In March of 2020, Covid-19 brought the Big Apple to its knees, but Henry Madison's kids want Great-Uncle Santa Claus to bring Christmas early by gifting the world with a cure. There are some rules, however, that not even Father Christmas can break...
Tom listened as Alice explained to Doodles, who had suffered a few bruises but no broken bones, the reason she had summoned her. She apologized for the hour but felt a little better when the elf told her the North Pole wasn't bound to any Time Zone. They slept and woke whenever they felt like it. Except Christmastime, that is.
"Well," said the elf, "I can't say that he's never been asked to help out before. His answer is usually the same."
"This time," said Alice, "it's different."
"They all say that," Doodles answered, munching on a candy bar that Henry had brought from the kitchen. If Santa had a thing for baked goods, Elves were wild about candy. Chris thought that giving her a Snickers bar might be a bit weird, seeing as her name was Snickerdoodle, but she'd laughed and said, "Winters at the Pole get very harsh, and food scarce. What's a little cannibalism among friends?" She'd been kidding, of course.
"If Uncle Klaus can help in any way, he should!" Henry had thought about what his daughter had said, and it took him no time at all to decide to support her. Tom, however, was being very quiet.
"All right," said Doodles, "I'll try to rouse him. No guarantees, though. He's three months into, ah...hibernation. If he does come, he's going to be a little groggy, and a whole lot cranky."
"I thought," said Alice, "Great-Uncle is always jolly..."
Snickerdoodles looked at Alice with sympathy as she said, "He's coming down from a two-month-long high, honey. Jollity is not a side effect of Sugar Detox." And she levitated, flew around the room and stopped at the center of the ceiling, where she vanished with the sound of bells, in a shower of silver and crystalline glitter.
"That never gets old," remarked Henry.
"Alice, you don't need to shake the snow globe quite that hard," Tom cautioned, "otherwise you might hurt Doody...I mean, Doodles."
"You did not just call her 'Doody'," she said.
"It was a slip. I called her that when I was four."
"It's a wonder she even speaks to you at all," laughed Chris.
"Amen, brother!" said the elf herself, appearing suddenly in their midst. He'll be here soon. Helga is coming with him, because she's worried you might say something upsetting. Let's move the sofa over there..."
The group managed to clear a bed-sized space in the middle of the living room. Suddenly it grew colder. A curtain of ice crystals rose from the floor, and formed several outlines, slowly becoming more substantial, accompanied by the faint sound of sleigh bells. Snickerdoodle laughed. "He's such a show-off, even in the off-season. This, I think, is being done for you kids," she said, looking at Chris and Alice.
The ice then vanished, revealing a giant leather lounge chair upon which was seated a man who appeared to be of middle age, with salt and pepper hair neatly trimmed in a partial buzz cut and sporting an equally well-trimmed goatee. In a beautiful rocking chair, carved out of a massive redwood trunk and having living branches growing from its back and sides, sat a woman with a mass of silver hair coiled in a formidable braid that wrapped around her head. At her feet lay a rather large Arctic wolf, eyeing the assembled family with suspicion, until he spotted a familiar face and sprang at Tom, who was promptly covered in wolf slobber.
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"Frosty has missed you, nephew," Helga stated, "almost as much as we have. My goodness, children, come here!" The two were wrapped in a bear hug as their Great-Aunt looked them over. "I'd say the two of you have somehow managed to grow an inch since Christmas! Haven't they, dear?"
"Alice has grown by three-quarters of an inch exactly," replied Klaus, "and her brother by one and a half."
Henry noticed that the man no longer had a protruding belly; in fact, he looked quite fit, although his face looked a little pinched – probably due to his 'sugar detox.' He was wearing denim-look lounge pants and a sweatshirt that read "Nice and Naughty." That was probably a gift from Vanny, he thought.
"Everyone is safe?" Klaus asked. "You're all staying indoors, except Henry? You're taking precautions, I hope?" Before Henry could answer, Tom spoke.
"Yes, yes and yes. But you knew the answers already, right? Alice has a question for you, so let's cut to the chase, okay? It's getting late, Henry has to be at Sweet Surrender in less than 6 hours, and although I already know your answer, I thought it best for Alice to hear it from you."
"Thomas Loki Einarsson, mind your manners!" Helga said with a quiet yet stern edge. "He's not fully recovered from Christmas, but we are here, ja? When family calls, we come!" And she paused before adding, "Unlike some." "Enough, my dear," her husband said, "What would you ask of me, Alice?"
Tom and Henry watched as she went up to the man called, among other things, Father Christmas, and shyly asked him, "Can I sit on your lap? I know I'm a little old, but it seems to me the right thing to do." He nodded, and reaching out to her, lifted her effortlessly onto his right knee.
"I want you to bring Christmas early this year. Like, right now." Helga reached over to her husband, placing her hand on his right shoulder, and bowed her head. Klaus sat very still, and said nothing at all. Her two dads were waiting, like her, for a response of any kind. She heard Klaus breathe in, and kept going.
"I know, it takes months of planning and incredible organization and thousands of hours of elf power..."
"Tens of thousands..." said Snickerdoodle.
"...tens of thousands, and there's been no time to get things wrapped and I don't even know what kind of wrapping paper you'd use but that really doesn't matter because we have this awful virus that's killing people around the whole world and they really need a little Christmas right now, don't you see? That's what you do, right, have done for thousands of years and so couldn't you do that now? Why not just give some doctors the cure all wrapped up in a big box so that so many more people won't have to die? And give the other doctors or maybe even the nurses the formula for a vaccine that really works and is safe right now instead of months and months from now because my homeroom teacher might not have that long to live..."
Henry saw that she'd begun to cry, tears cascading down her cheeks. Frosty padded over to her and laid his huge head in her lap, which she began to stroke.
"...and they won't even let Ms. Walter's own kids see her because they could get sick and die too, and I would help you get things ready and so would Chris and Henry and Tom and Vanny and all their friends, we could help you and Great-Aunt Helga and the elves make Christmas happen right now and that might make everybody feel a little less scared and sad and alone even if some of them might die. PLEASE!"
Alice sobbed uncontrollably as Klaus held her tightly. Henry felt Tom's hands clench, and watched as his beloved stood up. Tom's face wore a look he'd never seen before. He gave his Uncle a spiteful look, and said, coldly and quietly, "Answer her."
"Tom?" asked Chris, and when he received no response, "Dad, what's going on?"
"Another time, son. Not now." This was something new – a new wrinkle in a story he thought he'd figured out. For Chris and Alice, there was no explanation for Tom's behavior or attitude.
Klaus put Alice on the floor, stood up from his chair, and walked behind his wife. Framed by the redwood branches of her rocking chair, he laid a hand on Helga's shoulder. "I can't, Alice," he said, "There are rules that even I must follow, no matter how unjust they may seem."
Tom choked back a sob, turned and left the living room. The sound of the master bedroom door slamming echoed a few seconds later.
