The Fremont Saga
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 41 

Christmas Shopping: Bah Humbug

When Tanner and I walked into the kitchen, Timmy was talking to Mother, “Did we get any more of those cards with money for Grandmother, today?”

“Timmy, I don’t know.  I haven’t opened the mail, yet.  Why don’t you go get the mail?  It‘s on the table in the entryway and you and the guys can open it to see?”

Timmy returned with a stack of mail and handed it to me.  I started to separate it into three piles:  junk mail, official mail and cards that looked like Christmas cards.  I was just about finished sorting, when I came upon one that was addressed to Timmy.  I handed it to him, “This one is for you, Timmy.”

Timmy looked at it, “Who’s sending me mail?

Tanner looked at the letter, “Open it and find out what it is.”

Timmy took the letter and opened it as if it were gold.  He unfolded the note and started to read,   

Dear Timmy,

We wanted to tell you that your Christmas present will be arriving by itself.  It had to be ordered.

                                                  Love.

                                                  Ben and Grant

I had been watching Timmy’s expression, as he was reading out loud.  When he finished he had a big grin on his face.  He didn’t say anything.  He put the note in his pocket and looked at the piles I had sorted.  “Why don’t we let Mommy and Dad open these, after dinner?  I need to set the table.”

I thought to myself, ‘Saved by a short note.’

Morgan opened the front door, “Thanks for the ride, Mrs. Larson.”

As she walked by the Christmas tree, she commented, “It’s beginning to look like Christmas.  I guess I need to get busy and do some shopping.”

Dad arrived just as we were about to eat.  After we had started to eat, Dad announced, “I have some important news.  Grandmother’s condo was sold, today.  The people paid cash.  The auction of the furniture and other items went extremely well and the check from the proceeds for the sales should be arriving tomorrow.  Mr. Carstairs called and said the paintings are going to be in an auction after the first of the year.  I was right.  He thinks there were some valuable paintings in Grandmother’s condo.  Does anyone else have anything to report?  How about you, Timmy?”

Timmy grinned, “Daddy, it was just a boring day.  We didn’t do anything much at school.  The kids weren’t paying any attention, because they’re excited about Christmas.  We did get a package from Ben and Grant.  You and Mommy have lots of mail to open, after dinner.”

Morgan shrugged, “Ditto what Timmy said.”

Tanner and I shook our heads no.

Mother, however, had some things that she needed to talk about. “Timmy’s room mother called and asked if I could provide a small treat for the children in his class that was something to eat.  I spent almost the entire morning trying to find things for the gift bags.  Mr. Lake, from the home, where you guys are going to be providing Christmas gifts, called and gave me the names and ages of the young people who are scheduled to be in the home over Christmas.  There are 16 young men in the home and 12 young women.  He asked if you could deliver the gifts on Saturday.  I put the list on the desk in the den.”

After dinner and the clean up had been finished, Timmy got the list.  He was charged up. “Daddy, I need my card.  Tanner is going to take Morgan, Brian and me, so we can get the gifts for these people and have time to wrap them.”

Tanner acted like he was surprised, “I am?  Who says so?”

Timmy sniffed, “Please, Tanner, we gotta do it tonight or we won’t have time to wrap the gifts.”

Tanner laughed, “Oh, okay, but we can’t be out too late.  You and Morgan turn into grouches.”

Morgan giggled, “At least we aren’t already grouches, like some high school students we know.”

Timmy decided that we could almost get everything he wanted at the Target store, so that’s where we started.  When we walked in, Timmy grabbed a cart.  “Morgan, you get one, too.”

By the time we were ready to check out, we had twenty eight stocking caps and pairs of gloves, and they all had to be different.  Timmy had put Tanner and me to work finding hoodies of the right size for the guys.  Morgan decided that girls would prefer some fancy night wear instead of a hoodie.  Timmy had sent me to get another cart.  We had to pick up boxes and wrapping paper, ribbon and tags, so that the packages wouldn’t look the same.

I asked, “Are we ready to go, yet?”

“Nope, we need to find one more thing.”

We stopped in the dental hygiene department and Timmy started to pick out tooth brushes but then something caught his eye and he put the tooth brushes back.  He directed our attention to personal care kits for men and women and we had to get twenty eight of them, which wasn’t easy.  We had to get a worker to bring some kits from the warehouse area.

We started to walk toward the checkout stand and heaven forbid we had to walk by the gift candy area.  Timmy looked at what was available and decided we had to get twenty eight book like packages of different kinds of life savers.

