When Christmas Comes Calling

The morning air was brisk and chill with the memory of the night before as Suzie strode down the crisp empty street. The houses were just waking, as she scurried by.

There was already a que outside the little building tucked behind the church. Gloved hands pulled worn, oversized coats close against the bitterness. Feet shuffled in the frost, stamping out the creeping cold. It was December 27th, and the small army of volunteers who had surprised her the two mornings ago, were nowhere in sight.

Suzie sighed to herself, she couldn’t resent them for it, turning up one day a year was much better than not at all, although she also couldn’t help but wish that they didn’t all have to turn up on the same few days. In the run up to christmas, donations has been flying in, tins stacked high, small mountains of coats and scarves, and the voluteneers! They came in such numbers the whole week before Christmas, arms laded with donations, hearts brimming with good will.

Christmas had come calling, and it had been so generous, but just as it came, it had also gone, and Suzie once again, manned the soup kitchen alone.