With Hope for Christmas - short story.

It's You...

It was the day before Christmas Day. After dad told me the truth, he also made me promise that I won't tell anything to my siblings. He promised that they will find out as soon as we leave. In the meantime, I was about to help with preparations, the same as every year. I was scared. Because it all felt like my own life was already chosen for me. I'm not even talking about the whole destiny thing, but even the Hope part was all a lie or maybe it wasn't, I didn't know anymore. I was sure about one thing only, that I want to get to know Hope more than anything in the world. When I arrived at the workshop, my brothers and dad were packing the sleigh will all the necessities. I noticed dad being unusually sneaky because he took things double here and there. It was obviously for my accord but they didn't know it yet and it was just very funny to watch. I think that John was onto him because he started observing dad like a hawk. All the production tapes with the toys were directed to drop the creations straight to dad's present sack. Like you can already guess, it was all magically shrinking before landing at the bottom of the bag, because how else we would be able to pack the Christmas presents for every kid in the world, right? The whole place was lit with twinkle lights and the merry music was playing from the speakers. One by one we started singing Silent Night and then Jingle Bell Rock and almost immediately all of our faces started to smile. During the day I got a quick text from Noah saying that, he and Joy are with my mom and my sisters in the bakery, packing the leftovers up and that they will arrive here just before 11 pm. The time was almost up and my nerves were getting heavier and visible to those around me. I felt someone's hand on my arm, when I turned around, it was John. He was a strong guy, and pretty smart too, I was sweating so he already knew that something is up. He practically pushed me inside the office and then...

"Speak! What is up with you and dad, junior?"

"I can't"

"What you mean you can't?“

"Listen, bro, soon everything will become clear, but you have to let me go now. I promise all will become clear soon" saying that I left the office. He came out right behind me as the time on the clock started beeping at 11.30 pm. All of our family gathered around the sleigh that was filled with all the best goodies. Each year it was the same. We all said goodbye to dad when he was taking his space in the sleigh. But this time when he was already situated, he stood up and said in my direction "It's time Peter" while reaching his hand out for me. At that moment everyone looked at me surprised, only mum was smiling. I took his hand and stepped into the sleigh as well.

"Is there something that we don't know about" - my siblings started to ask. The second I wanted to answer them, mom interrupted and let them know that she will tell them every detail of the past few days. They all nodded in unison. When the clock showed midnight we took off.

It was the first time for me, to fly over the whole world. The night was chilly but it wasn't cold at all it was almost like some invisible cocoon of warmth was surrounding both of us. I sat there buried in all sorts of thoughts, there were many questions, after all, it was my first time outside of the village, so I should be asking all bunch of questions about that alone but there was this one thing I wanted to know even more.

"Dad?"

"Yes, son?"

"How did you know?"

"You have to be more specific Peter"

"If you already made forget back then, how did you know that sooner or later the globe will show me her, especially that you were so sure that I'm gonna take over your role?"

I think he was a bit unprepared for that question. He got a bit tensed. But then he shook his head and started his story.

Santa's POV

Son, you need to understand that being Santa to all these kids is not just a duty. I've always wanted this, so when one day I woke up with this incredible feeling of purpose, I knew that I'm the next to take over. My dad and your grandfather were overjoyed. I was the oldest out of my siblings and there were also no sisters, just brothers like you already know. My younger brothers, were a little sad, because all of was, same as you and all of my other kids, we were all being prepared for this role for years. I was about your age when I felt that it's time, that my time has come. The first thing that I did was call your mom to meet me, she hasn't known yet that sooner or later she will become Mrs. Claus but I was about to tell her the truth. It took me a few minutes to explain everything and your mom was listening to me very closely and she had the happiest, most unexpected reaction, I wouldn't even imagine. She said, "If you want to make me Mrs. Claus, then you better put a ring on it". But, to say that she was the one was an understatement. At the end of this day that we spent, she run into a candy store, and came back with a lollipop ring, one for herself and one for me and even though I knew, that at home there was a beautiful ring waiting for me to give it to her she placed the candy ring on my finger, I did the same to her finger and while holding hands we smiled at each other and said our vows. A few days later I had my official ceremony of becoming the next Santa Claus and we also had our wedding. What you don't know yet is that I knew your mom will become my wife because I saw it, I saw it in the same globe that I got from your dad. The Globe belonged to me before, son.

Peter's POV

When I heard dad's story I was, I don't know what should I be thinking. But it left me so many more questions than I had before. Unfortunately, we were closing in to our first stop of the night. And now, the actual magic was about to happen. We arrived at some sort of stop, it honestly looked like a bus stop, I saw them in movies and books mostly. Anyway, dad parked the sleigh and stepped onto the platform. He was murmuring something to himself and then he screamed "Gotcha ya!" and he pressed the button and then the sky started getting lit up by so many lights it looked like a freaking space station. The structure before me was intriguing. There was some sort of tubes going down in different directions. It is honestly so hard to explain it to you. What I saw next left me the most surprised. Let me ask you a question first. When you were reading or you were watching about the way that Santa is bring gifts to all of the houses, was he going through the chimney? He does, right, well, this thing couldn't be furthest from the truth. You see, I saw that putting one tube that looked like the main, that was connected to all the others, into his presents sack and next which he said was a phrase "Merry Christmas and The Happy New Year Australia" and like on the cue, the gifts were sucked in into the tube and then they were sliding into all sorts of a different direction and then each tube was getting longer and longer. From my perspective, it looked like the gift was floating in the air, when in fact it was going down and down straight to the chimneys.

