By Cindy Lynn
Dear Mr. Judd,
Guess after all this time you thought I’d forgot to let you know where I was. You can see from my address I’m in the Army. I feel I finally found a place I belong.
Remember before I left the Home, you told me finding my old man wouldn’t make everything better. I just wanted to find him and hurt him bad as he hurt me. Well I finally found him in a little place in New Jersey. I was all set to wreck his life like I thought he’d done to mine. The funny thing was it was on my birthday. I went to his place ready to confront him and I ‘m not sure I really didn’t want to kill him. I found the address and went there. It was a small house in a nice neighborhood; there was even a park across the street. The house had a fence in the back and I could see a swing and toys. The front yard had a small bike against the porch, that had balloons tied to the rail. I decided to watch the place awhile cause I didn’t think it could be right. I found a picnic table in the park with a good view of the house. I sat and waited. It wasn’t long before several Mothers and little kids about 6 years old began arriving with presents. I figured someone in the house was having a birthday. I watched for couple of hours. I could see in the windows kids playing, and then they came out side and ran around like kids do. One little girl stood out. She was the birthday girl. By now I was pretty sure I had the wrong house, my old man couldn’t have a place like this, but for some reason I just couldn’t leave. I guess I was thinking of all the birthdays I wished for a party or present or cake, or even someone to say Happy Birthday. I suppose for that one afternoon I was pretending to share that party. Finally everyone left and I was about to leave, when a bus stopped on the corner and a man got off. The birthday girl was waiting in the yard and began running down the sidewalk calling "Daddy." The man picked her, swung her around and asked about her party. They went into the house the little girl chattering nonstop. Still I couldn’t quite leave. After a short time the Mom, Dad, and little girl came back out and crossed the street toward me in the park. The little girl ran to the swings calling for her Daddy to push her. He did and as she went higher and higher, she called out to go push more, she wanted to touch the sky. Her Dad laughed and then said, "You keep pumping and try hard, you can do anything princess, even touch the sky." I sat there thinking how lucky she was, I was lost in my own thoughts when I felt a ball hit my leg. I bent down and picked it up, as I looked up the little girl ran over. She smiled said "Thank you, my name’s Katie and today’s my birthday." I had to smile back at that happy face and told her" Happy Birthday Katie" She took her ball and ran back to the parents and they left the park. I sat there a while longer until it was almost dark. It was hard to realize the man I thought so much about was just an ordinary man raising a family. I walked back toward the bus station. On the way I passed the Army recruiting office. The rest you could say is history. I spent Christmas in Germany freezing my a.. off on guard duty. I thought about Katie and felt good knowing she would have a real Christmas. Well a year’s gone by, it’s my birthday again. I’ve done a lot of growing this last year. It’s been hard, but it feels good to have a place finally belong. Thanks for everything, your friend,
Zeke Anderson