Page 64 of Scary & Bright
“Oh, you’ll love it!” Santa hollered. “If you get the chance, you have to try an alligator po’-boy. It’s absolutely delicious.”
The more time I spent with Santa, the more I learned he really was as boisterous and jolly as my childhood imagination made him out to be. I just had to see him in the right light.
“Is there anything you don’t find delicious, dear?” Mrs. Claus asked with a sideways smirk that I’d become fond of. “But of course, I am kidding.”
She shot me a look over her glasses that warned me of what was coming next. It was the same thing that she probed us about every time we visited, and I had learned the signs to let me know it was coming.
“But I do have a question for you both,” she announced as if we didn’t all already know what she was going to ask. “And that is when can we expect the most anticipated wedding of the year? Or even the century, if I could be so bold?”
“Oh, come on now, Carol,” Loek mused. I could almost hear his eyes rolling playfully. “We’ll get to it when we get to it.” He leaned over and wrapped his arms around my shoulders and offered me an affectionate squeeze.
If it were entirely up to him, we would already be married. We would have been married as soon as possible. Perhaps even the same day he’d given me the gorgeous emerald ring. But there was something about the waiting that was exciting, and I really, really loved the planning process. Every day, I woke up with a new “perfect place” in mind, but I knew eventually I would have to just pick one.
“I know you’ll get to it.” Mrs. Claus smiled. “Marriage is only the real beginning, after all. Once you make that vow to one another, you’ll only have the rest of forever to look forward to.” She shot me a sparkling wink over her glasses.
Because that was truly the cherry on top of the sundae. Once Loek and I took our vows, I would be granted the same shared immortality that Mrs. Claus shared with Santa. We would be connected in all ways and would never have to face the harshness of myself growing older every year while he stayed the same age. I was warned, though, that there was a grand possibility that I might also, in turn, share more of Loek’s features than just his long life.
There was a reason Carol and Nik both wore glasses and sported the same pure white curly hair, after all. I could definitely picture myself with my own set of horns.
“And who doesn’t love a party?” Mister exclaimed from his seat on the coffee table. “Whenever it happens, this wedding is going to be a blast. Just imagine us retired toys getting to meet the Workshop elves. It’ll be a day to remember, that’s for sure.”
Just then, the oven dinged to alert all of us that dinner was ready. We all moved as a single unit to the large table in the Claus’s dining room and each took the seats we had grown accustomed to. There was something so comforting about the ritual of it all—the pre-dinner hot chocolate, the same questions about our marriage plans month after month, sitting in the same seats every time—that struck me in such a happy, nostalgic way that I hadn’t experienced since I still lived at home with my parents.
As we sat at the table and passed dinner around, each taking our share and telling stories of the month prior as well as preparing for the months ahead, I felt at home. This was my family. Loek was my family. So were Santa and Carol Claus. Mister and the rest of the toys at the South Pole, too. Hell, even the Spirit had grown to be one of my favorite conversation partners. We were dysfunctional, horned and bearded, stuffed with fluff and ghostly, but we were happy.
Loek’s cloven hoof rubbed against my boot under the table, and as I looked at him, his yellow eyes told me everything I ever needed to know—that the things that had caused us such grief and remorse, sadness, anger, and loneliness—they couldn’t get us anymore. We had taken down all the walls we’d built around ourselves and rebuilt them around each other and our family. No matter the storm, no matter the hardship, we would always be warm, safe, and loved at the very bottom of the world.
And the next time you think about being rude to a stranger or lying to get out of doing a friend a favor, or even tossing your garbage out your car window, just remember: Santa Claus isn’t the only one comin’ to town these days.