Santa has a Breakdown

A revised copy of my annual Christmas card insert as it hasn't been inserted yet. My motto is if I can, I revise!

Santa Has a Breakdown

Christmas night, just a wink past midnight. Snow fell light with a frosty nip to tickle the nose and sting the cheeks. Dressed in red with trimmings of white, a plump woebegone man paced a silent street pondering his crucial Christmas course.

             The doleful man, Santa Claus himself, looked this way and that as nine relatively small reindeer wandered nearby nibbling a lush cedar hedge. Santa’s worried eyes spied the sign that advertised Jones Towing Service.

          "Ah ha!" He recalled with a knowing beam. "The Jones boy." With a solution in hand and finger laid aside his nose, Santa blinked and vanished. The pudgy elf reappeared at a small suburban house with the Jones tow truck parked out front. With shiny black-gloved knuckles, Santa gently rapped on the door, but there was no answer from within. He knocked again a little bit harder.

        “Coming, I’m coming,” shouted a sleepy man’s voice. Santa heard muffled complaining and banging about inside with one especially loud holler when Jones apparently stubbed his toe. The door latch rattled.      

       “Wha-What do you want? Can’t it wait until morning?” The inner door swung open to reveal a two-day bearded and disheveled Jones. “Oh, of course, Santa Claus. Aren’t you off the beaten trail to the department store kiosk on this cold Christmas night?”

        “My good man, I am sorry to disturb you, but it seems I’m in a bit of a pickle. Samuel Jones, I believe you have the necessary skills to assist me on this most exceptional night for I have the most urgent need,” Santa said politely.

         “Your urgent need? Knocking on an exhausted man’s door at Oh-dark-thirty in this day of cell phones and such? Call the Triple-A,” said Jones.

         “No, Sammy. Without my handy elves only you can help me tonight for you see, my sleigh had a breakdown.”

         “Ohhhh,” Jones said with a laugh. “I do see with your getup and the fact that you know my nickname. You must be the real Santa asking for my help. Listen, I’ve been called six times tonight to pull people out of the ditch who shouldn’t be driving, and I would like to get some needed shuteye. Good night Santa, just call the department store or someone else but please, not me”

        Santa began knocking again before the inner door latched. After a second or two of Sam Jones standing behind it to consider the situation, the door reopened. “You aren’t going to leave me alone are you Santa?”

       “No Sammy, I am not going to leave you alone. Believe me, only you can help me tonight.”

       “Okay, I get it. It’s Christmas. You’re Santa. You need special service. Oh well, wait here while I get my clothes and keys. So what’s the nature of your breakdown? In the ditch? Froze up? Flat tire? Where can I tow you?”

        “No towing is required Sammy. You see, I landed a bit too hard on the Smith house thereby overwhelming my right runner. Crushed it"it’s broken. The loads grow bigger every year, you know. I can’t see how my trusty reindeer can still pull it, bless their hearts.” Revitalized, Santa’s cheeks now glowed red with a wide grin as his joyful eyes glistened.

        “That’s it with the overblown Santa bit! Why didn’t you just come down the chimney to ask me for help, you fraud! Leave me alone!” Jones said, slamming the door.

         “I only need your handy skills this one Christmas night, Sammy,” Santa said. “What about the shiny red Radio Flyer wagon on your seventh Christmas or the Atari game machine on your thirteenth? Don’t you remember those Christmases past, Sammy? Didn’t I come through for you?”

         The door inched open. “A lot of boys my age got those things back then,” Sam said subdued. “Lucky guess.”

         “Sammy.” Santa began earnestly. “What about your fifteenth Christmas? Remember Suzie’s kiss under the mistletoe?” Sam’s mouth dropped open and his eyes went wide, but he quickly recovered with a dismissing wave.

         “Come on, you didn’t wrap Suzie up and put her under the tree. Besides, we didn’t stay together all that long.”

         “No, I didn’t wrap her up like a present, but I did wrap up the arrangement for you two to be together on that particular Christmas because that’s what you both wished for.  It was up to you two for what followed after that. 

         “Hmmm, maybe so,” Sam said. “Alright Santa, now that I’m wide awake, kind of convinced, and feeling charitable, tell me where we have to go to fix your broken sleigh.”

          “Lay your hand on my sleeve and I’ll show you,” said Santa holding up his fur-cuffed arm. Hesitating, Sam Jones did so, and instantly they were on the Smith house roof.       

           “Whoa!” Sam shouted, taking in the roof’s height and the gleaming gift-laden sleigh. He wind-milled his arms about while trying to keep from losing his balance.

           “Steady there, Sammy!” Santa said, supporting Sam until he settled down enough to carefully examine the sleigh’s broken runner struts.

           “Santa, I can fix this with a little welding and maybe some reinforcing gussets,” Sam said, crawling out from underneath the sleigh, “and get you on your way.”

          “I picked you because I knew you could fix it, my good clever man.” Santa said. He transported Sam and the runner to Sam’s shop where Sam fixed up the runner better than new, even adding a fresh coat of candy-apple red paint.

          Back on the roof, Sam had the sleigh jacked up and the repaired runner installed in no time. “There you go Santa, you can round up your reindeer and get on with your roof-hopping jaunt.” Sam smiled warmly. “I only have to say in spite of my earlier skeptical self, Santa, this turned out to be a very special Christmas for me. One I’ll never forget.”

          “Sam, I thank you for your expert assistance, and if they knew, countless children would thank you as well,” Santa said beaming with brighter red cheeks and a wider smile. He laid a hand on Sam’s shoulder where Sam swore he saw a flash of sparkle. “Sam. I had heard you lost your loving wife and are all alone, but there is someone just as lonely as you out there. Be at the department store Santa kiosk at two tomorrow; you’ll recognize someone from long ago there with her grandchildren.”