Santa Claus In a Pickup Truck

A Christmas turned sideways

It was unseasonably warm for Christmas Day. Danny was wearing a jacket as he stood on the sidewalk by the street on the side of the restaurant but he did not even zip up the jacket. That is how warm it was.

Danny was on a break from his shift at the restaurant. He had not been scheduled to work on Christmas Day but Ramon had begged him to work for him so that he could stay home with his wife and three kids. Danny did not have any family — at least not any who would speak to him — so he agreed to work for Ramon. To Danny, it was just another day.

The sidewalk on the side of the restaurant building is where employees would come out to in order to smoke. Danny did not smoke and usually took his breaks in the employee room. Today, though, he just had to get out of the building.

He leaned his body back against the brick wall of the restaurant then he leaned his head back against the bricks as he looked up into the night sky. The crescent moon hung in the blackness of a hole in the clouds like a Christmas ornament in a window.

What a horrible year it had been for Danny. He had moved to this godforsaken hick-town because his girlfriend and her family had moved here. He could not imagine losing her but just three weeks after he moved here to be close to…