The chestnuts were roasting over an open fire and the stockings were hung over the chimney with care as Cara strolled up the stairs to bed, awaiting the following morning. However, before she turned to open her bedroom door, she noticed the door across from her room had strangely been opened. The door was to her father’s office, which hadn’t been opened since he last worked.
Curiously, Cara slowly and quietly tapped the door open so her mother downstairs wouldn’t hear. The office looked just the way her father had left it – papers scattered all over the desk that had resided against the wall. The shelves towering on the sides of the desks were littered with binders and notebooks of even more work papers. Cara stealthily sat down in her father’s old office chair, which was as old as her.
Cara looked through the papers, but they were all boring business papers she didn’t care about at all, so she arose from the chair and started to walk out of the room. But then, an envelope that collapsed onto the ground from the large filing cabinet adjacent to the desk made her stop in her tracks. She turned, wondering what could have caused the envelope to fall.
The envelope was sealed by a large, red stamp that read “SC” in light red font. Cara ripped off the seal and opened the envelope. As soon as she opened it, the envelope fell from her hands and sunk to the floor. Out from the envelope came what looked like a golden strand, which hovered above the carpet and looped around the envelope rapidly, forming a gateway.
The strong force of the strand pulled Cara through the center of the loop. The next second, she found herself in the middle of a forest covered in snow.
***
Cara arose from the snow as more and more piled on, snowflakes swiftly descending from the sky. As Cara got up from the snow, she noticed a brightness in the distance. She could barely make out a few small buildings with lamp posts beside them. She began to trek through the blanket of white covering the ground.
When she made her way to the small town, she came across a sign that read ‘Santa’s Village at the North Pole’. There were small people running across the cobblestone streets of the small village. She stepped closer to the main square of town and watched as the tiny individuals scrambled from building to building, carrying wrapped gifts and other items.
Cara was eventually recognized by one of them, and many others followed. Then, she realized who they were – Santa’s elves.
The elves examined Cara closely, trying to identify who she was.
Then, an elf with a small beard and glasses stepped forward. “Hello, youngling,” the elf said. “Can we help you? Who are you?”
“Uh…” she began, “my name is Cara, Cara Lynne. I found an envelope in my dad’s office, and it opened a portal and sent me here.”
The group of elves gasped all at once.
“Lynne?” the elf wondered. “That’s your last name? So familiar. Who was your father, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Uh…Dominick Lynne.”
“Wait, your father is Dominick Lynne?”
“Yeah, do you know him?”
“Come with me,” the elf replied.
***
The elf took Cara to a small hot chocolate shop, and they proceeded to walk in and sit at a table by a window as the other elves returned to scrambling.
“My name is Estel, and I am the head elf of the giftwrapping department here in Santa’s Village. Your father was a direct helper for Mr. Claus, his only non-human worker. Your father had the important task of scheduling Mr. Claus’s trips across the world on Christmas night, and sometimes helped make schedules for the elves in my department. That’s how I knew him.”
“Why are you all scrambling around?” Cara asked. “Is it just because it’s Christmas Eve?”
“No,” Estel started, “it’s because we have a big problem. Mr. Claus went missing. We have large groups of elves searching for him, but they have had no luck. Your father hasn’t been here for a few years,” the elf added. “I’m assuming he just wants to spend time with you and your family.”
“Actually,” Cara said, “my father passed away years ago.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry for your loss.” He thinks for a second, then his eyes widen like a lightbulb just switched on in his head. “Wait a second, since you are here and are related to Dominick Lynne, then you can help us find Mr. Claus!”
“How so?”
“Well, there are only two ways to track Mr. Claus’s location. One of those ways is the Santamographer! It’s this really fancy device that can track his exact location by using his magic! The only problem is that it’s in your father’s old office in Santa’s Workshop, and the door is locked and we can’t get in. The only way to unlock the door is with a fingerprint, but it works for any direct relative as well – which is you! You can get us into his office and to that Santamographer! Will you help us?”
