The concept of Andrew Minyard doing an angel tree; aka Andrew getting hold of the wishlist of someone less fortunate (definitely a child) and actually going thru the effort and energy to go out and get everything on the list and then some. Gender wouldnât matter; Andrew reads âage 7- currently in foster care for the third Christmas in a rowâ on the paper and heâs set on giving this child he does not know but fully relates to anything that they want and more. Toys, clothing, extra winter garments because he knows how bad foster care can be especially when youâre so small and freezing in the middle of winter. You think he spent a lot of cash on Neil throughout the original trilogy? Andrew spends absolute bank on this child. He gets everything on their list, some toys even in pairs in case something happens to the first (again he knows how foster life is.) Andrew even gets a generic Christmas card thatâs covered in flakes of glitter and he doesnât seem to mind that the sparkles stick to his skin each time he touches it. He signs his name on the inside except it isnât his name now, itâs who he used to âbeâ â Andrew Doe. The name doesnât sting like it did when he was their age and Andrew hopes very deep down that the child the card and supplies are for lucks out better than him and ends up with a family who loves and will care for them soon, even if the deadline is just be next Dec. so they arenât in foster care for four full years.
A few weeks after Andrew has enlisted Beeâs help in making the presents bedazzled and eye-catching for a child whose life is probably pretty bleak on the norm & has dropped the package off, he gets a letter back. Itâs a handmade card with the sort of looping, uncertain lines only a child can produce and the picture on the front is of a snowman. Theyâve drawn little stars around the doodle, perhaps trying to imitate the glitter on Andrewâs card to them. On the inside thereâs a short message thanking him over and over, some of the eâs looking more like oâs and some of the yâs looking more like gâs. It all has the sort of child-like innocence that he himself has not known in what feels like years upon years upon decades upon lifetimes. But that is good: it means that this child still has a spark to them. It means that they still have hope, and Andrew himself hopes with every fiber of his being that the child never loses that (perhaps foolish) whimsy and joy.
He keeps the card, because of course he does. Andrew sticks it on the side of the fridge with a magnet like a parent might do to their childâs art project, and every once in a while in the weeks that follow heâll knock his knuckles on the cardâs front. Perhaps itâs his way of telling the child hello despite how they wonât know it; maybe heâs reaffirming his hope that theyâre doing alright and will only start to do better.
Neil almost asks which one it is once, or if itâs perhaps a secret third option, but he keeps the question locked away behind his teeth. Some things donât need any answers, he thinks.
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