It’s Write on Wednesday time again. The prompt this week is The Saddest Thing I Ever Heard. After reading some of the sad stories people had written, I wanted to find something a bit happier. I hope this fits the bill.
To the untrained eye, Jack was a normal seven year old doing his Christmas shopping, browsing the aisles of the local cheap shop struggling with a too big basket. But Jack was on a mission.
He carried an important shopping list in his hand and there was an empty shoebox in the bottom of his basket.
“Ah, pencils,” he reached up to get a small packet coloured pencils from the hook. Jumping up he managed to knock the packet off the hook that was just a little bit too high. He got a small grey lead pencil out of his pocket and crossed off the words Something for school.
He looked at his list. Next to the words Something to wear he had written Undies. He always giggled at that, in the way only a seven year old could. His mum had told him he could get something else, but he wanted to get undies. There were some hanging up against one wall, all different colours, styles and sizes. He chose a bright blue pair with a picture of Buzz Lightyear on the front and added them to his basket, giggling.
Around the next corner he came to the toys. He chose a small orange teddy bear and added a vintage style Matchbox car to his collection. Referring to his list again he crossed off Something to love and Something to play with. Jack smiled, his shopping was going well. There were only a couple of things left.
Over the last month or so, he had been doing extra jobs around the house to save up for this special shopping trip. He had managed to save $25 and was so proud of himself.
Something caught his eye. It was shiny and the harsh lights from the shop caught them so they glinted in just the right way to catch Jack’s attention. He smiled, there was his Something Special. An awesome pair of sunglasses made of bright blue plastic with reflective lenses. Jack couldn’t resist trying them on before adding them to his shopping basket that was starting to get heavy.
Next to the sunglasses was a pile of face washers. He carefully chose one to add to his basket. This one was green with a picture of a pink car emblazoned on the front. He didn’t particularly like pink, but it was the best one in the pile. He crossed off Something for hygiene off his list.
Jack took a minute to make sure everything fit in the shoebox and grinned. It had been a month since the lady stood up in Sunday School and told them all about the kids overseas who had nothing and wouldn’t get anything for Christmas. To Jack, he didn’t like the thought of these kids having nothing to play with, and he started his mission. It was the saddest thing he had ever heard, and, even though he was only seven, he decided to do something about it.
This was inspired by Operation Christmas Child.
