Peace of Mind


By Henry C.F.W


“Daddy, what’s going on?” Nana asked as her father lead her through the crowded streets.

Her father seemed hesitant, but was really trying to come up with an answer a four-year-old could understand. The financial and fatal terror that had swept the world in the past years was almost too much for him, let alone his daughter, to deal with. “Um… well dear, everyone is trying to find a new place to go and live in,” he couldn’t find any other words, since the mass of people was directing his concentration to the feeling of his daughter’s hand in his.

“Why?” she asked.

First he thought of how troublesome it was that children had to be so questioning. But, remembering the date, he had the perfect answer. He pulled himself and Nana to the side of a bridge overlooking an immensely contaminated river, though, it was the only place the crowd wasn’t, since they all were, almost unnecessarily, trying to snatch up houses in the un-terrorized part of the city.

He knelt down to her height, “Well dear, today is the day of an old holiday back when I was your age called Christmas.”

With a grin, she tilted her head, “what happens during Christmas?” she turned and motioned to the crowd, “This?”

“Well, no, but… well during Christmas, family and friends give gifts to each other as a way of being nice,” He tried to think with all his might of an optimistic metaphor for the terrible, terrible time he and Nana had been going through, “This year, people are trying their hardest to give peace to each other.”

“How?"

He almost sighed. She was just like he was!

“Grown-ups like me aren’t at peace, and because we aren’t, the world isn’t at peace either. We think that it is very important that the world is at peace so that everyone can eat and be together and love each other without being sad.”

She brightened as she began to understand, “I get it! The world isn’t at peace, and that’s why we haven’t eaten since Sunday.”

He felt his stomach get smaller, “Yep Nana, atta girl, your right!” He grinned at her proudly and patted her head and she smiled as if she had been given a cookie.

He continued, “The world is sick from the lack of peace and people are really sad. But that isn’t going to stop them from trying to give peace to each other this Christmas!”

Usually Nana asks a silly question when she doesn’t understand so he knew she understood it all when she looked at her father with a blank face and asked, “Daddy, are you sad? Like the other grown-ups?”

He was befuddled for a second. But her question made him realize that he wasn’t sad. It was Christmas, he was with his daughter, both his sons were safe with his wife; why wouldn’t he be happy?

“Well, Daddy, I know I’m not sad right now, cause I know that you’ll save me if something happens, just like when you saved me from monsters and those grown-ups with guns.”

She hugged him, and he realized that she had taught him something once again. He also felt his back pocket for his revolver; thanking God he had had it with him earlier.