All Aboard

Chapter Eight: He Came Here For Me

Disclaimer: I don't own the Polar Express

Chapter Eight: He Came Here For Me

Contessa sat down next to Henry and Donnelly, snow seeping into her nightgown. She shivered as she gripped Donnelly's frozen wrist. "Please," she said. "Please come back to me. We need you."

She brushed the snow off their arms, trying to ignore the fact that their skin was frozen to the touch. They couldn't be gone. They weren't.

"You know, I almost didn't get on the train," Contessa said, a cold tear sliding down her cheek. "There were no other kids, so I guess I was the first person, and despite the fact that I believe so much," her chest shuddered with silent sobs. "It just all seemed so impossible. But... I had to get on. I knew that if I didn't... regret is forever."

She blew into her frozen hands, trying fruitlessly to warm them. "I had this feeling, though, when you guys got on- that it was the beginning of something special. Something forever. Even after we met those ghost boys, I still believed that we were meant to do something extraordinary."

Contessa laid down in the snow beside them, tears frozen to her face. She closed her eyes and imagined falling asleep here, lying in the snow forever. Giving into the cold, and the letting it all go. 

Suddenly, she heard footsteps pounding down the street, and when she looked up there was a group of what looked like elves rushing towards her- all small, all wearing red jumpsuits. She stood up quickly and before she knew it Kit was there, pulling her away from the bodies. Before she could realize what was happening, she was screaming and crying, pushing at Kit, trying to get closer to Donnelly and Henry's inert forms. And then a man was there, grabbing her arms- a tall man with a large belly and a long white beard. He wiped her tears away with gloved hands, and Contessa allowed Kit to lead her after him towards the main square.

Her eyes closed, and when they opened she was sitting on a sleigh, the man next to her. "Santa," she whispered.

"Hello Tessa," he said, his voice deep and jovial.

"My friends," Contessa said, her voice wobbly. "They're gone, aren't they?"

Santa nodded. "But this does not have to be the end."

"What do you mean?" Contessa asked.

"I have the power to grant one wish each year," Santa said. "Any wish. For the first time, I am giving this wish to a rider of the Polar Express. And that rider is you."

"You can bring them back from the dead?"

"No," Santa said, shaking his head. "No, that I cannot do. But anything else, I can give to you."

Contessa took a deep breath, gazing past the sleigh to look around. "Where's Kit?" she asked.

"Your friend was quite distraught," Santa said. "He returned to the train as soon as he knew that you were ok."

"I have some conditions first," Contessa said. "Things that are simple to grant. Things that should have be done in the first place."

"I want the train to be made safe. There should be elves, or even humans- like Calving and Cesar, when they're grown up- who can drive the train, and make sure it doesn't go too fast- or try to, at least. The train needs to have more than magic. And, even if it is running late, there needs to be more regulations for when we arrive, so that no one can run off again."

"Alright," Santa said, nodding. "I agree."

Contessa gazed around her- at the North Pole, the reindeer, the jingle bells and elves. It was as magical as she always dreamed it would be, and something inside her heart that had cracked seemed to fill.

"I know what I want my wish to be," she said.