Dear Reader:

Enjoy your free download of Dear Friend. This story is part of the collection Unit One: The Abduction and Rescue of Cousin Joe: a memoir (and other stories), which is available for purchase in the shop section of the site.

This free download contains author’s notes, a premium feature.

Sincerely,

MoviesMarketsandMore

A preview:

Dear Friend

or

(How Many Blessings Can You See in This Picture?)

I WAS BLESSED, though I did not suspect it (and usually don’t), when Paul asked me if I might join him on Christmas Eve.  He intended to call the Salvation Army or Goodwill Industries and offer to help serve dinner that night to the needy and homeless.  I told him that I had no other plans and would be glad to join him.

That Paul would initiate such a plan was not the surprise that it would have been many years ago when we first met.  He had been an investor client of mine.  He came from old money out of Chicago.  He had inherited a couple million dollars and a few eccentricities.  The point is that he had always been generous–even magnanimous–but after he lost his money (and then some) and had to work and struggle to support himself and his children, his motivations changed.  He now indulged the habits and grooming of his class as simply part of him and appeared to want to indulge a charitable nature as an expanding part of him.

(Blessing Number One:  I got to watch.)