My family moved from Taiwan to a small town in central Georgia, where my dad got a visa for his family and a job. I had just learned English, and from what little I could gather from my friends, Santa Claus would come down one’s chimney and put toys in one’s stocking on Christmas Eve! What a great country, I thought. After I looked up “stocking” in my Chinese-English dictionary, I knew what I had to do and always expected that day.

Finally, the big day came. On that wonderful night, after everyone went to bed, I sneaked out of bed, took my longest, cleanest knee sock and attached it to a nail already on the mantel (壁炉). Obviously, the previous owners of this house were no strangers to this Santa character. Gazing at the sock and imagining the delicately-packed gift in it, I couldn’t help giggling (咯咯笑). For the first time, I found it hard to fall asleep.

And for the first time, I woke up before everyone else in the early morning. Then I headed straight to the fireplace and was even ready for what to say after seeing the gift. However, what happened next was the least thing I wanted to mention. On the nail was the empty and lonely sock. I was hit with the reality of the empty sock and the biggest lie ever told. I tried my best to hold back my tears but failed. Bursting into tears, I quickly took down the sock and stuffed it in the back of a drawer.

Every December since then, the topic of Christmas memories would unavoidably come up, and I would amuse my friends with my poor-little-me story. I had to make it as funny as possible, or else I would cry once again. I didn’t know whether any of my audience ever noticed the sparkling tears hidden in my eyes.

How could I know that Santa was just late? Nine years ago, on Christmas Eve, I heard a knock on the door when I was watching TV. Unwillingly, I dragged my feet and opened the door.

Outside the door stood an old man with a white beard and a red cap, holding a well-packed box.

Through tear-blurred eyes, I recognized the handwriting on the card.

A truck driver was enjoying his meal at a local restaurant when an old lady came in. To his surprise, the owner and all the servers hurried from behind the counter to meet her.

“Mrs. Cosby!” They shouted, “How pleased to see you!”

The old lady smiled and greeted them all.

Bob, the owner said, “Sit down and make yourself comfortable, Mrs. Cosby! What would you like to eat?”

When Bob passed his table, the truck driver could not resist to ask what is so special about the old lady.

“I’ll explain if you are interested,” Bob smiled.

“Every school seems to have a class that everyone thinks will never graduate. Troublemakers, that’s what we were. None of our teachers stayed for long. One morning, the door to the classroom opened and a new teacher walked in. We sure gave her a hard time. But she never lost her temper, no matter what we did.

“One day after a month, Mrs. Cosby opened her briefcase and took out a bunch of papers, something totally surprised us. She asked each one of us to come to the front of the class, one by one, and gave us each a paper. On each paper she had written what the student in question had been good at during the last month.

“No one had ever believed in us. No one ever liked us. We were constantly told how good-for-nothing we were. Gradually we had started to believe it ourselves. The teacher attitude we had met with before didn’t encourage us to hold belief in ourselves.

“Suddenly, there came someone who could find something positive to say about each and every one of us. Once she had delivered the papers, she continued with her teaching and for the first time we forgot to make her life miserable. Mrs. Cosby did this every month from then on. Each month we got a paper that emphasized our strengths, what we had been good at. We begin to act as if that was true. We start to learn more to be even better, to prove them right. With her positive teacher attitude, she transformed our class.

“And then came the day of our graduation.

Bob went to get the bill and when he returned he saw the truck driver talking on his cell phone.

Little Ashley had just gotten home from the annual fair with her dad and her grandma. Dad and Grandma were sitting in the yard, chatting happily. And Ashley had her helium(氦气)—filled balloon that she had gotten from the fair, running around. It didn’t cost much but they were on a tight budget. They should have spent the money on daily necessities. But the eagerness in Ashley’s eyes reminded Dad of the moment some forty years ago. It was in that same fair market that Dad got his desired toy from Grandma. Ashley’s innocence melted his heart. “Nothing can ever take the place of real love and family togetherness,” Grandma always said so.

The wind blew, and the beautiful balloon seemed like it was trying to escape. It was almost like trying to hold on to a horse that was bent on speeding away. Her dad warned her, “Never let go or else you’ll probably never see it again.” She listened well and held on tight. She kept her balloon until the helium all came out of it, and it slowly floated to the ground.

A couple of months passed, and unfortunately Grandma got sick. She went into the hospital. Ashley kept asking her dad about going to see her. But Dad was always too busy. He’d say, “We’ll go see Grandma next week. I’ve got so much important work that just can’t wait.”

That next week just seemed to keep getting farther and farther away. Ashley kept annoying her dad about it. After a day of the usual bothering about visiting Grandma, Dad finally said impatiently, “All right young lady, you listen here, I want you to stop bothering me about this. We’ll go see your grandma very soon, and she’ll be just fine until then. This work I have to do is very important. I must finish it!”

“I’m sorry for bothering you so much, Dad, but you should never let go, or else you’ll probably never see her again.”

Ashley and her dad visited Grandma very often from then on.