When Santa Went Missing

by Parinita Shetty

  ‘Even if they do,’ Mido said, shrugging, ‘it’s not like they’re going to come looking for it here. We’re in the middle of nowhere! Nobody knows this island exists. Which means nobody knows how to get here.’ He turned to me. ‘So you see, the factory is completely safe. You don’t need to worry.’

  ‘I’m not crying because of your factory,’ I sniffed. ‘I’m crying because . . . because Dad . . . because we have to . . .’ I burst into renewed sobs.

  Mido hurried us into an entrance at the base of the pyramid and summoned the factory’s chief elf. He then tried to explain the problem to her, which was a little difficult since he didn’t know what the matter was himself.

  The chief, who was an ancient, wrinkly elf named Ahura, was convinced that the lack of food and sleep was making me cranky.

  ‘I’d be bawling, too, if I was starving and exhausted.’ She patted my knee understandingly and refused to listen to another word until we had been fed and forced to take a long nap.

  When I woke up, I still felt gloomy but at least my tears were under control. I took a better look at my surroundings and saw that we were inside simple stone quarters. I stepped out of my room and saw Coral, Bean and Gilmore talking to Ahura.

  ‘We haven’t had time to liven things up here yet,’ said Ahura apologetically as I walked over to them. ‘But once Christmas is over, we’ll be ready to redecorate.’

  ‘About Christmas . . .’ I shot my companions a meaningful look.

  ‘Oh, don’t worry,’ Ahura said breezily. ‘They’ve told me all about your little problem. I wouldn’t fret about your father, dear. He’s so absent-minded that he probably got lost on his way home.’

  I looked at her, puzzled. ‘Dad’s not really known for being absent-minded.’

  ‘No?’ Ahura frowned. ‘Oh, that’s right. I was thinking about your great-grandfather. Never known anyone like him for losing presents. Our backup presents needed backup presents in those days!’

  Her words didn’t exactly make me feel better. Ahura assured us that nothing could stop them from working, not even a misplaced Santa.

  I was beginning to feel teary-eyed again. Gilmore and Bean decided it was time to say goodbye. They thanked the African elves for taking such good care of us, wished them luck with their redecoration plans, led me to the sleigh and directed the reindeer to Europe.

  A worried Bean used the radio to call Avery.

  ‘She’s . . . crying?’ Avery muttered in disbelief after listening to her panicked explanation. He hadn’t seen me cry in over six years. Neither had Mom, who happened to be with him.

  ‘Is it because you’re hungry?’ her concerned voice called out from the sleigh’s receiver. ‘You left so quickly that I had no time to pack any food for your trip. You must be starving!’

  ‘It’s not because I’m hungry,’ I sniffled.

  ‘You have a cold!’ Mom exclaimed. ‘Of course, you’re freezing. You’re dressed in pyjamas! I’m going to send you socks and sweaters right away!’

  ‘It’s not the cold, Mom!’ Avery protested. ‘She’s just being a river. Not a good time to brush up on your acting skills, Noel. You’re scaring the elves.’

  ‘What?’ I spluttered.

  ‘It’s time to be a desert, sis,’ Avery replied. ‘Calm and dry.’

  Of all the ridiculous things to say! With these nut jobs around, a person couldn’t even concentrate on crying properly.

  ‘I was crying because I miss Dad, you fool!’ I exclaimed, wiping my tears away. ‘And I’m tired of this stupid adventure. Nothing’s going according to plan! I can’t do this. I can’t save Christmas! I want to come home!’

  ‘But we are going home.’ Bean squeezed my hand. ‘We’re just taking the long way there.’

  ‘And what do you mean you can’t do this?’ Avery demanded.‘You’ve done heaps more than me already and I’m the one sitting with the experts.’

  ‘It’s too hard, Avery,’ I said. ‘None of the elves are like anything we expected.And if you tell me to be a tree again, I’m going to toss rotten fish at you!’

  ‘Rotten fish don’t grow on trees,’ came Avery’s reply. ‘I think you meant rotten fruits.’

  ‘Why can’t I have a normal family?’ I groaned. Which was when I remembered my sanest family member.