We finally made it to the checkout stand and Morgan and Tanner were putting the items on the conveyor belt, Timmy was watching the price of the things as they were being scanned.  I, of course, was relegated to sacking our purchases with the help of Kent, whom I knew from school.  He looked at me, “Are you buying these things for an organization?”

I explained what was happening and he said, “I’ll be right back.”

He returned with an older man.  Kent introduced the man, “This is Mr. Kincaid, the manager.  Tell him why you’re buying these things.”

I pointed to Timmy, “Timmy, you explain why we’re buying these things.”

Timmy looked up, “We’re buying them so that the children in the home for homeless children can have a Christmas, like the rest of us.”

Mr. Kincaid asked, “What home, and do you have a list of the children the gifts are for?”

Timmy handed Mr. Kincaid our list, “We need this back, sir, so we make sure the gifts have the boys and girls name on them.”

Mr. Kincaid nodded, “I'll bring the list right back.  Janice, don’t total the purchases until I return.”

We were standing around twiddling our thumbs when Mr. Kincaid finally returned, “Janice, I’ll finalize the sale.  I need to ring in a fifteen percent discount, and a special code.”

Mr. Kincaid did what he said he was going to do and still the total was astronomical.  Morgan looked at Timmy, “Are you sure you want all these things.”

“Yes.”  He swiped his card and had to stand on his toes to see the pin pad to put in his pin number. 

I think Mr. Kincaid was even surprised how fast the transaction cleared.  He handed Timmy the receipt, “Young man, tell the boys, who receive these presents that the Target wishes them a Merry Christmas.”

“Thanks for the discount, sir.  We’ll be sure that we tell the young people that Target helped to provide their gift.”

When we arrived at the house, Timmy had us take the bags with the merchandise to the dining room, “I’ll make sure that Mother doesn’t mind them being here.  We’ll take care of them tomorrow so we can do our shopping for the family on Wednesday and Thursday.”

Timmy went to give his card to Dad, “Daddy, why don’t you keep this for me until we go shopping on Wednesday, so I don’t lose it.  We got everything we needed.  Mommy, we put the gifts in the dining room, so we could wrap them tomorrow night.  We’ll have to eat dinner in the kitchen tomorrow night, that’s okay, isn’t it?”

Mother nodded, “We’ll suffer for one night.  How much did you spend?”

Timmy shrugged his shoulders, “You’ll have to ask Brian.  The Target store even gave us a fifteen percent discount.  I’m not sure what that means.  I need to get ready for bed.  I’m kinda tired.”

After Timmy had gone upstairs, Dad looked at me, “Brian, would you care to explain?”

“Dad and Mother, Timmy was on a mission.  We spent over a thousand dollars even with the discount the store gave us.  Timmy reminded us that Grandpa Nappy said we were to help children who were homeless.  He was determined that each of the young people in the home is going to get at least four gifts.”

“Brian, we’ll have to get you guys a card for the fund that Grandpa Nappy set up.  We can’t have Timmy spending his own money like this.”

“Dad, don’t tell me.  Tell him.  I need to go check on Timmy.”

Timmy was lying on the bed and Tanner was doing some school work.  Timmy asked, “Brian, do you have any more neat Christmas stories.”

I pulled out a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  “Timmy this is a long story, but there is a boy about your age who is also named Tim.  It will probably take us until Christmas to finish it, since it’s pretty long.”

I sat down on the bed and started to read and Tanner came and sat beside us.  I stopped reading just as Mr. Scrooge was going to bed. “Timmy, we need to stop there, or we’ll be up all night.”

As we were finishing breakfast, Timmy went and put his arm around Dad, “Daddy, I’ve been thinking that we should take the gifts to the home as a family.  We could take them something special to eat like pizza.  Brian, Tanner, Morgan and I could make Christmas Cookies for their desert, to make it really special.  Why don’t you check with Mr. Lake to see if that would be a problem?”

We loaded the gift bags for Timmy’s class in three boxes so we could carry the gift bags into school in one trip.  When we delivered the bags, the teacher shook here head, I was asking for small things.  The children will be worried about what’s in the bags so they probably won’t be able to get any work done, right Timmy?”

Timmy hugged us as we were leaving.  When I arrived at my first class, Mr. Cox announced, “Today’s assignment is to write a true story about Christmas.”

That was easy.  I decided to write about the shopping trip that went down last night.  I was pounding away on the keys and the story was just flowing out, because it was so fresh in my mind.  I had over twenty five hundred words when I ended the story.  The presents are going to be delivered on Saturday, along with a pizza party for lunch and home made Christmas cookies for desert.  It will be interesting to see how the homeless children respond on Saturday.

