Santa Claws
By Tim Heffernan
Part Four
He waited and a little while later he saw Nicodemus walking out of the driveway heading back to the car. He still carried the axe and in his other hand he was carrying a package.
Nicodemus walked over and tapped on Billy's window. Billy wound it down.
“Kid, hold my axe for a minute will you?” said Nicodemus while passing Billy the axe inside the car.
Nicodemus opened the driver door and got in. He pulled a pen and a card from somewhere and began scribbling on it and then placed it on top of the package.
“There, all done. Don't worry Billy this won’t take too long and then you can have your surprise!” said Nicodemus as he started the car.
Billy hoped the surprise whatever the surprise was, that it was better than a beige Volvo.
Nicodemus parked the car across the street from a glass building and handed the gift to Billy.
“Alright Billy, do you remember what you need to do?” he asked.
Billy nodded and opened the car door. He’d been on this street several times, but never at night. He was used to having to cross the road with his parents because of the amount of traffic that would usually zip up and down, but the street now was empty. He remembered to look both ways and carried the package over to the building. It seemed empty but he could see that some of the lights were still on.
He found the glass door and the intercom just like Nicodemus had instructed on the way there and pressed the button. He waited a few seconds and then the intercom speaker crackled into life.
“Who is it?” asked the voice over the intercom.
“Raymond Veering” said Billy.
“Never heard of you, kid” said the intercom. “Besides it's late, you shouldn't be out this time of night.”
“I'm not alone. My Dad is waiting for me across the street in his car. We just wanted to drop this Christmas present for my Uncle Michael,” lied Billy.
“Michael Veering?”
“Yeah that's right my uncle. I just need you to put this on his desk.”
“Alright kid, just wait there.”
While Billy waited, he read the Christmas card.
Dear Michael, you've always said you wanted to be the head of the office. Now your wish has come true. Merry Christmas! It was signed Steven Berry.
He heard a chime and looked up to see an elevator door open in the lobby. A large but seriously overweight man carrying a flash light exited the elevator and approached the door. The guard looked around Billy to see if there was anyone else outside and then unlocked the door.
“Give it here. I’ll make sure he gets it.”
“Thank you.”
“Hmmm. Your present seems a bit damp at the bottom. You haven’t broken it I hope?”
Billy shook his head. “No, I’ve been really careful. There is a lot of stuff in the car maybe that's how it managed to get wet.
The man grunted. “Alright, I will put it on his desk. You have yourself a nice Christmas.”
“Thank you, I will.”
Billy walked back to the car and got in.
“Nice Billy, very nice work. I'm sure his boss is going to be very surprised when he comes back to work.”
“What about Michael?”
“Oh, he was very surprised I can assure you,” Nicodemus said as he started the car.
Over the next two hours Nicodemus and Billy travelled around town delivering strange presents to people’s houses. At one particular house they stopped at, Nicodemus had removed the brakes off a car.
“I don’t understand. You said we were delivering presents not taking them away from them.”
“Oh this is a present alright. The owner of this car wanted to spend more time with his family and our little gift will make that happen.” grinned Nicodemus. His eyes followed the road that led from the house to the bottom of the hill. “My, my, my, that is one steep hill. Six months of physiotherapy at least.” He turned back to Billy. “I couldn't have done this without your sport. It's time for your big surprise. ”
Billy clapped his hands in excitement.
Sometime later Nicodemus parked his car along the coast just outside of town.
“Here you go Billy.” said Nicodemus as he handed a flash light to Billy. “The surprised I promised you is down that cliff resting at the very back of a cave. Don't worry you won't have any problems finding it.
Billy got out of the car and headed towards the cliff like Nicodemus suggested and as he drew closer he could hear the sounds of the ocean waves crashing against the cliff face below.
He looked down from the top of the cliff and caught a glimpse of the ledge leading into a cave. The cliff wasn't as steep as he thought and there were several bushes he could use as hand holds to help him climb down.
When he reached the entrance to the cave, he could feel his knees turn to churned butter. A foul wind smelling of rotten eggs came out from that cave and he couldn't shake the idea that it was breathing. Billy gagged at the stink but because of Nicodemus's promise he entered the cave anyway.
Greetings of the Season and Best Wishes for the New Year!
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Cover art by Tim Heffernan
