I Miss Mayberry

Chapter 49
Celebrating life... one life... that is what a birthday celebration is all about. Simmy thought about the last year. What a difficult year it had been.
Most people didn't communicate anymore. In a world where communication was 'king' in so many ways, it was just a pure sadness that people chose to communicate only if they felt like it or if there was something in it for them.
"It's been a really tough year, Lord. I don't know who stole my 'Family' sign from the wedding, Lord, but I would like it back. That may sound silly to You but it's important to me. Who would do that?"
"Sam, I'm going to the store to get a few things for the party."
"Are you getting some pop?"
"I'm taking my bicycle, no, I'm not getting pop."
Simmy headed off to the store, a bit huffy. She picked up all the extras for the party, paid and went outside to the bike rack.
There was a young boy and a Mom tying a dog to the bike rack. The boy didn't want to leave his pet.
"Is he likely to bite me?" Simmy asked as she eyed the space between her bike and the dog.
"No, he'd never bite," the Mom replied.
Simmy tried loading her three bags into the small front carrier as the Mom and son walked away. Struggling with the bags, she didn't notice that the young boy came back almost immediately.
"You didn't want to leave your dog, did you?" Simmy said kindly.
"No," he replied quickly as he bent down to hug and ruffle the dogs' fur.
"How long have you had him?"
"Your bike chain is off," the boy exclaimed espying the problem from his view hunkered down with his pup.
"Oh," Simmy didn't know what to do first. The load of groceries was too heavy so the bike was going to fall over if she let go.
"I can put it back on," he volunteered.
"I don't want you to get your fingers dirty. Your Mom might not like that. Could you hold my bike?"
"Okay," he sounded a little disappointed.
As Simmy fumbled with the darn chain she could feel his feet shuffling agitatingly. Almost immediately, he burst out, "Could you hold the bike? I could do it!"
Simmy stood up and the young lad bent down and his small nimble fingers could fit into the tiny space between the shield and the chain. He had that chain on in a jiffy.
"Thank you so much." Simmy said.
"See, I don't have almost any grease on my fingers at all. I'm used to putting my chain on my bike."
"I'm Simmy. What's your name?"
"I'm Nick."
"Hi Nick. Thanks again."
As Simmy rode away with her bike, Nick called out in old-fashioned Mayberry form, "Bye!"
"Bye!" Simmy replied.
That little exchange warmed Simmy for the rest of the day more than any phone call, tweet, email, or text message. Just a sweet young boy being helpful in an innocent way on a warm autumn day.
The evening birthday provided some face to face gaming and Simmy once again thought, Old-fashioned is still the best when it comes to communicating. She put on Rascal Flatts and sang along...
"I miss Mayberry
Sitting on the porch drinking ice cold Cherry Coke
Where everything is
Black and White..."