  ‘Have you spoken to Granddad yet?’ I asked Avery. ‘What did he say?’

  ‘He isn’t answering our radio calls,’ Avery answered. ‘He must be out.’

  ‘What is it with these Claus elders?’ I grumbled. ‘Why can’t everyone just carry mobile phones like normal people?’

  ‘You know the North Pole has banned mobile phones,’ Gilmore admonished. ‘It’s a security issue!’

  ‘Yeah, yeah.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘But wouldn’t our lives have been much easier if we could have just called Dad to find out where he was?’

  Our flight to the European factory didn’t take too long. We were only in the air for a couple of hours when Bean announced we were almost there. However, as Gilmore steered the reindeer earthward, we were caught in the middle of a torrential downpour. The rain was falling so thick and fast that the reindeer found it difficult to fly. ‘We have to land!’ Gilmore spluttered through a mouthful of water. ‘The reindeer can’t see anything! We’ll have to use the sleigh on the ground!’

  The sleigh landed in the middle of a field with a muddy squelch and the reindeer made their way through the sodden ground towards the factory.

  ‘Landing in the middle of a storm,’ I sighed. ‘Not the best timing.’

  ‘Oh, it’s not a storm,’ Bean replied. ‘It’s just Wales. It’s nearly always raining here.’

  ‘Fantastic,’ I muttered. We seemed to be spending an inordinate amount of time on this quest being drenched to the bone.

  Even in all this rain, herds of black-faced sheep stood all over the field. I saw a lamb skip up to its mother, slip in the mud and run headlong into her behind. She emitted a startled ‘baa!’

  We neared a large village full of stone houses. I thought we were going to enter it but the sleigh only edged around its outskirts.

  ‘Where is the factory anyway?’ I asked Bean.

  ‘It’s in a castle nearby,’ she answered. ‘We still have a few kilometres to go.’

  ‘A castle?’ I gasped. Before I could bombard the elves with excited questions, a group of people emerged from one of the lanes in the village and marched out to us. A young woman with fierce red hair to match my own spoke first.

  ‘Who are you?’ she demanded. ‘And more importantly, what are you doing with these poor animals?’ She shot the reindeer a sympathetic glance.

  Uh-oh. We had avoided entering the village so that our odd group wouldn’t have to meet anyone. But it seemed like the village certainly wanted to meet us.

  I looked around at the elves, the reindeer and the sleigh. Then I looked back at the group and smiled.

  ‘We’re part of a Christmas troupe.’ I gestured towards the others. ‘We’ve been sent ahead to scout the area for a suitable place to set up camp.’

  ‘A Christmas troupe?’ The girl raised her eyebrows suspiciously.

  ‘Santa’s helpers, you know,’ I said cheerfully. ‘We have the elves, the sleigh and the reindeer. I play his daughter. The rest of the cast will be along soon.’

  ‘You’re here to stage a play?’ the girl asked.

  I nodded confidently, pleased that I had come up with such a brilliant cover story.

  ‘And you’re forcing these reindeer to work in a climate that is not their own, just so you can put up a silly show?’ she asked, sounding appalled.

  I nodded, a little less confidently. Her friends broke out in angry whispers.

  ‘These animals are meant to roam free!’ the girl exclaimed. ‘And they’re certainly not meant to struggle through the wet weather of Wales! You have to let them go!’

  ‘These reindeer are resilient beasts,’ Gilmore protested. ‘They’re comfortable in every single corner of the planet
. They’re meant to travel!’

  ‘Nonsense!’ one man in the group screamed. ‘Look at how terrified they seem! Look at how unhappy they are!’

  We all looked at the reindeer. Apart from a few grumpy snorts from the old reindeer and a series of impatient stamps by the younger ones, the animals seemed fine.

  ‘How dare you!’ Gilmore was extremely offended. ‘These reindeer are the happiest animals you’ll find. We take very good care of them!’

  ‘You have to set them free,’ the girl insisted. ‘It’s all right if you can’t transport them to their proper home in the north. We’ll take care of it for you.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Gilmore snapped.‘These reindeer are like family. You don’t abandon family!’

