A Viral Little Christmas (NYC, March 2020)

Chapter 6

Tom was sitting on their bed, holding an old photograph. Henry knew without getting closer that it was the one of his parents, taken the day before his mother's accidental death. She'd been crossing the street with her arms full of groceries and bags of gifts, and never saw that she'd been walking against a red light. The driver of the car, who'd been texting, had somehow survived smashing through a plate-glass store window. His mother, who'd been pinned on the hood of the car, did not. She had died in the hospital a few days later.

Worse, it had happened the day before Christmas. It was a part of Tom's past that he'd only revealed to him two years ago, and even then, he hadn't elaborated. Henry sat down next to him, and Tom laid his head on Henry's shoulder.

"You asked him to bring her back, didn't you?" he said quietly.

It was a while before he got Tom's answer. "That Christmas, and every Christmas ever since. Until the year you came into my life. Things changed. I realized something."

"What?" asked Henry.

"That in spite of virtual immortality, and some unique abilities, the Santa bloodline is still human. They, I mean - we - can be killed, but not by disease or infirmity or old age. We have limitations. But it's so easy to think that Santa can do anything. It took years for me to see that it's not that he wouldn't bring her back, but that he couldn't. And accepting that fact. It was so much easier for me to be angry. Henry, I'm still angry that there are limitations, but..."

"The kids are in there right now, and they've got a plan." Henry was grinning from ear to ear.

"You're not kidding, are you?"

"I'm serious. Chris thinks he's got a way for Santa to bring the Christmas spirit here without him breaking any rules. And you know what? I think that, between all of us, we might just do it."

"We'd better get in there, and make sure we know what's going on," said Tom, "And those kids can be a handful when they put their heads together!"