Long Silent Night

by Berryhill, Shane

  “Talbot, Old Man Winter, they were all a smokescreen.

  “From the beginning, it was you who was the fiend!”

  “You kidnapped Santa Claus to stop time and halt the hour,

  “It was the one way for you to always stay in power!”

  “Brilliant!” the mayor said. “Too bad we have to stop.

  “It’s high time I showed you where I’m keeping your pop!”

  Chapter 19

  “Jack.”

  I know I’m dreaming again when I hear Pop’s voice.

  “Jack, wake up, son.”

  It’s so hot in the dream. Like a sauna. It’s agonizing.

  “Jack, it’s me, your father. Wake up, son!”

  I feel my body being shaken. My eyes flutter open and the large, dark silhouette of a man stands over me, the blazing sun forming a corona around him.

  “Pop?” I ask. My voice sounds terrible—as brittle as a frozen twig.

  “Quick, son. Let’s get you into the shade.”

  Pop lifts me and carries me under the canopy of a nearby tree. Santa wipes the water of my melting scalp from my eyes and I see that he has stripped down to only his boots and underclothes.

  He’s filthy. His silvery hair and beard are full and unkempt. He’s also quite a few pounds lighter than when I last saw him.

  “You’ve lost weight,” I say, my voice a whisper.

  “And you will, too, unless we get you out of here soon.” He hugs me to his chest. “Oh, son! It is so good to see you.”

  “Where are we?” I ask. “How can the sun be out when it’s still Christmas Eve?”

  “It’s still Christmas Eve in the time you came from. If I had to guess, I’d say we’re currently sometime around the end of the Cretaceous Period. It’s where Father Time and his cronies dumped me, and now you, for safe keeping.”

  I think about the elevator in City Hall, the one that runs from the big bang up to present day, and realize exactly how Pop and I got here.

  “Oh, son, you wouldn’t believe the things I’ve had to endure!”

  “You and me both—”

  Pop gestures for me to fall silent. I do so and try to listen. But it’s too hard. Too hard to do anything but lie here.

  Great Ak, it’s hot!

  Pop perks up beside me.

  “Pop, what is—?”

  Again, I fall silent at his urging. Then I feel it. The ground shaking beneath our feet every few seconds. The tremors are small, but growing steadily. They remind me of the Cottontail’s thumping, only magnified a hundred fold!

  “We’ve got to get out of here!” Pop says.

  He jerks me to my feet and throws my arm over his shoulder. He trots deeper into the rain forest surrounding us, more or less dragging me along. We pass around trees, deadfall, and bubbling pits of what will one day millennia hence be petroleum.

  “What, Pop? What’s the—?”

  I see the gigantic head of a tyrannosaurus rex drop below the forest canopy to sniff the ground. Pop dives behind a fallen tree, pulling me along with him.

  “Okay, son,” he whispers. “He only smells me. You’re just water as far as he’s concerned. I’ll run to the left and draw him away from you.”

  “No way, Pop!” I whisper.

  “It’s not open to discussion, son.”

  “If you take off, I’m going to yell at the top of my lungs to make sure he has a thirst quencher in me before he gets you as the main course.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  I struggle to do it, but I grin back at him. It’s answer enough.

  Pop scowls, looking as mean as a jolly fat Santa Claus can, which isn’t very much.

  “It’s only a matter of time before the dinosaur finds us. What are we going to do?”

  “We’ll beat him to the punch. Look, I’ve got an idea. See if you can get us back to one of those tar pits we passed.”

  He nods and lifts me to my feet. We both glance back at the T-Rex. It’s still sniffing the ground, but closer now.

  Too close.

  We stumble along, circling back in the direction we came, the T-Rex doing likewise. At last, we reach a clearing overflowing with bubbling pits of goo.

  “There,” I say, nodding to a large pit on our right. “That one looks big enough. Take us over—”

  My words are drowned out in the tooth-rattling roar of the T-Rex. We look back and see the dinosaur crashing through the forest toward us, its enormous, razor-sharp jaws spread wide.