I forwarded the story to Mr. Cox.  Again, I must have been the first person done He stood, “Class, I want you to hear the story of a young boy who has the true Christmas spirit.  Brian, please read your story.

I read the tale of what happened at the Target store and as I was finishing, Kent spoke up.  “Ladies and gentleman, I was there and that Timmy person was a very determined young man and that’s why I went to contact the manager.  Even with a fifteen per cent discount, the bill was almost $1200.00 but Timmy didn’t bat an eye as he swiped his debit card.  I heard Timmy say, “We were told to make sure the less fortunate children were cared for.  We need to help the groups one at a time.”

When Tanner and I arrived at the house, Carmody, Morgan and Timmy had an assembly line going as they were putting the presents in boxes.  When Timmy saw us, he pointed. “We need your help.  Morgan and I are filling the boxes and Carmody is placing the items in the appropriate piles for each person.  You need to start wrapping the gifts; make sure all the packages for one person are in a different wrapping paper so it will be more festive.”

Carmody had to leave and we decided to finish after dinner, thinking that maybe we could con the parents into assisting us.  During dinner, Timmy reported, “Mommy, the kids loved the gift bags you made up.  They were nicer than the other gifts that we got.”

Mother grinned, “I had a call from the room mother telling how much the children enjoyed the bags.  She wanted to know if I would help her plan the Valentine party.”

Timmy looked at Dad and Mother, “Mommy and Daddy, we were wondering if you would help us finish wrapping the gifts for the homeless children so we can get them all done tonight?”

Dad faked a moan, “Do we gotta?  I’m pretty tired.”

Timmy went and put his arm around Dad, “Daddy, you’ll feel much better if you help us, because we’ll all be working together and think about how much the boys and girls are going to enjoy their gifts.”

“Oh, okay.”  

It’s a good thing it wasn’t a school night, because Timmy was bound and determined to get everything finished on Tuesday night, so we could go shopping for the rest of the family on Wednesday and Thursday, in case we needed to.  We did finish the wrapping but the there were packages all over the dining room.

Tanner started to laugh, “It’s going to take a dump truck to get all these things to the home.  It’s a good thing that Dad and Mother aren’t going to be here tomorrow night, because there wouldn’t be any place for us to eat.”

Timmy pounded his chest, “Never fear, Super Timmy and Wonder Morgan will take care of it.”

Timmy and Morgan put the packages in piles for each of the recipients and put them around the Christmas tree.  Dad commented, “It looks as if Santa has been here.”

Timmy giggled, “Santa told us to try and fill the living room.  Come on Brian, you gotta read me the next chapter part of the story.  I want to find out why someone as mean as Mr. Scrooge is in a Christmas Story.”

After Timmy had gone up the stairs, Dad asked, “Isn’t that story a little difficult for Timmy to read and understand.”

Tanner laughed, “Timmy’s not reading it.  The master wizard is reading it to us.  Come on, Wiz.  The boss has spoken.”

After Tanner and I had our showers, the three of us were propped against the head of the bed and I read the part of the story dealing with Christmas past.  When I finished, Timmy shook his head, “Brian, I really don’t understand what made Mr. Scrooge so mean.”

To be continued...

 Editor's Notes:  I remember reading A Christmas Carol, when I was in school. Of course, the movie is shown every year, so there are not very many of us who haven't heard or seen the story, in one way or another.

Mr. Scrooge was given a pretty difficult life, to deal with, when he was young.  He never knew much about having fun or having friends, and he sort of hardened his heart, and stopped feeling any empathy for anyone but himself.  His partner Marley was about as bad as Scrooge, but Scrooge took things beyond even what Marley had done, once Marley was dead.  To put it mildly, Scrooge was not a very nice person. Of course, most of us know what happened to Scrooge, and the part that Tim played in the way he changed.

I will leave it there, since I am sure that E Walk wants to relate things they way there were told to Timmy.

Mr. Dickens was a wonderful author.  He put a lot of life into his characters and the stories that he gave us. 

I hope that the family will take the time, before Christmas, to sit down and watch "It's A Wonderful Life" and Miracle On Thirty Fourth Street. (The original versions) Timmy will enjoy both of those, I bet.

Someone needs to remind me to tell the story of how "It's a Wonderful Life got to be the annual Christmas movie, that it finally became, since it was not a success when it was first released. In my opinion, any movie that had Jimmy Stewart in it, is a good movie.

I am ready for the next chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 10/01/10