“But,” Cara began, “I – I don’t believe in Santa.”
“No? Why not?”
“I mean, are you kidding? A guy who rides in a sleigh by magic reindeer who delivers presents to every kid on Earth in one night? Seems far-fetched.”
“Well,” Estel started, “I think if you help us, I might be able to get you something. Something about your dad.”
Cara looked stunned. “Like what?”
“Mr. Claus can access tons of footage and files on your dad. If we find Mr. Claus, we can show you everything about him.”
“Really?”
“Want to find out?”
Cara nodded, though she was still suspicious.
***
Estel and Cara headed across the village to Santa’s Workshop as the sun began to disappear from the darkening sky while the moon began to rise. The heavy snowfall started to subside. The lanterns, which had been lit throughout the day, started to beautifully illuminate the small, wooden buildings along the streets. The elves began to retreat to their small homes and the busyness of the village dissipated. The tall clock tower in the center of town sounded as the giant hour hand overlapped the large eight.
“Here we are,” Estel said as the two made it to the edge of the village, where a large building sat with a giant Santa’s Workshop sign across the top of the front wall. The large building was constructed with mostly brick and steel, making it stand out from the other smaller buildings in town. In the many windows below the sign, Cara could see elves as they hammered nails and sewed fabric on the final toys.
Estel and Cara entered the building and the elf guided the two to the office where her father used to do his work. In their way was a large, dark gray door with a fingerprint scanner attached to the center. Cara placed her thumb on the scanner, and after a few moments the door unlocked as a faint “Ho Ho Ho” sounded from a speaker in the scanner.
Cara opened the door and the two walked in. Estel explained, “Ok, we need to search this office for the Santamographer. It looks like a black box, about the size of an apple. It’ll read Santamographer 2000 on the bottom in red text. Got it?”
“Yeah,” Cara replied, and the twosome began their search.
After a few minutes of shuffling, Cara opened the bottom drawer on one of the filing cabinets against the wall behind the large desk in the center of the room. Inside the drawer was a large stack of papers, a snow globe, and a black box.
“I found it!” Cara exclaimed. “Here it is!”
Cara excitedly pulled out the box, and showed it to Estel. He nodded and stated, “That’s it! Alright, so to activate this, we need to go to a Magic Signal Station. There’s usually one in the workshop, but it doesn’t work without Mr. Claus. The closest one is about 20 miles away.”
“How will we get there?” Cara asked. “By the time we get there it will be midnight.”
“Well,” Estel began, “we elves have a way of getting around. It’s called the Elfmobile 3000. Here, I’ll show you. Follow me.”
As they started to walk out of the room, Cara noticed a glass angel sculpture on the desk. It seemed to glow even though there was no light in the room.
Estel turned back to see why Cara wasn’t following him, and saw her admiring the sculpture. He walked back to the desk.
“That is called a Believer Angel. It’s a device that only an Angel of Life can use. An Angel of Life is someone connected to Mr. Claus and is a true believer in his magic. This device connects the mind of Mr. Claus and the Angel of Life together for an angel that does not believe. Not sure why it’s in here, though.”
***
“Ta-da!” Estel proclaimed.
In the elf garage underneath the workshop, Estel ripped off the tarp on what he revealed to Cara was the Elfmobile 3000. “Hop on!”
The two jumped onto the long, red and green bike with a giant engine in the back. Estel took the tiny seat in front and Cara took the larger seat behind him. The elf grabbed onto the small handlebars and stepped on the petals. Unlike what Cara expected, the bike began to hover in the air, and as it zipped out of the garage like a bolt of lightning, it arose into the air higher and higher. Once it got outside, the bike was above the clouds.
As the two rode to the signal tower, Estel noticed that it had grown very quiet, so he decided to break the silence. “Hey, Cara, when did your dad pass away, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Oh,” Cara began, clearing her throat. “He passed away eight years ago when I was six.”
“Do you have any memories of your dad?”
