My Dream Santa

"Good choice," said Gronwynk, with tape measure in hand, as one elf helped her climb on the shoulders of an even thicker-set elf, whose pointy ears flapped as she adjusted her balance, "this'll only take a jiffy."

Santa and Junior returned from the Christmas Eve run around the globe within a few minutes of each other, with Young Nick home fractionally first. The greeting between Young Nick and Hilde was cool, thought Jennifer, and it was immediately clear that Santa knew Beata well, as he gave her a much warmer greeting than the one he grudgingly imparted to Jennifer. They stood around in the entrance hall waiting for Junior, with Gronwynk and other elves bringing warm coats for them to wear. Santa moaned about how the reindeers had misbehaved on the trip, and recounted the odd difficulty they had had going around. Through the open door, Jennifer could see lots of sleighs return to the other lodges dotted about the frozen landscape. Then one incoming sleigh headed straight for them and landed in a flurry of ice crystals and a cacophony of tinkling sleigh bells.

Jennifer ran forward, before Hilde or Beata could move. Junior jumped down and immediately held his arms out for Jennifer to fall into. They kissed after their long separation and all her anxieties instantly melted away.

"Wow!" Junior said, "I have been looking forward to this moment all night, and it's an even better welcome than I expected."

He waved to the others standing in the doorway, "I am just going to see to the reindeer, we'll be along to breakfast shortly. Oh, Mother, Gramps and Grandma are coming to breakfast."

With that they turned and, arm in arm, followed the sleigh, which was being led away by an elf stable lad.

"Oh, you are such a sight for sore eyes, Junior!" Jennifer said, "it's been a very long night."

"I saw Beata standing with the others just now. Has Mother been a real bitch towards you?"

"Well, a little bit maybe. She made it clear that Beata is still her first choice for your intended. So you already know her?"

"I 'know' just about everyone, Jen, and yes, Mother introduced me to Beata, as her choice of mate, at the feast with the Easter Bunny."

"There's really an ..." Jennifer shook her head, realizing that she had to learn to reevaluate a lot of the legends she had long regarded as fanciful nonsense. "So, you ran away from home after being introduced to this beautiful young girl Beata, and not because I was suddenly free of Scott?"

By this time they reached the stables and a jolly pair of grinning elves closed the stable doors behind the conversing couple and winked to each other.

"Ah, I think confession time is finally upon us, Jen," he started, removing his heavy red coat against the sudden warmth of the stable.

Jennifer undid the buttons to her coat, revealing the emerald green dress, with extra tiny emeralds and jade beads sewn into the silk on silver threads by the amazing elf seamstresses.

"Oh, Jen, you in that dress, you look lovely, come here."

Their lips met and they melted into one another again. Jennifer thought she could get used to this, almost losing herself in that kiss. At the same time as being energised, she was relaxed, limp but with good feelings, and filled with confidence and an inner vigour, a life source of magic energy. She pushed him away, with both reluctance and a little reassertion of maintaining her dignity.

"Don't think you are deflecting me completely from your confessions, Junior, I am tougher than you think, and you do have some explaining to do!"

"I do, sweetheart, I do," Junior smiled, waving away the elves who had finished unharnessing Young Nick's reindeers and put them in their pens, and had just started on Junior's team. "Come and meet the leader of my reindeer team."

"Junior!" Jennifer scolded, "are you trying to change the subject yet again?"

She put her fingertips on the leading reindeer's muzzle and the reindeer nuzzled her hand.

"They're adorable. Do they all have the traditional names we know and love?" she asked.

"Yes, some do. This is Vonnie, she's been leader of my team for about ten years," he said as he released her harness. He gave the reindeer a handful of fresh moss to chew and moved onto releasing the next one.

"I left home at Easter, when it became clear that I was being browbeaten from all sides. Beata turning up at the Ball and expecting to be my only dance partner was the last straw. I took Pappa's plane and flew down to your father's place and secured a job with him."

"And then you found I had left Scott?"

"No, not immediately," he replied, "I don't know everything, Jen, I only know which children are naughty or nice. The information simply copies itself from the Book into my head all the time and I remember them all. In reality, there are very few bad kids. Adults who are bad, on the other hand, are more numerous and I have to look them up in the book, which I keep or rather access through the sack. If you remember, you kept your break up quiet from your family for a few months, didn't you?"

