The Hero's Laundry

Zoe Grant, a young intern at the Channel 10 news station, learns that reporter Ted Humphries is looking for new subjects for his "Difference Makers" series, a collection of stories celebrating people who make a difference in the community. Ted has already featured nurses, police officers, teachers, and, in a hard-hitting interview with no softball questions, himself. When meteorologist Kayla Calhoun stops by to use the editing room, Zoe has an idea: why not feature the whole Calhoun family? Kayla forecasts the weather on TV, her husband Joseph is a brain surgeon, and their son Cooper is the star quarterback of the Odyssey High football team. Kayla protests that they are pretty normal people, but Ted talks her into it and shows up at her house the next morning with his film crew, which is just Zoe and a camera.

The filming does not go smoothly. The family's attempt at a natural breakfast scene is painfully stiff, with everyone woodenly complimenting the scrambled eggs and debating whether six or seven were used. The interviews are not much better, because none of the Calhouns is willing to brag. Joseph humbly explains that he became a doctor to heal the sick, Cooper's big story about inspiring a younger kid ends with the boy tripping over a water cooler, and Kayla thinks it would be strange to take credit for saving lives with her blizzard warnings, even after Ted reads aloud a suspiciously flattering fan letter that he clearly wrote himself. Then there is the younger son, Trey. While his family shines, Trey mostly talks about doing everyone's chores, folding laundry, and the washer's secret fabric softener dispenser. He admits he holds no positions at school, unless you count being a safety monitor in second grade, when he cheerfully accepted bribes of candy and cookies.

Afterward, Ted despairs. He can make the story work for the parents and Cooper, but there is nothing newsworthy about Trey, and airing a family feature that leaves out one child would humiliate him. Ted considers dropping the whole thing in favor of an alarming report on Odyssey's growing possum population, but Zoe asks him not to give up yet and goes to talk to Trey herself. Trey shrugs that Ted is right, he doesn't really do anything, though he does play the saxophone. Zoe seizes on it: he could play for sick kids at the hospital, and that would make a difference. There is one problem. Trey is only fourth chair in his band, and when he plays his sheet music for Zoe, it turns out his part is almost entirely rests. Zoe tells him to learn a simple song and practice for a couple of days while Ted films more footage of the rest of the family.

The extra filming brings its own disasters. During a chaotic morning rush, Joseph frantically hunts for the car keys that are already in his hand. At the station, Kayla accidentally smacks Ted while demonstrating how she points at a blue screen. On the football field, Cooper reenacts his record-breaking throw until Zoe spots a mysterious stain on his uniform that might be a kidney bean, a gallbladder, or Guatemala. And Ted interrupts Joseph in the middle of brain surgery over the loudspeaker to ask, "Could you put the tumor back in and start over?" The hospital concert is the final blow. Trey nervously plays "Mary Had a Little Lamb" for five bored kids, and when Zoe asks for his next song, he confesses that is the only one he learned. Ted's verdict is blunt: "The laundry was stronger." Trey tells Zoe he gets it, he lives in a family of superheroes and his only power is invisibility, but he insists he is okay with that.

Reviewing the raw footage the next morning, Zoe has a light bulb moment and races to stop Ted just as he begins recording his dramatic possum report. She has found a hook hiding in all the outtakes, and she asks for two minutes to explain. The finished story that airs is not the one anyone expected. Ted's report shows the Calhouns' obvious accomplishments, then asks about the differences that are not so obvious. Cooper's stained uniform? It went unwashed because Trey, who does the laundry, couldn't get to it. Kayla's clumsy blue screen mishap? She missed her morning coffee, which Trey usually makes. Joseph's stomach gurgling during surgery? He skipped the breakfast Trey usually cooks because Trey was busy practicing his saxophone. The report ends on Trey proudly explaining how he washes everyone's clothes separately with their favorite fabric softeners, and Ted declares, "There are difference makers, and there are ones who do the difference maker's laundry." A person's impact, he concludes, isn't measured by the prestige of their job; anyone can be a difference maker, especially in the most important group of all, the family.

Watching the broadcast together, the Calhouns agree it turned out great, though Cooper can't believe his little brother came off looking better than he did. Trey teases that girls love a man who knows his fabric softeners, and when Cooper brags one more time about throwing a football 60 yards, Trey corrects him: it was more like 55. With the wind.