Hannukah Harbringer by Pent Ghelsburg
Disclaimer: The characters depicted in this work are purely fictional. Any resemblance to persons alive or dead is purely coincidental. They are the original and rightful intellectual property of their creators. I use them with permission and respect. This work involves teenaged characters. You have been warned.
The lights are bright and the candles are lit. A family treks through the house, decking the halls with garland and spotting up the menorah to make sure the candles have enough wax to burn through the holiday. The outside is equally decorated with a large representation of the star of David and several gnome statues littered through the yard. Despite all the stress that comes with the holidays, the family couldn?t be happier that the season of joy and togetherness was upon them.
"Chag Sameach!" A welcome sign says, scribbled in an attempt at cursive in permanent marker.
The parents assign jobs to the only kid in the house, who gleefully takes it on knowing that Hannukah?s joy will soon be upon them. The young girl, who is in the thralls of her teenage years, has expertly and tactfully doted upon the expectations of maturity thrust upon her after her bah mitzvah. Maile, as she was fondly known by her parents, was now 15 and was very much a devoted Jew.
She attended synagogue regularly and even helped out with the local youth group. She fully embraced her Hebrew culture, for the family had raised her to such expectations. However in her youth, and even now, she had always found it difficult to relate to her friends. She was the only Jew in the neighborhood. To add to that she was labeled as different, not because she was a fur but because she was a hybrid.
Maile didn?t live in the most conservative community but it wasn?t every day that one came across furs who had supposedly mingled with the demonic forces. This, of course, was a rumor meant to shun her. She was a red panda through and through, except in one feature. She had horns which very much gave a nod to her demonic past. The girl had been assured that her family of ages gone had never dabbled with such things but she always had her doubts.
Maile had grown up a social girl all the same, even despite these differences. She had an active social life with a small group of friends. In recent years she had learned to embrace her differences and even indulge in them more than her parents realized. Now while she wasn?t super religious, there were times when she conferred with the local rabi over her parents. Even more recently she had taken up prayer, a ritual that her parents didn?t? even participate in any more regularly.
The holidays always reminded her of her love for the material things associated with religion. Maile wasn?t super materialist in her lifestyle but she loved the bright and festive nature associated with Hannukah. It always brought together her family and even her extended one, which she only got to see on rare occasions. Maile took the opportunity very seriously and wanted nothing more than to help her parents to prepare for the visitors that they would have.
One of the things her local synagogue participated in was a food drive. Despite being the only Jewish institution in the area, that didn?t stop them from helping the community. Rabbi Stoarch always extended his reach to their Christian and Catholic brethren. After all, their goal was the same. To spread love and joy among the parts of the community that could not support themselves.
Every year for the past several, Maile had made it her civic duty to participate in the activity. She even espoused it to her youth group, though only a few of the cubs were able to join when everything was situated. This didn?t muck up her enthusiasm to join. The food drive began a few weeks before the holiday was set to begin. Both the Jewish and Catho-Christian divisions were set up in different locations of the town.
This year Maile made a promise to one-up the Catho-Christian group. She knew that for the past few years that they outdid the Jewish covenant. The red panda teen wanted nothing more than to be represented in the town fair. The top contributors were always given the spotlight in the community call-outs. Plus she always liked getting more thank you letters from her recipients as it always made her feel good.
The weeks leading up to the winter holidays were the prep time that was used for the food drive. Maile had arranged it at her local school, making sure to get there the day after the date for the event was announced. She knew that if she didn?t act soon that her competition would likely one up her. The red panda had no idea if her counterparts had a youth group but assumed they did and had to play it safe.
Before long she approached the principal of her school, the elder man had no problem with allowing the activity. After all, it was designed to give back to the community and he saw no harm in it. He charged her with creating all of the necessary fliers and related advertisements. Maile immediately began planning in her mind how she would organize the collection. She knew she needed help and began asking around.
It wasn?t her digital design class teacher who noticed what she was working on that she found the help she was looking for. The man was a younger teacher who had recently entered the field as an intern. He had quite been tainted by the problematic attitude of some students and was still excited to get to know the kids. Dr. Dennis, as he was known, didn?t hesitate in helping her once he learned what she was working on.
One day after school, Maile decided to take him up to his offer to help her and stopped by once school was over.
