Holiday Helpers

“Psst. Andrew. Meeting in my room,” I whispered when we returned to the house.

We went to my room and closed the door.

“We are in big trouble. We have no angel. And we do not have a single cent between us,” I said. “We cannot buy another angel. We cannot even buy Christmas presents. And we have to pay the store owner the money we owe him by Christmas Eve.”

“I guess we messed up,” said Andrew.

“We sure did. Big time,” I replied. “We had one little responsibility and we blew it.”

“We could make an angel,” said Andrew.

“Maybe. But a fancy store-bought angel would be much better. We need to earn some money,” I said. “Then our troubles will be over.”

“How will we do that?” asked Andrew.

“I have an idea,” I replied. “Everyone is complaining about how busy they are. They are saying they do not have enough time to get everything done before Christmas. We will help them.”

“And they will pay us!” said Andrew.

“Exactly,” I replied. “We need to get organized. First we should make uniforms. That way we will look like serious workers.”

“I want to wear a fireman uniform,” said Andrew.

“That is not the kind of uniform I mean,” I said. “We have to make a uniform to go with our business.”

“Does our business have a name?” asked Andrew.

I thought and thought. Finally, I came up with a name. I thought of a very good motto, too.

“We will call ourselves the Holiday Helpers. Our motto will be: ‘If you have a job that needs to be done, ask Holiday Helpers and you’ll be free to have fun.’ ”

“I like that!” said Andrew.

“Thank you,” I replied. “We will charge fifty cents for each job we do. Come on. Let’s make our uniforms.”

I got out paper, crayons, glitter, string, and glue. We made signs that said: Holiday Helpers, 50¢ a job. We hung the signs around our necks with string. Then we stood in front of the mirror to admire ourselves. The Holiday Helpers were ready.

We knocked on Nannie’s door first.

“Holiday Helpers to the rescue,” I said.

Then Andrew and I said together, “If you have a job that needs to be done, ask Holiday Helpers and you’ll be free to have fun.”

Nannie smiled. “I certainly could use some help. Would the Holiday Helpers be able to dust this room?”

“We are very good dusters,” I said. “When you come back, the job will be done.”

“Thank you,” replied Nannie.

When we finished dusting, we found our next customer. It was Kristy. (She liked our motto a lot.)

“I lost one of my high-top sneakers,” said Kristy. “I have been looking for it all morning.”

“Holiday Helpers to the rescue!” I said.

Andrew found the sneaker under a poster that had fallen off the wall.

Daddy and Elizabeth asked us to read to Emily before her nap.

David Michael hired us to brush Shannon.

Charlie asked us to wipe the windows on the Junk Bucket. (That is what we call his car.)

Sam asked us to take phone messages for him while he went downtown to buy batteries for his radio.

Everyone paid us promptly. But by the end of the day, we still did not have much money.

“We only have three dollars,” I said. “I think we charged too little.”

We could not go back and ask for more money. That would not be nice. But I did not give up hope. Things would work out somehow. They always did.