Reindeer James

Chapter 19

As it became increasingly clear nobody knew where Nick had gone, the North Pole went from the jolliest place on earth to the dreariest. Instead of humming Christmas carols while they worked, the elves whispered theories amongst themselves. Some thought he had taken a job at a toy company. Others thought he'd flown to the South Pole to start his own operation there. Some joked he'd lost his marbles and had become a travelling snow globe salesman, although James didn't think that was the least bit funny.

No matter where he'd gone, Santa blamed himself. He spent the next day hooked up to the BOW, only emerging with tear-streaked cheeks and helmet hair to eat or sleep. The error message wouldn't go away, and no amount of tinkering and grumbling from tech support could fix it.

After a silent dinner where the silverware scraping on their plates was second only to the storm outside in volume, James excused himself to check Nick's room. He had to try something, anything to get his brother back.

Nick's room didn't look like it was his anymore. Books lay scattered across his unmade bed, and countless crumpled up wads of paper covered the floor. His closet was wide open, his beloved ties tangled like discarded ribbons.

His snow globe sat on his desk, still full of sharp, jagged edges from when James had accidentally broken it.

"Any luck?" Clarice leaned against the doorframe, frowning at the disaster area before them.

James flopped down on the floor and started unfolding the wads of paper. "There's gotta be something here," he said. "He wouldn't just leave, would he?"

She knelt down next to him. "I don't know where he'd even go," she said. "You'd think he'd at least mention that."

James slid what felt like the millionth blueprint over to the growing pile beside him. "Yeah, especially now that Christmas is almost here. There's gotta be something we're missing."

Clarice gently folded up Nick's latest notes on the FAST's design and stashed them in her pocket. "I wish he'd at least told Mom and Dad. I've never seen them so upset."

"Wish..." James jumped to his feet, sending up a flurry of papers. "That's it!"

He lifted the broken snow globe sitting on Nick's desk. Sure enough, there was a sticky note underneath with two words written on it: Mount Permafrost.

###

James hooked Ruby up to her grandpa's old sleigh while Clarice made her final adjustments to the FAST. A mountain of blankets, the provisions they'd snuck from the kitchen, and the snow globe, now as close to fixed as it could be and wrapped in snowflake-patterned wrapping paper, sat in the back of the sleigh. "I wish we had time to do more testing," Clarice said, "but at least this should be more sturdy than the last model."

James glanced over his shoulder. There was still no sign of Gabe or any of the other stable hands, but they'd only believe he was helping harvest vegetables in the greenhouse for so long. "We'll have to be fast," he said. He shuddered against the wind shaking the stable. "Who knows how much worse this'll get?" He already knew nobody would approve of him going out in that. Even the adults were too scared to set foot in the storm.

"Fast is my middle name!" Ruby said. She anxiously pawed the ground with her hoof. "I'm sure we'll find him."

"Your middle name is Stella," her grandpa said softly. "Don't forget, you're my little star. If you don't come home soon, I swear I'll fly out there myself no matter what Santa says."

"You'll do no such thing."

They froze.

Gloria stood by the massive double doors with her hands on her hips. The retired elite forces grumbled as Gabe trotted past them and shut the door behind him, blocking their view.

"Oh, this is just like the winter of 1945, when my son—"

"Can it, Donner," said Blitzen. James heard him stamp his hooves. "I wanna hear what the kid says!"

Gabe rolled his eyes. "Gossipy old mules," he muttered.

"You can fire me if you want," James said, his voice trembling, "but there's no way I'm leaving Nick on Mount Permafrost."

"Fire you?" Gabe shook his head. "Kid, you're one of the only people willing to go out in this insanity. Your dad will have me on bubble wrap duty if he finds out I'm letting you go."

Gloria gawked at Gabe as if he'd just told her to waltz into the storm dressed in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt. "You're letting him go out? In that weather? With her of all reindeer?"

"Got any better ideas?" Gabe sighed. "Santa needs me to coordinate the search and rescue teams around here in case he got lost on the way there or tries to come back. If that kid really did go to Mount Permafrost, there's no way anyone else will be crazy enough to go after him until this clears, and by then..." Gabe shuddered.

Hooves thundered down the hallway. Gloria leapt out of the way just in time to avoid being trampled by Tango, who charged in with Mrs. Claus on his back. "Thank goodness I'm not too late," she said.

"Man, looks like everyone knows we're here," Clarice said.

Tango snorted. "Hard not to when your 'sneaking' wakes me up from my nap. Now, what's all this about Mount Permafrost?"

"That's where we think Nick went," James said. He passed his mom the sticky note they'd found, now half-crumpled from being crammed into his pocket.

"You do realize that place is super dangerous, right?" Tango said. "Not just crash in a snowdrift dangerous, but get buried in an avalanche dangerous."

"I know," James said, "but Nick's out there."

"Then I'm going with you," Tango said.

Gloria groaned. "Don't encourage them."

"Do you want to be responsible for that Nick kid freezing to death?" Tango asked.

"No, but—"

"But you can't leave without at least taking some peppers with you." Mrs. Claus handed James a bag filled with so many peppers that his eyes watered just holding it. "And if it gets too dangerous, come back." She hugged James tight. "I can't lose you."

"Can't argue with the missus," Gabe said. "Make sure these stubborn kids get home safe, Tango."

"I'll light the way for you on your way back," Ruby's grandpa said as his nose flared. "Goodness knows I won't have any issues with that. This storm's got me more anxious than a snowman in a heatwave."

Clarice handed James a two-way radio. "Call me when you're on your way back, okay?"

After enough hugging to leave James feeling as warm as a mug of hot chocolate, he and Ruby went out into the storm.