I.

The Rich Boy

December 20, 09.05 a.m.

"Isn't this a beautiful day, N.J.?" Joshua asks his dog. It is early December, just shortly before Christmas and Joshua, like children all over the world, is excited. He is taking his dog, N.J. for a walk and they are looking at all of the beautiful Christmas decorations along the street in Washington, DC, where they live. N.J. is his second best friend. A dog breed of Pug, a little puppy as white as the snow, given by his dad as his 7th birthday present.

Joshua has been making special Christmas presents for his family and friends for weeks now. He made his mother a whole box of business cards to use to advertise her new website, 'Painless Cooking Recipes for Busy Moms.' He even designed a logo for her, which he is sure that she will like.

Joshua's mother, Mrs. Frances Candle, was born with a walking disability, but she has an electric wheel chair that allows her to get around very well. Mrs. Candle calls her wheelchair her "electric feet" and takes very good care of it. She also calls it her "freedom wagon", because without it, she wouldn't be able to get around because her own legs don't work that well. She is very excited about the new internet business, which she is building. The way it has started off it looks as if it is going to be a real success. Joshua knows that she is going to need business cards for her new website and he can hardly wait until Christmas to give them to her.

Joshua made a special present for his father, Mr. Hudson Candle also. Mr. Candle is a very hard working man, but the business, for which he used to work, closed down their offices in Washington and moved far away and now Mr. Candle doesn't have a regular job any more. Mr. Candle has been trying very hard to find a full time job. He knows he needs to make money to pay the bills to take care of his family. While he has been looking for a full time job, he has also been doing all kinds of part time work to help to keep the bills paid. Joshua made him some flyers to put up on bulletin boards in stores, advertising that he is looking for work to do, full or part time, and giving his phone number. Joshua knows that his father will like the flyers very much, because his father often prints out flyers for himself to use but he has been so busy lately working and looking for work that he hasn't had time to make any, so Joshua knows that he will be happy to get the big pile of flyers that he has made for him.

Joshua also made presents for his friends Perry Garrison and Nestor Cordell.

Perry is Joshua's very best friend in the whole world. Joshua and Perry's mothers like to say that Joshua and Perry have been friends since before they were born. That is because Mrs. Candle and Mrs. Garrison have been best friends ever since they were little girls. Joshua and Perry are almost exactly the same age. Perry is exactly two weeks, three days and seventeen and a half minutes older than Joshua. The family in Perry's house is just he and his mother, Mrs. Selina Garrison. Perry's father has been departed from them for four years now, since Perry was just a very little boy, so it is just the two of them now. Mrs. Garrison misses Perry's father so much that she sleeps with his picture under her pillow every single night. It makes Joshua feel sad when he thinks about Perry not having a dad at his house any more. He loves his mother and his father both very much and he can't imagine what it would be like if suddenly he didn't have one of them any more.

Perry and Joshua don't go to school together, because Perry goes to the regular elementary school and Joshua is being home-schooled by his mom. Perry tells Joshua and his mother about what he is doing in school and sometimes Joshua's mother will have Joshua study the same things, so that the two friends can work and study together. Perry and his mother are such good friends of Joshua and his parents, that Perry knows a very special secret about Joshua, something that even Joshua himself doesn't know, but he will never, ever tell.

Joshua is a regular kid when it comes to his studies, sometimes even sloppy, but Perry is a true one-of-a-kind genius. The school has tested him and found that his IQ really is in the 'super student' category. Perry is always working on chemistry projects and chemical experiments and building inventions so Joshua made him a very special Christmas present. It is a special book made just for him that will help him to keep track of all of his projects and experiments. Joshua printed out lots of pages for him and took it to a local printing shop to have it bound together with a plastic binding comb. The cover says 'Perry Garrison, Research Projects and Experiments' in big letters. Joshua kept a file of the research pages he had designed especially for Perry and when Perry uses up all of the ones in the book, he can print him out some more or give Perry a copy of the file so that he can print out his own. Joshua thinks that Perry will like the present very much. "At least I hope he will," he thinks to himself.

Joshua looks at the book, which he made for Perry. "But, he already has so many books on his bookshelf," he thinks to himself. "Oh, man, I wish I could think of something extra to give him this year. Something really, really special. He is my very best friend in the whole world and I want to give him something really, really nice for Christmas day. He's my very best friend, but I don't know what he really wants the very most. I feel like a real loser!" Joshua sighs deeply as he tries and tries to think of something extra special that Perry would really love to have.

