With Hope for Christmas - short story.

Dear Santa

What would you have done if you would see your future in the glass globe? More so, how would you react if the same view would appear in your dreams every day after that? You already know the first desire that was shown to me, it was me graduating college, I did it, yes, and then I went to university and graduated that too. It was nothing fancy, like, I was always good with music so, it just seemed like the safest choice. I already had a big part in my family's business. You see, while everyone else helped in security, making toys, or testing sports equipment I was taking care of a little bit more artistic side of our company. Anything related to art or music was my field but I also took care of the letter department and the lists. Yes, the Naughty & Nice department was the hardest one and while others also had a part in it, I just really liked observing people, sometimes even putting them on the right track so there wouldn't be that many wicked people in the world. Trust me, some of them were stubborn as hell but I knew that deep down, anyone has a good heart. Imagine my surprise when during one faithful night at work I discovered this person that I saw in my dreams every night and the one I saw inside the snow globe just a year earlier.

It was a day like any other, nothing out of ordinary. I woke up, went for a morning jog, then took a quick shower, and went downstairs for breakfast. I was in luck because Faith and Noel were already up and one of them made pancakes. We ate while discussing Faith's upcoming labor. She wasn't prepared for it, mentally I mean. Before I left the kitchen I hugged my sister from behind and whispered to her ear that she will do great, I left before she managed to kiss me on the cheek but I still heard her shouting "thank you, Junior", that sentence alone, made me chuckle. I grabbed my backpack and jacket and left the house in a hurry as I was already late. The Naughty&Nice tower was at the top of the hill not so far from our house, so I arrived there after about 10 minutes but when I entered the facility I came across a freaking mess. Everyone was nervous and just stressed. Papers were flying around and my oldest brother stood in the middle of all this just burying face into his hands. It was obvious that he hasn't slept or even rested at all. Soon I noticed my sister-in-law bringing him what looked like yet another coffee and as soon as she kissed him she went back to the office. He realized that I'm standing near the entrance door and just nodded in my direction. While I began to walk to the tower I received a text from him " I'm glad you're here, we need you in a tower asap, there's been some sort of malfunction present, please check it out and report to me as soon as you will know what the hell is going on", not gonna lie, it sounded ominous. As soon as I reached the tower and opened the door I realized that in fact, something is pretty wrong with this place, I couldn't point my finger though, what could be wrong. I started checking the system, the cameras, and all the cables in the control panel and to my surprise, the system looked fine, I was stunned by what could be the problem. I decided that I should just run things like I always do and perhaps, I will notice any inconsistencies later on.

In the middle of my shift, I received a text message from Noah. He was like my oldest and longest friend. I could even call him my BFF (best friend forever). We met when we were barely 3 years old when his family moved just a few houses away from mine. And we were close ever since. Noah was about to finish his higher degree in just a few months so I was pretty much surprised about his text as he was buried in books for a few weeks now. Nevertheless, I opened the text so quickly I almost dropped my phone down as my hands were a bit slippery today.

"I'm comíng tomorrow Claus, I have great news. Ohh, and I will be staying until Christmas" - my heart was full, I missed Noah, he was like 8th brother of mine, I'm pretty sure everyone else would be as much happy as I was when they will find out that he's coming to see us. There was even this one time when Noel had a huge crush on Noah but when he and his family moved away again when Noah started university, she grew out of it pretty quickly. While I was reminiscing about my friends and memories some lights at the console started to flicker at a rushed pace. As soon as I got to it, I saw what was the problem and I swear to God, I couldn't believe my eyes. I just stood there looking at the screen when I felt someone shaking me up angrily.

"Junior, what's is going on here?!" - my brother practically shouted to my ear which made me jump. I had to wash my face as I couldn't believe my eyes. Right there on the screen, I saw the same woman that I saw in my dreams every single night, the same one that this snow globe I got from dad showed me just a year ago. She was there, surrounded by many other people, while the snowflakes were falling out from the sky. The view before my eyes was out of some freaking fairytale. And I couldn't believe it was happening. I finally responded to my brother's shouts at me and when I did, the first thing I did was dial Noel's number. She came into my office immediately after and was just as surprised as I was. But when she turned around to face me, I realized that she wasn't surprised, more relieved or happy at that. Not long after that, she turned to me and said:

"I guess even my tricks don't work when it is destiny baby brother".