“I only have a couple. I remember that he would smile all the time, and I would ask him if his face couldn’t not smile. He would always laugh at that, then make a straight face.”
Estel chuckled at the silly memory. “Yeah, he would always smile. I remember that. When he worked here, I was only a giftwrapper, but he would design my schedule, so I would meet with him on occasion. But I never fully got to know him.”
“My mom says that every time he would enter a room, everyone would notice. He was always so positive and light-hearted, and he was so selfless.”
“Sounds like a really great guy.”
“That’s what my mom says.”
The two made it to the signal station, and Estel got off the bike and walked over to the tower with the Santamographer. He pressed a button on the bottom of the box, and the white outline of a circle appeared on the side of the box where the red text was. A red outline image of Santa in his sleigh appeared to the left side of the circle.
Estel looked up from the device and beamed at Cara.
“What? Did you find him?”
“Yes,” Estel responded happily. “He’s in Minneapolis.”
***
“What is that?” Cara asked. She picked up a device she found in a compartment under her seat on the Elfmobile. The device looked like a small, rectangular mantle clock, but it had a weird dial under the clock.
“That is Mr. Claus’ Christimeter,” Estel replied as he continued to drive. “On Christmas Eve when Mr. Claus is about to head off in his sleigh to deliver the presents, the Christimeter significantly slows time so he is able to deliver every gift in one night. The only problem is that it only works right at midnight. If we get Mr. Claus after midnight, he won’t have time to deliver each present.”
Yeah right, Cara thought, still slightly doubting Santa’s existence. She placed the device back in the compartment and looked out as the Elfmobile flew across the sky to Minnesota.
A few moments passed and Cara started to see the tops of skyscrapers beneath the clouds. Estel began to slowly descend beneath the clouds and dip into the beautiful night sky of Minneapolis. Estel constantly turned his head from the Santamographer to the cityscape to find where exactly Santa was. Once he found it, he completed the Elfmobile’s descent and parked the bike in a small alley across the street from Santa’s location.
“Alright,” Estel began as he jumped out of his small seat on the bike. “To avoid any obvious confusion, you’ll have to go in alone.”
“Where am I going?”
Estel pointed out of the alleyway and at a small restaurant on the corner of the block across the street.
Suddenly, a bell atop a nearby clock tower rang to inform the city that the time was nine o’clock. “You have to go quick,” Estel mentioned. “We only have four hours to find Mr. Claus and get him ready for his delivery. Now go!”
Though still skeptical, Cara ran out of the alley and crossed the vacant street. She opened the door to the restaurant, ringing a small bell above the entryway.
When she opened the door, Cara noticed the size of the eatery was slightly larger than it looked from outside. There were many booths in the large area covered by short walls. It was almost like a maze.
“Hello, welcome to Twin City Grill.” A waitress was standing behind a small podium with a computer on it. “How many?”
“Uh…I’m actually looking for someone,” Cara replied.
“Oh, well do you need any help?”
“No, I think I’m okay.”
Cara walked past the podium and started searching each booth of the restaurant. Classic holiday music was playing faintly across the eatery. Large poles across the restaurant were decorated with garland and cords of colorful lights were hung across each pole. The lights in the restaurant were very dim, but there were small, bright lanterns hung over every table against one of the short walls.
There were very few people in the restaurant, and Cara assumed that Santa probably wasn’t in the kitchen in the back of the restaurant.
“Did you find who you were looking for?” the waitress asked when Cara returned to the front of the eatery.
Instead of replying with no, Cara instead asked, “Could you tell me the names of the last few people who ate here tonight?”
Confused, the waitress looked at something on her computer. She read off a couple of names – none of them were related to Santa. However, one of the names was recognizable: Dominick L.
“Oh, ok, thank you,” Cara responded. “I think who I’m looking for is somewhere else.”
Cara turned to leave the restaurant, but before she could she noticed a menu from a small pile next to the door fall onto the floor.
Cara picked it up, but when she looked at it, she observed something peculiar. In red pen on the front of the pamphlet were two words: Hello, Cara.
