Page 58 of Scary & Bright
Santa gently clapped his brother on the back before taking a deep breath and turning to face the crowd.
“Well, as much as I appreciate the valiant effort here, today… It appears it was unnecessary,” Santa Claus hollered, causing the soldiers to look at one another with tired confusion. “So, let’s all just get the heck outta here and try to enjoy the rest of the holiday season. The Poles know I’ve got about ten trillion things to do before the big day, so uh, the faster we’re home, the faster we can all move on from this mess.”
Immediately, it was like both groups—the elves and the toys—both forgot they had ever been fighting to begin with. The wolves relaxed until they appeared no more intimidating than oversized sled dogs, and the foxes began to scamper about looking for anyone to offer them a pat on the head. Elves helped toys get to their feet or helped dig them out of the snow. Polar bears helped tote exhausted toys back to the safety of the castle.
“I’ll be honest with you, Loek.” Santa sighed again as he turned toward the both of us. “I don’t rightly know what comes after this. I think we both—me, especially—have quite a bit to do when it comes to, uh, getting things back on track. Between us.”
“We’ve got plenty of time,” Loek said with a tired smile. He looped his arm over my shoulders and leaned a bit of his weight on me. “But next time you come for a visit, maybe leave the army at home.”
Santa let out a hearty laugh as he climbed back into the sleigh, the Christmas Spirit woefully following him and doing a very poor job of hiding his shame.
“Absolutely,” Santa responded with a jolly smile, and I saw the signature twinkle in his eye for the first time. “Wait ‘til I tell the Mrs! She will be just deeee-lighted.”
He looked at me, then, his grin dampening down into a quieter smile.
“Take care of him,” Santa Claus said with a nod. “He’s been through a lot.”
I looked up at Loek and leaned into him, my heart swelling by the minute.
“We both have.” I smiled. “But I’m looking forward to taking care of him. For always.”
And with that, the classic vision of Christmas, the face on the cola bottles, and the signature image of childhood wonder and nostalgia turned the great dire-bear around and began to charge in the opposite direction, his army following close behind. Within moments, as soon as they got to speed, they disappeared into an explosion of snow and glitter.
“Well…” Mister Bear said, cutting through the awestruck silence of the South Pole. “Let’s get back inside. I’m sure everyone is tired, and you two must be absolutely freezing.”
“Yeah,” Loek mused. “Besides, we’ve got to get the castle ready for Christmas.”
“Oh?” Mister asked with a surprised inflection. “We haven’t honestly celebrated Christmas in so many years, it didn’t even occur to me.”
“I didn’t have reason to celebrate for all those years, Mister.” Loek chuckled as we took our first steps forward into our new life and our new normal. He squeezed my shoulders affectionately. “Now I do.”
“We do,” I corrected, playfully jabbing him in the ribs. “Truthfully, I think we all do.”
“You’re quite right about that, Holly,” Mister Bear concluded.
It still felt surreal, this wild and wonderful conclusion to the whirlwind of emotions Loek and I had both been through since my arrival in this strange and otherworldly place. There was still a lot on the horizon that neither of us could possibly know the answer to, but now we at least had the green light to find out those answers for ourselves.
25
LOEK
To live without an hourglass counting down our final moments was a comfort I never imagined I’d get to experience, and it was one I swore to myself that I would never once take for granted. The days regained their joyfulness and ease, moving through time without trying to grasp hard to every fleeting second. Holly and I once again experienced the concept of ‘long days’—especially the ones immediately following the arrival of Santa and his North Pole military.
I wasn’t sure how he did it, or what sort of magic he had to enlist to make it happen, but we discovered that all the destruction caused by Santa’s men in their pursuit of Holly had been somehow set right. Everything was put back in its proper place, and any damage had been repaired. All of us collectively let out a huge sigh of relief as we came to understand that, at the very least, we wouldn’t have to spend the days just before Christmas so heavily reminded of the chaos that had ensued.
And then there was Holly. My incredibly brave, radically intelligent, and absolutely drop-dead gorgeous Holly. She insisted it was her turn to take care of me as I stumbled up the stairs to the master bedroom that first time, still feeling weak from the tightened collar and stiff from the bitter cold. What she didn’t know was that she’d already taken care of me with more love and affection than anyone else had in my entire life. She’d done more than plenty, but I would never deny either of us the opportunity to be close to one another.
* * *
I found my feet and gained my strength back after only a couple of days. The only reminder of the terrible morning in the snow was the faint whispers of bruising around my throat that had faded from a purple and blue to a pale green during the healing process. More than anything, I was just happy to have the opportunity to plan an actual holiday with my lady and my toy friends.
The toys would usually throw something together every year, and I would reluctantly attend all the minimal celebrations of years past, but they’d never felt like true celebrations to me. They’d been more like vicious reminders of what had to be done in order to allow the holiday to occur in the first place. I’d eat whatever I had the energy to throw together for myself, maybe mumble a few Christmas carols under my breath, and try to put on a happy face until my social battery ran out, and I would escape to my study or my bedroom, usually without even saying goodbye.
And I was, without a doubt, not going to let that happen again.
As I rolled out of bed, I threw on the dark red leather jacket that my brother had given me out in the snow. I had become sort of attached to it, and I liked how it looked hanging off my shoulders. From there, I took a jaunt out of the bedroom and made the trek down to the first floor to see what had already been done and what still needed to be done.
The castle itself had changed along with everything else. It was alive with movement as the toys got more comfortable in their joy. Windows lined every wall in a variety of sizes and designs. The Great Tree in the center of it all showed off with ever-changing decor and lights. It was like having one hundred different trees all wrapped up in one. The air smelled like cinnamon and evergreen leaves, and everything just felt… cozy.