  “He’s spotted us!” I say. “Quick, get us to the other side!”

  Pop moves as fast as I’ve ever seen. In seconds flat, we reach the opposite side of the pit.

  “Lower me down!” I plead. “Hurry!”

  I stretch my hand out above the tar pit, reaching out to the tiny droplets of moisture hanging in the air. Pop realizes what I’m doing and protests.

  “No, son! You’re too weak! It will kill you!”

  I ignore him and concentrate, praying I can do this before the T-Rex gets close enough to be spooked by it. A thin sheet of ice forms beneath my hand and begins to snake out over the pit.

  “Come on!” I say.

  The T-Rex grows larger and larger within my field of vision.

  “You can do this! Come on!”

  The dinosaur’s roar thunders in my ears.

  The ice finishes covering the entire pit just as the T-Rex bursts through into the clearing. I collapse, rolling over onto my back so that I see an up-side-down version of the beast as it gallops toward us. It dodges around several pits and I begin to worry my plan won’t work.

  “Come on, you big, stupid thing, come on!”

  I shouldn’t have worried. Instead of noticing the ice cover and slowing down, the T-Rex charges straight for us. The ice cracks with its first step and the dinosaur tumbles face-first into the bubbling ooze.

  “Yeah!” I shout.

  I slam my fist on the ground in triumph as the T-Rex sinks below the surface. I turn, exuberant, to face Pop. My smile drops when I see the tears rolling down his rosy cheeks.

  “He was going to eat us, Pop.” I say.

  “I know,” he says wiping his face. “I know. But he was just an animal, doing what he was born to do. He didn’t know any better.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re—” agony shoots through my body.

  I look down and see I’m only an ice shaving of my normal frosty self. That last little stunt with the ice cover did me in.

  I’m melting.

  Fast!

  Pop takes me in his arms.

  “If only I had a little bit of the Pole here—a little bit of home grown magic. I could get us out of here lickity-split.”

  I try to speak, but my mouth is only able to form a single world. “Pocket.”

  Pop nods. He releases me and reaches into my cloak pocket. A smile lights up his bearded face along with the bit of aurora borealis as he pulls it out.

  “If it’s one thing I know,” Pop says as he lays a finger to the side of his nose with his free hand, “It’s how to make an exit!”

  I hear the ding of an elevator and then a rectangular hole opens in space before us. On the other side is the box-shaped interior of the City Hall time-evator.

  He drags me inside.

  “What floor?” He asks.

  A smug grin covers my face.

  “There,” I say, pointing to one of the buttons. “the last Ice Age!”

  Jack woke up and opened his eyes to see,

  He was with Santa Claus back in prehistory.

  “Pop, it’s good to see you, but it’s so darn hot!”

  “Jack, we’re stuck here,” Santa said. “Such is our lot.”

  “Where is here, exactly?” Jack asked. “Melting is my ice.”

  “The age of the dinosaurs. And they aren’t very nice!

  “Let’s get you in the shade, before you melt away.

  “Somehow we’ve got to get you back home to present day!”

  At that moment, a roa
r through the forest rang.

  Then out from between the trees, a big T-Rex sprang!

  “Let’s get the holly out of here! Come on, Pop, run!

  “If that T-Rex catches us, you and I are done!”

  Jack and Santa bolted, but much to their dismay,

  There was nowhere to run, no path for getaway.

  “I’ll freeze a tar pit, Pop, and let the T-Rex crash in.”

  “No way, son! You’re weak. The act would mean your end!”

  Jack froze the pit anyway, having little choice.

  When the T-Rex broke through, to cheers they gave voice!

  Then using a little magic leftover from Pole side,

  Santa called the time-evator to give them both a ride.

  Chapter 20

  Great Ak, am I frosted!

  If Fred were here, I guess he’d use video game terminology and say I was powered up, or leveled up, or whatever. That little trip into the Ice Age was just the thing to put the ice back in my freezer!

