Lost Magic

The old man entered the office behind the desk of which sat a fairy busily typing upon a computer.

 

“Is this the department of lost magic?”, asked the old man slumping down in a chair looking gloomy.

 

“Yes it is”, said the fairy, turning towards him, “What kind of magic is it, exactly that you’ve lost. Is it the magic of a relationship; the magic something that brought you and your partner together just doesn’t seem to be there anymore or perhaps you’ve lost the knack for something, lost that magic touch”.

 

“No”, said the man “Neither of those things. It’s Christmas. I’ve lost the spirit of Christmas”.

 

“Oh”, said the fairy now recognizing the old man’s face, “Oh it’s you Santa. You look so different without a beard”.

 

“I shaved it off”, said Santa, stroking his smooth chin, “I’ve been thinking of packing the whole thing in, you see. Hanging up the old red suit for good”.

 

“Oh but you can’t do that”, said the fairy, shocked, “Think of the children. They’ll be so disappointed. Why my own little fairy children adore you”.

 

“I know, I know”, said Santa, “Don’t you think I know. Every year the elves hit me with the same guilt trip. What about the kids, Santa? They believe in you, Santa.  You can’t let the kids down. But I can’t help it. If the magic’s gone, its gone. I don’t know. It just feels like the same old thing year after year, like my life’s in a loop. I just feel bored of it all, I suppose. What do I do?”.

 

The fairy scratched her glittery wig with her wand,

 

“That’s a tough one”, she said.

 

But, just then, the fairies eyes lit up.

 

“Perhaps you just need to remember why you became Santa Clause in the first place”, she said, picking up and tapping her fairy wand upon the table , “And to do that. You need to be a child again”.

 

She tapped the wand once, she tapped it twice; she tapped it three times.

 

“Klause”, said his mothers voice.

 

The little boy opened his eyes, he was in his room in the grey, drab tenement where he and his mother lived and his mother had just come back, as usual, from the market.

 

“Yes mother”, he said running into the next room.

 

“Help momma put these things away will you, darling”, she said, unpacking the things she had bought.

 

Klaus took jars of pickled herring out of her basket and started to put them on a shelf.

 

“Mother”, he said, “Why can’t I have Christmas presents like other boys at my school?”.

 

“I can’t afford to buy you Christmas presents, dear, you know that”, she said, “It takes all the money that I earn just keeping this roof over our heads and paying for the food we eat. If I had the money to I would buy you anything you wanted, anything that money could buy, but I just can’t afford it”.

 

“I wish that kid’s stuff didn’t cost money”, said the boy gloomily, “It’s no fun being a kid and not being able to have anything”.

 

“If wishes were real”, said his mother, sitting down, tired of being on her feet all day, “Then reindeers would fly but they don’t. What can you do? Except study really hard at school, be a good boy and then maybe one day you can make it so that there are no poor little children who don’t have toys at Christmas”.

 

Just then, Klaus thought he saw something; something small scamper past and go into his room.

 

He put the last of the jars on the shelf and went into his room, looking around but he couldn’t see anything.

 

“I’m sure I saw it”, he thought.

 

But then he noticed something, under the covers of his bed, a shape sticking out.

 

“It’s too large to be a mouse or a rat; maybe it’s a cat or a dog?”, he thought, excitedly.

 

He took hold of the edge of his bed clothes and pulled them away, quickly.

 

“Help”, said a little man sitting on his bed, cowering and covering his head with his hands, “Don’t hurt me”.

 

“I wouldn’t hurt you”, said the boy, half gasping with astonishment, his eyes lighting up with wonder, “What are you?”.

 

“An elf”, said the little man, taking his hands away from his head.

 

Klaus saw that the little man had large pointy ears.

 

“Well, what are you doing in my bedroom?”, asked the boy.

 

“The human world is in terrible trouble”, said the elf, “I’ve come from the fairy realm to warn them”.

 

“What kind of trouble?”, asked the little boy, sitting down on the bed next to the elf.

