The Do-Gooders, Part One

I accidentally sent two newsletters yesterday! Either I’m sorry or you’re welcome, depending on your reaction to receiving an extra one.

Here’s THE DO-GOODERS, Part One.

Roger James Bunwith IV and his wife Melinda are prepared to whisk the kids off to Aspen this Christmas as usual, but the prep school trend is for teens to help the less fortunate. At the gala, all their friends brag about how little Ashton has founded a Zambian orphanage, and they raise their eyebrows at the mention of Aspen. “Oh, I just meant, we WOULD have gone to Aspen, if our children weren’t so busy! Bless their little hearts, they’ve vowed to do a good deed every day until Christmas,” invents Melinda. Everyone nods approvingly.

Melinda breaks the news to her children at home: no Aspen, daily good deeds instead. “What good deeds would you like to do, darlings?” Melinda asks the children. “Would you like to start an orphanage too? I’m sure those poor orphans in third world countries are suffering. Mummy will write a check.”

Jonny, the 10-year old, is appalled at the idea. But Taylor, the 13-year old, gets into the spirit – just not in the way Mummy would like. Taylor gives away their iPad to a stranger and brings home a mangy dog.

On the way home from school, Taylor sees someone moving in the windows of the one small shack among the sea of mansions. Everybody knows that’s where the witch lives. Crumpled newspaper litters the lawn. Taylor moves closer and takes one of the newspaper balls. A gnarled face appears in the window and Taylor runs away. But on the way home, they uncrumple the newspaper ball and find a poem, about how sad it is to be unloved and alone on Christmas. Maybe the witch could use a good deed this holiday season.