v12-final1

out of his pocket. “Rub this every Christmas Eve at midnight. We’ll get
together for Coke and cookies every year. From tonight until you’re
ninety years old if you want. Just don’t lose it.”
“What is it?” she said, fighting hard to open her eyes enough to see.
“It’s my lucky charm. Now it’s yours.” Hailey smiled, closed her
eyes and then went to sleep.
He laid her on the floor, turned off her game and spread a blanket
taken from the back of the couch over her. He kissed her on the cheek
and made his way back to the fireplace. Once there, he placed the spent
round in her stocking. He made his way up the chimney, like old Saint
Nick himself, and he was gone.
42
***
“What are you doing, Hailey?” her mother asked, nudging the
sleeping girl with her foot.
Hailey awoke on the living room floor, her Nintendo DS in her
hand. She looked around the room. “Where’s Daddy?”
“He’s in Iraq, honey. You know that. What time did you get up?
It’s only seven o’clock. You know you aren’t supposed to start opening
your presents until I wake up.”
A knock came at the door.
“Who could that be on Christmas morning?” Tristan said,
making her way to the door. Hailey rushed to the window.
“Daddy!” She said, excited to see two men on the porch in Army
uniforms.
Tristan’s jaw dropped at the site of the Captain and First Sergeant
on her porch, Christmas snow blowing behind them. There was a letter
in the Captain’s hand, and she had seen too many war movies to know
what this visit meant.
“No,” she said, the words leaving her lips as a whisper.
“We’re sorry, Mrs. Jordan,” the Captain said after she’d opened