Chris was enjoying a normal lazy saturday of staying at home and watching TV, as usual his homework got deferred to his future self on sunday night and instead he planned to play video games later with his friend Greg. He was looking forward to finally finish that co-op mode with the highest difficulty.
"Hey nerd" His stepbrother walked down the stairs and snorted watching him wasting away another day
"What do you want?" Chris made his usual greeting to his stupid jock of a stepbrother
"I'm going to the gym, take care of the chores while I'm gone will you?" David ordered
"Why would I do that?"
"Because I'm older and bigger, so I'm in charge" David got close trying to intimidate him, but it was a trick he already played too many times
"No, fuck off. I will tell mom.. ow!" Chris refused but got a not so friendly punch on his arm as a result
"Yeah, cry to mommy.. there will be more of that if nothing is done when I come back. I'm already 'grounded' and she is at work the whole day anyway" David smirked
"Then do the chores when you come back, I have plans" Chris insisted. Just like David, he had no real fear of the consqeuences either, at least until he got another, stronger punch
"Ouch! stop it you idiot"
"Fuck off, nerd. I'm tired of your attitude. Your plans are nerdy shit like tv and games and I need the time to work out and stay in shape for the football team. You WILL do the chores unless you really want to be in some pain" David threatened and Chris could see he was serious, it seemed like he was in a really bad mood today. He saw no other option to relent
"Yeah, whatever" Chris tried to play it cool and went back to the TV
"Good, I knew you would understand, see you squirt" David left and Chris sighed. Maybe he could bribe Greg to help a bit...
==
"Need 2 take care of sis today :( see you tmrw?" Greg texted and Chris groaned, his plans for the day ruined! he texted back his friend saying it was ok and resigned himself to start the stupid chores when he heard the doorbell.
"Who could it be, was Greg just joking?" Chris thought and opened the door but it was just his neighbor, Ms. Williams. She was a sweet old lady but it's not like she was close friends with anyone in his family.
"Hi Chris, how are you?" She greeted with a smile
"Uh, hi Ms. Williams.. I'm fine, and you?"
"I'm fine, I just needed help with something.. Is your father home?"
"He's on a trip with his friends" Chris lied. The truth was he didn't know where he was, probably playing poker like every weekend
"Oh, I see"
"What do you need help with?"
"It's my lawnmower, it's failing to start up and I don't know what could it be.. maybe it's too old, or maybe it's just something that got stuck" Ms. Williams explained
"Oh.. um.. I can take a look if you want, I don't really have anything to do today" Chris offered
"You could? That would be great! just be careful.. I'll even pay you if you fix it" Ms. Williams sweetened the deal and Chris smiled, at least something good could come out of this.
==
"Yes!" Chris celebrated when he found the issue and could successfully turn the lawnmower on. Even if it took more time than he expected, it was a nice challenge and gave him a sense of achievement.
"It's done Ms. Williams"
"Oh, please call me Mary.. do you want a lemonade while I get the money?"
"Sure, thank you Ms.. um .. Mary" Chris said and while he waited he checked the house a bit. It was definitely old fashioned, but he still liked to peep around, not knowing much about his neighbor. He found a study room and noticed something interesting, a collection of odd looking pens laying on a mug. One in particular called his attention, it seemed to have the engraving of a dragon on it with a small stone shining in the middle.
"Whoa, cool"
"Here you go Chris, thank you for your hard work" Ms. Williams appeared with a $100 bill and a glass of lemonade
"What? This is too much, Ms. Williams" Chris was dumbfounded, he expected maximum $20 for this
"Oh, nonsense. If I had to call a technician I would have to pay that" Ms. Williams laughed
"I um.. thanks.. please call me if you want anything else done, do you want me to mow the lawn?" Chris tried to take advantage of the opportunity this generous woman was extending to him
"That's a job for the kids, let them win their money too" Ms. Williams laughed again
"Oh.. hehe.. sorry I got too excited" Chris apologized
"It's ok"
"Thanks for the lemonade too" Chris handed her the glass back "um, can I ask what are those by the way?" He asked pointing at the pens
"Oh? That was my husband's pen collection, he liked to collect them even if he never used them" Ms. Williams gave the desk a nostalgic look "Sometimes he travelled to another country and all he brought back was one of those, but he loved them"
"Oh.. yeah, some of them look awesome" Chris said, taking a look at that pen with the dragon engraving again. He thought it was the first time he ever thought a pen could look cool.
"Do you want one?"
"What?"
"I don't use them either, they're just there collecting dust. Maybe they don't even work anymore, ha" Ms. Williams laughed "If there's one that you liked, feel free to take it"
"But.. what if they're valuable or something?"
"I'm pretty sure they aren't, from what Henry told me back then none of them costed more than the money you just earned" she chuckled
"I um.. okay.. can I take this one?" Chris pointed at the pen he liked and his neighbor nodded
"This one looks great, I like how cool the dragon looks"
"Yeah, you're right.. my favourite is the one with the flowers though" she pointed at another pen and Chris smiled.. yeah, this one was a bit too manly for her he figured.
"That one looks cool too, just.. not for me" Chris shrugged
"Beyond the drawings I wonder if they were created with a specific use in mind" Ms. Williams wondered
"What do you mean?"
"Like, I see my favourite one being used to write romantic poetry, and the one you just took to write.. I don't know, fantasy stories?"
"Or to draw dragons" Chris laughed
"Yeah, something like that"
"Thank you again Ms. Williams"
"I told you to call me Mary, young man"
"Sorry.. thank you again Mary"
"Thank you for helping me today, I hope the pen works for more than just decor" She smiled and Chris went back home with a grin on his face. The chores still needed to be done but his random act of kindness netted him enough money to buy himself something cool, and a nice looking pen to boot.
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