Santa's Request

Kacey Simmons was working in her local post office as a temporary employee to care for all the letters to Santa.  It was a day after Thanksgiving and no mail was being delivered but the truck from the nearby main station delivered mail to the office itself and on his way into the office, he picked up the mail in the box outside.  There was a letter with handwriting of what appeared to be maybe an 8 year old to Santa, it was written in red crayon.

 

Kacey was hesitant to open the first one of the season, she remembers last year when the first one was a request to save a child’s dying Mommy from cancer.  But, still she opened the letter anyway it was a child she knew named Sarah Baker.  She was the daughter of Bob and Jamie Baker they lived just down the street from her.  She was already choking up trying to hold back the tears before she even began reading the letter.

 

Santa:

 

Mommy says Daddy is really sick and can no longer live with us since he came back from fighting the bad men someplace I don’t know the name of.  He has been really angry and is what Mommy calls getting hammered every day when he wakes up.  Now Daddy isn’t going to live with us anymore because Mommy is afraid he might hurt me.  Can you please make my Daddy better I don’t want any toys I just want my Daddy back please.  I miss him so much and would give you back the toys I got last year if you make him better.

 

Please help my Daddy

Sarah Baker

 

Kacey couldn’t hold back the tears she had no idea there was a problem she knew she hadn’t seen him in some time but didn’t know it was that bad.  Many men who went overseas to Iraq or Afghanistan were almost vacant from their families’ lives within six months of returning from what was their fifth or sixth tour.  Her own husband served with Bob Baker but he wasn’t lucky enough to come home like Bob was and he wouldn’t tell her how her husband was killed just said how sorry he was that he didn’t die instead.

 

She grabbed her purse and left for the day, letter in hand headed straight for the VAMC in the next town over.  Her brother was an RN there with some pull to getting local guys in sooner than most without doing the whole application process especially when there was an obvious PTSD problem there. He made the necessary calls and got approval to bring him now they just needed to find him.

 

Kacey and her brother, Rob was on their way when they saw Bob lying next to the side of the road.  They stopped and Rob went to work checking him but sadly, he wasn’t breathing, no signs of obvious trauma and his face looked jaundice.  He could smell the liquor on him as soon as he knelt down to check the body.

 

 

The police were called and of course, the press showed up but there was Kacey with the letter in hand begging them to not put anything on TV or in print until after Christmas so this young girl won’t think of the season as a bad time in her life.  If only for a moment it would help keep her thoughts of her Daddy, missing him but not disappointed in him for the holiday.  They all read the letter and agreed to hold back till the first of the year.

 

Anyone who read the letter was taken aback at the request by this little 8-year-old girl who didn’t want toys just her Daddy back.  When so many of the other children in town whose parents were suffering from the same affliction related to wars were all still asking for toys, electronics, video games you name it, but no this little girl.  She just wanted Daddy home and now they couldn’t make it happen.

 

The media was playing the letter up plenty though they left off the name of the little desperate girl who wrote it.  Many in the neighborhood knew who it was and what had happened but none were mentioning things out loud to prevent the little girl from being hurt by anything.

 

And Christmas went off without a hitch except the little girl was told her Daddy went to get better somewhere and would be home very soon.  It was a lie but even Kacey recommended that the Mom lie to her for the time being to preserve the Christmas holiday being a happy time for her daughter.  The little girl was swamped with presents from all across the country and even letters about her Daddy from men and women he knew in the service.

 

Another letter was delivered to Kacey but she got it while still at the Post Office on Christmas Eve.

 

Kacey:

 

I am writing to answer your one question I was never strong enough to answer when you asked, how your husband died.

 

We were off duty and in the safe zone; we knew where there was a “bar” where I could get some booze.  He went along to back me up so I wouldn’t be outside the zone by myself against the rules of Military Law.  He knew he could be punished as if he was the guilty party just for going with me, still he got in the vehicle he was, as you know loyal to a fault.

 

I had just got my booze and should have headed directly back to the safe zone but I wanted to stop and take a big drink.  I pulled off on a side street we thought was still friendly when a man with a sniper rifle shot through the passenger window killing him instantly.  I panicked and took off without thought and didn’t realize it was just a superficial wound that if I had taken care of it would have saved his life.  But being already drunk I was more worried about what I had done to get him shot, he never made a sound to let me know he was still alive just sat quietly waiting for me, the medic to help him.

There isn’t a day that went by since that day I haven’t regretted what I done, how I cause his death.  Everytime I closed my eyes I saw his face begging me to help him but once sepsis set in it was too late and a mile into the safe zone I passed out at the wheel as he laid there dying next to me, never making a sound.

 

I can’t even look my own daughter in the eye after the shame of what I have done.  I can’t even face you with the knowledge I could have saved him but I was too weak to stay sober, too stupid to take care of my best friend.  I know she misses me but I can’t bear to have her look me in the eyes to see the man I have become.  I’m sorry for what I have done to her, to my wife and mostly to you and your family.

 

Bob Baker

US Army (Retired)

 

Kacey must have cried for what seemed like hours and afterwards she was so angry, mad enough to go to the little girl’s house and tell her the truth to ruin her life as he had ruined hers but she still had the letter in her pocket.  She thought of it as she began to walk out the door patiently calming her.  She went home and hugged her little baby girl who was only 8 months old looking into her eyes, the eyes of her dead husband.  Christmas day she went to the party at the Baker residence with Kaitlyn in her arms, a smile upon her face.

 

Before they left she leaned down and kissed Sarah on the forehead and whispered, “Santa heard you and he took your Daddy somewhere to make him better that’s why he wasn’t here today your Daddy loved you that much.”

 

After the first of the year the story went public how Sarah’s Daddy died along the side of the road, he froze to death when he passed out on his way to the local VAMC to get help.  He was smart enough to not drink and drive but he was too proud to ask for someone to give him a ride.  In his pocket, they found a pair of Dog Tags the name on them was Joshua Robert Simmons, a picture of Sarah and his wife, Jamie.  And a picture of him and Joshua in combat fatigues faces covered in blood, it was Joshua’s blood.