I smile, looking at the profile of the person calling me on my phone. Setting the knife aside and swiping, I put the phone up to my ear. 

“Hey, sweetie, how’s it going!” I say, eagerly waiting to hear my daughters squeaky voice.

“Hi, Papa!” the voice on the other end crackled. “How are you doing?”

I put on a grin that could outshine the moon and sigh. “Just fantastic, sweetie.” Glancing to the box beside me, I pat it. “And guess what? Santa’s given me your present early so I can put it under the tree! How awesome is that?”

“Really?!” Caroline shouted, her energy showing through my phone’s feeble speakers. “How did you get it? Why did he give it to you so early?? It’s not even Christmas for one more day!”

“Now now, calm down Carol,” I said, chuckling softly. “One question at a time.”

“How did you get the present? Was it through a chimney? Was he bigger and jollier than you thought? Does Rudolph really have the shiniest nose?”

I sigh, shaking my head. “Alright alright, so Santa didn’t really give it to me in person. He just left it on the… the…” Thinking of something believable off the bat, I widen my eyes. “On the counter! After finishing work, he had left something on my desk, and when I went to go check it, it was your present.

“It even has a note on it that says-” I struggle to reach her present with my current position and am somehow able to snag the card I had written, shakily reading it in the passing lights above “-Hi, Caroline! This is Santa, saying that you’ve been so very good this year. How about that? So good that you get to have this under the tree [i]early[/i] and guess what’s inside! Remember, stay good and you’ll get even more presents next year. Many wishes, Santa Claus.”

Hearing nothing but the rumbling of cars and heaters, I fear she might’ve accidentally hung up until I hear ecstatic breathing on the other end. “Wow, really? That’s the superest most super thing ever!”

“It really is, isn’t it?” I sigh, watching my weakening breaths escape into the air. “I think it’s magical. Don’t you, sweetie?”

“The magicalest!” Carol shouted. “Heehee! This is so much fun! Did you write Santa a letter saying thanks for the early present yet?”

“Of course!” I say, “With extra jollyness!”

“And candy canes?”

“And candy canes, yeah,” I chuckle. Flexing my ears as Carol goes silent for a second more, I hear the distant voice of my wife Elaine and breathing in the phone again.

“Papa, when are you coming home?” Carol asks.

My smile falters and I wince. “Well, now that’s a long story. It might not be for a while, sweetie. You might not be seeing me for the next little bit. Is that okay?”

“I’ve got time,” Carol says. “I know you can drive while the car speaks for you! So can you tell me when, please please please?”

I smile. Her enthusiasm is infectious. “Well, I have your present, that’s all that really matters. Safe and sound! But when I was coming home, stopping at the store to get food, you know, like Hersheys and Nestles. You like cookies n’ cream, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Noo,” I say, feeling a grin forming. “I should just go back and return this.”

“No!” Carol shouts, panicking. “I like chocolate! I love chocolate! Chocolate is the bestest food there is!”

Having proven her point, I concede. “Don’t worry, don’t worry, you’ll have your chocolate.”

“Yay!” she shouts, and I laugh.

“Hehe, alright, so long story short, huh?” I say with a small laugh.. Coughing, I say it once again, a low whisper, glancing at the knife I had so stupidly set aside. “Long story short…”

“Well, sweetie,” I murmur into the phone. “Short as the rabbit hole and sweet as your smile, I won’t be home tonight.”

“Papa?” I hear Carol say, and I feel my lips begin to tremble. “Papa, what do you mean?”

“Be good, Carol,” I say. “Saint Nick’ll come this year with lot’s of presents, so you better be good, okay?”

“Papa, I’m scared!”

“Tell Mommy I love her okay?” I say.

“Papa? Papa-!?”

I hang up.

Blinking the blurriness away from my eyes, I feel a sob begin to rack my body. 

Clutching my phone tightly, I smile looking at the profile of the person calling me on my phone.