The Ghost of Christmas Present (Hardcover)

From the Publisher: In this heartwarming Christmas story, a loving father will do whatever he can to make the money for a life-saving operation his ten-year-old son needs?including begging on the streets of New York. When Patrick Guthrie, a widowed public school drama teacher, learns that his insurance will only pay for half the cost of a procedure to fix his ten-year-old son's heart, he must find some way to make up the difference by Christmas Eve. Patrick tries moonlighting at a deep-dish pizza place during the hours he is not teaching and calling every person he has ever considered a friend, asking for help. However, he barely makes a dent in the amount he must raise.      One night, after a dress rehearsal for The Merchant of Venice at school, Patrick sits down at a bus stop in full costume as the ragged, bearded Shylock. He has a hot cup of coffee in his hands, and people start dropping coins in it as they walk by, assuming he is a beggar. When he counts the money he's accumulated, Patrick realizes this may just be the key to the miracle his son needs.