Barry clicked a light switch—the one with my grandma’s hand painted light cover I always loved—and recessed lighting lit the space from a new kitchen ceiling. No more outdated tiles and yellowed lights.
When he clicked them off, the light of the morning filtered in from the window over the sink and cast its glow on the new kitchen.
I didn’t know how he did this, didn’t know this much work was possible in such a short time. It wouldn’t have been without him, the world seemed to bend over backward at the cheerful whims of Barry Wright.
“Barry,” I started, voice wobbling.
He closed the distance between us and pulled me to him, my face immediately falling against his chest.
“Please don’t be mad at me,” he whispered against my hair.
I laughed and let my arms come up around his waist.
“I’m not mad at you. I’m just in shock, maybe.”
“There are like two more surprises. Three. Can you handle that?”
“I don’t know if I can.” I sniffled, and Barry’s smile was all mischief as he pulled away and led me through the living room to my bedroom. The floor had also been replaced in here, my belongings stacked in plastic totes on the new floor or on top of the dresser. My old bed was gone, the bed frame too, and in its place was one of those fancy mattresses rolled up in a box.
“Is this…”
“Thought your two-hundred-dollar mattress should retire. This one’s the same as mine.”
I gasped and really did jump at this news. He scrunched his nose and laughed, then wrapped his arms around me from behind.
“You have to pick out a bed frame, though.”
With the new floors, I imagined a fresh coat of paint on thewalls and trim, a dark wood bed frame, maybe new nightstands. And then, after it all, I would have a glorious bed to sleep on.
“Thank you, Barry.”
He rested his chin on my head before waddling us out of the room and toward the basement door.
“Can you stand another surprise?”
I didn’t know if I could, but we were already in this, so I detangled from his long arms and opened the door. I gasped at the sight that greeted me; it didn’t even look like the same house. Instead of the wooden stairs that had creaked beneath my feet since I could walk, the stairway had new drywall and entirely new treads, wood like the rest of the floor, and I was already excited to find the perfect carpet runner to install. A row of lights sat recessed into the new ceiling instead of the one creepy bulb that lit the space previously.
“How did you do this?” I breathed when I reached the bottom of the stairs. Instead of an unfinished basement, the space was framed and walled up exactly how I’d planned: a long living room space, two empty rooms, a bathroom, a storage closet, and?—
“Oh my God.”
I pushed open a new door to reveal a laundry room, complete with a very new washer and dryer uninstalled in the middle of the room.
“The laundry situation was a hazard,” he said before I could speak. “Now you won’t have to risk breaking your tailbone when you want clean clothes.”
“This is insane, I’m—how did you get this done?” I asked again, still floored by the way my old house had been completely transformed. “Seriously, how did you make this happen?”
“Good contractors, really eager rookies, and your family, too. Workhorses. Ron did all the electrical.”
I didn’t have words, just stared shocked at him before clicking on and off the new light switches, illuminating thebasement that I thought of only in the abstract. He’d created the perfect canvas for me to make tangible the dreams I’d had for years.
“I didn’t pick floor or paints of course, but as soon as you have them decided, I have a couple contractors on standby to do what you need. Or we’ll do it.”
“Barry…” I felt my eyes welling with tears, and Barry closed the distance between us again with that soft, nervous smile. I wanted to pinch his cheeks, shrink him and put him in my pocket, hug him, shake him, tell him never to buy something for me ever again, thank him in every way I knew how.
“There’s one more.”
“What? The one more was the laundry,” I protested. “No more. Barry, I spent like thirty dollars on your present.”
