Santa shot through the sky Rudolph leading the way. Below the world glistened lights bright against the dark, streets and houses, all that needed gifts delivered. Without a pause he stuck one red gloved hand into the bulging sack and looked at the name on it.
“Well, well well,” he chuckled in his booming tones,
“Springs - I do believe that my ability to fly around the world is one of those things that cause the older children to doubt my existence, it is a sad loss of innocence, but often truths can be found in the most unlikely of places. Never under-estimate the hearts and minds of others, nor neglect science because faith can be found and restored in hard math, believe me.”
His eyes twinkled as he reached for another:
“Boneman - Faith is a funny old thing, at it’s heart it is the principle that you believe in something that cannot be proved, but there is a darker side to it all as well, which as the young lad here shows us, sometime the line between man and deity may blur, to the point that the belief is no longer something that is a choice, it is something that is enforced.... Chilling indeed.”
He chuckled as if a little sadly, then reached up and wiped a tear from his eye. The strangest thing was the magical sparkle there did not diminish, and im moments the smile returned, “Ahhh
“Mith - You know sometimes you writers can be a little too clever for your own good, and hit on something a little bit too close to the truth. I mean an inventive idea, that not only adds another level of reliability to a service, but eases pain from an old man’s heart? What better present eh? What a good story. Or is it a story?”
Santa shot a small look at his lead Reindeer and smiled knowingly,
“BetaWolf - Of course there are always different types of faith. It is a kind of trust when the multitude believe in one single thing, but then there ios the inverted, where one can have a faith in many: to do the right thing. To be good. This is much the way I see things, you know, having faith in all the children to be good...”
He snapped his whip and the reindeer rose higher, their hooves silently galloping across the clouds, the big man reached once more into his sack, “Well would you look at that,
“Martin321 - You know some stories are epic, giving you a nebulous answer, and this is one of them. People can on others trust and is that what we see here. A sharp con man convincing another to give up all his cash and then the remains disposed of in a nefarious scheme? You just have to trust that this is not the case and that the customer is indeed living in paradise. He probably is, one way or another....
“Hey ho, Rudolph, Dasher, Prancer, Blitzen, Dancer onwards!”
To be continued....
