Santa’s Double Trouble

Copyright 2002 By Cia Leah

ISBN 1-58495-902-9

Electronically published in arrangement with the author

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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.

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Santa’s Double Trouble

By Cia Leah

It was the week before Christmas at the North Pole and all the reindeer and elves were busy with last minute preparations to make sure everything was ready before Christmas Eve. The North Pole was decked out with holly, bows, and lights, and snow fell in a light fall of snowflakes that glistened and glimmered like glitter on the ground.

Now Santa oversaw all of the North Pole with his assistant, Head Elf, Elftin. It took a whole year to get ready just for Christmas Eve and then it started all over again for the next year. This year they were even a little ahead of schedule and as Santa stood and looked around, he couldn’t help but smile at the two little reindeer who were jumping and playing under the North Pole clock. North Pole clock had stood for centuries throughout time and still chimed the time he was to leave on Christmas Eve to deliver the toys for all the girls and boys in the world. "Ho, ho, ho! Come here Ruddie and Roddy Reindeer.

Ruddie stopped playing and turned to look at Santa and flew over to stand proudly in front of him. "Hi Santa. Roddy and I were just playing."

"So I see," Santa said, as Roddy joined them. Santa laughed in jolly glee. For twins, these two were as different as day and night, but as alike as two twin deer could get. Often he had watched their playful antics in the snow and he knew they were going to be the best flyers he had when they got a little older and had more stamina. "Don’t either of you have anything to do to help Santa get ready for Christmas?"

Ruddie shook his head as the little bell collar around his neck tinkled merrily. "Papa said the best thing that Roddy and I could do was to go play and stay out of trouble."

Santa laughed as his belly shook. "I guess your Papa knows best, but every reindeer should have something to keep them busy and to contribute to the preparation of getting ready for Santa’s ride on Christmas Eve."

"Well what can we do, Santa? We’re too little to do much and Papa says we get into too much mischief even when we aren’t looking for it."

Santa thought for a moment. "I think I have something you can both do and not get into any trouble at all. How would you like to take a message to Elftin for me? I was going to go see him, but Mrs. Clause has supper ready and she hates it when I’m late."

Ruddie pranced back and forth as Roddy stood watching. "You mean we can take the message to the toy factory, Santa? We can go inside?"

"Yes and just for being such good little reindeer, there will be a special present for each of you under the town tree on Christmas morning."

Ruddie jumped up and down in the snow. "Did you hear that, Roddy? We’re gonna help Santa and we both get a special present on Christmas morning!"

Roddy jumped up to stand beside his brother. "I can’t wait until Christmas morning, Santa! This is our first Christmas!"

Santa laughed. "Well it will be a special Christmas for you! Now, I want you to take this note to Elftin and tell him that I said it is time. With the note, he will know what I mean."

Ruddie took the note in his hoof and tucked it in his collar. "We’ll do it right away Santa. You can depend on us!" he said, and motioned to Roddy to follow him as Santa turned away and went into his house for supper.

The toy factory was a couple miles away from Santa’s residence so Ruddie and Roddy walked along through the snow playing as they went when a chilly, cold wind began to blow.

Ruddie stopped and looked around. "We better hurry and get there before this storm gets worse, Roddy."

"Yeah and we need to get home too. I’m getting hungry and Papa will be upset if we are late."

"No he won’t because we are doing a favor for Santa. He will be proud that Santa gave us something special to do, but it looks like there’s a storm coming. Come on!"

Ruddie and Roddy decided flying would be the fastest way to get to the toy factory so they took flight. Wind and snow and sleet, slashed at their faces, stinging their eyes and noses. Soon they were both out of breath so they landed on the ground, and turned their backs to the storm.

Ruddie leaned close to Roddy. "I’ve never seen a storm so bad but we have to make it to the toy factory. Maybe Elftin will let us stay there until it passes and then we can go home."

"I’m scared, Ruddie. I don’t like storms, especially the wind and it’s going to be dark soon!"

Ruddie leaned close to Roddy and pressed against his brother. He was the oldest by ten minutes and it was up to him to soothe his brother’s fears and make sure they got to the toy factory safely and deliver Santa’s note. "We’re going to get there before dark. We just got to push ahead. Come on, don’t stop and stay close to me!"

Ruddie and Roddy walked side by side, staying close to each other and forged ahead. It took more than a half an hour to finally see the lights of the toy factory come into view. "Look Roddy, we’ve made it! Come on!"

"Can we go home as soon as we deliver the message now?"

"Yes, as soon as we see Elftin and give him the note," Ruddie said, walking to the door and knocking on the Elf doorknocker. He waited and when the door opened, his eyes grew large with amazement at all the elves inside making toys. "We have a message from Santa for Elftin," he said to the elf that stood there looking at them.

