The Christmas Wish

Laura’s POV

It’s been several weeks since I have heard from Luke. He has been away on a mission for the last couple months. His unit was deployed for a year and I miss him so much. He has been calling me as much as he can, usually a few times a week, but it has stopped and I am so worried that something has happened to him. I try to be strong for our daughter, and she misses him too. She asks me all the time when her daddy is coming home and it breaks me everytime. I don’t know how long I can be strong for her. I tell her that daddy will be home, but he has a very important job to do. When he is finished, he will be straight home. Every time her shoulders just slump and she walks back to her room. I slowly pull myself out of bed to get Keely ready for daycare and myself ready for work. It’s just become routine and robotic. I get in the shower and do my morning routine and then go to wake Keely up and get her ready for the day.

“Good morning little bug. It’s time to wake up and get ready for school.”

She slowly stirs and sits up rubbing her eyes.

“Good morning mommy, Is daddy coming home yet?”

“No, sweetheart. He is still working. He will be home to us soon.”

“Is he going to call us?”

“Maybe, but he is really busy right now and can’t call.”I try to push down the lump that has formed in my throat and will the tears go away before they fall. I can’t let her see me cry. I don’t want her to worry about him either. She wouldn’t be able to handle it.

“Mommy, don’t worry. He will come home to us. He promised and he never breaks his promises, ever.” She says as she puts her tiny hand on my cheek and I can’t help the tears that fall. “Don’t cry mommy. He will be okay.”How can this little girl be so much braver than me? She has so much faith in her daddy coming home and I am trying to find as much as hers. This little girl loves her daddy so much. They are thick as thieves. He is her entire world and she is his. He would do anything for her and anything to keep her safe.

“Come on sweet girl, let’s get you dressed so we can get you to school.”

“Okay mommy, we need to hurry so we are not late.”

“You got it, let’s go.”I help her get ready and we are headed downstairs to make breakfast before we go. Once we have eaten and I have my coffee to go we head out and on our way to her school. Not too long after we are parking and I take her inside. The teacher is busy with other children when we arrive but quickly comes to greet us. She asks me about Luke as Keely heads off to her friends and I let her know what is going on. She says she will keep us and Luke in her prayers that he is safe and comes home soon.

“Goodbye Keely, I will see you this afternoon.”

“Bye mommy, love you!”

“Love you too, bug.”I head out and off to my studio to start the day. Heading inside, I turn on everything and check my messages for the morning. I have several children’s sessions scheduled and a family to do today and not long after I had arrived the first family came in as I am setting up the studio. It’s the baby’s first year pictures, and it takes a bit to get her ready. She is grumpy today and it takes all of my tricks to get her to smile and eventually get some good pictures. The rest of the morning goes well and it is early afternoon when I finally have a break. I am finally sitting down when I hear the door chime and I wonder who it is since I don’t have another appointment till three. I hear heavy footsteps and I look up to see my bestie walk in.

“Hey beautiful, are you free to grab some grub?” Brandon asks as he leans against the door jam of my office.

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

“Shall we head over to our fav?”

“Definitely, I’m starving.”I grab my purse and we walk over to our favorite restaurant. Sitting in our usual booth the waitress comes over and we order our usual pizza. The best in town, as far as I am concerned. We have been coming here since we were in high school.

“How are you doing, Laura? I haven’t been able to talk to you for a bit. I am sorry.”

“It’s fine Bran. You have your own life. I haven’t heard from Luke in almost three weeks, and I’m terrified. He usually calls me several times a week and there has been nothing. What if something happened to him? What if he was killed? I won’t be able to handle it. I can’t go on without him. Oh my god, what about Keely? She will be heartbroken. He is her life, she won’t come back from it.”

“Whoa, stop, Laura. You don’t know that. He may not be able to get through where he is. Wherever he is may not have a signal. Calm down, you will hear from him soon. Don’t worry.” He reaches across the table and grabs my hand and squeezes. He has been there for me since we were kids. I don’t know how I could have gotten through so much without him. Eventually our food and drinks come out and we dig in. It was nice to have this time with him. We don’t get to hang out as much as we used to. Work usually gets in the way. We all grew up together and were always together. It was Luke, Brandon, Tommy and I. Luke and Tommy were a couple years older than us. Both Luke and Tommy enlisted together and had both been assigned to the same unit. I was happy to know that he would have someone he knew with him. It made me feel better about him being overseas. This was to be their last tour and he was going to get out and come home to us. I just can’t shake this feeling that something has gone wrong.

