They were sitting at the dining table. She looked beautiful in her new black dress. He had tried to match up to her style with his military green turtleneck t shirt and beige trousers. They looked good together. The long journey of ups and downs had taken a toll on both of them but today they looked as happy and hopeful as they did years ago when they decided to spend their life together.
Mr. “Did you hear the news?”
Mrs. “What?”
Mr. “Our Teacher, The HopeMan, got the best salesman of the year award.”
Mrs. “What? But he is not a salesman.”
Mr. “I just heard it on the news.”
Mrs. “Did you put on your hearing aid, Honey? You have been hearing a lot of unsaid stories of late.”
Mr. “Oh, yes! I have them on. I am not imagining or cooking up stories. That’s what YOU do sometimes. Remember the story you told me about the neighbor shifting to Timbuktu. I called him up the next day and he had a hearty laugh about it. He said he was going to  Machu Picchu and you heard it as Timbuktu. ”
Mrs. “I told you I did not have my hearing aid on that day and I had to read his lips to understand what he was saying . That was a distracting affair , you know! ”
Mr. “Don’t remind me about your distractions, dear!”
Mrs “Now, coming to the topic, why is he getting the salesman of the year award? He is a retired man sitting in a small hermitage on the banks of the river.”
Mr. “Yes. He is. Remember the first time we accidentally bumped into one of his followers in the bookshop?”
Mrs. “Yes, I do. That person had such a heart warming smile that both of us felt compelled to talk to him.”
Mr. ” Yes. We waited outside the bookshop for him to come out.”
Mrs. “And the conversation led us to this retired man. So, do you mean he is a person selling things for a company through his followers? He never sold us anything”
Mr. “He was selling the most difficult thing to sell: HOPE. His followers are feeling hopeful of a better life. They were people who were on the brink of succumbing into their problems and anxieties. But this man was able to sell hope to them.”
Mrs. “That’s exactly what he did to us. At a time when we had lost all hope, he sold it to us. He bartered it to us for the time that we spent in his hermitage. He showed us what lay ahead no matter how long or short the remaining part of the journey is. He held our hands and led us to a hopeful now. ”
Mr. “Exactly. So one of his followers apparently nominated him for the best salesman of the year award and the jury was convinced by the numerous emails and calls that they got with the stories of how he sold them HOPE.  So doesn’t he deserve the best salesman of the year award.”
Mrs. “He indeed does. And he is the only one who deserves it”
They finish their dinner in silence. Both of them thinking of the ways in which The Hopeman had helped them come out of despair, pessimism and inadequacy. They couldn’t thank him enough. They paid tribute to him everyday by living in the realm of hope that He had sold to them.
 

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