The Tin Chandelier

        He found some tin that would be perfect. He had a picture in his head of what it was he wanted to create with that tin. They had asked him to make a chandelier but they had not told him what they wanted. They just said, "Create something. We love your work."

        The tottering old man had hobbled up the stairs to the chapel. He loved the old chapel and felt so peaceful when he entered it. He sat in a pew and let the church envelop him in her ambiance. He felt the tin begin to take shape in his mind. His almost deaf ears did not need to hear in order to see the chandelier take shape. As he sat in the pew, the soft sound of organ music wafted around him. He had not seen anyone else in the chapel so where was the sound coming from? He turned to look at the organ in the corner. There was no one at the organ. Then it occurred to him that he had not put in his hearing aides that morning because the batteries were dead. He reached for his ears. No, the hearing aides still weren't there. Why could he hear the music? He was unsure what was happening. "Is someone playing tricks on me?" he wondered. How was he hearing that beautiful organ music? Had he died and gone to Heaven? Had the anacin he had taken for his headache just before he entered the chapel been something else? Was he hallucinating? Had his grandson put one of his darn drugs in his anacin tin?

        As the old man perused his wonderings, he became aware of a beautiful tin chandelier in his mind. "Must be another hallucination," he thought. But hallucination or not, it was a beautiful sight. "That is how I am going to make the chandelier they want for this chapel," he shouted with delight.

       He literally ran out of the chapel, forgetting how lame his arthritis usually made him. He had to get home and get out his pen and paper and sketch this beautiful vision. He stopped just long enough to grab a business card out of its holder so he could be sure to call the right person when he had finished this masterpiece. In such a state of excitement, his lips became dry. All he could think about, however, was getting home and getting started on the chandelier. "My chapstick is at home," he thought. "My lips will just have to wait."

        He only lived a five minute walk away from the chapel. As he walked, almost skipping, the image of San Pedro came to his mind. It was then that he realized San Pedro had created the music his deaf ears could hear and given him the image of the chandelier that would fit so perfectly in San Pedro's namesake chapel. The old man fairly jogged the rest of the way home. He was ready to create a masterpiece.

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