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Chapter 9~ A Safe Space
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“You’ve gotta be kidding me. What is this? Whatever Cupid says I did, he’s lying,” Frost argued.
Scott took a step forward. “We’re not ambushing you, Jack. We just need to talk about a few things.”
Then, the voice of the jazz band’s leader came through the thick curtain. “Everything all right, Frost? Need some help?”
“Just some dead cords,” Jack called back, “ I’m working on it. Just keep stalling for a little longer.” He turned back to Scott. “Not so mighty without your band of elves so you sent a child after me?”
“I’m not a child,” interjected Kit. Bernard reeled her back in
“That was never the plan,” Scott explained, eyeing down Kit, “We have a problem, Jack. Something you might be able to help us with. Notice anything unusual the past couple of days?”
Jack considered his answer carefully. “No. Except for that new groundhog Chuck keeps bothering me trying to place bets on whether or not he’ll see his shadow. I have $50 on him but I think I might lose it.”
“No, Jack. More recently. As in the-last-day-or-so recently?”
Jack scowled. “I haven’t.”
Charlie raised an eyebrow and took a step closer. “Really? So you’ve just been playing this club like nothing’s wrong?”
Jack turned defensive and straightened his coat. “Yes! What is the big deal?”
“Time has stopped working, Jack,” Scott said, “The sun goes down on the 23rd of December but never rises again on Christmas Eve. How could you not have noticed?”
“Never mind that none of you bothered to ask but I don’t pay attention so much to the days anymore. Only to the seasons. I only care about how long I can stick around till the sun comes out for good. Your little holiday isn’t the only concern on everyone’s minds, Santa. In fact, if it is gonna stay this way for a while, I might be in for a bit of fun.”
Kit looked to Bernard and saw the fumes pouring from his ears. But before she could stop him, Bernard crammed his way forward and seemed to grow several feet above all the adults in his anger.
“Listen, you blue-faced popsicle. Not everyone here knows you like I do, but you and I both know the kind of field day Mother Nature would have with you if she knew you were conspiring against her wishes. So you’d better talk and you better say something interesting!”
And suddenly the outburst was over. Kit saw his clenched fists. This wasn’t him. She rested a hand on his arm and he whipped around to her, almost making her jump. But, his eyes had calmed and his body had relaxed. He retreated back to her side and watched her with an almost curious gaze.
The ice in Jack’s hair and veins had begun to appear after the incident. Kit noticed him clearer this time. How inhuman he looked…
Santa broke the silence. “You heard the man, Frost. Father Time is missing and we think all this has something to do with his disappearance. We’ve already checked his domain and couldn’t find a sign of him.”
Frost glared them all down but proceeded, “Fine, I knew about the time relapse. And I have been getting more…bold with my weather changes. But, I didn’t know about Father Time. Not like I have any clue where he could be. It’s been months since I saw the old man.”
“Do you have an idea where he could be?” Kit chirped.
“No, I really don’t. Sorry.”
The group fell silent. Kit’s mind reeled with a handful of different emotions but she couldn’t deny the fierce disappointment ebbing away inside. They’d come all the way here…One by one, they turned to go. There was nothing for them in New York. And Kit couldn’t get the image of her mother out of her mind.
“Wait—” Jack added, “have you tried all of New York?”
They turned back around.
“What do you mean?” Charlie spoke up.
“I mean you might have luck with some more Legendaries in town. Baby New Year is living in Queens but he’s up to his baby fat in work this time of year. And of course, there’s Flora Mae.”
Kit froze up. She recognized that name but couldn’t remember it for the life of her from where.
“Flora Mae…” she echoed until Bernard finally noticed her. He looked up.
“Flora Mae?” he pressed, “Who’s Flora—”
Then, it struck her. “Flora Mae! I remember her from the books, Bernard. She had something to do with Father Time, but I can’t remember…”
Scott turned back to Frost. “Where does she live?”
“Upper West Side of Manhattan, I believe. But, I wouldn’t trust what she says too much. She may be younger than Mother Nature but she sure doesn’t look or act like it.”
