Believe

She loved getting mail. Krista always had, ever since she was little. She could remember the days before she had to worry about school and books and boots, waiting at the kitchen table precisely ten minutes before the mailman was due to arrive so she could run to the box at the end of the lane and collect the day’s offerings. Rain or shine, she would be out the door as soon as she heard the whine of the mail trucks brakes.

At that age there wasn’t that much for her, birthday cards and valentines from grandparents, sometimes a letter, but every day, without fail she’d be gone, full of excitement, and scurry back to share her discoveries with her mom. And when she did start school she was the one allowed to pick up the mail when the bus dropped her back home at four o’clock each afternoon.

Thirty-something years later and she still love getting mail. Christmas was her favourite time, the cards just didn’t stop coming. Even the flyers were fun for Krista, after all, mail is mail and she supposed it had just always been one of her quirks. She didn’t even mind the bills. Well, most days. The cost of that hydro one still annoyed her at times.

December fourth brought her the first card of the year. She didn’t recognize the handwriting nor did she recognize the return address. She opened the card with her usual childlike excitement and out fell a rectangular piece of paper. She caught is just as it was starting to float towards the ground. She looked at the red and white striped document and realized it was a check. For a thousand dollars. Looking back at the card to see if this time there was a name, all she found was the usual greeting of “Do something special for yourself this holiday”.

Krista was dumbfounded. She went to the kitchen and took down the wooden box she kept on top of the fridge. She opened it up and pulled out the contents. Nine identical envelopes with the same handwriting, each with a different return address. None of which she knew. And each contained a card with the same candy-striped cheque for the same amount with the same greeting. Today’s was the tenth.

She recalled when she received the first one, ten years ago. She knew someone had made a mistake and she wasn’t comfortable keeping the money. So she sent back the check to the address on the envelope explaining that she felt it was a mistake and wanted it to get to its proper owner. Two weeks later it was back in her mailbox. Still not at ease with the idea of keeping what she didn’t believe was hers, she deposited the check into an account separate from her own until she could sort out who it did in fact belong to.

After six months of no word, she reviewed the account to ensure the money was still safely in place and discovered it had grown to five thousand. Within a year it was ten. The bank statement confirmed no further deposits and the interest rate was extremely low, at most she should have seen ten, maybe twenty dollars. Now the account was up to ninety-thousand and with this new donation would be one-thousand more.

Not knowing what else to do, Krista made herself a cup of her favourite lavender tea, hoping the soothing properties of the purple herb would put her into a perfect sleep where her dreams might respond to her unanswered questions.


# # #



The sun shone bright the next day and the light snowfall glistened with its dazzling rays. Krista was up early in anticipation of her annual one-day Christmas shopping extravaganza. Each year she took the same Friday off and shopped-till-she-dropped. Or at least until her list was as complete as it could be.

Backing out of her driveway she put on her favourite Christmas CD to keep her company during her one-hour trek to her favourite shopping site, a quaint little small town with a large grouping of interesting shops and unique product offerings from local artisans.

The town looked festive as she slowed and parked in front of the local bakery that was promoting their shortbread as the best anywhere. Locking the car, she decided to hit the cookie-maker on her way out and headed for the centre of town, realizing she had hit it on a good day. It was the town Christmas Open House and Santa was visiting. As a result there were discounts everywhere.

She was walking by Santa’s castle admiring the decorations when she heard her name being called. She turned to see who it was.

“Who are you?” she said to the red-suited man.

“Krista. You know who I am. I’m Santa.”

“O-Kay. Sure you are.”

“You doubt what you see before you. I knew this was your regular shopping day; I wanted to make sure I had a moment to talk to you. I don’t do this often; I usually leave this to the impersonators. But today was important.”

“Why?” she said, still skeptical but feeling something warm and familiar. And safe.

“Because Krista, it’s been long enough. This year, I do want you to do something special for yourself. You spend every year taking care of everyone else; working at the soup kitchen and providing blankets for the homeless and constantly giving. I’ve been trying to give you something back. For ten years.”

She thought she was going to faint. “Oh...Ah...Yeah...Ok.”

“Your parents have been considering a cruise for years but can’t afford it. And your brother and his wife, they have a new baby on the way. They might like a warm Christmas.”
Krista raised her eyebrows in surprise. “A baby? A cruise? I didn’t know.”


Santa put his arm on Krista’s shoulder and nodded. And right then and there she finally knew the candy cane checks were hers to use.