When I heard her saying that, I wasn't sure what should I say or do. But then it came to me like a lightning strike and I remembered that exactly a year ago, when I first saw the woman inside my globe and then the same night in my dreams I went to wake up Noel and she was the first person ever told about her. Then, in the morning we both went to see Faith in her office, as a psychologist, she was supportive, although also a bit concerned. We weren't sure what could this mean. I didn't know anything about the girl, how could a living person be my desire? I mean, of course, we desire people but she was a stranger. What's more, is that she lived in New York and I was Santa's youngest child. This story couldn't just happen, there were too many unknowns. So I did something, which didn't work as it was supposed to. I asked Noel to hide her from me. She worked in the security department as you already know, and I knew that she had few tricks up her slave. She could work her magic and make this beautiful stranger "invisible" to me. I just wanted this girl to live her life the way she could best. I didn't want to mess with it. In our world destiny wasn't just a myth, it happened, more than someone could imagine. But in humans, real-world destiny happened mostly in books and movies. It wasn't as common as here. So, imagine my surprise when I saw someone that I shouldn't? Was this Noel's doing? I asked her but she said that she did hide her. I haven't t seen her for a year so that had to be true, then why now? I rushed back to the house and as soon as I reached my room, I started to rummage through my staff and finally, I found her, I found the globe. And when I shook it and then looked inside I saw a girl again, this time though, she wasn't outside of Empire State Building, but she was inside my house. What the heck is going on?! I stared blankly at the view before me when I heard mom shouting from the lower floor. I went downstairs and immediately rushed to the person before me.

"Omg Noah!! You're here" I screamed while hugging my best friend. He hugged me back although he seemed tense. As soon as we stopped and he moved a bit further from me I saw him standing next to a petite-looking woman at the end of the hall. She was smiling at me, her face seemed oddly familiar which was strange cause I didn't meet her before. Although I could have sworn that I have already seen her somewhere. Noah got everyone's attention, grabbed this girl by the hand, and said "I'm getting married guys". I couldn't believe my ears. My best friend was getting married, I couldn't be happier for him. My brothers and sisters started to congratulate our lovebirds. The girl introduced herself as Joy which suited her. As soon as she showed us her smile it was contagious. I gotta admit, she was a very beautiful lady, Noah was a lucky guy. While the rest of the family were either in the kitchen or living room, Noah took me aside, we went out to get some air on the terrace. The night was beautiful, which wasn't anything extraordinary in the North Pole. We were able to see Northern Lights very often and I must say that this view never gets old, if you'll ever going to have a chance to see it, don't hesitate. Anyway, apart from being beautiful, it was only a little bit chilly so being in a warm sweater was perfectly enough. Noah was somewhere else with his thoughts, I wondered where.

"Noah, brother, congratulations, that's huge news," I said to him while shaking his hand and taking him into a hug again. He smiled at me and then he looked inside where Joy was surrounded by my family members, taken into hugs and she was so visibly happy about it. Then he turned back to me again and answered

"I feel like the luckiest man in a world Peter, she's my northern star". And I could see he was very in love with her. We spent a while longer talking, mostly about how they met, and about his studies. What surprised me the most was, the person who introduced them, and when I told Noah the story about my dreams and what the globe showed to me, his eyes almost popped out of his head.

"What a small world!? Dude, do you know what this means?"

"Enlighten me, please" I answered.

"Seriously, I was studying with her, then she's introduced me to the love of my life and now you're telling me that she's also the girl that you started seeing in your dreams. Joy will be, well, overjoyed" he said and chuckled a little bit at the last bit of his sentence.

