The Magic of Christmas

With the production of Choc-e-ola under way, Travis turned his attention back to flying the reindeer and sleigh where he could be seen. Ideally, he would have liked to go out every night, but magic restrictions stopped that from happening. Instead, he calculated the amount of magic needed for each flight, and what would be needed between now and Christmas to keep the village functioning and presents delivered on Christmas eve/night. The figures didn’t make good reading, but he estimated he would have enough magic to take an extended flight once a week on the run-up to the festivities, and resignedly settled for that.

His first flight was uneventful, except for the look on the pilot’s face of a 747 approaching Orlando in Florida. Clearly not believing what was in front of his eyes as Travis flew beside the plane cheerfully waving at him, the pilot crossed himself and roughly turned the plane away and downwards before levelling off about a thousand feet below him.

Mindful of air traffic control and the possible intervention of military aircraft, Travis had kept his speed through the air quite high, despite the increased speed draining the magic more than was safe. His next foray into the wide blue yonder, even if the blue was the black of night, was carried out at a nice sedate pace designed to let anyone who saw him have a good long look, instead of a blur of red and white as he streaked across the sky. Travelling slowly let the colours of his coat and the livery of the reindeer shine in the bright moonlight; at times, he lit up like a beacon, flashing Christmas lights along the sleigh and reindeer, twinkled brightly against a backdrop of stars. Rosie said he looked wonderful, Sue just smiled at him with a small tear in her eye, while Bethany moped about, grumbling nothing in life was fair because she wanted Gill and herself to go on the sleigh with Travis.

He later put it down to the sound of water cascading over Niagara Falls and Oswald for not warning him about going to the toilet before embarking on a long flight. Frantically racing back to the village to use the bathroom, Travis thought he would burst and have the embarrassment of asking the elves to clean the sleigh after him. He was still over the northern United States in Wisconsin, flying above snow-laden clouds screaming at the reindeer for all his worth, when he felt the magic beginning to weaken. He had two choices, continue and possibly crash without the magic to save himself and the deer from injury, or, land and hide for a few hours until the magic could build in him once again.

Taking the second option, he slowly descended looking for an out of the way place, hopefully with a bathroom, where he could land. It was the first week in October and the snow had come early this year, making the task of seeing habitation near impossible, everything was white, including the heavy dusting that was falling from the sky as he flew. As he travelled just north of the small town of Crystal Falls, Travis realised it was now or never and landed where he thought, and hoped, was miles from anywhere. The snow fell in a thick heavy blanket covering everything in a pure white vista that hid trees, houses, roads and just about anything he could describe as recognisable. He had given up on looking for a bathroom and was in a state of panic trying to find an unoccupied tree he could use as a urinal.

It was with more than surprise looking up, breathing a sigh of great relief as his bladder emptied against a huge pine, to see a young girl of about six or seven, face framed in the window of a cottage, the light from inside streaming out of a half-drawn curtain. She was transfixed, watching Santa Claus of all people, relieve himself against a tree at the bottom of her garden. Too late to stop, he turned his back to her hoping she would think he was a dream and hastily finished what he was doing, relaxing in the relief of an empty bladder. Not looking at the girl, he trudged back to the sleigh some twenty feet away, and with a slight hint of panic, born out of the fact the magic he commanded was now at a critical level, he set off once more, this time at a nice sedate pace for the village.

That should have been the end of it, but was, in fact, the moment when crazy started to happen. His smile turned to a frown when he heard soft crying above the wind. He turned his head, searching the sleigh but saw nothing. The cry came again, more a moan of discomfort than a cry of fear or being upset, and he searched the sleigh once more wondering where the sound came from. Not seeing anyone he landed the sleigh, this time making certain he was nowhere near a house or people, he wanted people to see him, he didn’t want them climbing all over the sleigh asking questions he couldn’t answer while the magic recharged.

Back on the ground he made himself comfortable and closed his eyes for a quick doze while the magic recharged enough to get him home. Settling back against his empty sack he was surprised to feel something inside it when it should be empty until the elves and his magic, filled it on Christmas Eve. He opened the top and peered inside, horrified to see the happy smiling, but shivering face, of the young girl who had watched him relieve himself against the tree not ten minutes ago.

‘What are you doing here?’ he smiled at her, automatically knowing her name was Pearl.

‘Are you Santa?’ she asked through chattering teeth.