In shock, Cara left the restaurant with the menu and stood outside against one of the windows of the eatery next to the door. She opened up the menu and noticed more writing on the inside. Now in blue pen, she read: Shake the Snow Globe.
Cara ran back to the alley where Estel was still standing beside his Elfmobile.
“Cara!” Estel exclaimed. “Did you find him?”
“No, but I think I found a clue.”
***
Although he was suspicious with what she had told him, Estel agreed to take Cara back to the North Pole.
“So, why are we going back here?”
“The menu says to shake the snow globe. There was a snow globe in my dad’s office, in the drawer where I found the Santamographer.”
“How do you know it’s that snow globe?”
“Because my dad is telling me this,” Cara explained. “That snow globe must be important, like why that angel sculpture was on his desk. I think it means something.”
“Are you sure that this will help us find Mr. Claus?”
The question made Cara think for a minute. Was this her dad leading her to him or Santa? She assumed that this was about Santa, so she decided to assure the elf that this would lead to him.
By the time the Elfmobile returned to the garage of Santa’s Workshop, the twosome could hear the clock tower in the center of the village sound to alert the town of the hour. It was ten o’clock.
“We need to go fast,” Estel said. “We only have two hours left.”
The two ran through the workshop where elves were relocating the final presents into Santa’s large sack of toys. They made it to the office, and Cara stormed to the filing cabinet and opened the drawer where she remembered seeing the snow globe.
“Got it!” she proclaimed, pulling out the large, glass ball out of the drawer. She carried it over to the desk and placed it down in front of Estel who was lounging against the large stack of papers on the desk. The snow globe showed Santa’s Village as snow fell onto the rooftops of the buildings, forming large white blankets. Silhouettes of elves could be seen through the windows of the buildings illuminated by the indoor light. Cara took the snow globe and shook it harshly before placing it back down on the table. Snowflakes flew across the inside of the ball before disappearing, revealing a more tropical image. It showed a small beach where a man sat in a lounge chair underneath an umbrella overlooking the sea.
“What is this?” Estel asked.
“I know this beach,” Cara mentioned. “I know exactly where this is. That’s my dad in the chair, and that’s our chair and umbrella. We need to go to my hometown, West Palm Beach in Florida. We need to go now.”
***
Once again, Cara and Estel rode above the clouds of the night sky in the Elfmobile, though now to the tropical land of southeast Florida.
“Cara, are you sure that this is going to lead us to Santa?” Estel asked skeptically.
“Why wouldn’t it?”
“Well, it just seems like this has to do more about your dad than Mr. Claus. I mean we are literally going to where you live.”
“Don’t worry,” Cara reassured. “We’re going the right way.”
The clock struck eleven as Estel landed the Elfmobile along the street next to the beach in the seaside city. The palm trees swayed in the breeze from the bike’s activity.
“Follow me,” Cara said.
“Where are we going?” Estel questioned.
“Our beach.”
Cara directed the twosome a couple blocks north before she pointed at the sea when they made it to the spot from the snow globe. Just like in the snow globe, there sat a red-and-white-striped umbrella over a green lounge chair overlooking the ocean beyond.
Cara led Estel off the street and across the sand to the lone chair. However, nothing was there, and neither was her dad.
“What are we looking for here?” Estel asked, starting to grow a bit vexed.
“I’m not sure. Let me shake the snow globe again. Maybe it will change.” Cara grasped the snow globe and started to shake it again. Snow covered the image again, but when it subsided the setting didn’t change. Her dad still sat in the same chair overlooking the same ocean.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Estel murmured.
“What? We’re in the right spot, Estel,” Cara reassured once again.
“No, we’re not, Cara. We’re not. Whatever you found wasn’t what we are looking for.”
“Well what are we looking for—”
“SANTA!”
Cara was astonished by the very sudden change of tone in the elf’s voice. She also hadn’t heard him say Santa since she met him.
