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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for September 23, 2009
“Reverend Roosevelt Washington Brown”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Valentine’s Day, 1951.
The Reverend Archibald White arrived home bearing a gift for his lovely wife Susanna: a West Highland White Terrier.
The clerk had called it a “westie,” and Reverend White misunderstood that to be the dog’s name, and so it was. He bought a collar that was just a little big, but big enough for the dog’s full name, “Westie White.”
The next morning Reverend White put Westie out in the back yard to take care of business, then rushed back in to answer the phone. It was Mayor Joe Rex Tucker, and it was an emergency.
“Arch,” said the mayor, “Reverend Brown is here with some of his men. They say they just want to talk to me about the school situation, but I don’t like the smell of it. Can you come down here and help me? Maybe you can talk some sense into him, reverend-to-reverend.”
Reverend Roosevelt Washington Brown was not a troublemaker, and he certainly didn’t want to cause the mayor any more stress. But something had to be done about the school.
There was a white school in town, and a black school, and while the white school was well maintained, the black school needed some serious repairs. They did some themselves, but yesterday a piece of the ceiling fell in and injured three of the students. The need was urgent, so the people turned to the most respected man in their community, Reverend R. W. Brown.
Reverend Brown had a child in that school, his youngest daughter Ethel. While the reverend and his men were visiting the mayor, Ethel was walking to school.
As she walked along, just the cutest little dog came running up behind her.
“Hey boy!” she said. “Why you’re a little darling!”
Ethel kneeled down and gave him a little scratch behind the ears.
“Oh, you like that, don’t you boy! What’s your name?”
She looked for a name tag or a collar, but there was none.
“Okay, you better run on home. I have to go to school.”
But the little dog tagged along, getting tangled up in her feet, and almost making her drop her books. Finally, at the school door she knelt down and said, “Okay boy. Thanks for walking me to school, but I’ve got to go in, and you have to go home. Now go!”
Reverend White arrived at the mayor’s office just as Reverend Brown and his men were walking out.
“Why, I was just coming down to join the fun,” said Reverend White. “I guess I missed it.”
Reverend Brown stopped and looked Reverend White in the eye. “There’s nothing fun about your own child being in danger.”
Reverend White said, “Well if you spent more time working and less time bothering the mayor, maybe your school would be in better shape.”
“We need money to do that,” said Reverend Brown. “We just want our fair share of the education tax dollars.”
“Oh, so it’s fair to take money from my children’s school. Well I don’t think so, Reverend. Now why don’t you gentlemen just run along and leave the mayor alone.”
At 1 p.m., as he always did, Reverend White came home for one of Susanna’s well-prepared lunches. As he walked in the door he called out, “Westie! Westie, come here boy!”
“Where’s Westie?”
“Oh, I completely forgot about him,” said Susanna.
They looked all over the house, but no Westie. They looked in the back yard and the front yard.
Mrs. White went back inside, but Reverend White was worried. He headed down the street, searching for their little dog.
Meanwhile, the school day came to an end at Abraham Lincoln Elementary. As Ethel Brown began to walk home, she felt something nudge against her ankles. It was the little dog again.
“There you are, boy! Didn’t you go home? Oh, is that your stomach growling? You must be starving. Maybe you don’t even have a home, oh my. I know, why don’t you come home with me and we’ll fill that belly right up.”
The puppy kept tumbling around her feet so Ethel finally scooped him up into her arms.
Just then, Reverend White appeared around the corner. Relief flooded him as he spotted Westie.
But then he felt anger as he ran over to collect his dog. What was this…this…girl…doing with Westie? She must have taken him right out of the yard!
“Give me my dog!” he said, snatching the puppy from Ethel. “Did you think you could get away with this? I’m going to tell your parents exactly what you have done.”
On the front porch of the Brown home, Reverend White had much to say about Ethel and her crime.
Reverend Brown listened patiently, then said, “Reverend White. I have much respect for you, but sometimes you are shortsighted. You don’t step back and see the whole picture. You have not looked thoroughly at the school situation, and you have not looked thoroughly at this situation. I don’t think my daughter did what you are accusing her of, but I will look into it. I will examine all of the evidence, and I suggest you do the same.”
“I have all the evidence I need,” said Reverend White, holding up Westie. Then he turned his back on Reverend Brown and Ethel Brown and everything in that part of town.
After supper, and after he had settled down, Reverend White took Westie into the back yard. The puppy began digging a little spot at the bottom of the fence. The reverend went to shoo him away, then noticed another dug out spot. He walked over and started kicking the dirt back in, and then he saw it. Oh boy. A dog collar, caught on the bottom of the fence. “Westie White,” it said.
Reverend White apologized to Reverend Brown. And to Ethel.
He apologized to the mayor. And he apologized to the entire congregation. He told them what Reverend Brown had said.
“He was right. I have been shortsighted. I am guilty of not stepping back and seeing the whole picture. But now, thanks to the godly rebuke of Reverend R. W. Brown, I am going to change.”
Then Reverend White began his sermon, from Psalm 141:5.
“Let a righteous man strike me – it is a kindness…”
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
This is an original short story. Any similarities to real people or places is purely coincidental. And according to Google, until now there was no internet record of anyone named Reverend Roosevelt Washington Brown!
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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