‘Get out of there,’ Travis admonished, ‘it’s freezing, come here get under my coat where it’s warm.’

She didn’t need a second invitation scuttling with all the grace of an excited, gangly six year old, out of the sack and into his open coat, snuggling swiftly into the warmth of the magical garment. Pearl had seen him “delivering presents to the squirrels” and on impulse run to his sleigh hoping for a visit to the North Pole. She was normally a quiet child, one of life’s loners, lacking all the social skills of children her age. This wasn’t by choice, but because of locality. Miles from anywhere, she had no one to play with, even her schooling was done over the internet in the winter months when snow lay thick on the ground, which was about nine months of the year. There just wasn’t enough hours in the day for her mother or father to take her on a 20 mile journey in bad weather and icy roads, to the nearest school and repeat the journey later in the day to pick her up.

Despite the obstacles life threw at her, she was now a chatty young girl bombarding Travis with question after question about the North Pole, the elves or anything and everything to do with Christmas. He let her chatter away, more to give the magic a chance to recharge than anything else. By the time he felt enough magic had been restored a couple of hours had passed and his new young friend had, as children do, fallen fast asleep, tucked up in his nice warm coat. Gently stirring the reindeer back to life, he slowly took to the sky and back to where Pearl lived.

He couldn’t help but notice the blue and red flashing lights on the police cars outside the house as he came into land. He had intended to wake her, help her out of the sleigh and tell her to run inside where it was warm before heading back to the village with no one the wiser to what had happened. It didn’t quite go that way. He woke her and helped her out of the sleigh before things got a little screwed.

About to climb back in the sleigh, four police officers with drawn guns, suddenly appeared out of the swirling snow and surrounded him, gave him orders to drop to his knees and place his hands on his head. Not wanting to test the magic to see if he was bullet proof, Travis did as he was told wondering how he was going to get out of this one. Rough hands grabbed him, quickly putting handcuffs on him and hauling him to his feet before frog marching him to a car, opening the door, and throwing him on the back seat.

Ten minutes later the front doors opened and two burly police officers climbed in, the one in the passenger seat immediately rounding on Travis.

‘What’s your name?’ he asked.

’I can’t tell you, the Christmas “cup cakes” stops me,’ Travis replied. ‘but the way I’m dressed should give you a clue.’

‘A funny guy huh,’ he smiled. ‘It’s a good job you never hurt or molested that little girl,’ he snarled, ‘or you would be in a very bad way by the time we got you back to the station.’

‘I can’t go to the station,’ Travis said, ’I’ve got to get home, my “cup cake” is low and I can only get a full re-charge there.’

‘Oh Boy,’ the officer said raising his eyes to heaven, ‘we’ve got a real one here Charlie.’

‘Just book him,’ Charlie said, ‘it’s too cold to be messing about with nut cases.’

‘True,’ his partner responded. ‘You are under arrest for the kidnap of Pearl Simons, you do not have to say anything but anything you do say can, and will be used against you in a court of law. You are entitled to a Solicitor, if you haven’t got one, one will be appointed. Do you understand these rights?’

Panic spread through Travis as the rights were read to him. Santa Claus arrested, the papers will have field day he thought. God alone knew what Rosie would say and he dreaded the wails out of Bethany.

‘Officer,’ Travis said, ‘you don’t realise what you’re doing here. That young girl sneaked onto my sleigh, I didn’t kidnap her, ask her for God’s sake before this gets out of hand.’

‘Of course, she did,’ Charlie piped up, ‘just sit back and relax, we’ll have you at the station in no time at all, you can tell us all about it there.’

‘Charlie, James,’ Travis said sternly, addressing the arresting officers by name. ‘This car is not going anywhere until I’m back on my sleigh and headed home,’

‘Shall we add threatening behaviour to the charges Charlie?’ James asked the driver, who despite his best efforts couldn’t start the car.

‘Whatever,’ he muttered. ‘I think we better take another car back to the station, this one won’t start.’

‘Neither will any other,’ Travis replied starting to get annoyed. ‘Last chance to let me out of here and be on my way home. Think lads, how did I get here? I flew in that sleigh,’ he pointed to the sleigh and reindeer. ‘You saw me land. Who else do you know flies in a sleigh pulled by reindeer?’

‘Be a good Santa,’ Charlie said, ‘and be quiet while I try and get this car started.’

