The Displaced Storyteller

I was in the car with my family, when I spotted a homeless man with a handful of papers, and a cardboard sign hanging by his neck. I was not able to read the sign from the inside of the car. My mother, who was driving, went inside the gasoline station. As I sat in the back of the car, I began to wonder what the man was asking for.

When I usually see displaced people in the streets of Los Angeles, they are asking for money with signs reading: “Need Money, I am Sick”, or “Need Money, I am Hungry.”

As I stared out the window, I was able to read the sign. It read: “STORIES--One Dollar.” I was then amazed. This displaced man was using his creativity of storytelling to get money.

I asked my father for a dollar. I exited the car and walked towards the homeless man. I asked him: “What is this?” He answered: “My stories” He grabbed one, and handed it to me. I handed him the dollar. Before I left, I looked at him, smiled and said: “I will read this.” I then saw a smile from him.

I returned to the car and began to read this story.
In the front cover page of the story, he had done some illustrations.
The story was: “Christmas Time.” The drawings included a church, two angels in the sky, a car, and a horse with a wagon. If I was given this story, without knowing who the author was, I would have thought an elementary student had done it. But this was not the case.

Ronald Raydon, the homeless man, has used his stories to gain money for the day. I, personally, can tell you that the story is good.

Christmas Time, is about an old church in the East of Boston, that is threatened of being demolished. Father Maldoney, the protagonist of the story, is an old priest who does not wish to see that old church be put down.
On Christmas Eve, during the Midnight Mass, while the choir was doing the Christmas Oratorio, Father Maldoney prayed to God for a miracle: to not have the church be demolished on the first of day of the new year. Then a miracle happens, the church is taken back to the first Christmas. They see the Christ Child. With this miracle, the church becomes loved, thus not allowing anybody to demolish this historical Bostonian church.

After reading this, I knew Ronald Raydon had a great imagination, a great interest in storytelling. I searched him up, and I found a blog in which a man talks about buying stories from Ronald. I have now decided I shall do the same, I want to create an article in Ronald; I am hoping maybe I can one day capture a photo of him, and even conduct an interview and actually getting to know poor Ronald, a displaced storyteller.