You see, I found out that the girl that was shown to me in my globe and then, the same girl that started appearing in my dreams was not only Noah's friend from university but also Joy's little sister and her name was Hope. When Noah showed a photo from this little trip that they had, it was all three of them, Noah in the middle and the girls on his right and left side, they were hugging and smiling. At first, when I saw the photo I was a little taken aback by it, because, honestly, how would you react? Seeing someone as an actual person, not in your imagination. I also immediately picked up on why Joy seemed so familiar to me, they may not be looking alike but there were many similarities between the girls. Then Noah started asking me a bunch of questions. I abruptly stopped him and just told him the short version of everything. He already knew about the globe because he was the first person that I showed it to, the next day in fact when we met near our favorite frozen lake to exchange some gifts. And because he was a believer, I knew he wouldn't laugh or anything like that. Since then he was my biggest supporter, the same like I was his. When the desire about finishing college and uni happened, we both figured out that the globe was magical. But let me tell you this, we never, ever, thought that, someday, the globe will bring us closer together as much as it did then. Finally, we got back to the house, we found Joy sitting in the kitchen with my sisters, and some of my nieces and nephews, they were drinking hot chocolate and laughing so hard that Claire (my niece, one of John's daughters) got some milk out of her nose, that was both gross and hilarious at the same time. Noah excused everyone and grabbed Joy's hand, getting her to follow us upstairs. We said goodbye to everyone and went to the attic. When we're kids it was always acting as our secret base, with pillow and blanket forts and it was very similar now because the kids loved this idea as well, but throughout the years, me and my brothers we also installed some twinkle lights around the room, sound system and we also built the secret passage that leads to my office in the tower. That's where we needed to go now, but first I needed to make sure that I can trust Joy with our secret.

"Wow, this room is something else, with all the lights, wait for a second, where does the music come from? I don't see any cables" she stated while looking all adorable, like a little girl seeing the first snow of the season.

"Thanks, Joy, me and my brothers worked to make this room cozy enough. As for the music, well, the sound system is built between the walls, so the cables are hidden and you can't see the speakers because you will have to look very closely at this spot right there" I answered while pointing at some reindeers at both sides of the room.

"Ohh, that's brilliant, I would never notice them, haha, so cool to hide speakers as their bellies"

"I'm glad you like it. I guess it's time now. Noah?"

"Time for what? I don't understand, what's going on? Babe?"

Noah knew where the secret passage was hidden, he started walking to a nearby wall where a more animated version of my dad was situated and he moved his arm that was currently in the waving position and he put it down and then the door started to slide into the wall, when I looked at Joy, she had a wow expression on her face and stood in her place frozen.

"What is this, guys?"

Noah took her hand in his and asked "Do you trust me, my love?". As soon as she nodded her head, he went inside the passage with her in hand and me right behind them. The passage was lit up with twinkle lights with each of our steps. What surprised Joy the most was that we started to slide, but it wasn't slippery, and the walls were icy, but it wasn't cold. On the contrary, the temperature inside the tunnel was around 15 degrees Celsius. She was asking us questions about everything, but we stayed quiet because I knew that when we reach our destination, she will have more of them and then we will have enough time to explain everything in detail. Finally, we reached the door. Joy grabbed Noah's arm and asked "Where are you taking me?", and he answered "Remember all the stories I told you about Santa?", she nodded her head as yes, "Then, behind these doors, you will have all the answers that you seek", she looked at us with a quizzical expression and opened the door.