“I just can’t shake this feeling, Bran.”

“Don’t lose hope, he will come back to you.”We sit and talk for a while before we get up and head back to our jobs. I try and power through my day and put my worries to the back of my mind. It was finally time to close up and head out to pick up my daughter. When I pull up and walk inside, her teacher stops me in the hall.

“Good evening, Ms. Julie. How was Keely today?”

“That’s why I stepped out here to talk to you.”

“What’s wrong?”

“She slapped a boy today.”“Oh my, what did he do?”“I’m not sure of the whole story. She wouldn’t tell me, but I think it has something to do with her father.”

“She is going through a tough time right now. Her father has been gone a long time and she misses him. We haven’t heard from him in a few weeks.”I’m so sorry, Laura. I’m sure he is okay. I will keep him and you tow in my prayers. She is sitting in the corner in the back of the room.”

“I’m sorry about her behavior. I will have a talk with her.”I walk in the classroom and there she is sitting in a chair at the back of the room facing the wall. I kneel down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She looks over at me and the tears are running down her face. Her eyes are puffy and red.

“Oh sweetheart, what happened today?”

“Josh was so mean to me. He said that my daddy didn’t love me and ran away. He said he was dead!”

“Honey, that’s not true. Your daddy loves you so much.”

“Then why isn’t he home? Why hasn’t he called us?”

“He is working very hard and can’t come home yet. He is doing everything he can to come home.”

“I want him home now!”

“So do I baby, so do I.”I pull her into my arms and hug her tight to me as I stand up, and head out.

“I will see you Monday, you take care.” Ms Julie says as I walk past her.

“Have a good weekend Ms. Julie. We will see you on Monday.”I take Keely out, cradled in my arms as she cries. Placing her in her car seat and getting into my seat, we head towards home.

“How about we stop for McDonalds tonight?” I see her eyes light up as she wipes the tears and smiles.

“Yes please, can I have chicken nuggets?”

“You can have whatever you want. How about we go Christmas tree shopping this weekend?”

“Really, can Uncle Brandon come too?”

“Sure, we could use some big strong arms to carry the tree.”

“Yeah!!”

I pull into McDonalds and head through the drive through to place our order. After a few minutes we are on our way home. Once we are there, I help Keely out of the car and we head inside. Sitting us down at the table, I place our food out and Keely digs into her food singing and smiling. While we eat I call Brand to see what he is doing tomorrow.

“Hey girl, what’s up? Did you miss me that much?”

“Hahaha, I was calling to see what you were doing tomorrow. We wanted to go tree shopping and Keely asked if you want to come with us.”

"I have nothing planned. I would love to hang out with my two favorite girls.”

“Great, I will see you tomorrow.”

“See you then.”We hang up and I dig into my food. We sit and talk about the day and I talk to her about the little boy and explain why it is not okay to hit someone. She said she was sorry but he made her really mad. After we finish, I clean up and we head upstairs to get her bathed and ready for bed. After she was dressed and tucked into bed, I read her favorite story. One that Luke would read to her every night. She knew it by heart, but she said it reminded her of him and she wanted to hear it. She was asleep before I finished it and I quietly walked out turning the light off and leaving the door open a crack. I head into the living room and curl up on the couch to watch some tv. It was starting to get late and I heard my phone go off. I quickly got up to grab it and see that it was Luke. The tears begin to flow as I quickly answer.

“Baby, is that you?”

“*Shqhhdhd* Baby, can you hear me? *shghghe*”

“I can barely hear you, you had me so worried.”

“*Sqhwgh* I am so… sorry that I haven’t called. We….have been …..pinned down for weeks. I just wanted to tell you I love you while….. I could.”

What was he talking about? Is he in danger? Oh god, I knew something bad was happening.

“Baby, I love you too. Are you safe?”

“*sqgwhvs* It’s pretty bad… over here. I am doing ……everything I can to come…. home to you both.”

“Keely misses you so much!”

“*Squhehgheh* Tell her… I miss…. her too.”

I hear a loud boom and the phone goes dead.

“LUUUUKKKKKEEE!”