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“Santa,” Axe, the head elf, said, “We have a strange messenger here. They’re waiting in the living room.”
“Strange? What do you mean, strange? Santa asked, glancing up from the new list he was working on.
“You best come see for yourself.”
“Fine,” he huffed. “I hope Mrs. Claus and the others get back here soon. Trying to recreate that list will take forever.”
Making their way from Santa’s office, they found themselves standing before an odd little creature. Not quite elf, not quite child, the creature remained standing perfectly still when they entered the room.
“What can I do for you?” Santa said, smiling his best smile. The smile soon vanished as the creature turned into Jebidiah Joseph himself.
“Jebidiah!” Santa exclaimed. “You’re behind all this, aren’t you?”
“Indeed I am,” Jebidiah said. “And the correct question is, what will I do for you? The answer will all depend on what you do now.”
“Where are Mrs. Claus, Jane, and Levi? If you’ve done anything to them, I’ll, I’ll…”
“Hah,” Jebidiah laughed. “They’re fine…for now. But if you want to see them again, you’ll do exactly what I say. If not, things will get very unpleasant for them.”
Santa slumped into his chair. Axe started to move toward Jebidiah, but Santa put his hand out to stop him. “Let’s hear what he has to say, Axe.”
Axe glared at the former elf, someone he once considered a friend, but didn’t make any other moves toward him. He’d bide his time. Santa was right; they needed to learn more.
Jebidiah moved toward the fireplace. He seemed lost in thought. Then he spun to face Santa and Axe.
“First, you’ll call off Christmas this year. Second, you’ll take every gift you have waiting to be loaded on your sleigh and put them into mine,” his eyes narrowed on Santa. “You remember that sleigh, don’t you? The one I spent months building for you. The one you stuck in storage because it didn’t live up to the Spirit of Christmas.
“You’ll have Axe here and his little elves put every single present in there. And then I will make sure those gifts never ever get delivered. If you do that, and don’t try to pull any fast ones on me, on December 26th, after the world knows Christmas is never coming back, I’ll let them go.”
He took a couple of steps toward Santa and seemed to grow a bit in height. “But if you do anything other than what I told you, well, let’s just ssssay you’ll be sssspending a lot of time alone here in Christmasssstown.”
“There’s no way we’ll let that happen!” Axe said, the rage rising in his voice.
Right on cue, the service elves appeared singing and carrying hot chocolate. When they spotted Jebidiah, all that remained was broken mugs, spilled hot chocolate, and the sounds of the Christmas Carols fading down the hall.
Santa stayed silent for a moment. “Fine, I’ll do whatever you want. I just want them back safe and sound.”
“Santa,” Axe said. “We can’t cancel Christmas. We just can’t.”
Santa stood and went eye to eye with Jebidiah. “Yes, we can, Axe. There is nothing more important than family and friends on Christmas. It’s never about the presents, it’s about sharing time with each other.
“Our friend here seems to have forgotten about that. Give him what he wants, load the presents into the sleigh, and let’s get our friends back.”
Axe hesitated a moment, then left the room. Santa continued staring into Jebidiah’s eyes.
“What happened to you, Jebidiah. You had so much to offer here. Why this?”
“It doesn’t matter. Here we are, and this is the way it is. I’ll be leaving now.” He started for the door.
“Jebidiah,” Santa said.
Jebidiah paused but didn’t turn around.
“You’re missing the whole point of Christmas. Take the presents. Take it all. It may not be the Christmas everyone expects this year, but…it will still be Christmas. You can’t steal something from someone’s heart.”
Jebidiah said nothing and just left.
The Writing of Joe Broadmeadow 