Page 32 of Run, Run Rudolph
The moment Haden turned his back, I pulled the lever and zipped around to the trunk, shoving Snarky Elf back in when he lifted the lid.
“Help! Prancer! Help me! Rudolph! She’s kidnapping me! Save me! Save Christmas!”
“You stay in there,” I hissed at him. “You can’t be seen.”
“But I’m invisible!”
“Are you really? Because I can both see you and hear you, and so can that human.” I jerked a thumb in Haden’s direction, who was turning around, no doubt hearing the conversation I was having with the ‘cat’ who’d been thumping about in my trunk.
The elf’s mouth snapped shut, and I slammed the trunk closed again before he could say anything else. Then I turned to give Haden a bright smile as he helped Rudolph into the back seat.
Chapter 9
~ Haden ~
Tonight was turning into a list of things I never thought possible. I wasn’t sure which was top of the list—being kissed by my brother’s ex-girlfriend, or meeting one of Santa’s reindeer and then smuggling said reindeer through Eagle Ridge’s sleepy downtown and into my clinic for an x-ray.
But here I was, as well as refusing to process the logic of what was going on. If I did, I might need to have my mental health examined, and I was way too busy with emergencies to deal with that kind of delay. But Tamara saw it all, too, right? And she was acting stable and fairly calm.
Maybe this was all a dream.
I flipped on the lights in the back of the clinic and pushed Rudolph further inside on an animal gurney so he wouldn’t have to walk. As Tamara went to close the alley door behind the three of us, I saw what looked like a herd of reindeer landing lightly in the snow around her car.
I blinked hard, trying to focus further into the dark alley to confirm what my eyes were telling me. Tamara, noting that I was watching her, closed the door most of the way, and leaned her head outside. She was talking to the reindeer.
They were real.
A whole herd. All of Santa’s reindeer. The ones who travelled around the world in one night. How did Santa get inside all of those houses? Certainly not down chimneys.
I shook away the endless questions forming in my mind. It was time to be methodical. Be logical.
And none of this was logical.
Plus, I was pretty sure I’d spotted an elf in Tamara’s trunk back at her farm.
I looked down at my hands. They were shaking again.
The alley behind my clinic wasn’t very private. Many of the buildings had residents who lived above the street-level stores and businesses. And several tenants were smokers who enjoyed their “fresh air” from the rooftops. Their vantage points gave them the drop on a lot of the town gossip. Even in blizzards. What would they say about a herd of reindeer outside my clinic? Tamara had said nobody could see Rudolph. But I could. And so could she. So, what about this herd?
“Are those guys with you?” I asked the red-nosed reindeer sprawled out on the gurney at my side. I angled my head toward the alley.
“Yes,” Rudolph muttered.
I blinked hard, giving my mind a moment to focus on what had just happened here in the clinic. Did I imagine Rudolph’s response? Or did he speak to me?
“I’m sorry?” I croaked.
“I said yes.”
“Oh. Uh. Cool.” I nodded, trying to act calm. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. Uh, people can’t see them though, right? I mean, other than us? I mean, you can see them obviously. You’re a reindeer. You’re like them. And you can talk.” I clamped down on my flustered thoughts, forcing my mind to be logical, methodical, and to focus on the possible current problem at hand. The herd’s possible visibility. “Can other people see them in the alley?”
“Maybe.”
“Ah. Okay.”
The impact of the night had started to sink in on my drive to the clinic. Now that impact was fully at the front of my mind. Santa and his reindeer were real. And Tamara had injured Rudolph, just hours before he was needed to fly around the world.
And I was the medical professional on the scene.
