Free Mary’s Son by Darryl Nyznyk

face and exposed two missing front teeth. Nicholas waved her forward with a broad smile of his own. The little girl limped as quickly as her condition would permit to his waiting hug and the box of joy. Sarah moved farther into the room for a better look.
    From the moment she’d first seen this jolly little man through the rivulets of water running down her bedroom window, she knew there was something different about him. She believed, of course, that the rain had caused her eyesight to play tricks on her and that the umbrella could not have simply materialized above his head. Even when the squeaky tennis shoes he’d worn onto the marble floor seemed suddenly to change before her eyes, she didn’t really understand the significance of the event. All she knew then was the man was different.
    As Nicholas now reached into the seemingly empty sack and again and again pulled out beautifully wrapped gifts to distribute to the scores of smiling children, Sarah slowly made her way around the room, all the while staring in wonder at the miracle she now clearly recognized.
    After their initial meeting, Sarah had been interested in learning more about Nicholas. But, once he’d asserted he was Santa Claus, her hope that he might be something special in her life was dashed. She realized he was probably nothing more than a harmless little man, and she reverted back tothe personality she always used at times of disappointment. She tried to show she was strong and that the disappointment didn’t matter. She would simply go about making her demands and controlling every situation, and if others didn’t like it, that was their problem.
    But Nicholas wasn’t like anyone else. When he’d come to her the previous evening, things changed. Instead of walking away in a huff, he’d come to say goodbye and let her know he actually cared. And then he’d given her the beautiful globe, which she now clutched tightly in her coat pocket. He’d given her a gift, not to quiet her or to get back in her good graces. He hadn’t done it to get her to like him or to get his job back. She realized he’d done it because he liked her. He seemed to really care for her and not about what anyone else thought. And now he was doing the same for the children of the Penford Children’s Home.
    Sarah smiled. Her wonder at the magic…no…miracles unfolding before her gave way to admiration for the special man who transformed a room of orphaned, sick, and crippled children, without any hope of any future beyond the miseries of the decaying town outside these walls, into one of pure joy and happiness. And he was doing it for the joy that comes only from giving…a joy she had never felt.
    Wrapping paper flew as dolls, trucks, balls, electronics, and assorted other gifts perfectly suited to each child wereexposed and Sarah finally began to understand. How selfish she’d been to throw the tantrum in the car, to try to run away, to almost miss the wondrous sight before her. How silly she was not to recognize from the very beginning that this special little man had come to spend time with her…not because he was paid to do it, but because he liked her…he loved her, just as he loved all these children. And when she looked around the room and saw the joy in the faces of Mr. Johnson and every adult, even Mr. Stevens, she realized it was because he loved everyone.
    When Sarah stopped walking near the back of the room opposite Stevens and Nicholas, she again surveyed the chaos and smiled. Nicholas stood slowly, stretched his back, and shouted above the din.
    “Well, my dear friends, is that everyone?”
    All heads nodded vigorously with smiles as bright as stars. Sarah continued to scan the crowd until her eyes fell upon a portable bed just a few feet from her. The orderlies who had wheeled the bed into the room and stood beside it for much of the gift giving had joined the other children in front of the bed and left the twisted body of a young boy lying unattended.