The Day After Christmas

Story – First we’ve got a good ol’ intro story told by Chris. A girl gets a Betty Buckskin doll for Christmas and is unsatisfied, wanting a Motormouth doll to go with it. Chris says that Annie “got more Christmas presents than you could imagine.” Then, in the old AIO style (after several minutes of intro), the episode starts. Oh – No, it’s actually still Chris narrating. She reads a parody of “The night before Christmas,” “‘Twas the day after Christmas.”

Annie walks into Whit’s End. Whit tells her that he likes her coat, but she says she doesn’t like the colour and will probably exchange it. Whit asks her what she got for Christmas and she gives a long list of presents, including an animatronic teddy bear. He asks why she isn’t at home playing with all those toys and she replies that her mother said she was being a pill and to get out of the house.

Whit is loading boxes for the banquet at Forest Creek, a place “some people might call” a ghetto where a pastor friend of his lives. Every year, on the day after Christmas they have a banquet at the church. Whit gets Annie gets permission to go along with him. We cut scenes to them driving through Forest Creek. Annie sees houses made out of cardboard and “everything is dirty.” She wants to go home. They arrive at the church and the pastor calls Tommy. He was climbing around on the roof, and comes down to greet Whit and Annie.

Whit goes to Applegate Hall, but Annie can’t go with because visitors must be of sixteen years of age or older. It is “kinda a hospital for folks who can’t take care of themselves anymore.” (Whit) The pastor also has to leave to do some work and tells them to stay where they are.

“Are you rich?”
Tommy

Tommy asks. He concludes that she is when she says that she doesn’t know. Annie asks if he’s poor and he says that they both know it. He then asks if she wants to see something really weird: a crazy cat lady who owns a hundred cats. She reluctantly agrees to go along when he tells her that they’ll be back before anyone notices. When they arrive at the property of the “crazy lady” Tommy opens the gate.

A street gang called the “Locos” come and yell at Tommy that he’s in their territory. He tells Annie to run around the house. The microphone moves along with Annie. Someone grabs her and she screams. –Cut to commercials–

The person who grabbed Annie turns out to be Mrs. Theresa Rossini, the “crazy cat lady.” She brings Annie inside.

“Does seven cats make me crazy?!”
Theresa Rossini

Annie says they should call the police because they don’t know what happened to Tommy. Mrs. Rossini agrees, but doesn’t have a phone. She makes tea and Annie asks her why she’s poor. She explains and tells her that her husband and sons died going on a fishing trip because of a drunk driver. She asks Annie how her Christmas was. Annie says that she and her brother got up at 5:00 AM to open presents and that they got to open one on Christmas Eve.

Tommy gets to the church. Both Whit and the pastor (who is also taking care of Tommy while his father is gone) are there. They ask where Annie is and he explains about how they left and ran into the Locos. Whit asks where this was and leaves.

“Well I’m not concerned for the cats right now.”
John / Whit

Back at Mrs. Rossini’s house, Annie and her are still talking. She tells Annie a story about Benington, one of her cats. He got hurt on the foot and had to trust her when she took care of it even though it hurt. Annie asks her if she’d be more happy if she had more money, or a job. She says that she doesn’t think money can buy happiness.

“Why, millionaires commit suicide every day!”
Mrs. Rossini

A window breaks. A Loco gang member yells at them and throws a rock at another window. After a short pause, they hear a knock on the door. They are both scared, but it turns out to be Whit. Annie opens the door for him, explaining that he’s the man who brought her here. Whit tells them that the Sheriff caught the Locos. Annie then tries, and succeeds in, convincing Mrs. Rossini to come to the banquet. Tommy and Annie are punished for running off. They have to replace the windows that the Locos broke and do some odd jobs for Mrs. Rossini, but Annie says that she hopes her parents allow her because she wants to come back even if she’s working. When she and Whit are leaving she says she wants to stop at a store on the way to pick up a bag of cat food.