Santa
Shopping malls were the worst places to be on Christmas Eve with an excited five-year old in tow. Especially when said five year-old had recently displayed the beginnings of telekinetic power which manifested when he had an adrenaline rush.
“Daddy, come on! We’ll miss him!” Noah tugged on Gabriel’s hand, dragging him towards the grotto where the queue snaked around the attraction twice. Mohinder had managed to swerve this by taking a new blood sample to Primatech’s labs to see if he could define the exact nature of Noah’s ability. He was due to meet them at the grotto in one hour. Gabriel doubted they would even be halfway to the front by then.
Noah was bouncing up and down and pointing out every detail of the mechanical animals outside of the grotto. Gabriel watched him laugh and clasp his little hands together like he would when he was worked up. He smiled and picked his son up, cuddling him. “Are you excited honey?”
“Yeah, we’re going to see the real Santa! Do you think he’ll remember me?”
Gabriel bit his lip. “Erm, I don’t know sweetie, Santa’s a very busy man and there are millions of children to remember.”
Noah looked thoughtful for a second and then beamed. “No, he’ll remember me. He’s Santa!” Gabriel kissed his head, trying to think of a way to feed the guy playing Santa a line.
Finally there was only one family in front of them. Noah was pre-occupied with a dancing mechanical penguin when the family opened the door to the grotto, but Gabriel peeked through and didn’t like what he saw. The mall Santa had an obviously fake beard, a cheap looking suit and crazy looking eyes. There was no way Noah was going to believe that his was the real Santa, the guy looked like he’d been pulled in off the streets. Gabriel looked at Noah’s excited face. He was going to be so disappointed but what could he do?
The door opened and Gabriel took a deep breath, carrying Noah inside. “Now honey, listen. Santa’s very busy like I said, and sometimes his helpers…” Gabriel stopped in his tracks as he saw the room swirl with glitter. He set Noah down and saw his son run towards an intricately carved wooden throne. The grotto was not the one he had seen from the outside. For starters it was three times the size, and was hung with thick, green garlands of holly and conifer instead of the thin looking tinsel he had seen. A real fire blazed and all around were stacked piles and piles of beautifully wrapped presents.
“That’s my Daddy, Santa!” Gabriel’s head snapped to his son, sitting on Santa’s knee. Except this wasn’t any tacky minimum wage Father Christmas. He had a thick, white beard and long, white wavy hair, with a luxurious red velvet suit and big black patent boots. The words of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ came to Gabriel, and they matched this man perfectly. He had sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks, and a rich wonderful voice when he said “Now Noah, I know you’ve been a good boy this year, and that you’re going to have a bicycle for Christmas.”
Noah grinned and nodded, hugging Santa. Just at the moment the exit door opened and Mohinder stepped in, brandishing a piece of paper. He gaped at the opulence of his surroundings and looked at Gabriel who simply shrugged.
“You have a wonderful Christmas young Noah and I don’t forget to leave me a mince pie this evening!” Santa lowered Noah onto the floor and handed him a wrapped present.
“I will Santa, bye bye!” Noah took Mohinder’s hand. “Say bye Daddy.”
Mohinder raised his eyebrows. “Er, goodbye, Santa…” He had to pull an enchanted Gabriel out of the door as Santa gave a deep chuckle.
The attendant on the door looked with puzzlement at Noah’s luxuriously wrapped gift, which was much bigger than the cheap store-bought toys that she herself had wrapped for the mall Santa to give away.
Noah gabbled excitedly to Mohinder about his visit to Santa all the way back to the house, and was still going when he was put to bed at eight that evening. As Mohinder left him with a story he knew he’d be out like a light. He went back into the living room where Gabriel was reading the test results.
“I could have told you this myself after today. Definitely not telekinesis, it’s some kind of illusion based thing, it seems like…well, almost like…”
Mohinder chimed in “Like his dreams are coming true?”
Gabriel sighed as Mohinder sat next to him. “Yes. I mean that grotto today was exactly what every child thinks it should be, and it happened for him.”
“It’s not doing any harm at the moment. It was quite, magical!”
“It’s magical now because he’s five, what happens when he gets angry, or vengeful? What happens when he gets to be a moody teenager?”
“Well can we be sure that these things are resonating through reality?”
Gabriel picked up the expertly made wooden horse on wheels which he had received from Santa. “Look at this. Pretty real if you ask me.”
Mohinder could think of nothing to do but comfort Gabriel. He squeezed his shoulder and moved in to hug him. “Let’s get Christmas out of the way and then we can start to plan for the future. If the worst comes to the worst, maybe we can try…Plan B.”
Gabriel looked him in the eye. “I don’t know Mohinder. He’s our son, I….”
“Like I said, if the worst comes to the worst.”
Settling into Mohinder’s arms, Gabriel closed his eyes. There were another five hours of wrapping ahead of them. Deal with that first, he thought, as Plan B danced on the periphery of his mind.