Page 76 of Run, Run Rudolph
“On it, sir!”
Santa patted the elf’s back. “I’ve missed you, Hugo,” he said soberly.
“I’ve missed you, too,” the elf said, his voice trembling.
“Come in for a hug, will you?” Santa put out his arms, folding the little elf into his embrace. And in that moment, I didn’t see Snarky the meanie narc, but rather a hurt, lost elf who saw Santa like a father. One he’d been estranged from for months, not unlike a small child of divorce.
Blinking back tears, and aware that the banging, dragging and clopping of hooves up above had ceased, I gave the men a minute, and went outside to see how Haden was faring.
Out in the yard, Haden was looking up at the roof, left hand on his hip, right hand shining the beam of his giant flashlight upward. I followed the beam, but saw nothing beyond the darkness and falling snowflakes.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
He grunted.
“That good, eh?” I stood beside Haden in the freezing cold, shivering and stamping my feet to try and ward off the freezing air nipping at me.
He put an arm around me, pulling me against his side. “You should go back inside where it’s warm.”
“I wanted to tell you that it sounds like Hugo can make something that’ll help Rudolph.”
“He can make a healing drink if he has the right ingredients,” a voice behind me said. I jumped and whirled to find Blitzen blinking at me.
“You’re down here again!” I searched the area for the sleigh. When I didn’t see it, I looked up again.
“In the spring, I’m going to have to re-shingle in a few places for you,” Haden said, finally turning away from the barn.
“Where’s the sleigh?”
“Over there,” Blitzen said. Now that I knew where to look, I could see its faint outline. It wasn’t a pile of kindling. At least not completely. But, even from a distance, it was clear something was quite wrong with it.
“I was thinking you and I could bring it the rest of the way inside,” Haden said carefully. “Blitzen has worked so hard.”
“Yes, of course.” I nodded, one eye on Haden. I turned to Blitzen. “Why didn’t anyone say something about Hugo’s healing mumbo-jumbo?”
“You didn’t ask.”
I threw my hands in the air. “How am I supposed to know about the magical world?”
“There are a lot of restrictions,” Blitzen said in a bored tone. “Hugo is like Prancer. Rule-follower and boring.”
“Well, Santa told him to make one, so we should be good in that regard.” I was feeling a bit steamed that Hugo hadn’t offered to heal Rudolph. I was certain it would have helped him rebuild his relationship with the herd. And it would have prevented a lot of other issues as well. Such as Santa’s concussion and his broken sleigh.
“Do you have any magic that’ll fix the sleigh?”
“Do I look like an elf?” Blitzen said in a tone that suggested I was crazy for even asking.
I huffed in frustration. “Can Hugo fix it? Or Santa? He had a moment of clarity a minute ago.”
“Nope. Have more of that cooler juice?”
I rolled my eyes and headed back inside the barn with Haden.
On Santa’s request, Snarky made us a list of the things he needed, his pencil whizzing across the page of his notebook. It appeared as though any rift between Hugo and Santa had been mended, and I took that as a hopeful sign that the rest of the North Pole problems would soon be resolved.
Moments later, the elf tore the list from the book and handed it to Haden.
Reading the paper around his very broad shoulder, I noticed that it was basically just a bunch of herbs and vitamins.