Joshua also made a present for Nestor Cordell. Nestor isn't exactly a friend of Joshua's. In fact, one might even call him an enemy. Nestor is a very cruel boy, and he loves seeing people in trouble, especially Joshua. He tries very hard to make Joshua cry whenever he sees him, but oddly enough, he never succeeds. Joshua tries always to look for the good in people and not to see the bad things. He calls Nestor his potential friend. He even named his dog, Nestor Junior. "That is because even though dogs like you are often thought to be cruel and ugly because they look so fierce on the outside, I know that you are really a very nice and kind and loving dog inside," he told NJ. "And I'm sure that Nestor has a nice and kind and loving part to him also, we just have to keep looking for it. Don't you agree, NJ?"

Joshua made Nestor a book very similar to the one he made for Perry, only this time, the book was to help Nestor keep track of his homework assignments. It says 'Nestor Cordell, Homework Assignments' right on the front cover. Joshua thinks that Nestor will probably pretend that he doesn't like it, but he hopes that down inside, he really will like it.

Joshua is also looking forward to Christmas because he knows that he will be getting presents too, and of course, everyone likes to get presents.

Joshua and NJ turn the corner on the next block. Joshua knows that he mustn't get too far from home because sometimes he gets very weak and achy and he doesn't want to be so far from home that he just doesn't have the strength to walk back. One time, Joshua walked too far from home and he knew that he just didn't have the strength to walk back. In fact, he had done so much walking that he was beginning to feel dizzy. He had gone over to a taxi and explained to the driver what had happened, so the taxi driver had taken him home and Mrs. Candle had paid him when they got there.

After that, Joshua was very careful that he didn't walk too far and had enough energy left to walk home. Joshua asked his parents one day; why he was so weak and small compared to many other boys his age, and they had explained that not everybody is alike.

They explained that while he was good at designing and printing out game boards on the computer, and had made his very own version of Monopoly game, some other boys his age couldn't do that at all, but that they were very, very good at something that Joshua couldn't do." It would be a very dull world if everyone were exactly alike," Mrs. Candle had told Joshua.

Joshua and N.J. walk along the sidewalk and suddenly they see a very unusual sight. A boy, who appears to be almost as old as Joshua, who is eight years old, is screaming at his parents and jumping up and down. His face is getting redder and redder. Judging from the outfits that they are wearing, it looks like the boy and his parents are very well high society people. All in all, he is acting very much like a little two year old who doesn't know any better, throwing a temper tantrum. "I don't want that dumb train!" he screams. He grabs the gift package from his father's arms and throws it on the ground. The sound of things being broken is heard and it is evident that at least some of the very expensive toy train has been broken and probably pretty awfully. "I want PlayStation 4! You get me PlayStation 4 right now!" sighing, the boy's father picks up the package and puts it in a nearby trash container, and the three of them turn back to return to the toy store to get the boy his dream toy; PlayStation 4, one of the most popular video game consoles in the world.

Joshua stares in amazement. "I heard that PS4 can give you a realistic contact on multiplayer games, and it's very expensive too," he says to NJ. "May God bless them with more prosperity."

Joshua doesn't know what his parents would do if he acted like that, but he knows that they would be very displeased with him and they certainly would not have gone back and bought him a PlayStation 4. Joshua thinks that the train was a very nice present indeed.

He takes the bag with the train, out of the trash container. "Maybe there are some good parts to it left," he says to NJ. "And maybe Perry and I can work on it and repair the broken pieces. I'm going to rest over here on the bench and see if I can build up enough strength to carry it home. If we can't repair it, Perry can probably use some of the parts in one of his weird projects and those are always fun to build."

An old man who also had been watching the scene with the boy and his parents stares at the train with a very disappointed look on his face. He overhears what Joshua says to NJ, and steps a little closer to listen. "I think it looks like a great toy," Joshua tells NJ. "And if Perry and I can't do anything with it, well, there's nothing to lose anyway. We have a garbage pail at home, don't we, fella? It can be thrown away there just as well as it can be here." Joshua strokes the dog as he talks and NJ rests his head on Joshua's knee. It is very evident to anyone who sees them that the two of them love each other very much indeed.

"Hmm," says the old man to himself. "Now there's a boy with the right kind of a heart. He isn't just thinking of how much he'll enjoy the train if it can be fixed, but of his friend as well. I think I'll just give him a special Christmas surprise." The old man points his finger towards the brightly colored bag that the train set is in and suddenly bright lights of all different colors seemed to be coming from it. "There, that ought to take care of it," he thinks to himself. "That's a boy that really deserves to have a nice train set for Christmas, not like that other kid. If I was picking out presents for that other kid for Christmas, I wouldn't give him any toys at all. I'd give all the socks and dirty underwear in the world for him!" Then the old man thinks for a few minutes and smiles slightly. "Well, maybe I'd give him a few toys too," he mumbles to himself. "After all, it is Christmas."

Joshua picks up the package with the train in it. "Come on, NJ, let's go," he says to his dog. "It will be getting dark soon and Mom will be looking for us." Joshua and NJ proceed down the street and around the corner, walking straight to Joshua's house.

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