"Elftin has gone home for the night. It will have to wait until tomorrow."

"But it can’t! Santa said to give Elftin this note!" He reached his paw up to his collar and pulled out the slip of paper he had tucked there for safety.

"Sorry. You can leave the note and I will give it to him first thing in the morning or you can come back in the morning and give it to him yourself."

Ruddie didn’t know what to do. Should he leave it with this elf and trust him to give it to Elftin? He knew that Santa had entrusted the note in their care and had expected them to deliver it to Elftin himself. "Where does Elftin live?"

"I can’t give out that information, but I can give him the note. What is it about anyway?"

Ruddie shook his head. "We’ll come back in the morning," he said, turning and walking a couple steps away as he waited for Roddy to join him.

"What do we do now, Ruddie?"

"I don’t know, but I guess I better see what the note says. I guess we shouldn’t have taken so much time in getting here and should have hurried."

"Yeah and now Santa will probably be mad at us and we won’t get any Christmas present at all on our first Christmas!"

Ruddie felt so bad. He shouldn’t have tarried so long. He looked at the note and read. Set the button on the North Pole clock tonight at midnight. "Hey Roddy, we can do this! We won’t have to let Santa down! Let’s hurry home and then we can sneak back out after our parents go to sleep and set the North Pole clock!"

"We don’t know how to set the clock, Ruddie."

"Well it can’t be that hard. It says there is some sort of button. All we will have to do is press the button."

"But where is the button and what if there is more than one button?"

"We’ll figure it out. Now let’s get home!" he cried, and flew away with Roddy following him. He was cold, hungry, and tired, but they’d have a couple hours to rest before they had to go back to the North Pole clock. It just couldn’t be that hard to set a button on a clock.

***

Ruddie and Roddy snuggled up on their bed of hay in their cave and listened as their mother and father’s voices finally faded away indicating they had fallen asleep.

Ruddie yawned and looked at his brother whose eyes drifted closed. It didn’t seem like a bad idea to take a small nap and it was still a couple hours away from midnight yet. He’d wake up and what difference would it make if they were a little late as long as the clock was set? He was tired too. He got up and moved his straw bed in front of the window. The storm had stopped and the moonlight would shine in his face as the moon rose higher in the sky and it would wake him up.

Ruddy tucked his front legs under his chin and closed his eyes. In minutes he was asleep, safe and sound in his cave.

***

Back at North Pole clock, strange things were beginning to happen. The clock chimed midnight once, then twice, then an hour later, chimed eleven P.M, and an hour later, chimed ten P.M. Time was reversing and Christmas Eve was getting farther and father away from approaching.

***

Ruddie awoke to bright sunlight shinning in his window. He jumped up and glanced at Roddy who was still fast asleep. "Roddy," he said, shaking his brother. "We overslept and have to get to the clock and set that button!"

"Can’t we have breakfast first, Ruddie?"

"No. There isn’t time. It must still be early because our parents are still asleep. Come on, let’s hurry up!" Ruddie leapt out the window with Roddy following him and they flew quickly to the North Pole clock.

Ruddie stood in front of the clock and stared at it in wonder. The minute hand was moving backwards and at each second that ticked by, the centuries old clock seemed to be shrinking. Something was terribly wrong and to make matters worse, there was no one out and about on the streets of the North Pole. Ruddie knew that the Elves should be out and most of Santa’s reindeer too since they usually got up very early to start their day. "Roddy, I don’t like this," he said, looking at his brother.

"Me either. This is scary and where is everyone?"

"I don’t know."

"It’s as if we are the only two people here or at least awake."

"Yeah and the clock is going backwards and it is shrinking right before our very eyes."

"I wonder where the buttons are for setting it? They’d have to be on the bottom somewhere for Elftin to reach them, wouldn’t you think?"

"Yeah. He can’t reach way up there."

"Help me find them, Roddy. We got to make this right or there isn’t going to be any Christmas!" he cried, jumping towards the clock and walking around it. He came full circle. "I don’t see any button, Roddy. It has to be at the top, but I don’t know if we can fly that high yet."

"I don’t like heights, Ruddie. You know that. Papa said I wouldn’t have to fly with Santa on his sleigh and there were other duties reindeer could perform around the North Pole."

"Yeah, but you can fly high and even higher than I can at times and you’re going to have to help me. I’ll try it first, then if I can’t make it, you can give it a try and we can take turns until maybe one of us can make it to the top or see if there are buttons up there."

"I still don’t see how Elftin could get up there to push a button. There’s got to be another way of doing this."

"Well this is what we’ll try first since I don’t have any other ideas yet."

"Okay, but I wonder how long it will take the clock to shrink down to our size."

