Rudolph Saves Christmas

5: The Big Bang

Rudolph was stunned.

He blinked, was stunned a bit more, then blinked again.

Blow

Up

Santa's

SLEIGH?

He couldn't even conceive of such a thing happening. It was the Sleigh! When people spoke about it, their tones were hushed, as if even their words were in awe. It transported, pulled by the reindeer, all the presents all over the world each and every year. It was almost alive, singing as it went in a voice that sounded like bells. The old one had only last year been retired, having had a long and exciting life at the hands of the Big Man himself. It was tired and old now and had been stored away along with all the previous sleighs, preserved for all time in the Christmas Museum just down the road from the Toy Factory.

In amongst all the classic old toys, memorials to famous elves and the different candy cane recipes from across the years, stood the sleighs. Each one had its own podium and was lit with enough spotlights to make it gleam from every angle. Even ones as old as the newly retired one (which Santa had been particularly fond of and so had kept for a good while longer than he really should have) looked almost brand new with a decent polish and repaint.

The new sleigh practically shone all by itself. It was sleek and curved. It could land on the ground or on water, on roof or iced-over lake. The Nook, where the sack of toys rested, was three times bigger so the bestest, nicest children could get even more presents. It had a satellite navigation system so they would never get lost (which happened occasionally), heated seats and even a hot-mug-of-cocoa maker. It was the real bee's bananas and Rudolph and the others couldn't wait to pull it into the air.

Why he or anyone would want to blow it up was unthinkable. If there was no sleigh, then the reindeer would have nothing to pull, Santa would have nothing to sit on and there'd be nowhere to put the presents.

Christmas would have to be...

... Cancelled!

Rudolph felt sick.

"I didn't," he whispered for about the hundredth time.

Flop leaned back and looked at his friend. He shook his head.

"You've said that, but you're the only person around here with a bright red shiny nose. You were seen at the sleigh and coming away from it. Then bang!"

"Bang?"

"Bang! One big explosion and then dust where the sleigh was meant to be. Whatever you say, even in a heavy snow storm, your nose is hard to miss."

Well, that was true. Rudolph's nose was very bright, especially when he was happy. And a reindeer was never more happy than when he was pulling the sleigh. Even carrots couldn't compete with that. Even carrot cake wasn't good enough, and carrot cake, knowing what it was up against, did try really hard. Even in the thickest blizzard, there would always be one point of light. One red glow that could be seen far in the distance.

Rudolph's nose.

So he must have done it. It couldn't be anyone else. Somehow he must have blacked out. Maybe he'd been sleepwalking, something that wasn't entirely unknown - especially after one too many carrots.

No. It was impossible. Besides, where would he get the explosives to cause such an explosion? Or any kind of explosion, for that matter. The most he knew about things going bang was when he pulled a Christmas cracker or a party popper. He wasn't too keen on party poppers as the streamers kept getting caught on his antlers making him look like a badly trimmed up Christmas tree.

"It really wasn't me," he said finally. If it was the last thing he ever said, which was unlikely as he really loved to talk, at least he'd protest his innocence.

"To be honest," said Flop, "I knew as much. I only wanted to hear you say it. I knew it couldn't actually be you."

"Really?" asked Rudolph.

"Of course. You're far too goody-two-hooves to do anything like that!"

Rudolph was so relieved that someone, particularly his best friend, believed him, he felt giddy. Then he realised that that same friend had just made him think that he was actually guilty of something he couldn't have done. Once Flop had recovered from being, mostly playfully, swiped across the head, he scampered up close to his friend.

"The thing is, munchicken, if you didn't do it, someone else did."

Flop like to call everyone munchkin. He liked to but he'd never been able to pronounce the word properly.

"And the fact that your nose was seen," he continued, "means that whoever it was wanted everyone to think it was you."

"But why?" asked Rudolph. Why would anyone want to blame him? As far as he knew, he didn't have any enemies.

"Think about it," Flop said. "No sleigh, no you. What does that mean?"

"It means... Erm... It means..." Rudolph just couldn't think.

The squirrel smiled, but the smile was a sad one, the corners of his mouth only raising themselves slightly, too unhappy to put in any real effort.

"No Sleigh. No Rudolph. No Christmas."