My Secret Friend

Jorge Milanes

New Year’s are very exciting to me.  They mean leaving an old year behind and beginning another one, amid a series of good and bad events.

Not long ago on my job, we drew little pieces of paper with the names of people in our department.  Each woman selected a man, and each man a woman, to be their “secret friend,” with the rule being that no one could tell who they selected.

We began with small gifts placed in different places where the secret friend would pass by, or we would send it to them through various people so they wouldn’t know who got it for them.

One day I got to work early, and unexpectedly… there was a block of chocolate on my table.

“What a surprise!”

Who could my secret friend be?  I picked up the chocolate and looked around.  All my co-workers were looking at me.

“Who wants a taste?” I asked, with my face glowing.

“No thanks.  We’ve already had ours,” one person in the group replied.

I went ahead and ate some of the rich chocolate, but I was still wondering who my secret friend could be.

I told myself, “I’ll write down a bunch of hints on bits of paper and lead the person whose name I had selected to her surprise.  No, better yet – I’ll call Fernando, my secret friend’s son, to coordinate with him from their house.  I grabbed the phone and began talking with Fernando:

“Hey Fernando. It’s me, Jorge, How you doing?

“Fine,” he replied.

“I’m your mom’s secret friend, and I want you to help me with something I’m trying to give her, but she can’t find out who’s sending it.”

“That’s great, you can count on me,” he told me, excited.

“Good. This afternoon I’m going to give you a card for you to put in her personal drawer, OK?”

“No problem,” he told me.

“So, I’ll meet you at the exit to give it to you. Bye.”

I hung up, and when I turned around I found she was right behind me.  I don’t know if she heard, though I didn’t notice anything strange.  I greeted her and continued on my way as if nothing had happened.