"Too long because by then it will be too late to save Christmas," Ruddie said, and leapt into the air. He flew as high as he could, but made it up only half way to the top before he landed on the ground with a thud. "Boy this isn’t going to be easy. You try, Roddy."

"Okay, but I’m closing my eyes!"

"You can’t do that! How will you see the buttons or how high you have gotten?"

"I guess I do have to look don’t I?"

Ruddie grinned. "Yep, and I’ll fly up with you as far as I can too! We’ll do this together!"

Ruddie and Roddy flew up and back down over and over again without much success of getting to the top. They were both tired and watched as the minute hand still moved backwards and every time that sixty minutes went by, the clock shrunk.

"It’s no use," Ruddie cried. "We can’t make it to the top so what do we do now?"

"I don’t know, but we got to get something to eat and drink."

Ruddie glanced once more at the North Pole clock and shook his head. "I guess we can go back home and get something to eat. Maybe we can think of something while we’re eating."

"Sounds good to me. Let’s go."

Ruddie followed his brother home to find his parents still in bed asleep. He and Roddy ate, then walked back outside. "I wonder if we are missing something important?"

Roddy stopped. "Wait! I’ll look in Papa’s history book! Remember how he is always saying we need to read up on the history of the North Pole and all the famous reindeer and the elves?"

"Hey! I bet there is something in there," Ruddie said, waiting as Roddy went inside and brought the book out. He took it and looked in the index. "Here’s about the North Pole clock!" He quickly turned the pages with his hooves until he came to the chapter on it. He read quickly and set the book aside. "Uh oh. We’re in big trouble Roddy."

"Why, what does it say?"

"I says if the button isn’t set at the precise time that Santa says, then dire things will happen at the North Pole. It says the clock will begin to move backwards in time, like it already is, and it will shrink in size until it has disappeared and there will be no more Christmases ever!"

"But that’s awful!"

"Yeah. The North Pole or Santa and his elves and reindeer will no longer exist!"

"But there has to be a way to fix it and why are we still able to be doing things and not sleeping like everyone else?"

"It says that whoever knows about the button is in charge of helping to make things right if head Elf doesn’t set the button and something goes wrong. I guess since we read the note and know about the button, it is up to us to fix it."

"Does it say how though?"

Ruddie looked through the rest of the chapter. "No it doesn’t," he said, flipping through the rest of the history book until he came to the chapter on Father Time. "That’s it!" Roddy we got to go to see Father Time and he will make it all right again!"

"Are you crazy, Ruddie? We don’t know anything about how to get to Father Time. We’ve never flown that far before or even half that far!"

"But we have to try! If we don’t try then all is lost!"

"Are you sure about this?"

"No, but I bet it is the answer and at least Father Time knows what to do about time and we need to get the North Pole clock set back to the right time so that Christmas will come this year and the North Pole will continue to exist."

"I guess, but you better look in that book and see if there are any directions on how to get there and how far it is, because I’m not going with you if you don’t know where you are going!"

Ruddie laughed and punched his brother playfully. "You know you’ll go with me cause we are twins and we do everything together!"

"Yeah, but after this, brother. You are on your own. I want to be independent and have my own personality. Besides, we get into too much trouble together!"

Ruddie laughed and looked at the chapter on Father Time. He memorized the directions, set the book down, and looked at Roddy. "Well, there’s no time like the present. Let’s go see Father Time."

Ruddie and Roddy flew side by side. It was dark, but the stars shone brightly leading them on a path that was outlined in the history book.

Ruddie glanced at his brother. He knew Roddy was tired and he knew that he had to be terrified because of his fear of heights and there was nothing below them but empty space. He gave him credit though. His brother was courageous and stood by him no matter what. Together, they’d make everything right back at the North Pole, he thought as Roddy’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"That’s it, Ruddie! It’s Father Time!"

Ruddie looked at the beautiful site before him. In mid space, there was a large blue gold halo and inside the halo was a clock that looked like an old man. When he and Roddy landed on the drawbridge, a large pendulum swung back and forth above them. "Come on, Roddy. I guess we go in this way," he said, leading the way down the drawbridge to the entrance and stepped inside.

Ruddie gaped in amazement. The whole room was nothing but clocks in all shapes and sizes and standing in the midst of all the chaotic noise emanating from the clocks was Father Time. He cleared his throat noisily and waited for Father Time to notice him.

"So, I guess the reason that the North Pole clock is not working is your fault. Am I right?"

Ruddie glanced at his brother then back to Father Time. "We didn’t mean for anything to happen to the time at the North Pole. When Santa told us to take the note to Elftin, we did, but by the time we got there, Elftin had left for the night. We didn’t know what to do, so we kept the note and then the clock started moving backwards and it is shrinking and everyone on the North Pole is fast asleep except for us."

