Teen Ink

1 - Getting Lost

It was a very stormy night. Even Rudolph’s nose wasn’t enough to guide the enormous sleigh through the long and dark night. Santa was developing frostbite and had no choice but to close his eyes just so snow wouldn’t get into them and maybe blind him temporarily. The perseverant man was already starting to lose hope. The closest reindeer to him wasn’t even the slightest bit visible.
“Ho, ho, ho - “ Santa made sure all the reindeer heard him, especially Rupolph. “Make a landing somewhere!”
“It’s no use,” Rudolph called back to him. “We’re flying over the middle of the Arctic Ocean!”
“Aye,” Suddenly, Santa felt the sleigh tilt sharply upward. “Where are you heading to now?”
“I don’t know,” The red-nosed reindeer admitted. “I’m trying to find a shortcut.”
No response from Mr. Claus. He had his eyes closed, just waiting for all this to be over. He was lying like that for a while in the cold, almost falling asleep. When, suddenly, all of the cold and snow and wind blowing into poor Santa’s ears was gone. He wasn’t sure if this was because he was dizzy from all that chaos, but all he could see was stars then.
“Hey! Who turned out the lights!” Santa noticed that Dasher’s voice sounded clear and crisp now, as if he were talking into his ear. “And why does this sleigh feel nearly weightless?”
Santa was still looking around, when he finally turned behind him. I knew those stars weren’t from my imagination! He exclaimed, and gestured towards that very direction. Planet Earth was staring right back at him. Everyone seemed to be breathing fine, too.
“There’s no way we can operate this sleigh in any direction!” Rudolph shouted, even though he didn’t need to anymore. “It’s impossible to control where we’re floating to!”
And so, Santa tried to calm all of them down and decided they should just stay where they were and wait for them to travel somewhere. The least they could do was make sure the Christmas presents didn’t drift off somewhere.
“Christmas is doomed forever!” Blitzen shrieked. “No one will ever know what became of us!”
“Just stay calm,” the man with a perfectly peaceful tone, even though he was shattered into pieces inside. “We’ll think of a plan.”
Everyone thought and thought, but they weren’t making any progress. And yet, faster and faster the sleigh swam through space, as time elapsed. Pretty soon, a luminou red ball showed up and loomed closer and closer to the troubled group.
Santa got scared and worried that they would crash into it. He closed his eyes as tightly as he could and didn’t say a word. Just braced himself for the moment that was about to come… in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..