  I was tired of this conversation. ‘Why are we standing around trying to convince them of something that is none of their business?’ I asked impatiently. ‘We’re wasting time. Let’s go!’

  We ignored the angry group of villagers, got back in the sleigh and instructed the reindeer to get us out of there. After plodding ahead for ten minutes, I could see the castle in the distance. The massive stone fortress stood imposingly over the countryside. As we got nearer, I saw that even though the castle was dilapidated in some places, overall, it looked in pretty good shape.

  While entering the courtyard, the sleigh bumped over large rocks, the remains of a stone wall that had once encircled the castle. Bean had already warned the factory elves of our arrival so we were greeted by a welcoming committee of three elves. We left the sleigh and the reindeer inside the yard where the animals happily began gnawing on the grass.The elves then led us to the enormous doorway of the castle.

  Coral pointed at the openings high up on the exterior walls of the castle. ‘Murder holes, you know,’ he said conversationally.

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘They were used to pour boiling oil on enemies that tried to storm the gates,’ he replied. ‘Ingenious structures.’

  The elf who had had introduced himself as Oliver laughed at Coral’s comment.‘We only use them for water balloon fights these days,’ he said.

  Like this country needed any more water. I wiped the rain dripping from my eyebrows into my eyes and peered at the castle in front of me. I counted eight towers in all. The entire structure was so massive that I could easily imagine someone getting lost in it, never to be seen again. Oliver gave us a tour of the parts of the castle that the elves used. The factory and the elves’ rooms only took up about a quarter of the entire building. He then introduced us to the rest of the elves who stopped their work and cheerfully sat with us for a meal and a chat.

  ‘Elves are terrible gossips,’ an old elf remarked at my astonishment that everyone seemed to know Dad was missing.

  ‘It’s only you North Polers who are cut off from the rest of the world,’ an elf called Amelia commented. ‘News travels fast among the rest of us.’

  ‘We’ve even sent out small search parties of our own,’ Oliver said. ‘As have those Asian elves. We’ve been busy scouring both continents for any trace of Santa but haven’t had any luck so far.’

  I looked at Gilmore, Bean and Coral. ‘The state of Christmas doesn’t seem as doomed as we have been led to believe,’ I observed.

  ‘You saw the Californians!’ Gilmore objected. But even he didn’t sound entirely convinced.

  Selena and Austen had been sure that the news of Dad’s disappearance would send shockwaves of paralysing panic amongst elves all over the world. But everyone we had met so far seemed to be handling the news exceptionally well. As worried as they were about Dad, they hadn’t stopped working just because he wasn’t there. They were looking at the bigger picture. Even the Californians had a few elves determined to keep making toys.

  After we finished eating, we stayed back to talk to our hosts some more. Soon it was time for us to leave. We were thoroughly relieved that the European kids’ presents were in safe elfish hands.

  ‘If what you say is true, we may even be able to skip the Asian factory altogether,’ I suggested. ‘If the elves there are willing to make up for an absent Santa, we could make our way straight to Australia.’

  Oliver shook his head. ‘The Asians haven’t had any contact with the North Pole at all,’ he said. ‘Which is extremely unusual this close to Christmas. They may be loyal but they’re getting a bit paranoid.’

  ‘Why hasn’t anyone from home been in touch with them?’ I asked.

  ‘You know what Selena said,’ Gilmore muttered sheepishly. ‘She didn’t want the elves to panic. She probably figured no news was better than bad news.’

  ‘That sounds like a terrible idea!’ Bean exclaimed.

  Oliver nodded. ‘It would be wise to meet the Asian elves and assure them that you’re doing everything you can to save Christmas. They’ll be relieved to hear from Santa’s daughter.’

  As we were talking, we walked out of the castle entrance and made our way to the courtyard. We strolled towards the spot where we had parked the sleigh when I suddenly stood stock-still.

  Oliver, who had been walking beside me, turned around in confusion when he saw I was no longer with him. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

  The sleigh was right where we had left it, but every single reindeer had disappeared.

