It was Christmas Eve. At midnight, Wunorse Openslae was tightening the straps around the reindeers but as he was in a rush he didn’t strap one in tightly…….
It was a dark and starry night and Santa was at an all-time high
delivering gifts worldwide. On his way back, Santa had to deliver gifts to Lucerne in the Swiss Alps. As he reached his destination there was a slight rumble that happened but Santa continued on his path without taking notice. The gifts were delivered and Santa returned to the North Pole just before dawn.
Back at the workshop in the morning, Santa was busy reading the thank you letters from the children he had delivered the gifts to. It was officially ‘The Great Break’ for all the employees of the North Pole. Openslae had to feed the reindeers, and he found that Rudolph was missing. He quickly tried to ask the reindeers what was happening. They explained what was going on. “Last night while Santa was delivering,” they explained, “Something happened to Rudholph, he fell out of his strap over Lake Lucerne.”
The Fisherman’s Son in Lucerne
There was a small house beside the large city’s church, in which there lived a family of fishermen. Their 12-year-old son Liam Cartanchock had bigger dreams than fishing near the large lake. He wanted to be the next Xherdan, the famous footballer. He dreamed of playing for the best football club in Europe and was ready to do anything to realize that dream. Well, his father Tom always thought otherwise. Tom always stepped on his dreams by making him fish every Sunday instead of letting him go for his football game. Liam wanted to but he never questioned his father.
One Sunday he woke up from his deep slumber to a crack and creak, a splash and a dash. As the church bells rang incessantly from afar, the little boy ran toward the Christmas tree. He saw a thin red gift wrapped with red shimmer. He quickly ran and saw to his surprise a red Liverpool Jersey. As the boy shouted with excitement his father and mother woke up from their sleep.
The mother started cooking Apfelbröisi while the father prepared the Gear. After finishing their breakfast, they headed to the lake to catch some fish. But when they reached there, they were surprised to see that the frozen lake had a huge hole almost near its bank.
The Emergency and “Wunorse”
The green midget paced up and down thinking whether he should tell Santa or not. He tried figuring out where he had gone wrong but the only thing he could think of was, that he had not tightened the straps. “That couldn’t have been the reason, right!”. As the elf was reassuring himself Santa walked in to find the worrying elf. Santa was as worried as the elf when he saw the expression on his face. When Santa asked him what the matter was, the elf could no longer hold the secret and he announced to Santa what had happened.
The Huge Hole in Lake Lucerne
The boy and the man both looked at the huge hole in astonishment. It was a strange sight and they did not know what to make of it. Tom thought it was very strange and ran back home to get his wife Emily, who was an expert in frozen surfaces. Liam stood there and kept on staring at the hole. As he was looking, a brown creature with a red nose plopped out from the hole. It was a huge furry creature none like Liam had ever seen before. Grabbing the fishing gear, Liam quickly fished out the ‘creature’ to find that it was a reindeer. The reindeer shook away all the water and ice in a mighty shake. And then Liam saw that his nose was shining; in fact, it glowed!
The Angry Ol’e Nicholas
Santa was furious and he screamed at the elf. Ms.Claus came to the rescue. She gave Santa a glass of water and asked what was going on. When she got to know what was going on, Oh boy was she angry! Both of them yelled at the little elf at the top of their voice. Openslae crunched in a corner, biting his nails and wondering what to do. Soon enough Santa got tired and said, “Tis’ the season of giving and kindness so let’s stop.” He straightened his jacket, took a deep breath, calmed himself and said, “Let’s figure out what to do.”
The Late Christmas Rescue
As Tom and Emily returned to the frozen dig site, they found that Liam was missing. There were some hoof marks on the snow and Liam’s footsteps too. After some distance the marks disappeared. For about 2 hours the Swiss couple kept on searching for their son. At about 4 pm they went back home, tired. To their surprise, they discovered that their son and a huge deer were sleeping in the couple’s bed. Tom quietly exclaimed, “Ha! I knew it, I was right. It WAS a reindeer!”
Openslae in Lucerne
It was almost the end of Christmas. The lights were still shining in the houses but everyone had gone to sleep, except Openslae. He was in heist mode, ready to take the mighty Rudolph back home. As the little elf swayed through the large city’s architecture, he saw the frozen lake where Santa had told him to look. The huge hole in the lake was a testament that Rudolph had actually fallen there, but the question was- Where was Rudolph now?
Openslae looked in the hole, but Rudolph wasn’t there. He went around the town forest but he could not sense Rudolph’s presence. Finally, he started going around the town, peeping inside every yard and every window to see if Rudolph was anywhere. There he saw a humble house beside the City’s famous church with a strange glow. As he peeped inside, he saw Rudolph in his best sleep ever. He quickly tiptoed into the Cartanchock’s house but was shocked to see a little boy sleeping on the belly of the furry reindeer.
Heist Time; Baby!
He wanted to reach out for Rudolph the way one would reach for a toy you had been trying to find for very long. But with Liam sleeping atop Rudolph, it would not be that easy, would it? As Openslea reached for Rudolph, Liam woke up and grabbed the elf’s hand. The elf tried explaining what he had done but Liam did not believe any word the elf shot from his mouth. Rudolph was still snoring away to glory.
North Pole
The elf somehow needed a way to get Liam to believe all that he was saying. Working up his magic he travelled with Liam to the North Pole. Liam saw the magnificent Christmassy house, like he had seen in movies and then he saw SANTA! Santa told him everything that had happened. It was more than enough to make him believe in the Christmas miracle. Liam granted the little Elf to bring back Rudolph- something that he had found with sheer dumb luck and fishing, of course.
As Santa looked into the boy’s eyes, he found something very special- compassion- the zeal to protect a strange creature despite everything. This made Santa believe that Liam was kind and brave. So, he put him in the VERY GOOD LIST. He took Liam on his sleigh and offered to drop him back home.
They reached Lucerne and Santa descended his sleigh outside Liam’s house. As Liam was bidding goodbye to Santa, Santa handed him another present for being such a good boy.
Liam took the present, stepped out and bid goodbye to Santa.
As the sleigh went up in the sky, Liam opened his gift to find a glossy football autographed by Xherdan. Liam was overjoyed and he started jumping in excitement. It was truly the best Christmas present Liam could ever get. As he looked up at Santa, Santa seemed to wink. The very next moment, something could be seen written in the night sky-
Sometimes you’ve got to scream for your dreams!
Writer : Jagrav Sharma
Grade : 6 (Year 2023)
Place : Gurugram, India
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