"I did," Jennifer admitted, "I felt such a failure."

"Do you still feel a failure?" over his shoulder as led more reindeer into the pens, checking they had food and drink, scratching the odd ear affectionally as they passed him.

"Not right at this minute," she replied, still being nuzzled by the affectionate Vonnie, "and Gronwynk has been boosting me up, to counter Hilde's negativity."

"Gronwynk practically raised me, honey. Nice to know she's on your side, too. Yes, I believed you were still with Scott, at the time I started working with your father," Junior said as he grabbed his empty sack from the sleigh, "Did you know that we Santas have the ability to reproduce the wrappers and our labels for our special gifts so that they look identical to the others from the family?"

"Yes, your little gifts to me threw me for a long while, I couldn't tell which ones were not genuine. Are you changing the subject again?"

"Not quite, I am leading somewhere with this. Anyway, all I need do is think about what label I want and the elf label department produce it for me, instantly, like this."

He put his hand into the sack and pulled out a receipt and handed it to Jennifer. She took it.

"This is the receipt I found in Scott's jacket pocket," she said, "how?"

"I knew he had wined and dined his er, other girlfriend, at that exclusive restaurant that you had said for some time that you wanted to go to. Scott told you it was impossible to get a booking. All the details, date, time, what he had, what she had, what it cost, it all came up on his Naughty List entry. I expect he screwed the original bill up and threw it in a bin, or he may even have torn it up into tiny pieces."

"He was greatly surprised when I confronted him with it," she said slowly, quietly, "he turned it over, and looked closely at it, even checked his credit card number, before he admitted he had taken this floozy there. Earlier that week he had told me that he had to work overnight on that night. Come here, Junior."

He came to her and she put her arms around him, "So, it seems that you can be naughty, too?"

"I confess, I can," he admitted, "but only when it is something I really felt strongly about. I felt that even if you never saw me as a replacement boyfriend, it was better that you left Scott when you did. He was a bad man and in the long term bad for you."

"I know, and I am glad I got rid of him. I wasted eight years on that relationship, all the while hoping that things would get better. I believed my mother when she said he was the best I could ever get. He's the last person in the world for me now. I want someone who is good most of the time and only naughty when good results come from it."

"So, shall we go face the rest of the family and have our breakfast?"

"All right." She turned to the reindeer, "Bye, Vonnie, bye reindeer, enjoy your rest." And they nodded back to her as if they understood and knew they'd see a lot more of her.

Chapter 10

The Christmas morning breakfast table was groaning with food of all kinds. Around the table, big enough for twenty normal people, had lots of tall chairs, with ladder like rungs up the side for little legs to climb up to the top.

Jennifer had heard the hubbub of excited voices and deep joyful laughter all the way down the passageway to the hall and, although Junior gripped her hand more firmly, she still fought the rising panic inside her.

"Ah, there's Gramps and Grandma, they've saved a couple of seats for us." Junior leaned in a whispered, "I knew they would."

Halfway down one side of the table, Jennifer could see an old, but rather distinguished looking gentleman with a round and reddened jovial face, dressed in a green suit, not unlike the colour green of her own dress. Next to him were two empty chairs. His arm was stretched across the backs of the empty chairs and entwined with the arm of an exceedingly beautiful woman, who looked the least like any single grandma she could ever imagine, she was more like a princess. As their eyes met, the beautiful grandmother beamed back at her with a wonderful smile, full of welcome, fit for any pretender for the role of future Mrs Claus. Jennifer smiled uncertainly back at her, and the woman winked! Then the couple rose from their seats and eagerly beckoned them come join them.

The young couple walked around the foot of the long table. Jennifer noted that Santa, Young Nick, was at the head of the table, while Hilde sat at the top of the side that Junior's Gramps and Grandma sat, while Beata sat opposite Hilde.

"This is my Gramps and Grandma, Jen. Folks, I'd like you to meet my er, dear friend, Jennifer."

"Get away, Junior! Friend indeed! We know just who she is!" boomed the green suited Santa, in a voice that simply oozed bonhomie, "Come here my beautiful girl, give your future grandfather a proper squeeze!"

