The Pneumatic Tubes of Love
When his number came up, he was longing.
No, it is not the big number. Not the final number after which you leave the stage.
It was a smaller number, one that comes up when one of your wishes comes true. It is a custom in the Heavens that people on earth not know when the number has been drawn. Keeps them on their toes, you know?
In his case he — Arthur the Bear Man — was wishing that he had more friends, or that he had them more closely. There were people he knew but so few of them he could feel, and he wished he could.
When his number came up, the bureau of wishes examined his desire. What might fulfill it, without giving away the whole wish-granting business?
They noticed that the longing he was feeling was in his heart.
They noticed that what he wanted to do, really, was to be in touch with the hearts of others.
Arthur was old, old enough to remember when most coffee was bad, when telephones had operators. Those in heaven therefore looked in the past to find an image that would work for him. They came upon the pneumatic tube system, which in Arthur’s youth had carried money and orders around large department stores in air-driven capsules.
One spirit caught the eye of another. This could be accomplished.
They found someone who genuinely liked Arthur. He did not know it, but there were many. They laid the appearance of a pneumatic tube between these two friends’ hearts.
They dropped some good will for Arthur in the friend’s heart. With a puff of intention it was carried into Arthur’s awareness in his chest.
He realized how much he was loved. And he knew who esteemed him so. Tears formed in his eyes. He reached out to other friends, far away in space and then in time, and sent delight and pleasure in their company to each.
Most of them responded.
Arthur now was connected heart to heart with those who cared for him. He did not insist in knowing how this grace had come to him. He accepted it with delight.