"Yes, a tragedy for sure."

"There is a way to save Christmas isn’t there Father Time?"

"Maybe. I’ve been thinking about it since I noticed the North Pole clock stopped and started moving backwards. You see I have a replica of every clock in the universe and it is my job to make sure that time moves on."

"Then you can fix it right?"

"You have to fix it. I never leave here, but I will tell you what to do and hopefully it will work and if not, then you will have to come back here again."

Ruddie looked at Roddy. "We’ll do everything we can."

"Good," Father Time said, and walked over and picked up a replica clock of the North Pole clock. "I’ve designed a button. I hope it is the right size. You have to set the button inside the clock right here."

Ruddie watched as Father Time showed him where to put the button. It was right at the bottom where a round hole was. "But the clock has shrunk so where is the hole now?"

"You will have to dig through the snow and ground to find the hole. When you do, put the button in the hole then move away from the clock. Time will begin to revert itself to the present and the clock will stop shrinking and start growing to its regular size. When it does, all will be right once again at the North Pole."

"And if it doesn’t work?"

"Then we will have to start all over again."

Ruddie took the button and slipped it under his collar. "We’ll get started right away Father Time and thank you."

"Just make sure you put it in the right way. The face of the clock on the button is the front side. Now hurry."

Ruddie and Roddy left and began their journey back to the North Pole. Both were lost in their own thoughts of what would happen if the button didn’t work and if it ever would.

Ruddie and Roddy arrived at the North Pole right before dark. Together they began digging through the snow and ground with their hooves. They didn’t stop to eat or drink or rest, but worked diligently until they found the hole in the clock.

Ruddie reached in his collar and pulled out the button. "I hope this works, Roddy," he said and inserted the button in the clock face and jumped back as there was a loud grinding noise, then a loud bonging noise. When the minute hand started moving forward and the clock began to grow again, Ruddie and Roddy laughed in glee. "It’s working!"

"Yes! We did it Ruddie!"

"I wonder how long it will take before everything returns to normal?" Ruddie said, waiting and watching. He and Roddy stayed and stared at the clock the whole night through and by daybreak, the clock was at the right time and the North Pole came alive once again with Santa coming to stand beside them.

"Ruddie, Roddy, you have done a fine job indeed! Father Time has told me what has occurred and of your bravery to make things right once again at the North Pole. You have fixed the clock and without your bravery, then there wouldn’t have been a Christmas ever again."

"We’re sorry Santa. It was our fault. If we wouldn’t have tarried too long on our way to the toy factory then we wouldn’t have missed Elftin."

Santa smiled and reached out and patted Ruddie and Roddy on the head. "I should have told you it was important that you hurry. It was as much my fault as yours, but all is well now and we must all get busy to make up for the time we have lost. You two run on home and meet me at my sleigh on Christmas Eve at eight o’clock sharp."

"Yes, Santa!" Ruddie and Roddy cried, and went home. They wondered why Santa would want them to meet him at his sleigh on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve arrived with a bustle of activity at the North Pole. Santa’s sleigh and reindeer were pulled into the middle of the town square in front of North Pole clock and the elves quickly loaded it with toys for the boys and girls.

Ruddie and Roddy walked up to the sleigh to wait for Santa to notice them. When Santa walked over and stood in front of them, his cheeks all rosy and his belly jiggling with mirth, they thought it the best sight they had ever seen and one they’d remember forever. Their first Christmas Eve was a memory they’d never forget.

"Ruddie, Roddy, hop in the sleigh! You can help me deliver the toys to the boys and girls around the world. For if not for you being responsible enough to fix the North Pole clock, then we wouldn’t be having a Christmas this year or ever again.

Ruddie glanced at his brother. "Do you hear that Roddy? We’re going with Santa to help deliver all the toys!"

"Yeah and we don’t have to fly either!"

Ruddie laughed as Santa’s jolly laughter rang loud and clear.

"Come on, Ruddie and Roddy! Hop inside the sleigh! Roddy, I even have a seat belt for you so you won’t be scared when I fly too fast!"

Ruddie and Roddy hopped up into the sleigh beside Santa and Ruddie watched as Santa placed the belt around his brother’s shoulders to hold him in place. Somehow Ruddie just knew that no matter what, when Santa made his ride and streaked through the sky, Roddy was still going to be afraid. After all, Santa was known for flying upside down and going fast. After all, he only had one night to deliver all the toys. He listened as Santa cried, "Up, Up and away!"

The End

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cia Leah grew up in Ohio, outside of Toronto, at her family’s country home.

She has always been an avid reader and always writing stories for her friends and family.

She is presently working on a suspense/thriller novel and an historical romance novel.