Though seriously considering not to head out at all this year, hoping that you'd get snowed in completely if you stay home long enough, you eventually and most reluctantly ready your sleigh and reins for yet another trip to civilization for christmas eve. Fat chance you'll get buried in snow anyway, with all the greenhouse effect and stuff going on, so you could just as well take another ride and hope you'll choke on a candybar instead!
Marv, your single and half-blind old reindeer, doesn't seem all that willing either, but is much too stupid to try and object as you strap the reins on and eventually get him up in the air. Well up there, as you ride through the cold and refreshing wind at a speed that is many times that of sound but at the same time no faster than a normal walk, you can't really feel quite so bad about yourself after all. Though your mood quickly changes back to normal again, as you see the faraway city-lights approaching on the horizon.
Checking your sparse wishlists for some random address you eventually land Marv upon a lonely rooftop at the outskirts of town, climbing out of your sleigh and hopping down to the ground below with the agility that could only truly be bestowed upon an immortal. That is, you land mainly unscathed, but face down in one of the frost-bitten rose bushes surrounding the house. Still cursing to yourself for not managing to kill yourself this time either, you hastilly pick the lock of the front door and let yourself inside.
It doesn't take you long to locate the livingroom, but you're quite dissapointed to find the table empty of both snacks and brandy. Providing yourself with some beer from the kitchen instead, you consider for a moment to leave the emptied can in one of the stockings hanging over the pellet stove, but change your mind at the very last moment as you know that it's, usually, not the kids fault that you've wasted your time on some brandy-less place like this.
Getting back out again and with some difficulties managing to get Marv to pick you up on the ground, you then ride on through the night in hopes to find a family with a more traditional view on celebrating their christmas. And so, eventually, you end up in yet another little garden at the outskirts of some unknown little town, where you take your time checking through the windows before making yourself the trouble of discreetely breaking inside.
This time your luck seem to have turned as you find yourself a real fine sort of brandy, made even better as it's been placed by the living fireplace to keep it warm, making you immediately regret to have downed it in a single sweep rather than to savour it as deserved. Still warmed to the heart, or at least to your gully by the gesture, it only saddens you more that there's so little you could do in return for such a lovely familly like this...
While searching your pockets and trying your best to come up with something to repay their kindness, you suddenly realize that you're not alone in the room! For the first time in a very, very long time you've actually made the mistake and forgot to check your surroundings for more than what's on the table before breaking into someone's house! Waking the guard-dog is one thing, but being seen by a human would be something completely different...! |
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Slowly turning your head to look back over your shoulder, you find...?
A true believer, however odd it may seem...!
Someone waiting for a Santa of the much less authentic kind...
Someone fast asleep, much to your relief...
But before that, some additional notes...
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