SANTA'S HELPERS

by Colin C. Conway

The boy hid behind the couch for nearly an hour. Even though most of the kids his age had stopped believing in the myth, the boy still believed. It was the only hope he carried in his life. His parent's love had long evaporated into tolerance and the little sister who once looked at him with admiration, now only saw him with fear in her eyes.

When Santa dropped in to the room from the chimney, the kid trembled with excitement. Unfortunately for him, it took the red-suited visitor only seconds to realize there was someone else in the room.

“Come on out,” Santa had said with a little laugh. “I know you're there.”

The boy stepped out from his hiding place and walked over to Santa. The fat man's jolly smile morphed into something entirely different.

Greed flashed in the kid's eyes as he gawked at the bag of presents on the ground near Santa's foot.

“What am I gettin'?” the kid asked, his eyes still fixated on the canvass bag.

Santa's smile was cruel as he stared down on the twelve year-old. He felt no remorse in breaking the news to the kid. “You're not getting anything this year.”

Surprise jumped over the kid's face and his eyes snapped up to Santa. “Why?”

“Why?” he said, “You really want to know why?”

The kid's head bobbed and he snuck a quick peek at the bag of presents. “Well, that I can tell you.” Santa slid his hand inside his jacket and pulled out a PDA.

“I thought you had a list?”

Santa smirked at the youngster and tapped the screen with a stylus. “What do you think this is, kid? Let's see, here it is, Benjamin Olsen.”

Ben swallowed hard. The way Santa said his name reminded him of how the principal spoke his name before he was expelled. The boy watched Santa fiddle with his pocket computer and waited for his list of this year's crimes to be read.

“Back-talking, swearing,” Santa said, emphasizing each offense, “stealing, skipping school, inappropriately touching the neighbor girl, inappropriately touching the neighbor girls' retarded brother,” Santa looked up from his PDA to glare at Ben. Even under the thick beard and mustache, Santa's lip visibly curled. “You pervert.”

Ben shrugged. “I did it on a dare from the girl. I didn't like it.”

Santa shook his head and turned his attention back to the PDA. “Smacking around your sister, hitting your mother, bullying other kids, taking lunch money, … “

“Okay, okay, okay, I got it,” Ben finally conceded and his shoulders dropped in resignation. He plopped down into a wing-backed chair and struggled to hold back the tears in his eyes.

Santa clicked off the PDA and stuck it back inside his jacket. “That's why you're not getting anything.”

“Whatever,” Ben snapped.

“You're not mad?”

Ben sniffed once and completely pushed all the tears away. “I'll get presents,” he said with conviction.

Santa waggled a gloved finger at the boy. “Not from me you won't.”

Ben glared at Santa with evil eyes.

“I don't scare, Benjamin Olsen.”

Ben shrugged. “It doesn't matter if you're scared or not.”

The big man crossed his arms over his belly. “Then how will you get presents?”

“If you don't give me presents, I'll hurt someone.”

Santa squinted at the boy. “Who will you hurt?”

“Does it matter?”

“Sure, it does.”

Ben shrugged. “Whatever.”

Santa touched the side of his nose and thought for moment. “You think by threatening to hurt someone, I'll cave in and remove your name from the naughty list?”

Ben stared back at the fat man.

“This isn't my first Christmas, Benjamin. And you're not the first little boy who thought he could outsmart the list.”

Ben leaned his head back in the chair and yawned loudly.

“You are a brat, Benjamin. It's a pity your mother won't discipline you.”

He smacked his lips for no apparent reason before asking, “What'd you get my sister? I hope it's something I'll like. If not, I'll have to take it from that retard next door.”

Santa sighed heavily before announcing, “It's time for me to get back to work.”

Benjamin Olsen flipped a sarcastic wave at Santa. “See ya, Gramps. By the way, I'll let everyone know you're the reason I stole their presents.”

“Is this how you want to handle things, Ben? You're old enough to know there are consequences to every action.”

Ben sniffed once and smirked at Santa's question.

