Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

It started one year, with one child.

‘What do those children get?’ she asked, and her mother told her, ‘Not much.’

The child had some shoes she’d outgrown. She placed them at the gate of the orphanage on Christmas Eve.

The next year more shoes were left. Another year on and bags of clothing appeared. Then secondhand toys.

It became an annual event, every Christmas Eve. The more the media reported it, the more the donations grew.

The children inside the orphanage looked forward to Christmas morning.

Until one child asked, ‘Why do they forget about us on every other day of the year?’

Copyright Adam Ickes

Written as part of the Friday Fictioneers challenge hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (more details HERE). The idea is to write a short story of 100 words based on the photo prompt (above).

To read stories of 100 words based on this week’s prompt, visit