Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: HUNGRY (01/09/20)
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TITLE: Jelly Beans | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
01/15/20 -
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Calvin watched a little boy dropping jelly beans one by one into a coffee cup by the bus stop. Blue, red, green, blue, white, red, green. The bus pulled up and the boy’s mom grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs while he cried.
The landscape wrapped itself in a cozy blanket of white as alderman Thomas Jefferson Jenkins rushed past the feeble yellow tarp bowed under the weight of the snow. He would have missed it if the teens having a snowball fight had better aim. The slush ball hit what appeared to be a snowdrift piled up against the Kensington Community Church but the hollow echo in the stillness stood out.
He stopped and considered what he was seeing. The weather had already slowed his trek to the council meeting where the city leaders were devising a plan to care for the 2000 homeless in warming shelters.
His stomach rumbled. He hadn’t eaten anything more than a slice of pizza since breakfast and it was almost six. He could pick up a coffee and muffin in the lobby if he hurried. Turning to the teens he called out, “boys, be careful, you almost hit someone.” His watch told him he had five minutes to make the ten-minute journey so he straightened up his collar against the blustery wind and set out on his way.
As he walked away a small boy poked his head out from under the tarp. “Daddy, can we get something to eat today?”
A gruff voice barked. “There’s nothing out there for you. Come back in here.”
“But daddy, I’m cold,” the boy said.
The boy ducked out of sight but not before Calvin saw him.
The teens moved on, grumbling about the elderly goat with his cane who had cautioned them. They almost ran into Nurse Belinda Comfort Penny as she stopped to stare at the nativity scene in the church’s front yard. Someone had tipped over a wiseman and she eyed the boys with an icy glare, which they missed.
She remembered the bake sales of old when all the ladies came together and fed the community. The reverend’s last message on showing compassion for the poor and needy resonated with her. If only she could find a soul untarnished by drugs, mental illness and crime. She secured the paper book on Jesus’ Greatest Sermon and was thankful she had underlined every word of his encouragement to feed the hungry and to visit the incarcerated.
Opening the front door of the church, she failed to notice the little boy watching her from under the yellow tarp but Calvin did.
Calvin walked over to the coffee cup and picked it up. Perfectly good jelly beans. Two red ones – his favorite. The street was abandoned. Not a soul in sight. He tipped the cup over. A red one. It was his lucky night.
When he had a momma, she always saved the red ones for him, especially at Christmas. She also told him it was better to give than to receive.
As he cradled the red jelly bean in the palm of his glove, he heard a whimpering from under the tarp. He walked to the manger and knelt. “This is your birthday Jesus but I don’t think you’d mind if I gave your gift to someone else.”
He walked to the edge of the tarp and began to sing like an angel. “Silent Night, Holy Night.”
The little boy and his father stepped out and stood still. The stars overhead seemed to twinkle a little brighter. The chill of the night seemed a little less.
When he was done singing, Calvin held out the cup to the boy who took it. The boy looked inside and smiled. “Jelly beans, my favorite.”
“Merry Christmas,” Calvin said as he walked back to his cardboard home behind the dumpster.
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Blessings~
This was a moving and poignant piece. I was a little confused at the different POV shifts but the message was loud and clear.
Congrats on such a great piece!
Blessings~