“Dance for Us and We’ll Give You Money,” Rich Teens Say to Poor Old Man, Their Father Sees It — Story of the Day

A wealthy man finds his teenage twin children mocking an old man with a drinking problem and teaches them a life lesson.

Jade and Justin were bored. They usually lived in L.A. with their mother, and spending the summer with their dad in the doldrums of New Orleans was a bore. There was no one to hang out with, and their dad had confiscated their phones and laptops.

For such a wealthy influential man, their dad was a bore, just like Louisiana. He worked, he hung out with these really lame musician types — and not even cool rappers — old-style old geezers who played the blues and jazz.

That afternoon, Jade and Justin were irritable with the heat but too lazy to go swimming in their dad’s pool, so they decided to go exploring in their dad’s huge Garden District house.

At the end of the huge garden with its old trees, they glimpsed a small house that might once have been the groundskeeper’s cottage. As they came closer, the twins heard the sound of a hoarse voice humming.

Sitting on an old chair outside the cottage’s front door was a very old man. He had a huge bag at his feet, and he was carefully sorting tins and bottles into two separate piles.

“Hey!” Justin cried. “You there! You’re trespassing!”

The old man turned to look at him with a surprised look on his face. “No, sir,” he said. “I live here, Mr. Kerning lets me live here.”

Jade walked around the old man and stepped through the door of the cottage. The house was tiny, no more than a bedroom, a bathroom, and a small kitchen. She looked around at the shabby but clean interior with disdain.

She opened the fridge. It was well stocked with food, as were the kitchen cupboards. The wardrobe held a few worn but clean clothes, neatly hanged.

Jade walked back out. “This isn’t so bad! We should ask dad for this place to hang out in. It would be cool.”