Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Scott found Lucy and Charlie standing by one of the merchandise carts. Lucy was digging excitedly through one of the bins. Her older brother was standing next to her with his hands in his pockets. He was rolling his eyes and looking bored. Scott took a deep breath; not sure he was ready to see how badly the other him and screwed things up with Charlie, but he approached them anyway with his best smile.

"Charlie, imagine running into you here!" Charlie looked up at the man in front of him in confusion. It took a while for him to recognize who he was. He couldn't believe his father was here. But he's not my father. Charlie reasoned with himself. Scott Calvin was Jessica's father. He never really paid any attention to Charlie.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Well, I-I came to see you." Scott explained. "I need your help with something, and Lucy too." Just then Lucy emerged from the cart she had been digging through.

"Look Charlie, I found one!" Lucy showed Charlie a small plastic snowglobe. It was obviously cheaply made but Scott could very clearly see the $49.95 Price sticker that was haphazardly slapped to one side. Charlie put a protective arm around his sister.

"Why don't you just leave us alone?" he asked. "You never bothered talking to me before. Why start now?"

"Because Charlie, I need to make things right but in order to do that I need your help. Listen, upstairs there's a vending machine about 400 feet to the left of the stairs. From right to left if you turn the first nob two times, pull out the second knob and push it back in, it opens the door to a secret room full of snow globes. I need you and Lucy to find a very specific one for me." Scott explained.

"Again, why would I do this for you?" Charlie rolled his eyes.

"Because Charlie...Listen it's hard to explain, I just need you to trust me." Scott said.

"If I do this for you, will you promise to leave me alone? And Mom too? You can't keep ignoring us and then come around every couple of weeks like you suddenly give a shit." Charlie snarled. Before the conversation had even started, Scott knew that it wasn't going to be easy, but he still found himself taking a minute to digest what his son had just said before he responded.

"Sure, Sport." Scott agreed sadly, hoping that he wouldn't have to be around for the consequences of his actions. What he really hoped that that the Scott Calvin in this reality sorted things out with their family instead of letting them get worse. While Charlie and Lucy set off to find Frost's snowglobe in the Hall of Snowglobes, Scott started looking for Bernard again. Instead he stumbled into Curtis.

"Excuse me sir, can I offer you two tickets to build a toy with Santa's elves?" Curtis asked in his best salesman's pitch. "I'll throw in this year's commemorative pen. Which is voice enhanced." Curtis held the pen up to his mouth before clicking a record button on the top of the pen. "Will that be cash or credit card, sir?" With a flick of his thumb, Curtis' recorder pen was repeating what he'd just said.

"Will that be cash or credit card, sir?"

"And if you're still not sure," Curtis continued his obviously rehearsed pitch. "I can throw in passes to the Nice List."

"Wait a minute, are you saying parents can buy their kids way to the Nice List?" Scott shook his head. He would be so much happier when things were put right. "Curtis where's Frost?" He asked with a sense of urgency. "I-I mean Santa? I need to see Santa."

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm not going to be able to help you if you raise your voice..."

"Raise my voice? I'm not..." But even as he rushed to defend himself, Scott could hear his elevated tone.

"Security!" Curtis shouted above the noise of the bustling crowd. "Security?!" Bernard, who had long ago become attuned to the sound of Curtis' voice, heard his former number two's frantic cries for security. However, he decided not to rush over to his father in law's side when he spotted their chilly villain coming up from behind Curtis.

"I'll take care of him!" Frost smiled, sliding into their conversation. "Nice to see you old friend. Has it been twelve years already?"

"Frost, what have you done?" Scott asked him. "What about the Secret of Santa? How could you do this to the North Pole?"

"Oh, you know," Frost rolled his eyes. "The whole thing was too much work. Way too much pressure. And no one even thanks you for all the effort!"

"What do you mean, no thank yous?" Scott huffed, putting his hands on his hips. "What about all the milk and the plates of cookies?"

"Please! I'm cleansing! And generally, the cookies are not that good. Especially the ones that quote Mommy and Daddy let me make. Blek." Frost made a disgusted face before rolling his eyes again. "So, I stopped the who delivering presents nonsense and I brought anyone who could afford it right up here. Who needs magic? Who needs to be crawling around on roofs and chimneys? I've got everything I need right here."

"Look around you!" Scott couldn't help but shout. "This is not how the North Pole is supposed to be!"

"Why don't you chill out and enjoy the swag?" Frost suggested. He took the recorder pen out of Curtis' hands and held it out to Scott. Scott looked at the pen in amazement, having just had a brilliant idea. But surely Frost wouldn't make things so easy for him.

"This junk is not what Christmas is about!" Scott ranted, hoping to keep Frost talking long enough for their conversation to land on a specifically worded phrase.

"Hey you're the one who gave it all up." Frost shrugged.

"Because you tricked me!" Scott argued. "I didn't know you had my snow globe."

"Tricked you?" Frost feigned offense. "Give me a break! Who said, I wish I'd never been Santa at all?" Scott did his best not to look visibly pleased with himself.

"What?" He asked, careful to keep the recorder pen near Frost, but out of his field of vision.

"I said, who said I wish I'd never been Santa at all? Was it Rudolf? Rudolf's mama?" Frost chuckled. To Scott's relief, Frost had fallen right into his trap. Bernard, who was still watching from where he stood, was able to piece together his father-in-law's plan. He decided to step in and see if there was any way he could speed up the process of things. He wanted so desperately to go home.

"Uh, Santa sir, is this man bothering you?" Bernard asked Frost. He made sure to avoid any eye contact with Scott, as that may give them away prematurely.

"Oh no, Bartlebee. Mr. Calvin is an old friend of mine." Frost waved Bernard off, purposely getting his name wrong. "He was just leaving." Even with the extra weight he'd gained as Santa, Jack Frost towered a good foot or two over Scott. Coupling his height with his icy smirk, Frost could make himself look imposing very easily. Scott wasn't the least bit intimidated by his impostor, but he could see why someone else might be.

"Is everything alright?" Charlie and Lucy had returned to find the majority of the North Pole circled around Santa and Scott Calvin. Charlie could only imagine what his father had done now. Thanks to him, he and Lucy would probably get permanently banned from the North Pole.

"Wait a minute!" Frost recognized Scott's family immediately upon their arrival. He also recognized his snowglobe nestled between Lucy Miller's hands. "Where did you get this?" Frost pulled the snowglobe out of the girl's hands. "Didn't your parents teach you not to take what doesn't belong to you?"

"Now or never." Bernard whispered to his father in law. Scott nodded in agreement but didn't say anything.

"Let me guess," Frost turned his attention back to Scott. "you put them up to this?" He laughed. "But it will never work. You'll never get me to say it."

"huh, that's funny." Scott held up the recorder pen for Frost too see and just as Curtis had done before, he played back his recording.

"I wish I'd never been Santa at all." Frost voice announced through the pen in the same mocking tone he'd spoken only seconds ago.

"Now who said that?" Scott smirked. "Rudolph? Rudolph's Momma?"