Twenty Years Ago, I Played Santa for a Little Girl – This Christmas, She Came Back for Me

I knelt on the cold pavement. “I’m one of Santa’s elves. We dress like regular people so no one knows.”

The girl’s eyes went wide as I handed her the bags.

“Santa broke his piggy bank.

But he asked me to bring this to you, sweetheart. He said you’ve been very, very good this year.”

She screamed with joy, throwing her arms around my neck so tightly I almost lost my balance. Her mother’s eyes filled with tears.

She whispered just that.

Nothing more. And in that small, fleeting moment, I felt like I could breathe again. It was the tiniest thing I’d ever done.

But it saved me that night.

***

Years passed… 20 of them.

I never had another child. The doctors had been right about that.

I tried dating, but nothing ever stuck.

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