As soon as she stepped in, right in the middle there was the control panel, where I was observing people, making sure they aren't doing anything wrong. On the left side of the main chair was a naughty list, with stashes of books, and lists of names, then on the right opposite site there was a nice list. Books and all. It was obvious that she took everything in, we were just slightly surprised that she hasn't freaked out, yet. She started going around the room taking everything in, slowly at first but then we realized that her smile growing bigger and bigger and finally she stopped outside of the small red and white door in the middle of the room. The door itself had a snowflakes puzzle on it and only the correct combination would open them. She looked at me and asked "Can we go there Peter?", and I responded "We could, but can I trust you to keep this a secret?" - I kinda already knew the answer. You see, you can believe it or not, but every member of our family had this gift, among the others hehe, after all, we were a pretty magical family, that we were able to read people, so when I looked into her eyes I knew I can trust her but I just wanted to hear her saying that I can. She practically screamed at me, that of course, I can trust her. She was cute. I stepped in front of them, put the combination in and the door disappeared before our eyes showing a single path leading to a cozy space with a little fireplace, aged desk, that once belonged to Santa himself, by the desk stood a big plush leather chair and on top of the desk were letters. The whole room was surrounded by drawers that were signed in alphabetical order by name. I told Joy to find the drawer with the letter of her last name and try to find her file in it. She started to look through the files and as soon as she took out the case with her last name out I told her to open it, and as soon as she did, the tears started forming in her eyes.

"Everything ok love?" Noah asked while bringing her to a hug. And while wiping her tears of she handed me one of the letters. It was written by a child, very sweet and short. It said:

"Dear Santa,

It's me again, Hope Snow, I hope you remember me. I write to you every year, but this year is different. Usually, my older sister Joy was helping me with the writing but this year she's currently in hospital with our parents. They had an accident and they are currently in a coma. The nurse said that it's like sleeping but they also said that it doesn't mean that they will wake up. So, I don't want any gifts this year, I just want them to be ok. Say hi to Rudolph from me.

Yours sincerely,

Hope"

At that moment, my own eyes started to tear up. Joy became confused, to say the least. So we had to explain everything. After about an hour of detailed and thorough explanation, Joy faced me and said "Your secret is safe with me Peter, I can't believe I'm in Santa's house and workplace. This all is absolutely unbelievable but amazing", then she took my hand and continued "And about my sister, I'm a bit surprised about the whole destiny thing, but, I think Hope could use some magic in her life, she's been through a lot. I think the best way would be if you read the letters from our file a little bit more". And then she took Noah's hand and they left me there by myself. I stayed in the tower so long that I missed not only dinner but also a few calls from my mom and sisters, but because no one bothered to come to the tower I figured that Noah and Joy informed everyone why I'm not responsive. I found Hope's letters from each year since she was 5 years old until she became 18, the last letter was full of hatred, mostly toward society. You see the letter about her parents, she wrote when she was 8 years old. Joy was 12 at the time. And unfortunately, after being in a coma for about 4 months, both of their parents passed away. They gained consciousness for long enough to say their goodbyes and Hope wrote about it in a letter that was probably the saddest one of all.

"Dear Santa,

It's me, Hope, Hope Snow.

This is the first Christmas that it's only me and Joy, our parents passed away 4 months after I wrote this last letter to you. We have been staying in a temporary home for a while now. Some people wanted to take me away but when aunt Gloria said we are siblings and we come as a duo, they changed their minds. But we're not losing hope. I am not mad at you that our mom and dad are gone. And again, I don't need anything, just don't let anyone separate me and my sister. We need each other. Especially that, recently my health got worse and I just can't leave Joy before we find a proper home.

I love you Santa,

Hope"

When I finished reading my heart was in pieces. I had no idea that at some point I will get the chance to get to know this woman from the early years, through the letters she wrote to my dad. This wasn't the end though, because the letter she wrote next year surprised me the most.

"Dear Santa,

It's Hope again, I don't know what you did, but it worked. We got adopted, this family is awesome. We have 3 new siblings. This couple can't have kids on their own so when they came to our temporary home one day and saw me, Joy, and 3 of our best friends from there, they took us all in. So now, we are not just friends, but a family...

Ohh, and I also wanted to thank you for the snowflake that you have sent, I keep it close at all times. I had it with me at the hospital and guess what? The operation was successful and I'm healthy again. Thank you for having my back.

Have a Happy Christmas,

Love, Hope"

I think I have to talk to dad about all this. Because, even the fact that this puzzle combination that opens this door to this room now, wasn't always the case. It happened around the time when I was 12 years old. So, it seems like the snowflake came from Hope. And it also means that dad had something to do with all that is happening right now. I just need to hear what he has to say.