Gramps gave her a big hug, "it is a pleasure to meet you, my dear. Obviously, Junior's told us absolutely nothing about you at all, he's too close-mouthed by half! But we have ways and means of finding things out, once he asked Me Lady and I to lend him our support. Now tell me, did you pick that dress, or was it Junior?"

"Er, I, Junior, well, he didn't see me in it until just now. Gronwynk showed me endless dresses of all shapes and hues, but I simply loved this dress and the colour."

"Well, then, Jennifer my dear, I declare that you have a great sense of colour, as indeed do I, and whatever happens, you will always be welcome at our lodge any Christmas, and at any time during the year too, won't she, my dear?"

"Of course she will," Grandma smiled, "now let her go, you great oaf, while she's still breathing, I swear she's turning blue! I want my opportunity to welcome her to the family."

She is so English, Jennifer thought, and her accent would cut lead crystal glass, probably Regency English, if she remembered snippets of conversation from Junior. Gramps relinquished his warming grip slowly and Grandma, fully six or more inches taller than Jennifer, bent down and kissed her enthusiastically on both cheeks. There was denial of pleasure in welcoming this new girl into their grandson's life.

"Come sit next to me, Jenny, dear, while the men boast, sorry discuss, how their deliveries went," then she dropped her voice to whisper in Jennifer's ear, "take it all with a pinch of salt, Jenny, they will exaggerate every set-back, double the strength of every headwind and reduce every near miss to the width of a caterpillar hair!"

Jennifer laughed, feeling more at ease and sat down with Junior's grandmother. Jennifer wondered how she should address her. A glance to her left revealed Junior and his grandfather still slapping each other's shoulders and, from the wildly extravagant arm stretches and gestures, clearly both were giving a running commentary of the few million homes each 'assistant Santa' had encountered last night.

"I wanted to have a nice chat with you, Jenny, now, do you prefer Jenny, Jennifer, or Jenna?"

"I was always called Jenny or Jen at home. For a while I preferred Jenna, but that only sounds rather pathetic now. I suppose I think of myself as Jen, and I'm more than happy with that, especially as Junior calls me that more often than not. Yes, I think I like it more because I really like the man that calls me 'Jen'."

"Well, I'm glad you like Junior. Don't ever tell him this but he is our favourite grandson, after all, and he will be as good a Father Christmas as his grandfather ever was."

"Are you saying that Junior's father—"

"He has been a disappointment to us, Jen. I will be honest with you. Look at him. This is his biggest day of the year, which has gone off as well as any other Christmas in living memory, and see how grumpy he is!"

Jennifer sneaked a look. Both Young Nick and Beata looked miserable, in stark contrast to the elves nearby, who were stuffing themselves and having a good time after all their hard work throughout the year had once more come to fruition. She couldn't see Hilde from where she was sitting, but imagined that she too, would be frowning.

"I see what you mean. It is such a shame, as Beata really is quite beautiful, er, sorry, what do

I call you, I can't call you Grandma, can I?"

She laughed. It sounded to Jennifer like someone gentle shaking a crystal chandelier, "You can if you wish, Jen my dear, but if you feel more comfortable, I am Georgianna. As for Beata, I agree, she is indeed very beautiful. And, as she has stayed here several times over recent months and I have had opportunities to speak to her, I find that she is indeed a very sweet girl who deserves a special husband. But that will not be Junior, his hopes lie in a determined direction, so she is doomed to disappointment in that expectation."

"So what is it about this prophecy of the perfect wife for Santa, Georgianna? He has no choice but to be aware of her as soon as she is born, but then she hold all the aces, it appears, and has to choose him of her own free will?"

"Well dear, it has a long history and goes back to when the festival of Christmas first came about. It used to be a very wild affair, you know, with drunken orgies and all sorts of unsuitable goings on."

"Yes, I've heard of Saturnalia before."

"Exactly, Jen. And you still see these old places inhabited with their ghosts, hoping that one day the Magic Spell will be broken and they will rule the roost once more. We do not mean that to ever happen."

"Nobody wants that, Georgianna, I least of all."

