ChatterLei

It was just before Christmas. All of the presents were wrapped and under the Christmas tree. Except just one.

Joe was with his mom who was picking up one last gift when he found a fifty dollar bill on the floor near the checkout register at the Ben Franklin Store. Fifty dollars was a lot of money to a 10-year-old boy.

“What a lucky find,” he thought.

He quickly bent over and picked it up, folded it a couple more times, and put it in his pants pocket for safe keeping until he got home. He was surprised and kind of happy that no one saw him pick the money up from the floor.

Back home, he ran upstairs to his bedroom, walked over to his bed, unscrewed the top from the bed post at the foot of his bed, dropped the fifty dollars inside, and screwed the top back on. Now, no one will know he has that money. Until HE is ready to tell them.

Joe woke up in the middle of the night to the strong smell of smoke and the sound of his dad yelling from downstairs to get out the windows. As Joe ran down the hall to his mom’s room, he could see the flames dancing up the walls from the living room downstairs.

“Mom!” He yelled. “The house is on fire!”

“Hurry! Go wake your brother and grab your combs and shoes and run back to the window in my room!” There was a sound of panic in her voice that Joe had never heard before.

He ran to his room as fast as possible–straight to the bedpost. He hurried to screw the top off and grabbed the fifty-dollar bill.

“Patrick! Wake up! The house is on fire! He yelled, as he screwed the top back on and took his comb out of his dresser drawer. “Grab your comb and your shoes and run to the window in Mom and Dad’s room!”

“My comb?” Pat asked. He was so confused by that.

“YES! Mom said for us to grab our combs and shoes! Hurry!”

They ran as fast as they could back to their parents’ room. The flames were dancing their way up the stairs. Joe could feel the heat from the fire as he ran past the stairway to the open window where his mom and older brother, Greg, were standing, waiting to help them out the window onto the small roof over the porch in the front of the house.

Joe wanted to just jump into the snow on the ground below. It wasn’t like he hadn’t already jumped that far numerous times before. His mom gave him a stern warning to wait for the firemen to help them down.

“Boys, where are your coats!?”

Oh, THAT is what she said. COATS. Not combs. Joe smiled at his brother, realizing the misunderstanding. Their adrenaline was pumping so hard and fast that they weren’t cold anyway.

In the meantime, their brother Chris was in a different bedroom at the other end of the hallway, past Joe and Pat’s room. When he was awakened and realized the house was on fire, his fear kicked in and didn’t know what to do, so he hid under the bed.

His dad, ran up the stairs through the flames and grabbed Chris out from under that bed. They went out the window at the end of the hallway where there was an even smaller roof over the back door way to the house.

The firemen arrived, got everyone off the roofs safely, and took their dad to the hospital where he spent the next several days for treatment to all of the burns on his face, arms, and legs.

Joe and his brothers stayed with their neighbor, the pastor, and their family for a few days, until they moved in with family for awhile until their house could be rebuilt.

The next day, Joe told his mom the story about finding the fifty-dollar bill. She called the owner of the Ben Franklin Store and asked if anyone reported missing the money. Mom could hear the sound of relief in his voice when he told her it belonged to one of his young cashiers.

Joe and his mom took the money back to the store. He didn’t want to keep the money knowing it belonged to someone else. For their honesty and because of their hardship, the store owner gave Joe and Pat a new pair of pajamas and a few toys. The owner was grateful to Joe for bringing the money back. Joe’s mom was grateful for the pajamas for the boys.

Christmas was definitely different for Joe and his family that year. Their house and all of the gifts they had for each other were gone, but at least they still had each other.

Every time Joe smells smoke from a campfire or something else, he is reminded of what is important in life…. Money, houses, presents, trees, etc., can all be replaced. Lives cannot. He is grateful his family survived the fire that night.

And his dad learned a valuable lesson about falling asleep with a lit cigarette in his hand.