Review, Revision, Edit and Update My goodness! Only an extra space to remove. No typo's. No sentence structure change. I could have just not even done a review, but I liked Ben's determination. (and I liked the story)
Ben's Story
“Bringing home the joy was something my grandma always did for me when I was little.” Ben Richardson was all of ten years old. Often going up to the Beaufort kitchen, he had heard Cook and his grandma talking about all the ‘stories’ everyone had written. He decided that he would write his story. After all he lived here too, and he had talked to the Storyteller before too. His mother would just think he was being silly, so he went to his room to write. He closed his door and hung up his Do Not Disturb sign so his little sister, Abby - or his mother - wouldn’t come in.
“That’s what my grandma called her surprises: ‘bringing home the joy’. That’s not what I would’ve called it. It sounds pretty corny. It was really a surprise and not very often a big surprise. I asked her one time what ‘bringing home the joy’ meant and how did she know which joy to bring.” My grandma, her name is Mrs. Haverstock-Digby now, doesn’t live beside us any more. She got married to the Beaufort butler, Mr. Digby. They live in a nice cottage way over on the other side of Beaufort’s property. When grandma comes to visit, which is pretty often, she always brings one of those little bits of joy. When she answers my questions about it, she tells me: “Well, Ben I think of you and your sister and your mom - the things that all of you like. Then I think that I know.”
“But how do you know, grandma? Could I bring home joy?”
“Of course you can, honey. This is how you know you brought home the right piece of joy - smiles and hugs. So what I bring to you may be a plate of fresh cookies, and when I see your face all lit up with joy then I know I got it right. Once in a while I get it wrong. Remember that sweater I gave you last Christmas? I had worked hard on it and was sure you would love it. When you opened your present, you did smile, but it was that stretchy kind of smile that doesn’t last long. So if you want to bring home some joy to your mom or your sister or even your old grandma, think about what you know makes them smile a real smile.”
I’ve been thinking about that, and because it’s Christmas time, I’ll watch Abby and mom to see what makes them smile. Grandma smiles every time she sees me so that one will be hard. Maybe I could talk to Cook. They’re best friends so she might know. Anyway, that’s part of my story that you probably don’t know. I’ll give this to Cook and tell her that it’s a secret.
Cook smiled down at the young man “I’ll be sure that the Storyteller get’s this Ben. Now, I have some cinnamon buns cooling. How about you have a glass of milk and I’ll get my tea. You and I haven’t had a good visit for a long time.”
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
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