you are my best friend right now. Okay, so do you know how to use a drill?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled.

“Perfect! You’ll be my guy with the tools!” She meticulously laid glass on the floor. “First we’ll put the stuff exactly where it needs to go. Grab the measuring tape and make sure these are in the right spot. Then we can focus on hanging them up.”

For nearly two hours, Tony followed each of Lakshmi’s instructions to the letter. They measured, hung up every sheet of glass and mirror, then measured again. Lakshmi was equipped with a clear vision of the process. She seemed to be fueled by her blind faith towards her boss and the guide in her notebook.

The sun was casting long shadows when she surveyed the room with her hands on her hips. She tossed the firewood into the hearth then slumped to the floor beneath the window. “We’re done!”

Tony sat at the opposite wall, careful not to block the mirror above him. “Okay, kid. What is this?”

She dragged one of the canvas bags towards her and pulled out a couple of water bottles. “My boss, Trudy, is this rich lady.” Lakshmi tossed him a water bottle before taking a sip from her own. “She must be in her nineties and she’s dying. She’s probably been planning this for years. Trudy’s a weird lady. Obsessed with puzzles and that sort of thing. She got me to set up this elaborate puzzle for her grandkids to solve after her funeral.”

Surely he had seen enough movies to see where this was going. “Winner gets her fortune?”

“Her cat.” Tony gawked. “I know! I thought the same thing as you at first. Her thought process is that if they’re willing to go to these crazy lengths, they’ll take good care of him.”

“All due respect for a dying woman, but that’s insane.”

“Tell me about it.” She glanced around. “But I have loans to pay.”

Tony could see the sun peaking through the top of the window. Not long now. “So why the fireplace at sunset?”

“Not sure. With every other step of the set up, she’s given me every detail so I could handle it if anything went wrong. But with this? It’s pretty much the last step so I guess maybe she thought I would need less information by now.”

“I’ve only known you a few hours, but it looks like you know what you’re doing.”

Lakshmi smiled at him. She then focused on the beam of light that was making its way to the first panel of glass on the wall.

Tony was idly flipping through the book, when his finger caught on the cover. He dug his hand into the pocket and felt a slip of paper taped inside. “What’s this?”

Lakshmi watched Tony pull out a long, narrow strip of paper from the book. “I didn’t know about that pocket.” She scrambled over to his wall. Tony was turning the paper over in his hands. It was completely blank on one side, but the other had a note scrawled faintly in pencil.

When the fire lights, heat this paper over the flames. Instructions to follow.

Lakshmi was reading over his shoulder, looking bewildered. “I - I thought I was done! What...”

Tony watched her try to make sense of this new note when glaring light hit him. “Look! The sun!”

They sat motionless as the beam of light that had been inching its way down was now centered on the glass. Lakshmi and Tony had studied the book’s diagram enough that they knew where to follow as the beam bounced and reflected at different angles in the room until it finally settled on the kindling. A plume of smoke rose before a tiny flame erupted and began its spread across the wood.

Lakshmi’s eyes were fixed on the crackling fire in awe. She had done all of the legwork for her boss, but she never thought she would get to see how it played out. It was beautiful.

Shaking his head, Tony gave a low whistle. He had gone along with all of this, but he wasn’t completely sure it would work. Yet there it was. He nudged Lakshmi gently. “The note.”

“Yes,” she nodded at him. “Together?”

“I’m here.” Tony heaved himself to his feet.

Lakshmi held the paper over the flames. Miniscule letters bloomed down the note. “Invisible ink!” she exclaimed.

“It’s too small.” He was squinting at the blobs. “Can you read that?”

She scampered to the heap of supplies by the door and fished it out a magnifying glass.

“Tell me what it says,” Tony said.

She read aloud. “Lakshmi. If you’re reading this, that means the set up has worked and you’ve done everything perfectly. Well done, and thank you for everything. In the three short years that you have worked for me, you have always been so reliable and appreciated. Now for a confession. This final step was not part of the larger puzzle. This final step is for you. Today will be your final day of work. Happy retirement. The floorboard just under the window is loose and beneath it is my final gift to you.”

Lakshmi’s eyes were wide, shining with tears. Tony cleared his throat. “Well - uh. Happy retirement, kid. Let’s see about the floorboards.” A crowbar was amongst the pile of supplies. He grabbed it and positioned himself above the board. It was the exact spot where Lakshmi had been sitting just a few moments earlier.

She silently followed him and watched as Tony pried it loose. Lakshmi loved Trudy, but this was too much. Even before she crouched down to help him uncover her gift, she knew what it was.

There under the floor of this old battered house, were bundles of money, stacked neatly in rows. Tears were streaming down Lakshmi’s face. This was way too much. She could pay off her loans. She could start a good life. “I can’t accept this,” she whispered hoarsely.

“You should.” Tony had softened to her. She was so young and hardworking. She could build a life for herself.

Lakshmi sank to her knees and ran a hand over the stacks, as if she didn’t believe they were really there. “I wonder how much it is.”’

Tony put out the fire and reloaded the truck. Thirty minutes later, Lakshmi came out of the house, looking grim, with three bags in tow. The drive back to the shop was agonizingly slow. They finally arrived back at the shop and unloaded Lakshmi’s car.

Tony reached out to shake her hand. “Well. Thank you for this. And, uh, good luck.”

“I should be thanking you!” She pulled him in for a hug. “Thank you so much, Tony.” Lakshmi pushed a bag into his hands.

Back in the truck, Tony quietly counted out the stacks of cash he had gotten. $20,000 in total. Tony’s phone buzzed before he could process the amount. “Hey.”

“Where have you been?” Mara exclaimed. “You finished hours ago!”

“Sorry, love,” he smiled. “I’ll rush home. I have to tell you a story.”