"When the festival became Christmas, Saint Nicholas was appointed to be the Saint of Christmas. However, the free and easy access that Santa has to people in their own property, knowledge of their good and bad deeds, including to some extent their good and bad thoughts, puts Santa into a unique and potentially powerful position. Quite how would it be possible for such a man, even a saint like the original Saint Nicholas, or any of his eventual offspring, be able to take part in the usual games of courtship? As you have already experienced, before a couple can eventually build the trust and love to be completely open and honest with each other? An impossible imposition on the poor man, because Santa, of course, would see through any ruse, subterfuge and tease, which is a normal everyday part of the pleasurable agony of courtship." Georgianna laughed, no doubt remembering masquerade balls in candlelit ballrooms.

"Of course," Jennifer realised what constraints Junior would have to face trying to go through a normal courtship, "I never really thought about it before. His innocent little visitations, coupled with his openness and direct declarations of his attraction and love for me, so beyond his control, seems so odd, unreal somehow, that they would appear fake to a modern, particularly insecure girl like me. We are so used to fakery that we can't imagine any man, even Santa Claus, as being the genuine article any more."

"Yes, it is both frightening and refreshing. I remember my own courtship. Then, Nick, being Russian, played the role of a Count in the Imperial Court, and I, a mere Bishop's daughter, was completely swept off my feet. Girls in my time were so innocent and thoroughly obsessed with romance. I remember how smitten young Victoria was with Prince Albert."

"Queen Victoria?"

"Yes, we knew her as a girl, you wouldn't believe how tiny she was, yet charming and persuasive. And Nicholas and I were new parents at the time, so she often sought my advice in the early years of her marriage to dear Albert."

"That's amazing."

"Anyway, back to the prophecy of Mrs Claud. So, the very first Saint Nicholas insisted that the random chance of finding a soulmate be removed from the equation and that the future Santa would know her from birth and, when she was of courtship age, something that naturally varies with time and society, they would come to meet and get to know each other. The young Santa is even permitted to explain to her what could happen. But, the onus of acceptance of their troth must always be with the free will of the female involved. As for the future Santa, he has only one choice, one soulmate. Only after receiving either many rejections of his court, or if she removes herself from the game of courtship, would he be granted leave to seek an alternative bride, because as surely as the sunrise, we must have a new Santa to follow the old."

"Removes herself?"

"Our eldest son, Young Nick, was disappointed because the war between France and Germany was still so raw, and that his Prophecy Bride married another. This is not the first time that the Prophecy has been compromised, another Santa in the far distant pass was also denied his intended, when the poor girl put herself into a nunnery rather than make a decision of such momentous importance."

"Oh dear, that puts an awful lot of pressure on me, then. I do like Junior, really, who wouldn't? Junior seems so, so lovely a man, but it is a big responsibility, such a long time to spend with someone you are not sure if you love or not. I have to be certain that he is the one person that I cannot live without."

"A perfect way to look at it, my dear. Take your time before you decide, and as much of it as you want. In my Nick's day we had no choice, but we are all of our era, so you are free to live together until you have reached your decision. Be certain and follow your heart."

"If you had had that chance, to live with your Nick before ... would you have?"

"No, my dear. I knew, as soon as we met, that there would be no other. He was introduced to me in that rude assembly hall as a Count, but I would have taken him as a coalman! Our engagement seemed longer than the length of our marriage. So, my dear, where instantly or developed over time, be certain before you choose, eternity is a long time."

"I will. How long have you and Old Nick been together?"

"We married just under two hundred years ago, Jen, my dear, after a four year engagement. They were far too long in those days, but my mother and father insisted I marry at full age and young girls...."

"How old were you?"

"I was 21 when we married, only 16 when he starting courting me as a dashing cavalryman, 17 when we were betrothed. That was a different society and we had to live in it and bring up our children. No, you really must marry for love, my dear, not out of duty, that wouldn't be a good thing for either of you. The prophecy is about the perfect match for Santa Claus, and it works both ways. If you marry someone else, well, all I can say is that you ignore the prophecy at your peril, dear." She patted her hand, "But Nick and I, we're sticking up for you against Hilde."

***

It was five o'clock in the morning, when the couple arrived at her Mum's house, after flying, landing, and driving her car through the deserted streets. Scott slept on the couch, snoring loudly, a finished bottle of brandy lying on its side on the coffee table.