“Who is Flora Mae?” Bernard asked. Kit turned her attention to the elf next to her.
“She’s the younger sister of Mother Nature, just a few thousand years younger. Her official title is the May Queen, but she doesn’t go by it anymore. How do you not know her?”
“There’s a good reason,” Jack kindly added. “She’s a loon. A few hundred years back, she closed herself off from society and didn’t give a reason why. Now, she doesn’t talk to anyone anymore. She’s mostly a forgotten myth.”
Charlie looked to his dad. “Well, I guess it’s time to bring her out of retirement.”
Scott put a hand on Frost’s shoulder to which he made a disgusted face. “Thank you, Jack, for your help. We won’t bother you again. But, you should show up again at our meetings. We like to see your face around…sometimes.”
Frost appeared a little startled and the icy wisps of hair and veins began receding back. “Oh. Okay. And um, Santa?”
“Yes?”
“How has um…Lucy been? You know, the short carrot-headed-looking child?”
Kit smirked. “You should ask her yourself. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband.”
Frost nodded, waved his hand so all the cords and buttons realigned themselves, and soon disappeared back behind the curtain. The audience eased back into comfortable applause. And the music resumed itself.
Scott addressed the group with a quick glance around the room. “I think it’s time we left and set up camp for the night.”
“Camp?” added Kit.
“Well, of course,” Scott chuckled with his notable Santa laugh, “You didn’t expect us to sleep in the sleigh, now did you?”
After returning back to the apartment building in the Bronx, Scott flew them each up one by one with his bag. Kit rushed over to the reindeer and buried herself in their heat.
“Oh, I missed you guys so much!” she squealed, laying a fat kiss on Donner’s cheek. Bernard watched in amusement and almost couldn’t distinguish her from the little girl she’d once been all those years ago. Once Scott and Charlie made it up, Scott began reaching deep into the bag.
“You’ll be happy to know,” he began, “that Curtis has been working on a portable North Pole camp for a while now. And we’ve got the first edition to try out.” He pulled out what looked like an ordinary present the size of a basketball. It was wrapped in gold paper and tied perfectly with a fat red bow. Scott backed the group up and set down the gift in a wide-open space over the rooftop. He backed up several meters and pulled out a small remote control. Finally, he heaved a deep sigh and determinedly pointed the remote towards the gift.
“Curtis, you better not have messed this up.”
With a click of a button, the present suddenly sprang to life and released an explosion of fabric, lights, and assorted materials. The objects spun around so rapidly in a storm of magic and color that Kit hardly knew where to look. However, in a matter of seconds, a decorated and beautifully crafted campsite was set up with three tents and a central heater with extra seating. The tents looked right out of the North Pole with deeply colored fabrics and a golden structural build. They stood so tall and proud that Kit thought it was straight out of a storybook. The heater blazed so warmly that she could feel it from several meters away.
“Wow!” Charlie exclaimed, “This is just magnificent! How did Curtis do all this?”
Bernard raised his eyebrows and commented, “Cocoa and sheer determination.”
Kit didn’t hesitate to bound over to the campsite and peek inside all the tents. It was much deeper looking on the inside of each, fitted nicely with two beds in each tent and matching trunks. The space inside resembled much of the rooms at the North Pole, fitted with magnificent color schemes, thick fabrics, and gold and silver ornamentation. He even managed to fit a fully decorated Christmas tree in each tent! After searching through each tent, she popped her head outside into the cold air and cried, “This is so cool! I love magic!”
Bernard laughed to himself, following her in, and started searching around as well. Charlie and Scott opted to stay near the warm heater.
“Do you really think this woman might be the key to finding Father Time, Dad?”
Scott straightened his cap and reached out towards the heat. “Flora Mae isn’t just a woman, Charlie. She’s extremely powerful. Almost as powerful as Mother Nature herself. And Kit was right about her and Father Time. He still speaks of it now and again.”
Charlie kept his gaze down. “So Frost was right then?”
“Not necessarily. I’ve never met Flora Mae myself but I’ve heard quite a bit about her. But I wouldn’t be so quick to make judgments about her. The only thing we can do is wait and hope.”
