01-10-2018, 03:32 PM
Sam was standing near the tree, looking at it. It was a nice tree and Sam was looking forward to seeing it and to spend some time with his father. But unfortunately, it ended up the way it always did - dad was busy. Little Sam didn't quite understand why. He was yet too young to understand, that his dad was quite active in the neighborhood and he was giving some money to this event as well as many others. He wasn't the only one, but that was a part of this problem - the others expected him to make an appearance, to help with preparation and things like that. It would take many years for Sam to realize that one of dad's friends was a politician, who was using those, in his eyes, minor events to gather sympathy and votes. Sam understood none of that, the only important thing was, that dad wasn't with him.
There were a lot of happy children running around, playing games, smiling and generally being in Christmas mood. But every now and then they returned to their parents, spent few moments with them, before coming back to play. Sam wiped his nose into his read sleeve and slowly walked to his father. He was talking with some other men. "Daddy? Will you help me decorate the Christmas tree?" he asked. It would be nice to do something together. Mr. Reese turned to his friends, said something Sam didn't understand and turned his attention to him. "Sammy, I need to finish something here really quick. Be a good lad and play with other children awhile, once I'm done here I will gladly decorate the tree with you. I promise." he smiled at him, pat his head and turned back to his friends.
Sam knew, that "really quick" meant an hour at least. If not longer. He didn't really know many children out here, he knew few of them, but he didn't like them much. They were either older or just mean so he didn't really want to play with them. There were some kids of his dad's friends he had to play with, but they were making fun of his freckles. The other kids he didn't know and was a bit too sheepish to talk to them.
So instead of playing with the others, he looked around. Sam didn't want to decorate the tree yet, he hoped he will do that with dad, so he walked slowly to the tent. There was something smelling really well from the tent and Sam liked sweets as most other kids.