snow that caught him totally off guard.
Out in the street, waving his arms as if to flag him down was Santa Claus or more precisely, a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit. Annika's father hit the brakes hard and twisted the steering wheel to the left to avoid hitting him. He could feel the brake pedal pulsing under his foot as the anti-lock brakes prevented the car from going into a skid. Once he came to a complete stop he rolled down the window. “Are you crazy!” he shouted, “You could have got yourself killed out there!”
Santa was hurrying over to the car. “I'm sorry,” he said, “It's just that I'm in such a terrible predicament. I have to get over to the Southside Community Center on Staple Road and my car quit on me. I have two big bags of toys that I'm supposed to give out at the Christmas party tonight and if I don't make it, there's going to be a lot of disappointed children. Is there any way you can take me over there?”
All he wanted to do was go home and get out of the cold but Annika's father thought, “Well, it's not really that far out of the way and it is Christmas Eve and anyway, how can I say no to Santa Claus?”
“Okay,” he said, “get your bags of toys and I'll drive you over there.”
After the bags were transferred between the two cars, Santa unceremoniously plopped himself on to the passenger seat and they started off down the slippery street to the Southside Community Center. Once there, he got out, removed the bags from the back seat and offered Annika's father a ten dollar bill which he refused. Santa thanked him again and wishing him a Merry Christmas, turned and went inside.
Annika's father headed for home and to him, it no longer felt so cold outside. Instead, he felt that warm inner glow that comes from helping another person in need and before he knew it, he was home. As he was getting out of the car, something caught his eye. Lying on the back seat was a present that must have fallen out of one of the bags. “I don't believe this!” he thought. He picked up the present, brought it into the house and set it on a shelf in the front closet where the children wouldn't see it and then pulled out the telephone book to look up the phone number of the community center.
The telephone was answered on the second ring and in the background could be heard the sound of a party with many happy children. When he asked to speak to Santa Claus, the person on the other end of the phone thought it was some kind of a joke and almost hung up. But, he explained that he had given Santa a ride to the community center and it was very important that he speak to him.
Santa Claus came on the phone. “Ho ho ho, merry Christmas,” he said.
“Hey Santa, this is Jim Cook. I'm the guy who gave you a ride a little while ago. When I got home I found a present on the back seat of my car. It must have fallen out of one of your bags.”
“Oh,” said Santa Claus, “I hadn't noticed. But, to tell you the truth, I think I already have more presents here than I need. It's probably because of the bad weather but there aren't as many kids here as we were expecting.” There was a moment of silence and then he asked, “Do you have any children?”
The question caught Annika's father off guard but he finally responded, “Yes.”
“Rather than come all the way over here with a present I don't really need, why don't you just keep it for one of your kids,” said Santa.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Positive,” came the reply, “I've got more than enough here.”
After thanking Santa Claus and wishing him a merry Christmas, he hung up the telephone and went back out to the front closet to retrieve the present. Carefully, he took it down from the shelf and looked at the generic name tag which read, “To: girl age 7 to 10, From: Santa Claus.”
“Well,” he thought, “it looks like Annika is going to have another present to open on Christmas morning. Maybe God is rewarding her for giving Emily to the toy drive.”
That night, the family put up their Christmas tree and as was the custom, Annika's father put on the lights and the star on top while the children hung the ornaments and their mother finished it off with bright strings of garland. Stepping back, they all admired the beautifully decorated tree and Jason commented that it would look even better tomorrow morning when their presents were there.
Annika and her brothers woke up before sunrise the next morning. They hurried down stairs and found three piles of presents under the tree. They could barely contain their excitement as they made enough noise to wake their parents so they would come down and let them open their presents.
Each child had two presents that were items of clothing and when they opened them, they reacted as children have done throughout the ages, with luke warm enthusiasm. Then came the toys.
Tommy got a Monopoly game and Jason a Star Wars Lego set. Annika saw two presents with her name. She picked up one of the presents and began to open it. Her parents leaned in expectantly, as it was the hastily relabeled present that had been left on the back seat of the car. Though both had expressed an interest in opening the present to see what it contained, neither one had found the privacy nor the time to do so the night before.
Annika peeled back the wrapping paper with the same lack of enthusiasm she had shown while opening the clothing presents. Inside was a rectangular cardboard box. She removed the cover and looked inside and began to shake with excitement. Her face went from shock to disbelief and then joy. She let out a shriek and turned and looked at her parents with a quizzical look as if expecting them to answer some unasked question. They looked back in complete bewilderment. “What could be in the box that would cause such excitement?”
Looking back at Annika from inside the box was Emily.
Quickly she removed Emily from the box and pulled off her left shoe and sock while her parents looked on in amazement. It was barely visible, but there it was, “A.C.” on the bottom of her foot. It really was Emily.
Annika hugged Emily as she rocked back and forth on the living room floor. “Mom, you were right about God rewarding people who do very good things!” she cried.
Outside, the wind and snow were turning the neighborhood into a frigid wonderland but inside, there was warmth, happiness and love and for Annika, it was the best Christmas of all.
###
About the Author:
Philip Fraterrigo resides in the Buffalo/Western New York area of the USA and holds a B.A. in History from the University of Buffalo. He worked as a Technical Service Representative for the IBM Corporation for thirty years and began writing shortly before his retirement in 2009.
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