  But, poor Pop! He went from one extreme to the other—tropical heat to freezing cold. I look at him in the elevator beside me. His skin is, for him, an unhealthy blue, and his teeth are chattering.

  “We’ve got to get you some proper clothes.”

  “I won’t argue with you there!” he says through chattering teeth.

  “Hmmm,” I say, “Is there any way to get to a specific time and location? These buttons don’t seem to pinpoint any time period smaller than a century.”

  “Yes, I’ve used this time-evator before,” Pop says. “Just press the century you want and merely concentrate on the exact time and place. The time-evator will take care of the rest.”

  I press the button for the twentieth century and concentrate. The time-evator dings and the doors open to the bustling Thirty-fourth Street of mid-century Manhattan.

  “Ho-ho-ho!” Santa laughs, his voice full of approval. “Macy’s department store, circa nineteen-forty-seven. Good call, son!”

  “Wait here,” I say, “I don’t think anyone needs to see Santa Claus running around New York in his underwear.”

  “Agreed.”

  I go dim and exit the time-evator. I cross the street and enter Macy’s. It’s packed with humans shopping for Christmas presents. Holiday lights and decorations are everywhere and the music of Christmas carols floats softly through the air. I slip away from the masses to search the hidden areas behind the individual shops.

  At last, I find what I’m looking for—a locker room with a Santa Claus costume hanging on every hook. I pick one out that looks like it would fit Pop and stuff it under my trench cloak. Then I head back toward the elevator.

  I reach the street and see a small child in old, worn clothes staring at me, her mouth agape.

  Sometimes, kids, the ones with pure hearts and pure eyes, can see me even when I’m dim.

  There’s a woman—I’m guessing the child’s mother—rummaging in a trash can behind her. It melts even my cold heart. I walk over to the child, her eyes growing wider with every step I take. I put my finger to my lips, gesturing for her to be quiet.

  I squat down in front of her and gesture for her to wait a moment. I take out the borealis from my cloak and the little girl gasps as it illuminates her face. I place it in her hands and then form a sparkling ice chain that I attach to it. The magic of the borealis should be enough to keep it intact permanently.

  “From Santa,” I whisper, giving her a wink. She places the chain over her head and slips it around her neck. She cradles the borealis in her hands and then looks up at me, her tiny face full of love and gratitude. Without warning, she throws her arms around my neck and squeezes me in a tight hug. After a moment, I hug her back. I use my magic over cold to banish it from this child. Hugging me will be the last time she ever knows Winter’s harsh, bitter touch.

  We separate and I motion for her to put the borealis down the front of her shirt.

  “Secret and safe.” I whisper.

  She gives an exaggerated nod of understanding.

  “Merry Christmas,” she whispers.

  “Merry Christmas,” I say as I rise.

  I turn and walk back to the time-evator without giving the child another glance.

  In the end, Frost is what Frost is, after all.

  Pop is ecstatic to see the clothes I brought him and immediately starts putting them on.

  “Good job, son! These are just about like those your mother sews for...Jack? Are you crying son?”

  “Something was in my eye,” I say as I wipe away a frozen tear. “Let’s go.”

  Pop presses the button for present day and we rocket up toward Father Time’s office. I make myself forget about the little girl and concentrate on what I plan to do when I get my hands on ol’ FT!

  “Easy, son,” Pop says. “Save it, now.”

  I glance around and see that there’s frost forming on the walls.

  “He’s going down, Pop! For what he’s done, he’s going down!”

  The door opens to Father Time’s office and every clock in the room goes off in alarm. Three feds I’ve never seen before are there waiting on us. They raise their wands and fire.

  But I’m ready for them!

  I throw up a shield of reflective ice and the spells go bouncing around the room. One even strikes its caster and he falls to the ground, stunned.

  A quick wave of my hand and a blizzard-cold wind gallops across the room, freezing the other two feds where they stand.

  I skate over the ice lain across the floor in the wake of my wind and grab the stunned fed by his sash, pulling his face up to mine.