"So what do you think is needed to make this work?" The teen asked her teacher.
The tall scarab woman folded her arms and hummed. "You need to organize this by grade so that everyone knows what to bring in. To assign specific goods to each level."
"That sounds good. So specific food items and clothing for each grade?" The red panda started to take notes on a piece of paper she had pulled out.
The beetle nodded. "Yeah, something like that. For the fliers, you just need to make something general that reminds people of the last date."
"Right, anything else?" Maile was happy that he was willing to help her.
Dennis shrugged. "Probably not, other than making it looking attractive."
The red panda started to work on the computer and fingering through some design templates. Most of them appeared to be for Christmas and the amount of them was making Maile feel disappointed.
After some searching, the teen figured that the computer had nothing to pick from for her holiday. She considered using a Christmas one but decided to just make something instead. Maile picked out a dark blue background and started by typing out the general information of the food drive. The red panda picked a date a few weeks before the winter vacation and then included a shortlist of some of the food that they needed.
After she included the necessary information on the document, she felt it was missing something. She included some Stars of David and various Christmas decorations all over the paper. She wanted to be inclusive as she knew how it felt to be left out. After completing it, she showed it off to Dennis who couldn?t help but smile.
"Alright, we?ll print that. Go ahead and make the information for everyone to share. It doesn?t have to be decorative but it should include everything you want. Then you just need to pass it out." The scarab patted the girl on the back.
Maile did as he suggested. It took a bit longer than the advertisement itself since it was an exhaustive list of each of the grades that would be involved. She decided that the lower grades would have simpler items like boxed and can goods while the older kids would bring in actual gifts. It helped that she was able to find similar ideas on the internet which provided her a reference for what she needed.
Once she was finished the digital media intern printed her out what he thought would be enough fliers to pass through the school. Dennis passed them over and gave her a roll of tape. Maile knew she would have to pass them out and wondered if she should wait until the next day. The red panda decided she could at least placard it across the school. She didn?t think the admin would mind since the Principal had already approved the activity.
Maile went about the school hallways and began posting the fliers throughout. She put a paper in each of the common areas as well as the passing area of the school. The teen noticed there weren?t many people around except a few custodians here and there. She didn?t let it bother her as the lack of distractions made it easier for her to get it done quickly. The whole building took her about an hour.
On her way out, she was stopped by the Principal who was still at the school.
"All done? You did a good job. I watched you through the cameras." The lean giraffe woman smiled at the teen.
Maile nodded. "Yeah, thanks for letting me do it. I appreciate it."
"No problem. It?s for a good cause anyway." She held the door for the younger girl and showed her out.
The red panda realized that it was getting pretty late. Looking at her phone showed that it was almost 5. She texted her parents just to let them know where she was and started to head over to the bike rack where she kept her scooter. The girl wasn?t quite old enough to drive on her own but the government didn?t mind juveniles riding the mopeds, which she took advantage of since they were cheap on gas and were reliable most of the year.
It was cool outside but not cold enough to be uncomfortable. She gripped the handlebar and rotated it back to start the engine. The kickstand threw back on its own as she made her way. Going down the street this time of year always reminded her of the time of year it was. Just about everyone on each block that she passed had Christmas stuff out but even if she didn?t share in the beliefs, she couldn?t help but enjoy some of the beautiful displays around town.
It didn?t take her long to get home. Even at the slow speed of the little scooter, she was able to cover the distance
in a little under half an hour. Upon her return home, Maile found that her parents had already arrived. It was the first night of the holiday and they would of course light the first candle. More important was the singing of common hymns such as Hanerot Halalu and Maoz Tur. Maile had been working on her singing voice and was looking forward to leading the choir.
Upon arriving inside she was greeted by her parents. Maile could already smell the meal being prepared and hoped that it was latkes stuffed with veal. She was instructed to head into the kitchen where the table was already prepared. The family shared in prayer and communed by holding hands together. Once the ritual was over, they lit the candle which officially signified the start of the holy Jewish holiday.
During the meal, Maile shared her progress about the food drive. She had already told her parents about it and they had some idea about her plans. They were happy to learn of her progress and gave her a communal hug. The family was closely knit and always supported each other, no matter what the task was. After the meal was over, Maile had some homework to do and so she retired to her room to work on it.