Charlie smiled, giving a kind look to his father. So many things had changed yet it felt like it never did since that night on the roof.
The night had closed in and the snow was beginning to fall thicker. The wind had picked up and the storms were making their way in once again. Bernard and Scott had gone to their own tents while Kit remained with her father in the last one. The brutality of the storm couldn’t penetrate the camp Curtis had built, but it still left an eerie howl that echoed all through the night. Kit tried to sleep in her bed, piled under blankets to keep in the heat, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was her mother’s call in the wind outside. It made her toss and turn so much she nearly screamed. This was pointless—all this waiting. Who knew if this May Queen person would even be of any help. Hannah was out there worried to death about Charlie and Kit. And there’d be no sign of them anywhere. What if something worse had happened and she wasn’t safe? No one was out watching her. What if the worry was too much?
Kit pulled herself forward and sat straight up in bed. But her mother’s voice crying in her head faded back to the low howl of the wind. What if they could never fix this after all?
She looked over to where her father was sleeping. But the spot was empty. Growing more and more concerned, Kit drew herself from the bed and wrapped a thick robe around herself. She slipped on a pair of chunky fur boots and crept out into the snow. The wind was brutal outside their own personal bubble. But all that fell through their protective shield was a light dusting of snowflakes. Charlie was still sitting at the heater, staring straight through their shield and out to the distant Brooklyn. He noticed his daughter after a few seconds, smiled, and ushered her over. Kit sat near him and shuffled closer to the heater. It was obvious why he was still up. She had the same problem.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about what we’re going to do after this whole mess is over with,” Charlie began.
Kit gave him a strange look. “What do you mean? We’ll go home, see Mom, have Christmas—”
“No, Kit. Not that.” He sighed and held his hands together in a tired fist. “You’ve split your life up here, kiddo. I know you love the North Pole and all your friends there. But, I know you love New York too. You wouldn’t have applied for college here if you didn’t.”
Kit shrugged it off and nestled closer into the heat. “So what? I’ll just go to school here like I planned and we’ll visit whenever possible like before. It’ll make it harder, but we knew this, right?”
Charlie took Kit’s hand in his own, opened his mouth to speak, but changed course. Suddenly, she was concerned. “You don’t act the same anymore, Kit. Not with him. Not even with Grandpa Scott. Grandpa knows, but you need to—”
“No,” she spat, dropping her dad’s hand.
“Listen to me. You need to tell him. Or else it’ll only make it worse and you’re gonna make an enemy out of a longtime friend.”
“I know what I’m doing. And what’ll make it worse is stirring up more mess in this already crappy situation. I’ll just take a break from the North Pole.”
“And lie? Kit, this isn’t just Bernard we’re talking about. Your friends—”
“I can make new friends!”
The storm seemed to hush and all around them was quiet or so it felt. Even the snowflakes had stopped falling. Kit pulled herself up from Charlie’s side and watched the heater. She clutched her fists together. She was tired too.
“I just…” she started, feeling the barbed wire climbing up her throat. She blinked back a few times. “I just miss Mom.” Charlie took a second, searching in himself. He swallowed back his own barbed wire and looked deep in the heater.
“I do too.”
Kit let herself sit back down. She looked out to Brooklyn. It didn’t even seem that far away.
“I hear her, you know. In the wind and in the snow. I just want her to be safe.”
Charlie watched her and drew a gentle finger under her eye to catch a tear. “Hey,” he cooed, “your mom is a lot stronger than you know. She married into this family, remember?”
A strained laugh choked Kit for a second before she fell back into the cold. Charlie shifted closer to his daughter and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer.
“I wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t think Hannah couldn’t handle this kind of chaos. Your mom—she’s tough and smart. And resilient as hell.”
“Still,” Kit moaned, “We should’ve left a sticky note on the fridge or something.”
Charlie chuckled and pressed a kiss to her head. The wind had resumed its howls. The storm raged on. And the world outside was dangerous and heartless. But, they had their safe space.
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