 

“Gloom”, said the elf, “There is too much gloom in the world. Humans can’t see it like we fairy folk. To them it’s just a feeling in their hearts but to us, oh, it’s like a dark shadow, like a gloom swarm covering the whole world and no good can come of it; believe me for where there’s gloom there are always goblins; bad fairies; they can only go about in the world as long as there’s gloom in it; as long as people are mean to each other and selfish and make each other sad”.

 

“Oh well”, said the boy, sighing and frowning, “I don’t know what to do about that. A lot of people have hard lives”.

 

The elf seized hold of the boys frowning lips and bent them upwards into a u-shaped smile,

“Don’t you start”, he said, “Or before you know it your room will be crawling in goblins. Do what I do. Sing a cheery song. Dance, like this”.

 

The elf started to dance upon Klauses bed, bouncing and tumbling head over heels.

 

Klause smiled as he watched the elf try to tumble and then, tripping, fall flat upon its face.

 

“What have you got to be gloomy about any way?”, said the Elf.

 

“Oh, well”, said Klause, “I don’t have a father and my mother is very poor”.

 

“But don’t you have wishes and dreams?”, said the elf.

 

“Oh yes, I have lots of those”, said the boy, “But mother says wishes and dreams don’t work. If wishes were real, she says, reindeers would fly”.

 

“But reindeers do fly”, said the elf, “At least, fairy reindeers do and wishes and dreams; why there’s nothing more powerful in all the world”.

 

But just then the elf noticed something sitting upon Klause’s desk; eight carved wooden painted figures; Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

 

“What lovely dolls”, he said, “And such good likenesses, too. I know the seven dwarves personally and they look just like that”.

 

“I made them”, said the boy, picking up two of the seven dwarves and handing them to the elf, “My mother doesn’t have any money to buy me toys so I have to make my own”.

 

“They’re really good”, said the elf, “Toys are wonderful things. They make little children happy and when children are happy their hearts glow just like stars or fireflies amid all the gloom. Sometimes, we fairies sit and watch them glow. If there were more toys in the world then I’m sure there would be less gloom and far fewer goblins”.

 

But, just then, the little elfs large ears started to flap like wings and his eyes started to glow.

 

“That’s it”, he said.

 

“What is?”, said the boy.

 

“We need to give your toys to every child in the world and when every child in the world is playing with toys, why, then their hearts will all glow at once and there’ll be no more gloom in the world”, said the Elf.

 

“My toys”, said the boy, “But how. How will I give my toys to all the children in the world”.

 

“Magic”, said the elf, “And flying reindeers”.

 

Just then, however, the elf and Klause heard a noise from nearby, like growling and, looking over in the direction it came from, they saw something emerging from a shadow as if out of a hole in the wall.

 

It was small with pointy ears just like an elf but it was made from darkness and it had a snarl upon its face and long sharp claws upon its hands.

 

“What is that?”, asked Klause, becoming afraid.

 

“A Goblin”, said the elf, “It must have crept in while you were having gloomy thoughts. Quick, you must think of something happy”.

 

Klause closed his eyes and thought of his mother and his father and him together having a happy Christmas and a heart shaped golden beam shone from his chest and where it touched the Goblin the creature started to crack and crumble into pieces of darkness until, howling with despair, the wicked creature was reduced to nothing but a pile of black dust like burnt toast upon his bedroom floor.

 

“Phew”, said the Elf, “Thank goodness for that. Only two things can destroy a goblin. Love and happiness”.

 

Santa Clause woke up again from the dream he had been having; he was still in the department of lost magic.

 

“Well”, said the fairy, “What happened?”.

 

“I was a child again. I saw how it all started and I remembered how it was before there was a Santa Clause”, said the old man.

 

“How was it?”, asked the fairy.

 

“Not a nice place”, he said but then, a new look of determination filling his eyes, he added, “No the world needs Santa Clause and a happy Christmas; not just the kids but everyone. There’s too much gloom in the world and it can’t be allowed to win”.

 

Santa Clause stood up. He looked a different man from the gloomy one that had walked into the office.

 

“So have you found the spirit of Christmas again?”, said the fairy.

 

“There’s only one way to tell”, said Santa.

 

Then, his rosy cheeks aglow and a twinkle in his eye, the old man said in a happy booming voice,

 

“Ho- ho-ho! Merry Christmas to everyone and to everyone a happy new year”.