“You’re too worried about finding your father that you are forgetting we need to find Santa,” Estel continued, his voice growing more and more aggravated the more he spoke.
“Yeah, but what if he’s out there? Santa could be with him.”
“NO! That’s not true! Your father is dead and isn’t telling you anything! What you are thinking is nothing!”
Cara’s mouth widened when she heard Estel. Estel’s angry face suddenly changed to a very guilty look. He knew that he just said the wrong thing. Cara walked speedily away from him off the beach and perched onto a bench on a sidewalk against the street.
Estel waited a few moments, then slowly trotted over to Cara, who was covering her face with her hands, bent forward.
Estel went up to the bench and sat next to her. In the distance, a clock tower sounded as the time struck eleven-thirty.
***
Estel glanced at the sad girl, then looked back to the ocean. He watched for a moment as the waves crashed lightly against the shore.
“I’m really sorry, Cara,” Estel began. “I didn’t mean to say that. I’m just mad because I don’t think we’ll be able to find Mr. Claus, and I took it out on you. I’m really sorry.”
He looked back at Cara, then looked back at the waves of the ocean.
Cara ascended her head from her hands and leaned back against the bench. She too looked out at the sea beyond the luscious sands on the beach.
“When I would wake up every morning,” she began to say as tears trickled down her cheeks, “my dad would be gone. He worked early hours so he would be at home when I got home from school. That was every day when I was in Kindergarten and first grade.”
Estel watched her eyes as she spoke. The blue in her eyeballs seemed to tell the story she was telling simultaneously.
“Whenever I got home from school, he would greet me at the door. He could always tell if I was sad, mad, or happy. Either way, he would ask how my day was. He wouldn’t let me do anything until I told him how my day was.” She laughed subtly, and it made Estel laugh.
“But when I started second grade, it was terrible. I had moved schools because my old school closed, and the kids there were so mean to me. They called me names, stole my lunch, and made my life a living hell. My dad would ask about it every day, but I just couldn’t help it. One day, I screamed at him because I didn’t want to talk about it. But he persisted. I know now that he just wanted to help, but I didn’t care then. I ran away from him after telling him I hated him.”
Estel’s smile slowly subsided.
“One day, I got home from school, and my dad wasn’t at the door. I expected he was in his office, but he wasn’t. But I didn’t think much of it. About ten minutes later, my grammy came to the door. She hugged me, and I asked about why she was there. She told me—” Cara paused. She gulped, and a few more tears dripped down from her eyes. “She told me my dad was in the hospital. Apparently, he had heart problems for years, and at work he had a heart attack.”
Estel gasped.
“Me and my grammy did random stuff for the next few hours. She probably just wanted to take my mind off it. But later that night before I was going to bed, my mom came home. She wasn’t with dad. I asked where she was, and she said that he didn’t make it.”
Cara kept snuffling as she continued to drop tears from her pupils. Estel tried to make her feel better by placing his small hand on her leg.
“I’m sorry. I just—I just want to see my dad, just one more time, so I can tell him I love him. I want him to know that I don’t hate him.”
Estel looked out to the sea, and took a deep breath. “He knows, Cara. He knows.”
Cara took a deep breath, then turned to hug the sweet elf. “Thanks, Estel.”
Estel smiled at Cara, then looked back at the ocean.
“You know,” Cara continued, “My grammy said that my dad was like that. He could make anyone feel better.”
Estel gleamed at the girl for comparing him to the wonderful man. Then, he asked, “What about your grandfather?”
“Oh, I never met him. He died before I was born. My grammy said that my pop-pop was just like my dad. Always sweet, kind, and funny. She told me when I was little that when she first met him, she could never remember his first name. She could only remember his middle name, Kringle. She would always call him Kringle, even when she finally learned to remember his name.”
The name shocked Estel. “Kringle?” he asked. “What was his first name?”
“I think it was Kris. Why?”
***
“Kris Kringle? That was his name?”
“Well, Kris Kringle Lynne, yes.”
