Tour of Duty
Tour of Duty
A Life of Service
December 30, 2020
A Mission
The toy soldier really misses Santa Claus.
Living at the North Pole with Santa, Mrs. Claus, the elves, and the reindeer is the only life the little toy soldier has ever known and now that he has moved on to his new family he longs for it.
He longs for the cold, the snow, the Northern Lights, the blue chill of year-long winter that is actually warm.
His new family is nice; the kids play with him, the dog chews on him, the mother picks him up off the floor and puts him back in the bin with the robots, the footballs, the stuffed animals, and the crayons and they all sleep. It’s not so bad.
But he’s a soldier. And he wants to go back. Back to the great blue nevermore of Santaland, the world where you are always waiting but never wanting.
He was excited at first when they told him he’d be riding with Santa on Christmas Eve. All the other toys told him what a spellbinding adventure it what would be, and how happy it would be in his new home. The trip was nice, sure. And the first few days at the new house were good. But the toy soldier knows, already, that the more time goes by the less he will be played with. He sees a day when he is left at the bottom of the bin forever. He sees a day when he will stand on the shelf amid the dust of time and look out the window for the little boy who has gone and will not return.
And so he’s going back. The toy soldier has planned his escape. He will go back to the North Pole, back to Santa, back to the polar bears, back to the beginning.
He will wait until the year is new. He is a soldier. He will make his move and go home. And he doesn’t care if it will take him forever. --TK
Wednesday, December 30, 2020