  17

  Suggested ways we could get back home without any reindeer:

  1. ‘We could have used aeroplanes but I doubt we would get tickets. The holiday season is the busiest. Oh, and we don’t have any money.’—An uncharacteristically calm Gilmore

  2. ‘We could stick out a thumb and ask for a lift from a passing spaceship.’—A characteristically unhelpful Coral

  3. ‘We’ll just have to go by sea. We’ll have to sneak onboard a ship headed first to Asia and then sneak on another one to Australia. From there we would have to hop on to a ship that’s going back home, um, to the other side of the planet. It might take a few more months than we had initially anticipated, but we’re by no means stranded.’—An inappropriately excited Bean

  4. ‘Will you all just shut?’—Me

  ‘Where could the reindeer have gone?’ I demanded. ‘The sleigh’s right here!’

  ‘Do you think they could have flown away?’ Bean asked.

  ‘Impossible!’ I replied. ‘They were harnessed to the sleigh. Unless they’ve magically learned how to untie themselves, they couldn’t have gone anywhere.’

  ‘But they have gone somewhere,’ Bean pointed out.

  ‘It was probably those animal activists,’ Coral offered. I spun around to face him. ‘What animal activists?’

  ‘Those humans we met outside the village who were so obsessed with the reindeer’s well-being,’ Coral answered calmly. ‘I noticed them stealthily following us so I assume it was them.’

  ‘They were following us?’ I yelped. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’

  ‘Because I was hoping those idiots would come up with something smarter to disrupt our quest,’ Coral said exasperatedly. ‘But all they did was kidnap the reindeer.’

  ‘Isn’t that bad enough?’ I shouted at the annoying elf. ‘We’re stranded! How are we going to get anywhere?’

  ‘As much as I wish that were true,’ Coral sighed dejectedly. ‘We are not stranded.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I growled.

  ‘Did you forget you have a reindeer expert along?’ Gilmore reminded me.

  I let out a huge breath. ‘You can track them to the moon if you have to.’ I remembered our conversation earlier.

  Gilmore instructed us all to stand back. He went up to the sleigh and stared at the harness and the path around it for a few minutes. He then lay down on the ground and began sniffing it, before crawling back and forth. I was now convinced that Gilmore had finally damaged his brain and was suffering from an intense mental breakdown.

  After ten minutes of this nonsense, he stood up and shook himself hard to dislodge the wet mud from his body. If this was how the elves tracked reindeer, I’m glad I was a
llowed to skip that class.

  After realizing that his mud-removal efforts were getting him nowhere, Gilmore turned around to look at us. ‘That’s where the reindeer have gone.’ He pointed.

  Now I was convinced that he had gone completely nuts. He was pointing at the way back inside the castle.

  ‘You think the activists stole our reindeer and took them into the castle when they knew we were inside?’ I asked.

  Gilmore noticed the incredulity in my tone but refused to back down. ‘That’s the way they went,’ he insisted. ‘Reindeer tracks don’t lie.’

  I opened my mouth to point out how absurd his theory was when Oliver interrupted me.

  ‘It’s pretty clever, really,’ he said. ‘There was nobody at the entrance and the castle is huge. They could have easily passed by unobserved when we were in the factory. Most of the castle is empty.’

  ‘And nobody would think of looking for the reindeer there,’ Bean conceded.

  Gilmore looked at both of them approvingly and ordered us back where we had come from. We followed the reindeer’s tracks through the castle. Well, we followed Gilmore, who assured us he was following the track. Every few minutes, he would stop, lie down and sniff the ground again before springing up and leading us onward.

  The part of the castle we were walking through was completely deserted. The rooms were well-furnished, the corridors were thickly carpeted, the ceilings had ornate chandeliers, the walls were full of old portraits and some corridors even had complete suits of armour leaning against the walls. However, all of these were covered in a thick layer of dust and the air hung with a sense of disuse.

  We walked for about twenty minutes in the dark castle. Oliver had whipped out a torch from his pocket and we were following Gilmore using its dim beam.

  ‘Shouldn’t we have found them by now?’ I asked.

  ‘We’re almost at the other end of the castle,’ Oliver replied in mild astonishment. ‘Maybe they’ve headed out to the back entrance. They seem to be familiar with the castle’s layout.’

  ‘This is probably their animal rescue headquarters,’ Bean said.