What goes around

I get a call this morning, from a delivery man. He's lost. They often are. The stationary suppliers and fax repairmen of this world are forever trying to locate our office.

I sigh, push out from my desk and make my way down to reception. There's a man standing by the entryway as I come down the stairs. He has a mass of flowers in his arms. I'm looking for my guy when our eyes meet and we realise we're waiting for each other.

There's no name, just a note inside the card that reads: "Returning the favour."

I'm looking at them now, propped against the filing cabinet opposite me. I'm trying to work out who they're from. And then it comes to me.

See, I did this thing recently. I had all these envelopes on my desk at work. And it really seemed a shame that they were just sitting there, unused.

So I started posting people sweets.

It started with jellybabies, but soon I had moved on to chocolate buttons and fizzy soothers and giant cola bottles. Every time I went into a shop I would take a look around for something interesting, something that would fit into an ordinary envelope.

And one day I realised I had some really big envelopes. Industrial-sized ones. Big enough for more than a handful of penny sweets. Big enough to take several packets in fact. And, because a friend of mine was sick, I packed in as much as it could carry and sent it off to him. Because I thought, really, there are few things that candy doesn't make better.

And this weekend I got sick. So here I am staring at a ridiculously beautiful bouquet.

This is not for a moment to pretend that I am a wonderful person. But the little nice things you send out into the world sometimes really do come back to you.

Which is really very nice to know.