The Mechanic and The Broken Heart

Another short story:

Chance meeting is how she would come to get to know the mechanic.
She initially had no clue what he even did for a living.
She had just come along for the ride with a friend.

Had she known her heart would later encounter him she may have been more aware of it all.
She may have paid more attention.
All she remembered was his welcoming manner and ease in conversation and laughter that he brought.
Something that stood out to her and she would later recall with favor.

The fortuitous encounter would open experiences that would not of happened otherwise.
As she would come to learn more about him through S.A.M.s - a game of Something About Me she came to see him in a feeling way.
Not as the "nice stranger", but as someone who was becoming real as the pieces fit together.
Pieces that were composing, no longer just an image but, a caring person.

So one day she decided to carefully place the treasured broken heart that she had guarded in safe keeping for years in herself, and bring it to the mechanic. 
It presented itself unsuspectingly.
Caught him off guard.
Not just the vulnerability, as he too was composing pieces of her into someone he valued and had hoped to someday encounter too, but the extent of the work needed.

It was out of his element.
Although he was intelligent and amazing at the work he did, this was a new challenge he had in front of him.
Not that he hadn't seen broken hearts before, but that the responsibility of such a cherished and even sacred piece was not something he was equipped to fix.
Although he had given it his best effort, in all his years of training and experience he had never completely restored a broken heart.

Because broken hearts take The Master Craftsman, something he wasn't.
Something she in her vulnerable exposure had omitted to ask or to see.
Supposing he was capable because she believed it, wanted it, needed it.
Something that in the end would not be fair to either of them.

And although he yearned to be able to help and was gentle in the handling of the pieces, he could not make the needed repairs.
Not even for himself nor his own heart.
As there is no human that possesses that ability.

As she came to accept this, she carefully picked up what lay in front of her and handed it to him.
And with tears in her eyes she peered deep into his, into his soul, inaudibly speaking words of gratitude, sadness and love as he would gently place the pieces of her heart tenderly back where they had come from.
And as he did, another piece broke and a tear fell from his eye.

Walking to the door, she glanced back one last time at him, gently and very slowly pulling the door shut behind her as she knew the loneliness that would await, for she now no longer saw a mechanic, but a compassionate man. 


"God can heal a broken heart, but He has to have all the pieces."  ~Author Unknown