Page 12 of The Elf’s Naughty Toy

His shoulders drop, and for the first time in all the years I’ve known the jolly old man, he looks sad. “Come, my boy. We need to talk.”

We suddenly appear in the middle of Santa’s living room, right in front of the blazing fireplace. The heat instantly defrosts my frigid bones, but does nothing to defrost my frigid soul.

“Take a seat, son.” Santa points to the big armchair next to the fire as he sits down in his chair. “There’s something I should’ve told you ages ago, but I was worried it would go straight to your mischievous head and create havoc up here for me. But it’s time for you to know the truth.”

Okay, my elf ears are perked up.

“The day you gave that family the truth, you altered their fate.” Yeah, I know I did. I destroyed their lives apparently, took away their Christmas spirit as Santa told me. I destroyed Millie’s mother, which is one thing he failed to share, but my little dove made it clear for me tonight. “It would’ve happened two weeks later,” he continues. “Millie’s mother was going to meet her husband for lunch, only he had invited her to his office so he could serve her his divorce papers.”

The concept of divorce still baffles me. I don’t understand how anyone could ever walk away from their mate. It’s aninconceivable notion. My heart knows who it belongs to. The decision is out of my hands. It’s like the fates decided, and if I can’t have the one I’m meant to be with, I don’t want to go on living.

“Mildred Lermen was going to get in her car, devastated by the news, and on her way home, she was going to end up wrapped around a telephone pole. The tears blurred her vision, and she didn’t see the vehicle breaking in front of her. She wouldn’t have made it out of that wreck alive. And that little girl of hers was going to die of a drug overdose at the age of seventeen, unable to handle the loss of her mother. So had you not done what you did, Brawn, their fate would’ve been much worse.”

The shock of that truth is rattling me to the bones. The thought of my Millie being so overcome with sadness that she wouldn’t want to live is gut wrenching. I can’t imagine this world without that magnificent girl. She is a gift. I can honestly say, that I’m happy for my poor decision. Though, Millie doesn’t see it that way.

“I was worried that if I told you that you had done well, you would’ve gone around the world trying to intervene in everyone’s lives, and that the outcome wouldn’t have always worked out in your favor.”

His assumption isn’t so farfetched. If I had had an inkling of knowing I’d saved someone’s life, I would have felt like a superhero and would’ve flown from town to town, city to city to see how many people I could save. But like Santa said, I could’ve done more harm than good.

“So, I’m grateful for the choice you made that year,” he admits. “You did good, boy.”

I shake my head. “Millie doesn’t think so. She hates me for it.”

He lets out a sigh. “That’s because she doesn’t know the truth. All she knows is that she lost her family that day, and that her mother has never recovered. Christmas is now associated with pain and bitter memories. And every time the holiday nears, Millie loses her mother for a few months. It’s been like that since she was ten years old. That is why she was so upset with you.”

“Well then take me back to the Keeper of Magic and let me give Millie back her happiness.”

“No, Brawn,” he nearly shouts. “I will not let you sacrifice your life. You mean too much to me and the others. And I made a vow to your parents that I would keep you safe, raise you as my own. You’re like my son. I will never let you give up your soul.”

“But Millie is my soul, Santa. I don’t know how to explain it, but my life depends on her happiness. And if she’s going to be miserable every year, then I don’t want to exist. Not when I have the power to change that for her.”

“You love her, don’t you?”

I do. The truth is undeniable to even the strongest force of restraint. I have become enamored with the little human. And no golden rule can stop the way I feel. “Yes.”

“But it’s our most sacred rule, Brawn.”

“I know. But I can’t stop my heart from beating for her. The moment I laid eyes on her I knew. It was like magic, Santa. Like she was meant to be mine.”

He lets out another low sigh, shaking his head. “You sound just like your father. I think he used those exact words when he pleaded his case to marry your mother. I struggled to understand since I’ve never been in love, but to those who have, they all speak of it in the same way.”

“But Millie does not love me back,” I state the honest unbearable truth.

A low chuckle comes rumbling out of the old man, but I fail to see the humor in my broken heart.

“Your mother didn’t love your father at first either.”

“Yes, she did.” I shake my head. “My father told me how they met and fell in love at first sight.”

“No,” Santa states. “He told you the cover story. Your father fell in love at first sight. Your mother was terrified of him.”

Wow. They lied to me. But why would they do that?

“So then, when did they fall in love?”

“When he set her free.”

Set her free?He’s making it sound as if my father was holding my mother against her will.

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