The old man watched the boy for several silent moments. When he finally moved, Santa touched his nose twice and several shadowy figures dropped from the chimney.

Three small men walked out of the chimney, their shoulders were hunched slightly forward and they walked heavily into the leaving room. Each of them wore dark green tunics, heavy wool pants and thick black boots.

“Elves?” Ben asked with a smile. “Oh, I'm so afraid.”

“You should be.”

The bluntness of Santa's statement gave Benjamin pause and his eyes stared at the three little men.

“They aren't elves.”

Ben had to admit they didn't look anything like the elves he'd seen on television. These three had gnarled faces and dark eyes. They watched the boy like hungry dogs approaching a wounded animal.

“What are they?”

“Dwarves.”

“I never heard of Santa having dwarves,” Ben said softly, his eyes still firmly on the three little men.

“You're right, it's not widely known. In fact, I never had any helpers beyond the elves until twenty Christmases ago. I decided I needed some additional help when I noticed a marked change in the behavior of children.”

“What do you mean?” Ben asked.

“Many children had become little demons. We can blame this on lack of parental guidance, the decline of society's morals or MTV if you want, but the reality was children are getting out of control. The list that separated naughty children from nice children was growing substantially in the wrong direction.

“As such I stopped delivery presents to more and more children, but those children were evil just like you. When they weren't given something, they decided to take the presents of other children who had spent the entire year being good. These actions lead to frantic letters from children who had their presents stolen.”

Ben flicked his eyes to Santa.

“I ignored those letters because I thought I could rely on parents, counselors or the police to help rectify the situation. I thought everything would turn out fine until one Christmas, I had a somewhat similar experience as we are going through tonight. The ruffian was like you, full of self-importance and devoid of personal responsibility. He laid in wait for me until I was hunched over, stuffing his sibling's presents under the tree. The little monster knew he wasn't getting anything after the year he had. He hit me with a baseball bat and stole an entire bag of presents. After I woke up, I made a promise to myself and to all of the good little boys and girls. Christmas would never again be ruined for them.”

The three dwarves flanked the chair and Benjamin.

“I never meant any harm,” Ben whispered.

Santa pointed at his three helpers. “These dwarves are very special. They can do things my elves couldn't do and many other dwarves wouldn't do.”

“Like what?” Ben asked, his voice cracking.

“Like punish wayward children. Elves have a hard time with that. These little guys seem to enjoy it.”

Ben jumped out of his chair and glanced frantically at each of the three little men. “This is crazy.”

“No more crazy then you threatening to hurt other people for their presents.”

“I won't do that. I was lying.”

“I'll add it to the list, but it doesn't really matter now does it?”

“What do you mean?”

Santa smiled. “It's time for good, decent folks to stand up to children like you. I'm willing to do that to protect the goodness of this holiday.”

“I was just taking big,” Ben whined, panic consuming his voice.

The three dwarves surrounded Ben, their breathing heavy and excited.

Sadness washed over Santa's face. “It's only a shame that Christmas will be destroyed for your parents. But no other children will have Christmas ruined by you.”

Two of the dwarves tackled Ben and pushed him to the ground. He tried to cry out but the third clamped his hand over his nose and mouth. While Ben struggled for air, Santa reached into his large bag and pulled out several presents marked for Ben's sister.

When Santa was done tucking them under the tree, he grabbed a cookie from the plate set out for him and sipped the glass of milk. He never watched Ben as he fought for his last breath.

After it was done, the dwarves dragged Ben over to the tree. The biggest dwarf grabbed a cookie and stuffed it deep into Ben's mouth. He then took the glass of milk Santa had sipped and tossed the remainder of the white liquid onto his still body.

Santa shook his head and curled his lip in disgust. “It's a shame,” he muttered and walked over to the chimney. He thumbed at the fireplace and the three dwarves walked hurried inside and climbed up the walls until they vanished out of sight.

“Merry Christmas,” the old man said sadly as he stared at the body of the boy on the floor. “It didn't have to be this way.”

With a touch of his finger to his nose, he flew up the chimney and was gone.

END