“You can get lost. I’m not interested,” he told it.
Then he made the mistake of looking up and out of the window. A window which before tonight had looked out onto a plain brick wall, the reason he’d been comfortable wandering around in the buff, sure that he wasn’t going to inadvertently flash anyone. But the magic of Christmas was nothing if not adaptable, if not downright fucking sneaky. Instead of the wall he looked out across the city, all the rooftops laid out before him. Snow fell, covering them in a blanket of white as a familiar sleigh touched down on the roof opposite.
Magic held him tight, locking his muscles down so he couldn’t move as the red-suited figure climbed out, turned and saw him. A smile spilt the bearded face as the Santa lifted his hand to wave. A creature of magic himself, Rhod easily saw past the age, extra pounds and the beard, and a bolt of recognition shot through him.
The man opposite was his younger brother. Cole.
Unable to help himself, he lifted a hand to wave back and the look of surprise and happiness on Cole’s face cracked what was left of Rhod’s resistance. His eyelids dropped as memory after memory flooded his mind. Of the time before the snot-nosed brats, of Christmases past…even before he was born.
He saw gifts in crude, cheap paper a mother had saved months for, right through to a hand-made gift of Jam in the most expensive paper. Gifts from military parents not able to make it home wrapped with so much love it brought a lump to his throat. Gifts from all walks of life, all wrapped with care and thought…right through to gifts found wrapped and ready, made all the more precious for the fact the giver didn’t make it home one night after work thanks to a hit and run accident.
The collective memory of all Clauses everywhere and everywhen who had ever delivered a much-longed for present to a child slammed into and through him, swept everything else…all his arguments, misgivings and disappointments…away. Washed through him and filled him up with the joy and happiness of Christmas until he was fit to bursting.
Opening his eyes he looked again at Cole. His brother smiled and gave him the thumbs up before turning to grab the heavy sack from the back of the sleigh. Hauling it over his shoulder, he set off across the snow-laden roof with a spritely step that belied his apparent age.
Swiping a hand over his face to clear the tears leaking from his eyes, Rhod turned to the bed and the box waiting for him.
“You sneaky bastard,” he muttered and reached for it.
No more running. It was time to do his duty.
“Oh my, you look great. Thank you so much for doing this, Jared, you don’t know how grateful I am,” Candy said as she and Jared stood in the cold corridor outside the main hall of the chapel.
“You’re welcome. Just don’t tell anyone, okay? It would quite ruin my street cred,” he replied with a wink and a grin.
The costume wasn’t great. Cheap and a little on the tacky side, it was all she could get on such short notice. Built for a smaller man, the jacket was too tight in the shoulders and too short, so if Jared twisted just a little wrong, the padding across his flat stomach was visible.
It didn’t matter though. All that mattered to the kids packed into the hall behind them, belting out Christmas songs with more enthusiasm than musical ability, was that Santa was here delivering presents.
She breathed a sigh of relief, taking a moment to relax as they waited for the end of the song. They’d done it. Eloise, Jared and Rhod had been fantastic, chipping in to help with the repairs and get everything set up for the party. Without them, particularly Jared playing Santa, she wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“Speaking of street cred, where’s that no good partner of mine? Not like him to miss an opportunity to take the piss,” Jared commented, pulling the too-short jacket down again.
She shook her head. “Probably caught in traffic or something. He’ll be here.”
The song drew to a close and she lifted the bells in her hand, ready to ring them and announce ‘Santa’s’ arrival. But before she could strike them, silence descended like a blanket, cutting off all sound. Anticipation filled the air, and then, faintly at first but growing louder and louder, sleigh bells.
“What the…it’s not me,” she whispered to Jared, just as the door at the end of the corridor blew open. A few scattered snowflakes tumbled through onto the polished wooden floor.
“Ho ho ho!”
The booming laugh drifted on the air as a large man filled the doorframe. Amazement surged through Candy as the familiar figure tramped down the corridor, stamping snow off his black boots. Her eyes grew wide as she looked up. Red suit, huge belly encircled by a black belt, the white beard… It couldn’t be. Not the real…