‘Charlie,’ Travis said trying to get his attention. ‘You’re a nice man, conscientious in your work with a family you love and who love you in return. James here still thinks he is Sherlock Holmes and is looking for glory. You just want a nice quiet time with the kids when you get home. Let me go Charlie and I’ll make sure you and your family have the best Christmas ever.’

‘You really think I’m going to let the kidnapper of little girls go free?’ Charlie answered. ‘Dream on scum-bag.’

‘Oh well, don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ Travis said shrugging his shoulders. ‘First things first, let’s get rid of these handcuffs.’ The act of shrugging his shoulders released a controlled amount of magic into the air turning the metal cuffs to glitter, which much to James consternation covered the back seat and floor of the police car in millions of tiny multi-coloured sparkling pieces. ‘Next, to make sure you two start taking some notice of me, a couple of nice trees should help.’ Four ten foot, brightly decorated Christmas trees sprang from the ground outside the car, one either side blocking the driver and front passenger doors, and one at the front and rear stopping the car from going anywhere if my some miracle it did start.

‘What in the name of all that’s holy…’ Charlie exclaimed drawing his gun from the holster and pointing it at Travis, an inch from his nose.

‘Two seconds to put that thing away Charlie.’ Travis smiled. ‘One, two. Too late,’ the smile turned to a grin as the gun turned to chocolate, melting in the officer’s grip. ‘Do you need any more demonstrations, or will you two gentleman start listening to me?’

As he spoke a light tapping came on the window, a tap which the staring James and startled Charlie ignored, the latter trying to get the sticky melting chocolate off his hands. Travis turned to see the smiling face of Arnold peering through the glass looking at him; over Arnold’s shoulder, Oswald peered at Travis with a comical expression on his face. ‘If nothing else,’ the chief thought, ‘this Santa was entertaining.’ The door opened with the Solicitor and Chief Elf squirming inside to sit next to Travis.

Both police officers were dumbstruck, both sat looking at the three in the rear of the car with open-mouthed disbelieving astonishment.

‘I’m sorry,’ the Chief stated, ‘but it’s taken us ages to track you down, then we had to wait till the snowmobiles could be loaded on board a helicopter. We have a serious problem at home, the erm…’ his tirade coming to a halt as he noticed the two policemen. ‘Who are they?’ he asked indicating the two bemused officers.

‘Charlie and James,’ Travis replied, ‘they think they’re going to arrest me for kidnapping little Pearl Simons.’

‘Just as well I came along with Oswald,’ Arnold said with a concerned edge tpo his voice.

‘It’s OK Arnold,’ Travis smiled. ‘Everything is in hand, they’re two nice men really, and they’re on the verge of letting me go, thank you anyway, but I won’t need your legal expertise. Oops, my manners, you haven’t been introduced. That’s Charlie and that’s James, Charlie, James, this is Arnold, my Solicitor and and Oswald my chief advisor, Oh, my real name by the way, is Travis.’

‘Look a little disturbed if you ask me,’ Oswald said squinting his little green face in puzzlement. ‘What did you do to them?’

‘Not a lot,’ Travis replied, ‘just a little magic to make them think.’

’Stop squandering Rhubarb Pudding, (magic),’ Arnold near exploded. ‘That’s why it’s taken us so long to find you. We have dangerously low levels back home, it’s that bad even the hot chocolate quotas are failing, and if they go, we’re going to have a riot on our hands. Cedric is already on the warpath demanding overtime rates for all the hours worked without chocolate facilities.’

‘And,’ Oswald chimed in, ’The production figures are taking a hammering as the Snowflake machine (magic) becomes weaker, you are going to…’

‘QUIET!’ Charlie screamed getting his voice back.

‘Excuse me,’ Oswald said indignantly, ‘I was talking, I do not like being interrupted, it is rude, and please sir, there is no need to shout in this small confined space. My ears are perfectly attuned to hear you at normal speech levels.’

‘I said QUIET!,’ Charlie screamed even louder than before. ‘You,’ he pointed at Travis, ‘better start explaining what the hell is happening here before I lose my temper and…’

‘Threats of police brutality,’ Arnold said before Travis could answer or Charlie say much more. ‘I would like to stay and argue with you but matters at home are pressing. Please Sir,’ he turned to Travis, ‘Can you magic us all home?’

‘Not really,’ Travis replied with a grimace, ‘I used the last of what I had on those trees outside. I’m afraid we’re stuck until I recharge a little. Be nice to the policeman, we’re going to be here a while.’