CHAPTER 23
The next day, I look forward to getting to the mall to see Blizzard. Okay, yes, I need to find a Christmas present for my mum, my dad, Pippa, and Tammy, all without them seeing it, which is quite hard when your dad spends most of the day watching security feeds of people buying stuff. Well, more specifically of people not buying stuff, but you know what I mean. Usually I have to run off on my own to find presents, but going with Blizzard is kind of awesome. Plus, she’s Santa’s daughter, she must be pretty good at choosing presents for people, right? More than that, I want to talk to her about Seth. I can’t believe that of all coincidences, the guy playing errand boy for an evil Santa Claus is living in our basement and trying to persuade my mum to move away with him.
“Good morning,” I say brightly when I get to the main square of the mall and find Blizzard and Santa.
“Hi.” Blizzard quite unexpectedly comes over and gives me a hug. It’s surprising but nice and I hug her back as best I can.
“Morning Santa,” I say, surprised when he comes over and gives me a hug too.
“Blizzard told me all about this Seth person,” he says quietly. “Try not to worry too much, Kaity. Your mum loves you and your sister very much and will always put you two first when it comes down to it, even if it doesn’t seem like it at the moment.”
I appreciate his reassurance even if I can’t quite bring myself to believe it yet.
“Thank you,” I say to him, hoping that it’s enough to convey how grateful I am for his attempts at comfort, even though I have no idea how to put it into real words.
“Before we all get mushy,” Blizzard says. “Shall we go and do some shopping before the crowds come in?”
I nod in agreement, and Blizzard and I leave Santa with his cup of coffee, which he really seems to love. Apparently they don’t have Starbucks in the North Pole.
“I hope you didn’t mind me telling my dad,” Blizzard says when we’re out of sight and earshot. “I mean, he’s the one who has come here to stop Anti-Claus, he did have a right to know.”
“It’s fine,” I say. “I like your dad. He’s so…”
“Santa-ish?” She offers.
“Yeah,” I say in agreement.
“So did you say anything to your mum last night?” She asks. “About Seth?”
I shake my head. “What am I supposed to say? She’s hardly going to believe that he’s working for a Santa who wants to ruin Christmas, is she?”
“Who does she think he works for?”
“I don’t know, to be honest. When I asked him about his job, he was totally secretive. He didn’t want to tell Pippa or me anything. I just assumed that it was because we were kids and that he’d told our Mum. I don’t think she’d just have let him stay with us without knowing what this work was, but now I’m starting to wonder.”
“He’s probably told her something,” Blizzard says. “Just not the truth. He isn’t going to go around advertising the fact that Anti-Claus is here to ruin Christmas, is he?”
“No, I guess not. I just don’t know how we didn’t put two and two together until now. Y’know, the whole only being in town for December thing should have given it away.”
“So has he said anything that might give us some clues to Anti-Claus? I mean, I know you won’t agree with me, but it’s actually a good thing that he lives with you. You might be able to find out stuff that no one else knows, you know? And we have the advantage because he has no idea who we are. Has he mentioned much about his boss at all? Has he said what he does for the rest of the year?”
“Not that I can think of. He’s so secretive. He has no intention of telling us anything.”
“Do you think he’s with Anti-Claus all year round, or do you think he does something else and just works for Anti-Claus in December?”
“I don’t know. I mean, from the way he was talking I got the impression that he’s worked for this boss for a long time, not that it was a one month only deal. And he said he travels a lot. When I overheard him trying to talk Mum into moving away with him, he definitely said that he has a house we would use as a base when we’re not travelling.”
“I guess that would make sense,” Blizzard says. “I told you Anti-Claus tends to drop off the radar sometime mid-February, I guess he could be travelling somewhere else. I know we have to get rid of him from your mum’s life, Kait, but in the mean time, you can really help us with this. But you aren’t gonna like my suggestion,” she says warily.
“Go on…” I’m apprehensive, but somehow I trust Blizzard in whatever she suggests.
“I think you should give him a chance. I mean, not really give him a chance, just act like you’re giving him a chance. Your mum wants you to, right?”
I nod.