“Do you know who that is?” Estel asked in excitement.
“No, who?”
“That’s Mr. Claus! Kris Kringle is Mr. Claus!”
“Wait, really?”
“Yes! And, that means you are Santa’s granddaughter!”
“I am? I am!” Cara was astonished by the thought.
“And even better, since your dad was the son of Mr. Claus, he was an Angel of Life! That trait is passed on to their child that they can only use when their parent has completed life. That makes you an Angel of Life!”
“And that means I can find Santa with that angel sculpture!”
“Exactly! But we have to do it fast, we only have ninety minutes before midnight, so let’s go!”
The two ran back to the bike, but there was a small problem – the Elfmobile was not in the spot where Estel had parked it. The bike was gone.
“No!” Cara cried. “It’s gone! Somebody stole it!”
“I thought West Palm Beach was full of nice people, right?” Estel asked loudly.
“Not everyone is perfect!”
“Ok, this is fine. You don’t need the sculpture. You can get us to him without it. You have the ability.”
“But you said only an Angel of Life that believes can do that. I don’t.”
“That’s not true,” Estel responded. “Your brain is telling you that you don’t believe, but believing in something comes from your heart. In your heart, you believe. You’ve believed in the magic of Christmas all your life, and you’ve seen it all tonight. You can do it.”
“But what if it doesn’t work? What if you’re wrong?”
“I’m just an elf, but I don’t think I’m wrong about you.”
Cara smiled, then turned away. “Okay, so what do I do?”
“You need to think about him. You need to think about your grandfather very deeply.”
“But I never met him!”
“You don’t need to have met him. Have you seen a picture or something of him?”
“Yeah, I have.”
“Then think about that! Think about the picture! Just hold my hand and think really hard. It’ll come to you. Once you find him, we’ll be there once you open your eyes. Just believe.”
“Ok,” Cara responded. She grasped onto the elf’s small hand, stood straight, looked into the sea beyond, and closed her eyes. She tried to think very deeply about the picture she had seen of her grandfather.
“Believe,” Estel repeated. “Believe.”
Cara listened to the elf, and thought even harder. She believed. Finally, after a few moments, she found herself in front of a small cottage along a small street in a cozy little neighborhood. Outside, a boy about her age was playing catch with his father.
***
The car in the driveway of the small cottage was an old Cadillac, which made Cara assume this was many years ago.
The boy and the man were chatting and laughing as they threw the small baseball to each other. When the boy caught the ball or threw a nice pitch, the dad would exclaim his name: Dominick.
However, the sweet tension broke when the father left the boy as he had to go to work. The young Dominick glumly walked into his house as he got ready for school.
Then, Cara watched as the setting of the small cottage turned upside down, under where she was standing, and a new setting came up. The memories she watched turned to show a new memory, revealing a black void in the background.
In each memory, Cara observed as her father grew farther and farther apart from her grandfather. Eventually, when her grandfather was very old, he was elected by the Elves of the North Pole as the next Santa Claus. To try and strengthen their bond, her grandfather brought a now 20-something year old Dominick to help him. But after a few years, he left to start a family.
Santa Claus never forgave his son until he discovered years later that he died. Santa was wrecked by the event, and almost skipped that year’s Christmas.
The last memory was very different from the others. It didn’t seem to be a memory, it seemed to be in the present day. Cara saw Santa sitting in a small park just outside of what looked to be Toronto, Canada. However, this wasn’t from her new ability. To her side and tightly holding her hand was Estel. He looked at the man in the red suit and hat, then looked at Cara.
“Well done, Cara,” Estel complimented. “Well done indeed.”
***
Cara stepped slowly across the stone walkway of the park towards Santa. She noticed the area as a familiar site, but she couldn’t quite remember.
She stepped closer to Santa, then slightly tapped him on the shoulder. The man quickly faced her to see who she was.
“Waa…who are you?” he asked. “Why are you here?”
“Are you…Santa Claus?”
