Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Forty

It had been quite some time since Bernard had randomly appeared inside the Miller's house. Since Lucy had been born, Bernard and the Calvins had been under a strict no magic in the house policy. It was difficult at first, not being able to pop here or there whenever they wanted. As time went on Scott, Jess and Bernard made less and less visits. In the end Lucy grew up not knowing about her sister being an elf or Scott being Santa Claus. That night Bernard decided to ignore the rules and materialized in the entrance hall. He heard the sounds of laughter coming from deeper in the house and followed the joyous noise to the living room. Jess was sitting cross-legged on the floor and Lucy was kneeling across from her; a game board between them. Neither girl heard the Head Elf approaching them.

"Hello Lucy," He greeted the young girl. "Jessie." Jess looked up to see her husband standing there and she smiled.

"Bout time you got here." She brushed off her pants and got to her feet. Lucy looked over her shoulder to see who her sister was talking to.

"Bernard!" The young girl jumped up and he caught her in his arms. "You want to play with us? We can start a new game." Bernard looked over at Jessie and set his sister-in-law down on the floor.

"Luce, I think Bernard and I have some work to do." Lucy didn't like that. She crossed her arms and frowned.

"You said you'd stay for Christmas."

"Christmas isn't over yet." The Head Elf pointed out. He knelt down and looked the girl in the eyes like he used to do with Charlie. "Lucy, I promise you that you'll get to spend this Christmas with your sister. But for now, I could really use her help. Do you think I could borrow her for a few hours?" Lucy's arms were still folded over her chest. She glared form Bernard to her sister, thinking about something.

"Bernard, are you an elf?" Bernard's eyes widened. "You have pointy ears like Mr. Curtis did. and you work with Uncle Scott and I'm pretty sure he's Santa Claus. Charlie says no, but he's mad at Uncle Scott so I don't believe him. Does that mean you're an elf too, Jessie?" Jess and Bernard didn't answer her, which to a little girl that was as good as a 'yes'.

"We'll talk about this later, Lucy." Jessica said. She led her husband out of the room without another word.

"She's going to have to find out everything eventually." Bernard explained as they walked down the hall towards Neil's office. "Charlie was just about her age..."

"I know, I know." Jess nodded. "But that was different. He was caught in the middle of things. Most kids grow up to believe there is no Santa Claus. It's a different burden growing up to realize there is a Santa. Look at what's happened with Charlie." By now they had reached Neil's office which they entered after knocking. Jess quickly explained that she and Bernard were returning to the Pole, but that she'd be back before the end of Christmas Day.

The Pole was in a sort of organized chaos upon Jess and Bernard's return. The Tin Soldiers had mostly been incapacitated, but Toy Santa had made a narrow escape with a sleigh full of coal.

"You've got to save Christmas!" The Head Elf told Scott, as if he didn't already know that.

"But how? I don't have any reindeer!" He argued.

"That's not true!" Bernard shook his head. He put two fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly. From the stables one of the baby reindeer, Chet, came barreling out. Chet was young and incredibly untrained. He flew quickly, but was basically uncontrollable as he sped past the crowd of elves. The young reindeer tried his best to break quickly at the end of his reindeer runway. Lucky for Chet, Santa was there to catch him. Not so lucky for Scott, he took a 300 pound reindeer to the chest. The force of Chet's speed was enough to knock him to the ground. After the tin soldiers capture, and falling down the stairs attached to a toaster; getting knocked on the head was starting to feel normal. Carol and Curtis helped Santa to his feet and he mounted Chet quickly.

"Alright buddy," Scott sat on the reindeer and plucked up the reins. "You know what we gotta do!" Chet and Santa took off, zigzagging through the sky. The Calvin family, Curtis and Carol led the rest of the elves outside so they could all watch Scott's daring save. Once he and Chet caught up to Toy Santa and his sleigh, the true father of Christmas jumped from the back of the baby reindeer to the lead deer on the sleigh. Dasher's superior flight ability was apparent from the second Scott dropped onto his back. Now that he was in control of the lead reindeer, Scott could direct the herd to fly back down to the workshop. He did this with a simply tug on Dasher's reins. The whole heard turned at Dasher's lead and they began to fly back down towards the ground. With the sleigh pointing in the right direction, Scott hopped off Dasher's back and walked carefully on the rigging between his deer.

"What the heck are you doing up there? I can't see where I'm driving!" Toy Santa yelled. Scott ignored him and continued walking, ever so slowly, towards the seats of the sleigh. "YOU ARE A SAD, STRANGE, LITTLE MAN!" The Toy bellowed into the wind. "You're gonna fall!...I hope." Despite the taunts, Scott reached the front of the sleigh at last. "Can I help you?"

"Honey, I'm Home!" Scott Yelled before jumping at the sleigh. Toy Santa gave the reins a good tug, which sent Scott flying through the air, right past the seats of the sleigh. He saved himself by grabbing a bar off that was attached to the vehicle's tail. Now dangling thousands of feet in the air, Scott had to think of a new plan; fast. His grip was slipping as the sleigh whipped this way and that. To make matters worse toy Santa was driving further upwards. With the last of his strength he pulled himself up, and climbed his way to the front seat. There they were, Toy Santa and the real thing seated side by side in the sleigh. They brawled for a few seconds, fighting for control of the sleigh, but one Santa dropped the reins. The sleigh pitched forward, a crash landing was now unavoidable.

"Don't worry," Toy Santa said with a metallic chuckle. "The town will break our fall!" As they rocketed downwards, the sleigh knocked into the roof of the workshop and separated from the flying reindeer. Bracing themselves, Scott and Toy Santa fell right into the center of town. The sleight slid forwards a few feet. It came to a stop once it bumped into one of the workshop's outside staircases.