The Selfish Little Town

by Marilyn Oliver

There was this little house down the block. No body every thought much about it. It stood there for ever, and though everyone knew that someone lived there they never paid much attention to it. A young married couple had bought the house about ten years ago, and then he went to the war in Viet Nam and he never came back. It was said that he was killed there, and that she just stayed inside and didn't speak to anyone after that. No body had thought to knock on her door and ask if there was something they could do for her. Nobody wanted to get involved with her troubles, they had troubles of their own and she would be a bother.

People would pass the little house everyday, and no longer even bothered to look at it. Till one day they saw this little boy standing in the front yard. One woman shouted as she drove pass for the boy to get out of that yard , that a mad woman lived there and the woman would eat him for breakfast. And then she drove on. A man walking down the sidewalk asked the little boy if he was alright, and the boy just cried . The man walked on. He didn't even look back, What business was it of his anyway?

The preacher from the local church saw him standing there, and the look in that boys eyes made the preacher want to cry too. So he went to the little bay and took him by the hand and asked him if there was something he could do for him. The boy looked into the eyes of the preacher and said to him, Sir my Mommie is sick and I don't think she will live much longer, Will you look in on her? The preacher said of course son, I will. Where is she? The boy took the preacher into the house and led him to the womans' bed. The preacher went to the bed and the woman there looked like she had been sick for weeks and looked like she might die any minute. Since the church was just two doors down the street, the preacher ran there to call for help. The preacher called a doctor from the church because there was no phone there at the house. When he got back to the house the little boy was in the front yard again. The preacher asked why he was there and not in the house? The little boy said, I didn't think you were coming back.

The rescue squad got there then, and the preacher told the little boy to go to his room and wait there for him, and as soon as he had taken care of his mother he would be there to get him. The little boy did as he was told and left the room. The rescue squad left the house with the woman and when the preacher went to the small boys room, what he saw there made his blood run cold. There on the bed was a small boy and he was wrapped up in a blanket. There was a note pined to it and it read:

To who ever finds us;

I tried to save my boy but he was so sick and so was I. I couldn't call for help, there was no body to call, Please bury us in the back of the church by the big oak tree, for it was there I met his father and there we prayed every Sunday when church was in session. I'm sorry I couldn't save my son, But God will take care of us now in heaven, with my husband who is waiting there for us.

God bless you Janet Wells

and her son Peter Wells Jr.

The preacher hung his head and cried. How many times had he passed this house and never once thought of going to the door and asking if there was a need there or anything, Like all the other people in that selfish town it never crossed his mind. He dropped to his knees and begged for the soul of that boy and the life of his mother and for his own soul who had got so wrapped up in things that he forgot the word of God and let him be ignorant to the suffering of others. He hadn't done his job, if there one soul he hadn't tried to save, and here was a family he had ignored.

He went to the church and tried to prepare a sermon for the people for that Sunday and he couldn't quite get the words straight. The phone rang and it was the hospital. The woman had died. She had never come to.

What should the hospital do with the remains of her and the boy. The preacher told them if they could wait till Monday he would have a answer for them. The hospital said that would be fine.

Sunday morning and he still didn't have sermon wrote, he decided to wing it and talk about the mother and the child.

He stood up in front of the congregation and as the tears started down his face he told of what had happened the Saturday evening before. The woman who yelled at the boy cried, and the man who ignored him cried, they might have saved the woman. But when they heard that the boy was found dead in his room, and had been dead for several days, they wondered at the sign, was God telling them to save the woman? They didn't know.

The church got together and buried the woman and her son , in the back of the church beside the tree where she had wanted.

And from that day to this, there is no house in that little town no matter how small, that some one doesn't stop and ask if you are OK. You see God wanted to teach the town that we have to take care of each other. No matter who we are.

God smiled down on this little town and blessed it and from that day to this there is nothing that little town can't do to help their neighbors in need or not.