“I’m sorry, little girl, but you should be in bed.”
“No, I’m not just a little girl. I found one of your elves up at the North Pole.” Cara pointed at her companion, who was closely watching the conversation. Santa looked at the elf, then looked back at her.
“You…I know you…from where…why?”
“I’m your granddaughter. I’m Cara Lynne, son of Dominick Lynne.”
Santa gasped. “My granddaughter! Oh how lovely to meet you, dear! My goodness!”
“Santa…or, Pop Pop, the elves need you. It’s almost midnight. We need to get you back to the North Pole so you can deliver those presents.”
“Ah, yes. The presents.”
Cara looked at what Santa had been looking at. She noticed, through the fog and dark sky, that it was a gravestone with the name Dominick Lynne engraved in it.
“That’s where this is! The Toronto cemetery where my dad was buried! I remember this place!”
“Yes. You know, today would have been his fortieth birthday.”
“Really? He was born on Christmas eve?”
“Yep,” Santa replied. “Christmas eve.” Santa looked back at the gravestone, then said, “When he started to work with me when I became Santa Claus, I told him that when he turned forty, I would get him his own human-sized Elfmobile like all the elves have. He really loved those things.”
Cara looked over behind the gravestone where she saw Estel’s elfmobile. “This was the best I could do,” Santa said. “Plus, it showed me that you could believe. That you were a true Angel of Life. I knew you could find me.”
“Wait, so that was you writing on the menu, and your stuff at the beach?”
“Yes, it was.”
Cara looked at Santa, then gave him a big hug. “Thank you, Pop Pop.”
“You’re welcome, Cara.”
However, the embrace didn’t last long, because in the distance a bell rang. The clock had struck midnight.
***
Cara woke up lying on the carpet of her father’s office back at home. Sun poured in through the windows on the left wall. It was Christmas morning.
Cara’s mom was pushing her, trying to get her to wake up.
“Oh, thank god,” the woman proclaimed once Cara finally opened her eyes. “You can really sleep, girl.”
“Yeah,” Cara chuckled.
“Well, Merry Christmas, ‘Car!” The mother stood up and started doing some weird dance that moms do.
Cara got up and hugged her mom repeating “Merry Christmas” to her.
“Well, let’s go downstairs. Don’t know why you wanted to sleep in here, but whatever.” She walked to the door and stood in the doorway. “I made you bacon, toast, eggs, scrapple, hashbrowns, you name it. I know there’s only two of us, but I decided to make us a feast.”
“Alright, I’ll be out in a second.”
Her mom looked at her one more time. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Cara replied.
“Ok, well don’t take long ‘cause that feast won’t stay hot forever!” The woman left the room as Cara began to follow. But then, she stepped on the envelope with the now ripped red Santa seal. She picked it up and noticed a small piece of paper inside. She pulled out the paper, unfolded it, and began to read. The note was in her dad’s handwriting:
Dearest Cara,
If you are reading this, it means that I have passed away from my heart condition and you found the secret portal to the North Pole. I am very sorry I never told you about this. I just didn’t want you to worry that something bad might be going on. I just wanted us to have a fun time while I was still alive and healthy. I know that as I am writing this, you are only six years of age, but I know that you will go on to achieve great things. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the day you graduate high school. I’m sorry I won’t be able to walk you down the aisle when you get married. I’m sorry that I won’t be there for you when you need me. I just hope that you will grow and prosper without me, and I know that you will become a wonderful person when you are older. I want you to know that I love you very much, and I know that you love me. I will never stop loving you, even as I watch you from up here. I’ll see everything you do, from those wonderful things you’ll achieve to the horrible stuff that every teen does. But know that no matter what you do, I will always love you. So good luck out there in the world, and I’m sure you’ll make me proud.
Sincerely,
Dominick Lynne
Dad
“Honey?” Cara’s mother called. “Are you coming? Food’s getting cold!”
“Yes, I’m coming,” Cara said. She pocketed the letter and walked out of the room.
The End