The teen had always been diligent in her assignments even if she didn?t always do perfectly in them. There was no particular subject she was strong in but she enjoyed television production the most. She rather enjoyed putting on shows as an anchor and knew another way in which she could advertise her event. Of course, she would have to get it approved by the teacher but didn?t see why it would be a problem.
The next morning came before long and she was out of bed earlier than normal to prepare her extra script for her news segment. Maile sat at her table and got hard to work on the monologue, treating herself as if she was a professional. She kept it as short as possible to maintain interest and once she was done she read through it a few times to practice the statement.
Once it was done, it was time to go to school. She made quick work of getting read and grabbed her bag. Maile made sure to grab her script and headed out the door, forgetting all about eating breakfast. On her way down the street, she was reminded of her hunger as her stomach grumbled. She immediately regretted rushing out the door but knew it was too late to do anything about it now.
The teen pushed on towards the school counting on the fact that the school provided free breakfast to those who wanted it. She knew the food wasn?t great but it was better than nothing. She made the usual trek down the main roads, it was lightly drizzling on the way to the school but it was nothing bothersome. She squinted her eyes and did the best she could to grin and bear through it.
Maile pulled into the bike rack of the school. Her body shook upon stopping from the sudden transition in temperature. The teen?s body was moist and she shook softly in hopes of getting the rain off her. It didn?t do her much good and the constant wind outside didn?t make it any better. She made her way inside after locking up the bike and rushed to the television production room.
As she made her way down the halls, she couldn?t help but marvel at her handiwork. She hoped people would notice and participate but wasn?t worried about return since the school normally did it every year since she had enrolled in the high school. When she arrived in the audio-visual department of the school, she was greeted by some of the other students who participated in the production.
Maile didn?t spend much time talking to them as she wanted to get the okay from the head haunch before going out on a limb to deliver her address. The teacher was the senior to Dennis who had been at the school for some time. Though not quite a veteran yet, he had taught enough years that he knew how to handle himself. She approached the hefty panda man who was relaxing at his chair with his paws on the table.
"Mr. Caditch. I was wondering if it would be alright if I promoted my food drive on the news today?"
The man paused a second for answering as he was carried away reading a magazine. "Yeah, sure."
"Thanks!" Maile walked away from the desk and back into the main part of the audio-visual room.
Already the preparations for the broadcast were well underway. The behind the scenes crew arrived earlier than the on-air crew did. She decided to help them troubleshoot one of the video cameras which had been on the fritz the past few weeks. It wasn?t much longer until the rest of the crew arrived. Once they did they began rehearsing, though Maile didn?t join them until the camera was fixed.
The anchors got situated before long and sat at the desk which was arranged to look like a professional one. The background was a green screen, so while they saw nothing the audience saw something else entirely. The camera crew began to announce the countdown until air time. Maile stared at the lens of the camera, the teleprompter rolling some words back at her. She unrolled her script in front of her.
The countdown reached 0 and they began the intro sequence with each of the anchors introducing themselves. Maile had done this enough that her nerves didn?t get to her anymore. Once they were done with that, they went over the weather forecast for the day as well as the events for the school. The usual rotation of sports and lunch announcements were made before some of the school reps for the clubs came out. Before the show came to a close, Maile announced her event.
Once the show was over the crew clapped as the broadcast came to a close. The two anchors shared a high five and got up from their chairs. In the meanwhile, Mr. Caditch had prepared them some Danish that they could snack on. The man had taken up baking as a hobby and every morning he took it upon himself to make a different flavor of the stuff. He always stuck to natural ingredients to make it as healthy as possible.
Maile picked it up on her way out to her first set of classes. The rest of the day went like normal. Not many people mentioned the event to her but the few who did seemed interested in participating. Over the next few days, food started rolling in. Each of the teachers had set up a collection box where people could turn in the food that they brought in. Every day the quantity of the stuff started to collect and she felt increasingly happy with the ever-growing pile of stuff as it loomed ever larger.
After the drive was complete, the school had already arranged for pickup. Maile got a hearty handshake and thank you from the community soup kitchen. Even more impactful was a letter she received some weeks later from some of the benefactors of the kitchen. It made her feel good and it warmed her spirit. She felt glad that she could help out the community, even forgetting all about the fact of outdoing her Catho-Christian counterparts...
