Reindeer James

Chapter 9

An hour later, long after the rest of the Clauses had finished their dessert, Nick still hadn't left his room.

James knocked on his brother's bedroom door. It wasn't like him to shut himself away like this. Even when he was preparing for half a dozen meetings, that usually meant more meetings, much to James's confusion. His brother was not a people person, but even on his grouchiest days, he was always in the thick of things, grumbling at some elf or another.

And he never let anyone go unanswered, yet James hadn't heard a peep out of him.

"Nick?" James knocked again. Whatever was bothering him must be pretty bad. He was used to Nick complaining a lot when he got upset. Him going quiet was as new as it was concerning.

"Go away," came Nick's muffled response.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong." James stood there shifting his feet. No response. Not even a sigh. Eventually, he started humming "Jingle Bells".

"Knock it off."

"Not until you let me in."

His humming grew louder and increasingly off-key until a sigh sounded from the other side of the door. "Fine, but for the love of marshmallows stop being so annoying!"

Nick's room could suck the joy out of almost anyone. Not a single poster overlooked his carefully made bed. His bookcase held only manuals, with not a single novel or comic book in sight. Only the lone snow globe perched on his bedside table brought any sense of happiness to the gloomy room.

Nick sat hunched over his desk with a pencil clenched in his fist.

James peered over his shoulder. The dinosaur-making machine's blueprints made as much sense to him as wanting socks for Christmas. Just looking at all the complicated diagrams and the equations scribbled in the margins made his head hurt.

"What do you want?" Nick muttered.

"Are you okay?" James asked.

Nick shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

"Did you hate the cookies? Or are you mad about your suit? Sorry about that." James offered his brother a lopsided grin. "I think that's the first time all year you've worn anything colorful."

Nick sighed. "It's been a long day. I've been trying to get that stupid machine fixed for weeks now, but at this rate, we'd have better luck creating real dinosaurs. I think I might have actually made it malfunction even worse today."

"Hey, at least you tried. If I did, I'd probably make it explode or something." At least, the elves sure acted like he broke everything he touched.

"I always have to be perfect," Nick said firmly. "Not good, not okay. Perfect, like Dad."

Nick's jaw tightened as he pored over a bunch of equations James couldn't even begin to understand. His frown looked as if it had been chiseled into his face permanently, just above the needle-sharp stubble that would one day become a thick, bushy beard.

Maybe James could get him to smile, if only for a moment.

"What's red and white and red and white and —"

Nick turned to face him. Redness tinged his eyes, and his voice cracked like ice when he spoke. "Please just let me work."

"Dad rolling down a hill after eating too many cookies," James muttered as he flopped down on Nick's bed. The stiff mattress was as welcoming as a glacier.

Nick snorted. At least he'd gotten something out of him.

James sat quietly and swayed his feet back and forth as Nick worked. His eyes wandered over to the snow globe on the nightstand. Inside, a father and son ice-skated on a pond surrounded by trees covered by Christmas lights, reminding James of when his dad used to take them all ice skating at the frozen pond hidden inside Mount Permafrost. Not a single snowflake drifted inside.

He picked it up and gave it a small shake, but there was still no sign of snow inside. Even when he turned it over, the only thing that caught his interest was a small dial.

"Nick," James said as he turned the dial, "why doesn't this have any snow in it?"

Nick's head whipped around. "Don't touch that!"

The snow globe slipped from James's hands. It played the first few notes of "Silent Night" before shattering. Real snowflakes flew out of the broken glass until the music died with a sorrowful chime.

"I'm so sorry!" James said as Nick's lips quivered. He'd never seen his brother so upset before. "I didn't mean to."

"Dad gave that to me the day he told me I'd be the next Santa," Nick said. He bent down and scooped up the ice skaters, cradling them to his chest as tears ran down his cheeks.

All James could do was try to keep himself from crying too and give his brother a hug.

Nick shook his arms away. "Do you know why people even bother being nice to you? It's because nobody expects anything from you. You doing even semi-okay is treated like the greatest thing since teddy bears for a reason. It's practically a Christmas miracle!"

James couldn't look him in the eye. "I know," he said quietly.

Nick inhaled sharply. "I—"

James didn't wait for him to finish. The door slammed behind him as he fled to his room to cry.