  “Where’s Father Time?” I demand.

  He struggles unsuccessfully to speak. At last, he manages to raise an arm and point to the large crystal ball mounted on the wall among the clocks. Father Time is on it giving a press conference, Jasmine, Romeo, and Dee at his side.

  “...Unfortunately,” Father Time’s image says from the TV, “Talbot’s accomplice, Jack Frost, met his end during an escape attempt.”

  “The holly I did!” I shout. “Come on, Pop. We’ve got to get down there!”

  We jog to the time-evator and go inside. I press the button for present day and concentrate on the lobby. The press room is also on the ground floor. We reach the lobby and then bolt into the press room just as Father Time announces his regret that it doesn’t appear there’s any chance of finding Santa Claus.

  “I beg to differ!” Santa bellows.

  Every head in the room turns and voices his name in surprise at seeing him. Cameras flash and he’s bombarded with a hundred questions. He ignores them all and shouts over the crowd.

  “Father Time, you’ve been very naughty!”

  “This man is an impostor!” Father Time shouts. “He’s with a known felon! Seize them!”

  Jasmine and Romeo spring into the air. The crowd shrieks as they dive-bomb us. A wave of my hand sends them falling to the ground like the heavy blocks of ice that they now are.

  Pop and I press our way forward through the crowd.

  “It’s Father Time who is the criminal here!” I shout. “It was he who actually kidnapped Santa! Father Time said Santa was lost, but he was holding my pop hostage the whole time! Everything else is lies, just like him saying I was dead!”

  “It this true?” the reporters Father Time ask in a hundred different variations. “How do you explain this?”

  Pop and I press onward to the stage.

  “He didn’t want to give up being Father Time. And the only way he could stay in office was to make sure Baby New Year never arrived! That’s why he needed to keep Santa from delivering presents. He wanted time to stand still! He wanted it to be Christmas Eve forever!”

  The reporters bombard Father Time with questions until he loses it.

  “Silence!” he screams as he waves his staff in a broad arc.

  I erect a protective ice shield around Pop and myself just in time to prevent the time-dampening spell from washing over us. Th
e rest of the crowd is not so lucky. They go as still as the victims in Old Man Winter’s palace, frozen in time.

  Father Time grabs Dee by the neck and pulls her to him.

  “Don’t follow,” he shouts, “or your little friend gets it!”

  He ducks out of the room, dragging Dee along with him.

  “Pop,” I say, “he’s got Dee!”

  “I think I can lift this spell off these good folks, son. You go on. Get him! I’ll catch up.”

  I nod and run out of the room after Father Time.

  After a quick stop at the last Ice Age,

  Jack Frost was poised and ready to take center stage.

  But his pop Santa Claus needed an outfit.

  So back into the past is where Jack Frost went.

  Jack slipped into Macy’s Department store,

  Grabbed a Santa outfit and headed out the back door.

  Out in the alley, a little girl saw through his disguise,

  Although Jack is hidden from human eyes.

  He gave her piece of magic light on an ice chain,

  Jack Frost’s loss was the little girl’s gain.

  He wished her Merry Christmas and bid her goodnight,

  Then went back to Holiday Town to make things right.

  He burst into Father’s office, ready to rock.

  The Holiday Guards, he froze in an ice block!

  “Look, Jack,” Santa said. “Father Time is on the news.”

  “Move! To the press room! Not a moment to lose!”

  The mayor was there, acting all haughty.

  “Father Time,” Santa said, “You’ve been very naughty!”

  With Dees as his hostage, Father Time ran.

  “Quick, Jack!” Santa said. “You must stop that man!”

  Chapter 21

  I reach the lobby just in time to see the time-evator doors closing with him and Dee inside. He hurls a spell with his staff just as the doors shut and I drop to the floor, allowing it to pass harmlessly over my head.

  I run to the time-evator. I curse as I watch the lights over the time-evator door descend in number. Father Time is taking Dee to the basement level. At least he’s not hopping around in time. There’s that to be thankful for!