Rebecca Besser Read Online Free PDF Page B

laughed again. “No, no! I don’t think
you should do that. Their teeth look dangerous and they appear
quite mean. I peeked in on them before coming to see you.” He
winked at Lyle and smiled. “I think they’ll need your love to bring
the Magic of Christmas to them. You see. . . I don’t think it was
the young elf’s hug that broke the spell for me last year. I think
it was the gift of caring. I was depressed, to be honest. Christmas
seemed to be falling apart and I didn’t feel I was doing the job,
so to speak, of keeping everything together. The girl brought me
hope with her gift and that’s what enabled the Magic of Christmas
to shine through the cursed disease and heal me.”
“Oh,” Lyle said, frowning down at his
hands, which he held clasped between his knees so tightly that his
knuckles were white. “How will I ever be able to do that?”
“I don’t know, Lyle,” Santa said, sitting
forward with a solemn expression. “That’s something, I believe,
you’ll have to discover for yourself, before it’s too late.”
“Before it’s too late?” Lyle asked, lifting
his eyes to meet Santa’s. “What do you mean, before it’s too
late?”
Sighing, Santa looked directly back at
Lyle. “If you don’t do it before I leave on Christmas Eve to
deliver gifts, I fear you’ll have to wait an entire year for the
Magic of Christmas to be strong enough to heal them. It’s the
strongest right before, and during the time when the children of
the world open their presents, and that’s when you need to make
your move. Do you understand?”
Lyle nodded and rubbed his face with his
hands. “How am I supposed to figure it out? Tomorrow is Christmas
Eve, so I have less than two days!”
Santa smiled, patted Lyle’s knee, and
stood. “I think you should rest tonight and let yourself think.
Tomorrow, we’ll tackle this task together. I’ve let Hammond know
that I would be occupied with this mess and that he would be in
charge of preparing everything for the grand delivery.” He walked
over to the door and opened it.
Jumping to his feet, Lyle dashed over to
the doorway in a panic. “I have to try now. I can’t waste any
time!”
Gently, Santa placed his hand on Lyle’s
shoulder and looked at him. “You’re fatigued. Your brain needs the
rest, or else you won’t be able to think straight, and you must,
Lyle, be able to think straight – for their sakes, as well as your
own. Sleep and see what the world brings tomorrow. It’ll be a
magical day!”
With that, Santa left the room, closing the
door behind himself. Lyle stood where he was, thinking, for a long
time. Finally, as long shadows crept across the floor of his room
as the outside world grew darker with night, he climbed into bed,
and surprisingly, he slept.
~
Bright and early the next morning, Lyle was
up and out of bed. He took a quick shower and dressed for an
action-packed day. For some reason, a couple of things Santa had
said kept rotating through his brain: ‘. . .the gift of caring. .
.’; ‘. . .with her gift. . .’. He couldn’t stop thinking that maybe
gifts were the key. Maybe he needed to find the right ones to give
his wife and daughter and it them the Magic of Christmas would do
its job. But, as before, he was stuck with the dilemma of figuring
out what the perfect gifts would be. Both of them had everything
they could ever want; he hoped Santa might have some ideas.
Rushing out of his room, Lyle paused in the
hall, realizing he had no idea where to go. To his right, a little
ways down the hall, he spotted the stairs and figured going down
them would be his best bet. With his renewed energy, his appetite
returned as well and his stomach growled loudly as the rich aroma
of cooking food floated to him on the air as he descended the
stairs. After that, he let his nose guide him to the kitchen.
He was welcomed in by a plump, short elf in
an apron. She was cooking up a huge breakfast and soon had a
heaping, steaming plate of food in front