Santa Claus: The addict

CH 1

THE MEETING

"Hi. My name is Kris, and I'm a sex addict."

"Hi, Kris," replied the other sex addicts. I was too dumbfounded to speak.

Of all the people in all the world that could have walked into the Anchorage Sex Addict's Anonymous Support Group, it would have to be him.

Kris Kringle.

I don't think anyone else recognized him, but the dark sunglasses didn't fool me. I'd known who he was the second he'd walked into the room and purchased a hot chocolate from the drink machine. He didn't look exactly as I'd pictured him. For one thing, he was taller than I expected. About a foot taller than me, which would make him almost six feet. And he wasn't as fat as he usually looked on Christmas card illustrations. Artistic license I guess... or maybe he'd been working out. And he wasn't an old man, which was surprising. If not for the snowy white hair and beard, he'd have passed for thirty-five, tops. But it was him. I knew it. I felt it in my heart and in my head. Call it woman's intuition. He had the beard, the long eyebrows, the handlebar moustache, the rosy cheeks and the cherry nose.

But he didn't look very jolly. In fact, he seemed downright depressed. Prior to speaking, he'd sat quietly in his fold up chair, looking around the room. He was probably trying to figure out who was naughty and who was nice. But he needn't have bothered. Other than the facilitator, we were all quite naughty.

Kris was wearing Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt with a silly slogan on it: "Reindeers Rule". Probably something one of the elves gave him for Christmas. It was an odd outfit to choose. It was December in Alaska. It was ten below zero outside! He was obviously trying to go incognito. It's called Sex Addicts ANONYMOUS, after all. But I guess it's hard to be anonymous when you're Santa Claus.

Kris took a sip of cocoa and started talking in a deep, sonorous voice that made my heart melt. He said he was the foreman of a large manufacturing facility. A year ago he'd started having sexual relations with some of his employees. Soon it became an obsession. He didn't want to get into the details, but the situation got so bad that his wife left him. And now his business was in danger. He had a big delivery coming up soon, but his employees were in full revolt as a result of his actions. If he missed the delivery deadline, he'd be ruined.

The others took his story at face value, but not me. I could read between the lines. He'd done something inappropriate with the elves, pissing off Mrs. Claus... and if that weren't bad enough, Christmas was in danger of not happening at all!

A shiver went down my spine. Christmas was everything to me... hell, it was my reason for living! My first job was as a department store elf, and later I worked at the Christmas store. Nowadays, I sold and traded Christmas tchotchke online. If there was no Christmas this year... well, it was too horrible to contemplate!

I had to do something about it. I had to help Santa. I had to save Christmas!

After he finished talking, Kris listened politely as the rest of the sex addicts spilled their guts, trying to figure out how their lives had gotten so f' up. When it was my turn to share, I passed. I didn't want him to know about me... not yet anyway.

When the meeting adjourned, I went up to Kris.

"Excuse me, uh, Kris, is it?"

"Yes. It's nice to meet you, Virginia."

"Wait... how do you know my name?" But even as I said it, I already knew how he knew. Santa knows the name of everyone in the world!

"Sam said your name when he asked you if you'd like to talk."