Prelude

It was the middle of December on an early Saturday morning, and after advertising Santa Claus would be visiting the department store, a line of mothers, fathers and children of many ages arrived to go through the typical ‘What I want for Christmas’ that children have been doing since time immemorial.

By looking down the line you could see the excitable pre-teens, their condescending older brothers and sisters and whichever parent was taking the time to be in charge.

Many bets were lost and there would be as many wives as husbands mowing the lawn the next week. The older kids wanted to see how real ‘this Santa’ looked compared to their best impressions of the perfect Santa.

Through a glass door, came a jolly old Santa, clearly needing no extra padding, with a few little persons dressed as elves with each of them carrying a sack of goodies for the boys and girls.

With a great deal of clamoring for position, the kids got excited even more. After the pomp and circumstance was over, he sat down and asked for the first of the children.

A little girl, with black hair in pigtails walked carefully walked over to him. He picked her up and put her on his lap.

“What do you want for Christmas?” he asked through his real moustache and beard.

“I would like a nice pink dress and a Barbie Doll please?”

He reached to the nearest elf, gave her a candy cane and said, “Be a good girl all of time and I suspect you may get what you want.”

She gave him a smile and he got her down off his lap, and this was the cycle that went on for the next three hours. He made a motion to an elf that sought out an employee, and an announcement was made.

“Santa needs a little break; he will be back in 20 minutes.”

As the Santa got up grumbling, but smiling, a young man walked through the door. He looked in his early 30s, wearing a light denim shirt, blue jeans with a nice belt and a soft hat that covered his shoulder length soft brown hair. He had on a backpack and was clean-shaven. He had piercing blue eyes and a confidence in his step that belied his youthful appearance. His boots looked worn, but contemporary.

A store employee stopped him.

After taking off his hat and running his hand through his hair a couple of times, he said, “I have been walking for some time. I only wish to sit and rest my weary legs. Let me have 15 minutes please, then I’ll be on my way.”

“All right,” the employee said showing him a place to sit away from the Santa area.

Santa came out looking better than he had. He got up on his raised platform and started talking to the little ones again.

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As his little sister moved forward in the line to see the man in red and white, fifteen-year-old Donald Jackson broke from his little sister and mother and went over to sit by this boot wearing person.

“Do I know you?” Donald asked

The stranger put out his hand and said, “My name is John.”

“I’m Daniel, I’m fifteen years old and that’s my four-year-old sister over there, her name is Emily, but insists on being called Emma.”

Chapter 1 »