A Not So Merry Christmas

A depressing Christmas story by Wim Naudts

For me, Christmas will always be somewhat of a sad time. For a small part because I’m always alone, but mainly for what happened then, 3 years ago….

I was living in a city with a wage that could barely cover for an apartment in one of the worst buildings there. But I didn’t really care much for comfort, I had lived a rich life before, and I was certain I’d get enough chances to improve my life someday. I did have a university degree, and one day that would get me somewhere.

Next to me lived a father and son. They had a much harder time. The father didn’t even have a job, and had no degree at all. This made it so that the son didn’t even have a chance of going to school.

For 2 years, I lived next to them. Never could the father give the son anything. Except some things he found in the garbage, which was sadly the place where most of their food came from too.

I felt guilty for not giving them anything. But then again, what could I give? I was close to broke myself.

Nobody else cared about them. As it happened, across the street was a middle class building, where I knew some people from before I became poor. I knew them from my previous church group, but I kind of lost my faith. They made me remember why.

I asked if maybe they could help the poor father and son out every now and then, but they shamelessly refused. And it’s not as if they were short on finances.

I asked them why they wouldn’t do it. Was it not a very catholic thing to do? Didn’t god reward those who helped the poor? Was that not what Jesus did?

Apparently not, because they just told me to leave.

But it didn’t seem to matter anymore, because the 3d year I lived next to them, his father had a job. It was a wage even smaller as mine, but for them it meant hope. It was something. They could eat something bought from a store!

That whole year, the father saved as much of the wage as he could, sometimes even going back to eating from the garbage.

Because that Christmas, he wanted to give his kid something.

He remembered that one day, when they were still homeless, they were begging on the streets. There, another homeless person let the son try his clarinet. He loved it, since then he always talked about it. For what he could remember, everyone was also surprised at how good he was, for having played only 30 minutes in his whole live.

But when Christmas was coming closer, he still couldn’t afford one. But was he lucky, his boss promised to pay what he needed if he came to work the day of Christmas Eve. Not the whole day, just till 5pm.

Was he happy! He told his son that day, that he would be back at 5:30, and that he would bring the best present he’d ever gotten!

When he arrived at work, the boss already had the clarinet ready and wrapped up.  

The father went to work. He was working on a new apartment block. The reason his boss needed him, was because the block needed to be covered to be safe from snow. Yeah, exactly one day before the day of Christmas Eve it started snowing, but then it was already too dangerous to still cover the block. Still the boss wanted it to happen, but he couldn’t find anybody prepared to do it, except our desperate father of course…

And so the worst happened… On the 8^th floor, the father slipped over the icy floor, and fell down, down on the hard cold street… And he died…

When police forces arrived, and the boss told them what happened, they didn’t even write anything down. They knew well enough that it was his fault entirely, but they didn’t care. They just wanted to go home and celebrate Christmas Eve with their families.

Out of guilt, the boss told them to give the clarinet to the son, and handed it to them.

But oh, this was one unlucky day. The agent decided to keep it. His greedy son might enjoy it he thought. Enjoy breaking it, that is.

When they drove back the station, one of the agents asked if they didn’t have to inform the son first. The others told him that they’d send someone of child support the next day.

When at 7pm the father still wasn’t home, I couldn’t handle it any more. Even though for the first time in years I had company, I decided to invite him over for to celebrate with me. But it wasn’t a happy celebration for him, he kept asking for his dad. I told him I didn’t know where his dad was.

When at 9pm his dad still wasn’t home, he started crying, and kept crying, and crying, and crying….

Elsewhere, at the police station, the Chief of police found out about what happened. Being the good man he was, he took the clarinet from the unfair agent, and prepared to come over himself.

But when he arrived, he accidentally dropped the clarinet, and someone drove over it.

He managed to recover it, but it was already broken. It was unplayable, sadly.

When he came to the door, I saw the chief though my window, and already expected the worst.

And it was…

When the chief told the child, I couldn’t handle it anymore, nor could the child.

The look on his face when he told the child his father had passed…

The enormous pain when he saw the cause, this wonderful gift his father died for, only to please him… This gift that was now broken…

The last souvenir to his dad… Broken….

He slept in my apartment that night. And the next day, on Christmas, I had bought a new clarinet for him, and went to his room to wish him a merry Christmas.

But there he hanged…. Dead…

I realized then, he didn’t care about the present as material. I realized that this child had never been unhappy. That he had never felt poor. That he never thought of his life as the hard time I imagined he had…

For this kid knew the real reason of happiness. The real reason of Christmas. The real reason of life…

Family… Love…

Having his father with him was all he ever cared about.

He didn’t need presents.
He didn’t need comfort.

He needed only his father

.

And I told myself,

Never shall I think of my life as hard anymore.

Never shall I think of my life as sad anymore.

No, I promised myself then that every Christmas, I would tell this tale to my future family. And we would be together on Christmas. And take a few minutes of our time to think about him, and celebrate that we have a family. And that we needn’t nothing more….

That was the least respect this kid deserved...

·         Wim Naudts, 17 December 2013

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!!Please not that this story is entirely fictional! None of this is true! Also, I don't have anything against christians, the reference is just a reminder of how hypocrite some people are!!