Chapter 21 Brooks
Brooks
“I’m looking, Ruby!”
I was elbow-deep in the hall closet, trying to find the game she so desperately wanted. Something she and her mom always played this time of year. The problem was, I didn’t actually know what it looked like and Ruby’s seven-year-old description wasn’t exactly narrowing it down.
The closet was stuffed to bursting. Box after box lined the top shelf, stacked high, each one heavier than the last. I grunted, pulling one down and then another, wondering how Annie ever managed to hoist these up here herself.
By the time I reached for the last box, my arms burned.
It slipped, hitting the floor with a thud before the lid popped off and its contents spilled everywhere.
“Dammit,” I muttered, crouching quickly to gather everything back up.
Loose papers. Old photographs. Pieces of artwork scattered across the floor in a colorful mess.
One page caught my eye, a little painting of a Christmas tree with blocky presents drawn beneath it. At first, I assumed it was Ruby’s handiwork, but then I noticed the signature in the corner. Annie.
My chest tightened.
It wasn’t just a picture. At the top, written in bright, childish letters, were the words To Santa.
Flipping it over, I found a list on the back, written in the uneven scrawl of a little girl. Annie’s Christmas list.
I couldn’t stop the laugh that slipped out as I read through it.
Ballet shoes
A tennis racket
A puppy dog (pink please)
New sneakers that light up
Then one request stood out, circled four times in yellow crayon, with a big star beside it. The thing she wanted more than anything.
That’s when it hit me. The idea. Maybe the best idea I’d ever had.
I carefully stacked the rest of the things back into the box, but I kept the painting in my hand.
Something about it felt too important to shove away again.
Annie had carried so much weight—losing her parents, being left with Ruby and a broken marriage, trying every day to give her daughter magic while her own spark had dimmed.
She didn’t deserve to be stuck in the shadows of her own life.
Annie was the spark. Bright. Beautiful. She just needed someone to remind her.
I wanted to be that someone.
Finally, after digging into the back corner of the closet, I found something that matched Ruby’s description, a colorful game box. Triumph surged through me as I shoved the boxes back into place, shut the door, and carried it out to the living room.
“I found it!” I announced.
Ruby, curled into a ball on the couch, lit up like the tree in Rockefeller Center. She clapped and bounced, pure joy radiating from her small frame.
“But,” I said, tucking the game behind my back, “I need your help first.”
Ruby’s head tilted, curiosity written across her face.
“It’s a super-secret project. Do you think you can handle it?”
Her whole body perked up. She nodded fiercely.
I dropped to the couch beside her and held out my pinky. “But you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not even your mom.”
Ruby gasped. “But I can’t lie. Mom says lying isn’t good.”
I smiled. “It’s not lying. It’s a mission. A surprise mission. And you’d be my partner. How does that sound… General Ruby?”
Her eyes sparkled as she shot to attention, giving me the most serious salute I’d ever seen. “General Ruby, reporting for duty.”
She hooked her tiny pinky in mine, sealing the deal.
“Perfect,” I said. “Here’s the plan…”
Tonight at dinner, she would bring it up, repeating the things we talked about.
“If we pull this off right, your mom is going to have the most magical Christmas she’s had in years.”
Ruby leaned in, hanging on every word as I explained. In that moment, with her eager grin and Annie’s painting burning a hole in my pocket, I knew one thing for sure: this Christmas wasn’t just about Ruby’s happiness. It was about giving Annie hers back, too.