Chapter 2: Getting Involved

All that happened two years ago and just before the Holidays. Here I was again, alone for the holidays. My son and older daughter both live about a hundred miles away now. I told them that I might come up for a day or two during the holidays. Mandy was a senior in college and said she was going with friends to England during the holiday season. It was a trip offered by the college. She had asked me about it months ago. She was worried about me being alone. I tried to explain to my kids that I lived alone for two years now. I spent every day at the service station/store and was never alone there.

One day I was sitting in my big comfy chair and watching a few programs on the old tube (TV set). A commercial came on which I've seen over and over again about donating twenty-four dollars a month to give a kid in a third world country three meals a day, housing over their head and proper health and schooling. What the hell! Did people believe this?

Now don't get me wrong here. I'm all for feeding the hungry and helping those unable to help themselves, but if I could do all that for twenty-four bucks a month, I ought to move there myself. I'm sorry, but I'm not much on sending money and hope it goes somewhere to help kids. For those who do it and believe it, more power to you and God bless you.

It did give me an idea though. The next day when I was at the store one of our local ministers came into the store and I asked him if the church was doing one of those Christmas things where they hang up a tree and then put names of families on them that could use help for the holidays.

"Well, yes, Dan, we do have one. Is there a name of a family you would like posted?"

"No, Pastor Jim, I want the name of a family I can help through the holidays."

"That's great, Dan, just come over to the church and pick a name. It's a pretty full tree this year. There's a lot of people out of work."

"Jim, would you get me a name of someone that you truly believe needs help? I don't want one where it's hard for a husband that just got laid off. I want a family that help during the holidays would really make a difference. I'm not just going to get the kid a toy; I want to make it a holiday they'll never forget."

Pastor Jim smiled at me. I think he got the idea; I wanted to really make a difference in a family's life.

"Dan, I think I have the perfect family for you. We have a young widow who has three children. They moved here from the big city in the last year. Her husband was shot during a drug deal gone bad and she moved here to try to give her kids a new start in life."

"Okay, Jim, thanks a lot. I know that I'm not the church-going kind of guy but I want to do something to help someone this year. I'll stop by later and get the family's name from you."

When I told Pastor Jim about not being a church kind of guy he knew what I meant. I believed in God or something much bigger than myself. When Annie was alive, I went to church twice a year. I always heard the sermon where Jesus was born and when he died on the cross. Other than that, I attended weddings and funerals.

Carmella Wilson was the name on the paper I got off the tree at the church. Widowed with three kids and an address and phone number. Pastor Jim told me she was a waitress in Joe's Restaurant. I think I knew whom he was talking about. I've eaten at this restaurant dozens if not more times in the past year. I bet the waitress named Carmen was the name Jim gave me.

I stopped by the store and made sure everything was under control. I was a pretty much hands-on boss. I decided to go to Joe's Diner and have a talk with Carmen. As I walked in I looked around and Joe gave me a wave. We'd been friends since near childhood. Plus, of course we were both business owners which made us have a little more in common.

I sat at one of the tables and looked around. It was between breakfast and lunch time so it was fairly slow. I spotted Carmen who smiled and said she would be right with me.

A little info on Carmen: She was maybe thirty or so, a nice looking woman but I don't think she would be in the beautiful category. She was neat and attractive, with dark hair about shoulder length. She had nice legs and a normal bust, whatever normal was. It stuck out but you couldn't rest a beer on it. She definitely wasn't thin but wasn't fat either. Damn, it's harder to explain a woman's features than I thought. She did have a nice smile, I know that for sure.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Just a cup of coffee and some conversation if you don't mind."

"Yes, to the coffee but I don't know about this conversation," she replied.

"I'm sorry; I'm not good at talking with women. This isn't a come-on. I picked your name off the tree at the church and I want to be your holiday friend."

"Look, I'm not exactly sure what you want. I'll just go get your coffee." I saw her go talk to Joe and he was shaking his head when she came back with my coffee.

