The Christmas Wish

A Wish for Santa

"Slow down, Henry! Santa is not scheduled to return to the North Pole until seven o'clock," Regina said, trying to rein in her son as she dug in her heels.

It didn't appease her son. He only tugged her hand harder. "Come on, Mom. We're going to be late."

"Henry Daniel, I told you Santa's not leaving for several hours. We won't be late for him."

"I'm not talking about Santa! We'll be late meeting Roland!" Henry explained, looking exasperated. He looked like her, to be honest, even though they shared not a lick of DNA.

Regina knew she had a similar look on her face as they finally stopped. She blew out the side of the mouth, trying to get a loose tendril of dark hair out of her eye as she took stock of her situation. Her son had made plans with his best friend and forgot to tell her about them. Typical Henry.

Then again, he was only seven years old.

"Roland can wait a few minutes," she said, "so we can walk slowly to Santaland. Okay?"

Henry frowned at her. "We want to see Santa together. And his dad has work."

Of course. There was only one thing that could make a trip to the mall at Christmas time worse--Robin Locksley, Roland's infuriating single father. He owned the local sporting goods shop, which did a good business thanks to contracts with the schools of Storybrooke that Regina had to begrudgingly respect him for securing. Since he owned a shop right on Main Street, he was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and very active in Storybrooke, forcing Regina to have to deal with him more often than she would like. Which included on the board of the PTA since they both sat on it. There, he seemed gung-ho about two things: making sure the kids got plenty of exercise and besting her.

So Robin Locksley was the last person she wanted to spend any amount of time with but like she always did, she would grit her teeth and put up with him for Henry's sake.

"Are you mad?" Henry asked, concerned. His hazel eyes teared up and his lower lip quivered.

She blew her anger out, shaking her head. "I just wish you had told me earlier. We could've made appropriate plans so we didn't have to rush."

"Sorry, Mom." He hung his head.

"It's okay," she said, taking his hand. "Now, where are we meeting Roland?"

Henry looked up again, smiling. "By the Polar Express so we can ride it before going to see Santa."

She took his hand in hers, swinging their arms as they approached the center of the mall, where several escalators crisscrossed as people rode them between floors. Set right in the middle was the North Pole--fake snow covering a red carpet and fake trees as a small train wrapped around it. The centerpiece was a fake log cabin labeled "Santa's workshop" over a giant gold throne flanked by human-sized plastic candy canes.

They approached the booth set up at the entrance so parents could purchase tickets for the Polar Express. She frowned as she saw no sign of the Locksleys.

"There they are!" Henry pointed past the booth, toward the entrance to the East Wing of the mall.

Roland Locksley tugged at his father's hand, pulling him along like Henry had done to her earlier. Though he almost tripped a few times, Robin's amused smile never faltered.

Father and son could not look more different. Roland had dark curly hair and coffee brown eyes. His skin was olive-toned which was made darker by the time he spent outdoors with his father. Regina believed Roland favored his late mother, though she never met Marian Locksley. Her death had brought Robin and Roland to Storybrooke as Robin had some friends here who had offered to help him with his young son. All of this had been conveyed to Regina by some well-meaning matriarchs, who no doubt thought to set up the young, successful and beautiful single mother with the young, successful and handsome single father.