"That is so cool" I reacted.

"I agree, I must say, your siblings are probably the smartest and most inventive from all the Claus families throughout the years. The things they can come up with is beyond me"

And it was true, my siblings were awesome, I couldn't believe that it's their invention. Dad explained that the tube can recognize the addresses of each package so that's why it knows which house the package belongs to. After about half an hour we were done with Australia and we were ready to take off. Dad said that we will leave North America for last because that's where Hope lived and honestly I was glad he said so, as I was not nearly ready to come face to face with her, just yet. When we were halfway through the night and we were closing into Europe dad continue his story. Before he started I let him know that I need to know, how he knew about my destiny if it's something that only the person it is about can know.

Santa's POV

A day before the day that you got the globe from me I was recovering my strengths in the mountains. I had the globe with me I always had it with me, I used this shrinking powder to make it the size of a keychain and kept it with the keys to the sleigh. When I reached this beautiful cleaning I sat down and I started thinking about you. The way I made you forget about ever having interaction with Hope never left my thoughts. I reminisce about it especially during Christmas time because as soon as Hope became a teenager she stopped writing letters to me. But I knew from the fact that she never took off this necklace she got from you. Always had it close. Either on her neck or in the pocket. Then I felt the surge of energy from inside of my pocket, I took the keyring out of it and placed it on the snow. When I made it bigger again I shook it and saw words forming out. It said:

"The destiny of your youngest changed, he won't be the heir that you wanted to get. His heart is searching for someone you know. And when they reunite, their love will be the strongest feeling of all".

You see Peter when I saw it, I understood that I should never pick out favorites. I was so focused on you becoming the next Santa I haven't realized that I still have 9 other children. That's why it was time to give you what my dad gave me. Because I knew that sooner or later the globe will bring you back to Hope because you are one amazing young man. Very curious about everything. And your heart is pure. It looks like you truly belong together. And I'm sorry again, that because of what I did she hasn't met you sooner.

Peter's POV

"Don't worry dad. The good thing is that I will be able to make her fall in love with me now, when I'm more mature and not a teenager like I was then. Consider yourself forgiven".

After that, we hugged and I was more than ready to meet this woman now. With all the information that I received, knowing that she was my second destiny was touching because that's another fact that love can outdo anything else. Around 5 am we were closing into North America. I was getting more nervous with each kilometer that we were leaving behind. As soon as we were done with the last package. He turned to me and said.

"Merry Christmas son" and he handed me a small wrapped gift. I looked at him confused and then I started unwrapping. In the box was a car. Toy car. I gave him yet another confused look and then after smiling down at me and whispering "Good Luck" he pushed me out of the sleigh...

I began to squeeze the toy car in my hand. At first, I was screaming my lungs out but then after a moment, I realized that I'm slowing down and now it felt like I was floating. I started to think to myself how the people will react seeing someone floating in the air with nothing on him. I decided to push that thought deeper into my mind because I started to see the ground below my feet. It was about 5.30 in the morning. Because it was already Christmas Day there was practically no one on the streets. I landed perfectly, without any scratch in the middle of the street, and to not drive anyone suspicious I ran out into the corner as quickly as I could. When I looked around I haven't recognized anything and I thought to myself, how the hell am I going to find my snowflake in this big of a city. But then I remembered that I'm still squeezing this toy car in my hand. Could this be? This couldn't possibly be so easy. I placed it on the ground and stepped out a little bit. But nothing happened. Come on, Peter, think, you're the Claus, I thought. And then I decided to try the same trick I did when I said things in my mind. And I simply asked for a bigger car. To my surprise, the toy car started to grow, and soon, before me stood, beautiful red Camaro. When I sat inside, there was a note on the steering wheel that said "Use it wisely, love Dad". Not gonna lie, being the son of Santa had its perks. As soon as I turned the car on, the GPS navigation automatically turned on and the address popped out on the screen, it has Hope's name tag next to it. And I was grateful that Dad thought of everything. I just had to sit back and relax, and of course, drive the car. While driving, I was passing by the Empire State Building and almost instantly I thought about the first thing that the globe showed me, I was finally here, where I was supposed to be. I arrived at the address and I froze. Because honestly what I was supposed to do here? Just knock on the door and expect her to just believe anything I say? I chickened out. Decided to collect my thoughts and go to the nearby park. It was huge, there were already some joggers around, people walking their dogs, few couples walking hand in hand. And at that moment, Hope just started roaming in my head. Her face and smile and the way her forehead started to crinkle when she was thinking about something in a very intense way. It's amazing how much I found out after seeing her on the screen for only a year. When I was deep in my thoughts I found myself in a bit of a situation. Because some dogs run to me and their leashes got mixed up, one of the dogs was a beautiful and fluffy samoyed. We had a dog like that once. His name was Angel, but he got into an accident while rescuing one of my nephews by pushing him off the road. Angel didn't make it. He was my best dog friend. I was about 15 years old back then, it happened a year before receiving the snow globe. Sometimes when I was missing him a lot I saw him running around... Wait a second. He was running around Central Park, I had a strange deja vu. I untangled myself as quickly as I could and I asked the owner of the dog if I could pet him, he agreed, so I kneeled, and when I looked into his eyes, I smiled. I guess God thought that Angel deserved another chance in life and I'm glad I was able to see him again. When I was about to stand up, someone bumped into me. I immediately gave my hand to this stranger to help him or her stand up and when we looked each other in the eyes, I felt sparks and then before I was able to say anything, I heard her whisper "It's You"...