"Okay, Joe says you're alright. I have men coming on to me quite often and I don't need that in my life right now. What is it you want? What is a holiday friend? I know the church put my kids' names on a tree so they could have a Christmas but they never mentioned anything about a friend."

"The friend is my idea; please let me explain. If you just want me to buy the kids a gift when I finish, then I'll do just that. Without going into much detail, I was watching the TV when a guy said for twenty-four dollars a month I could sponsor a kid in a foreign country. They would feed them three meals a day give them clothes and schooling and a roof over their head. All for twenty-four dollars a month."

"Dan, isn't it? My kids drink twenty-four dollars a month in milk. I could hardly do much more than that." She was smiling; she had such a pretty smile.

"I know, I agree. I decided that I was going to adopt a family from now through the holidays. I want to help you with your material needs through Thanksgiving and Christmas. I want your family to have a Christmas to remember. I'm not rich but I can spare enough to try to help one family out this year and I chose yours."

Carmen had glassy eyes. "Are you serious? I was so worried for my kids this year. You see my husband was..."

"I know, Carmen, he was killed. Please let me help you help the kids. If you feel I'm interfering in your life, just tell me and I'll pull back."

"Why are you doing this? Don't you have family you can help out instead of a stranger?"

"Listen, my wife passed away two years ago. She was killed in a car accident."

"God, I'm so sorry for you."

"It's okay, Carmen. Anyway, my holidays have been pretty lousy and I wanted to try helping someone else be happy this year. I have three grown children. My son's in his thirties and a daughter is twenty-nine, I think. They are both married and have families of their own. I have a younger daughter who is a senior in college who is going to England over Christmas. None of them has a financial hardship. So, what do you say? Are we friends for the holidays?"

"You have a kind face, Dan; I'm going to say yes for my kids' sake. Please, no tricks, my family and I have been through a lot this past year. So, what do you need from me?"

"A coffee refill would be a nice start and an idea of some of your needs."

She poured the coffee and told me she needed to get back to work. Joe was nice but she needed to do her job. We agreed to talk after she got off of work the next day. I invited her out for dinner but she told me she had to be there for her kids but that I could come to her place and talk with her there. I could even have dinner with them if I liked macaroni and cheese.

"Tell you what Carmen, I'll stop by and pick up a pizza and we can have that. Is pepperoni and cheese alright?"

She smiled, "That would be great but you better bring two pizzas. My eight year old can eat a half of one himself."

I stopped by her place that evening. I didn't realize it was in the projects. For those who don't know about such places, they are publicly assisted by welfare or children services. These organizations help with the rent, food and such. The bad part is that it's not a good place to live. Lots of drugs and undesirables usually live there. Now I knew I wanted to help Carmen and her kids out more than anything.

I was greeted at the door by her eight-year-old son. He was a good-looking boy and asked me what I wanted. I explained to him that I was the pizza delivery guy and his mom invited me over.

He had a big grin on his face and said, "Mom said a friend of hers was bringing us pizza tonight. We don't get store bought pizza very often."

As I was walking in, two other kids came up to me yelling, "Pizza, pizza, mom, the pizza guy's here," yelled the six year old.

Carmen came in from the other room. I could tell she went to straighten up the place a little. "Kids, where are your manners? I thought I taught you to act nice around company."

"Sorry, Mom, we were just kind of excited." Her oldest son looked over at me. "We don't get a lot of company. Can we have the pizza now?"

"Kids, this is Dan, a friend of mine. You can call him, Uncle Dan or Mr. Dan..."

I interrupted Carmen, "Or just call me Dan. What are your names?"

The oldest spoke first. "I'm Mike and I'm eight years old."

Then the second one said, "I'm Mark and I'm six. That's my little sister Molly..."

"Let me talk," said Molly. "I know who I am. I'm Molly and I'm four going on five. I go to pre-school and I'm pretty smart." She was the sweetest little girl and looked like her mother.

Everyone dug in and started eating pizza. I glanced around the room and could tell that they were a struggling family. The furniture was old and they didn't seem to have a lot of things. Of course I had only seen the kitchen and the living room. The TV was on but the picture didn't look the greatest.