This is my post on the #freewriters2819 #dailyprompt button it hosted by @marinnewest's.
Mr. Amos, a tailor renowned for his exquisite stitches and reserved manner, lived in the sleepy town of Glenridge. When he did speak, it was usually in the form of two words: "Button it."
People joked that he’d stitched his mouth shut like one of his coats, but those two words had meaning. Customers would come in, trying to explain what they wanted: long sleeves, double stitching, a pocket here, a patch there. But Mr. Amos would hold up a hand and say gently, “Button it.” Then, he’d get to work, and the result was always better than what they imagined.
One day, a boy named Jide wandered into the shop, clutching a tattered shirt that belonged to his late father. “Can you fix this?” he asked. Mr. Amos examined the shirt. Half the buttons were gone, the fabric was worn thin, and the collar had nearly separated. He looked at Jide and whispered, “Button it.”
Jide thought he was meant to be quiet, so he nodded and sat silently. Mr. Amos worked without pause, his needle flying like a bird in the wind. He replaced each missing button with ones that looked like tiny stars, cleaned and pressed the shirt, and strengthened the seams.
When he handed it back, Jide stared in awe. It was still his father’s shirt—but it looked like something new, something proud. “Why do you always say that?” he finally asked.
Mr. Amos smiled. “When something is falling apart, the first step is to button it. Hold it together, even if just for a moment. Once it's buttoned, we can fix the rest.”
Years later, Jide would become a tailor himself. Above his small shop, a wooden sign hung proudly: “Button It – Stitching Life Back Together”. And just like Mr. Amos, when people came to him, he would listen for a bit, then smile and say those same two words—not to silence them, but to remind them: no matter how torn things seem, the first step to mending anything is simply to button it.