“Well, tell her that you will. Tell her that you’re willing to try being friends with him. Act like you’re trying. You don’t have to do much, just do something like go and sit in the living room with him when he’s watching sports and ask him how he is, how his day has been… Anything like that. You could also casually ask your mum ‘where does Seth work?’ Feign interest in him, maybe that will give us a clue to how much your mum knows. In the meantime, you’ll be in your mum’s good books, and we can use it to our advantage in getting rid of him. Right now, your mum knows you hate him and will probably see right through any attempts at getting more information. Act like you’re making an effort to be nice and it will work better.”
“How?” I ask. I’m not so sure I like this plan, but overall I do trust Blizzard.
“For example, you said you like to cook?”
I nod.
“So after a couple of days of feigning interest in Seth, offer to cook them a meal, but cover his with salt. Your mum’s will be fine, but Seth will either have to say it’s awful and risk upsetting you both, or he’ll have to eat it and look like he’s enjoying it. It’s an old trick but still a good one. And you won’t be on your own in anything because I’ll help you obviously.”
“How do you know this stuff?” I ask. “I mean, you’re Santa’s daughter, you must have an amazing life, I bet you’ve never had to do this.”
“I work with three hundred elves. I’ve had to help them get rid of an unwanted admirer or two.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be a goody two shoes? I mean, surely Santa’s daughter should be top of the nice list? All this sneakiness can’t be good, right?”
“It’s judged on a situation-by-situation basis. It’s not being nasty if the ultimate cause outweighs the suffering.”
“Wow, you’ve really gone into this.”
“I’m Santa’s daughter. It would be the scandal of the century if I got myself put on the naughty list, wouldn’t it?”
I nod like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“Just try and be civilised to him,” Blizzard says, going back to the original topic. “At this point, any words or info you catch is extremely helpful. Try to be friends with him and he makes himself look like a jerk by turning you away. Make sure your mum is there when you ask him anything, because either he’ll have to answer, or your mum will see that’s he’s not making an effort with you. Any way we can paint him in a bad light to her, especially when it looks like you’re really trying to get along with him, that’s what we need. Telling her you don’t like him and he works for evil won’t make a bit of difference except to annoy her. If she sees he’s not trying to be nice to her kids, then she’ll have to think about what kind of man he is, and that’s when she’ll realise that maybe he’s not all she thought he was.”
I nod. “I can’t believe how mature you are. You just seem to know everything. I wish I was more like you.”
“Oh Kait, don’t say that. You’re perfect the way you are. Everyone is.”
I smile at that.
“I love talking to you,” she says. “I never get to hang out with real people like this, it’s really fun. I’m so glad I met you.”
I blush at that. “I’m to
tally glad we met too,” I mumble.
She grins, big and bright. “Thanks. I’m really glad we’re friends.”
“Me too,” I say.
“And I can’t believe we haven’t gone into a shop yet, come on.”
“So how come you have to buy presents then?” I ask Blizzard. “I thought you made everything yourself with the elves.”
Blizzard smiles. “I don’t have to buy presents anymore than anyone else does, but I like to. Imagine that you’re Santa Claus, and you spend the whole year overseeing the making of presents, and then you spend almost a whole day every Christmas Eve delivering these gifts to every child in the world. When you finally get home on Christmas Day, you settle down in your chair and put your feet up, and you’ve delivered a present to everyone in the world who needs one, but no one has thought to get you a present of your own. I always think of that. I mean, Christmas is kind of a big deal for us all year round, but we still have Christmas Day. After Daddy and I get back from the deliveries and have a nap, Mum makes a stunning dinner, and we sit around the table and eat and open a few presents. The elves always make us something different and make the effort to keep it totally secret from us all. That’s no easy task seeing as Dad has to keep track of every single thing that gets made, but they do it anyway and somehow they manage it every year. I like to get them something in return, especially when we go somewhere different, like here. The elves will love to open something from the ‘real world’ as they call it. Mum too, she loves everything that goes on here.”
“That’s really nice,” I say.
I can’t even try to imagine where Blizzard is from, what their house and the rest of her family are like, and what it’s like to buy presents for three hundred elves.
It turns out she only buys a couple of presents, sweets mainly as elves love sweets, and Blizzard buys a couple of bucketfuls of various candies for them. She gets her Mum some cookbooks, and she gets her Dad a pair of slippers that you can heat up in the microwave. Even I know he will love them.