Modern Day Santa Claus

MDSC [11]

Chapter 11

It was a rather breezy night. Jae was in her room, sitting in front of the computer. She sighed in defeat when a half-hour passed and she hasn't made any progress in her research. She planned to find out some things about this... Grinch, but it was always that same story about the green monster that appeared on the internet.

She never actually heard that the Grinch has passed his own bloodline. Which meant that he started a family. And that his children bore his blood. And his children had children. And those children had children. And on and on, until now, where a faint trace of his bloodline has been found resurrected. Or that's what Skye told her.

Because it was the same situation with Skye and his cousins. Their ancient grandfather was Santa Claus himself. Or that's what Skye told her.

Jae still doesn't know what to do with this information. Does that mean that Santa Claus really does exist or did he just exist because people believed in him? What of their magic? Jae was pretty sure that had come from Santa Claus, too. If people didn't celebrate Christmas, what would happen to Skye? Would that affect them? Would that affect the Grinch as well?

And why, oh why, was she tangled right in their mess? Why did she meet Skye? Was it merely a coincidence or was she needed some time in the future?

Jae rested her head on the desk, not quite softly, and groaned loudly. All these questions and thoughts are all jumbled inside of her head. And none of them made sense. And none of them has answers. But for some reason, she had this inner desire to help them.

"She's my friend."

A small smile crept onto her face. Friend, huh? She's Santa Claus' friend. What a weird world.

It was that long ago when she understood Santa Claus didn't exist. She was 7. And every Christmas, they had this family tradition to write a letter to Santa Claus, claiming to be a good girl or boy and what gift they wanted. She didn't know if that tradition started years before she was born, but she didn't once question it.

Because Santa Claus always, always, wrote back to her the next morning next to a present that she personally asked for in the letter. Those were the times she thought Santa was real. And then one Christmas, she was old enough to finally understand. Understand that her mom would always ask her what toy she wanted before Christmas. Understand that they'd go shopping, and her mom would always split up with her so she wouldn't see her buy the toy she wanted. Understand that it was her mom's handwriting whenever Santa replied in those letters.

She didn't tell them that she didn't believe in Santa anymore when she found out. She let her mom continue what she was doing. And when she was finally 14, old enough to find writing letters to Santa were boring, the replies stopped as well.

She remembered though, one Christmas when she was too young to understand. She barely turned 4, but she remembered she adored Santa. She was always ecstatic to open up presents and then show them to her mom and her brother. Her brother was upset about something that night, but she can't remember the reason why.

She was playing with her new toys, praising Santa again and again for the new doll she asked for in her letter. And then Adams, who was pissed off, suddenly snatched her toy away from her and told her that Santa wasn't real.

She cried that night. She vaguely remembered throwing a tantrum. Santa is real! she would say again and again. You're lying!

Adams immediately apologized after that. Told her that she was right and he was lying. They made up. And next Christmas, she recalled that Santa visited for the first time. Now that she thought about it, it must've been Adams. To apologize for being a jerk.