Page 7 of Wrong Number, Right Santa

How did he do that? A lucky guess, perhaps? The child was five and kids of that age loved trains.

He might give me a present. My reindeer was anticipating a gift of lichen or maybe a warm coat he could wear when he shifted during the coldest nights. I didn’t point out the huge problem with the latter; how would he get it on when I wasn’t there to help?

But I couldn’t look away from Santa. Who was the man behind the white beard and the red suit? I should ask him where he got his clothes in case I ever had to step into the role in future.

Hurry and fix the cookie problem so we can meet him. As well as receiving a present, my beast was hoping to hear tales of Santa flying across the sky, his reindeer prancing through the air and them and the sleigh outlined against the night sky.

You do know this is a stand-in Santa, right?I had to let my beast down gently. This was just a guy in a red-and-white hat.

And he was human. There was no leaping into the air, being pulled along by a team of reindeer.

Chapter 6

Santa

This wasn’t the first time I’d gone to an event I found on short notice. There had been days in the past when I woke up and decided,hmm, a parade sounds like fun, and then I’d look around for a Christmas parade somewhere in the world, found one that caught my eye, and showed up. But for some reason, this one felt different—too rushed.

When I arrived, instead of letting everyone see me, I used some of my Christmas magic to observe and take the whole event in. I wanted to scope out the area, see where I was going to be stationed, and make sure I was prepared with the supplies I needed. That was when one of my favorite elves walked up to me. Not that I was supposed to have a favorite.

Sprinkles’ presence surprised me. At first, I feared something was wrong. Usually, I do all of these alone—I don’t have any helpers. And here was one of my elf foremen randomly by my side, while I was distracted by the reindeer.

If it had been really serious, Ryfon would’ve been the one showing up. At least that’s what I told myself.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered, close enough for only him to hear.

“I came to help. Ryfon said that there were lots of gifts.”

Relief flooded into me. He was here to help me because Ryfon thought I had a ton of work and could use his help. There was no crisis back home. If anything, Sprinkles being here meant things were going well because they were able to spare an elf.

I kept looking around, pretending to myself that it wasn’t that I wanted to see Dario, the organizer. It was weird how focused I was on him. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen a hot guy before—I’d seen tons—but there was something about the look on his face in that bio pic of his that just… called to me.

Maybe coming was a bad idea. Not that it had been my idea in the first place. But now that I saw all of the kids, there was no way I wasn’t going to follow through. Bad idea or not, I was here for the count.

I looked around at the setup. They had a Santa house for me, which was nice, and it didn’t take long before I realized exactly how I wanted to run this. There were going to be a lot of kids, a lot more than the organizers realized. But that was okay. I had magic on my side. It wasn’t like I’d run out of presents, and the stickers and candy canes they gave me could be replenished if I needed them to be. Being Santa had its benefits.

Once I had a plan in place, I popped into where I needed to be, along with all the presents and my sleigh. I didn’t bring my reindeer—they were back home. Even if I had the time to go get them, I didn’t like having them at events. The kids tended to be a little overzealous in their attention: grabbing antlers, pulling on ears, hugging their legs as they tried to walk. They didn’t meanany harm by it—they were just kids who loved my reindeer. But it was best not to bring them unless an event required it. And if that were the case, I always made sure there were rules in place ahead of time.

It always fascinated me how I could “pop in” to places like the Santa house they had prepared for me and not have anyone notice. I mean, sure they saw I was there, but no one thought twice about the fact that I hadn’t been moments earlier. But it had been universally true for my entire time doing events like these.

I sat down, and the kids started to file in. One by one, they came, many wanting to sit on my lap, asking me for their wishes or telling me a wish for someone in their family. Those were always the hardest for me—when a little one would wish for their mom to be better for Christmas, or their dad to get a new job, or their sister not to be sad anymore. So many heartbreaking desires that shouldn’t weigh heavily on children.

A little girl came up to me, list in hand, determination in her eyes.“If you’re Santa, what’s on my list?”

I tried not to go overboard with my magic, not loving it when parents got suspicious. At least, not modern parents—times had changed, and grown-ups tended not to believe as much anymore. When they saw something they didn’t understand, instead of assuming it was really Santa like in days of old, they jumped to me being a bad guy. No one needed that.

“Well, Emily...”

Her eyes went wide. Using a child’s name was pretty easy because, if anybody questioned it, I could say I’d heard their parents say it. No problem.

“I think that on your list this year, you have a blue unicorn bunny with a tutu, a dragon—a real one, which, by the way, you’re not getting because dragons make fire and poop a lot...”

She giggled.

“...and you want a sewing machine for doll clothes.”

Her head bounced up and down.

“Wow!” She climbed down from my lap without even asking. “You check out. Now tell me, how did you know all of that?”

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