“Santa, Santa,” Dorothea runs into Santa’s Workshop office, “They’re here! They’re here!”
“Who’s here?” asks Santa turning to face Dorothea, known to one and all as “Dink”.
“The Red Birds!” shouts an excited Dink.
Endicott, Dink’s know-it-all older brother, follows Dink into the office, “They’re cardinals”, he states with a know-it-all smirk.
“They’re RED BIRDS! And they are ALL OVER THE PLACE!” says little sister Dink.
“They are CARDINALS!” Insists Endicott.
“Are not!”
“Are too!”
“Are not!”
“ARE TOO!”
“Endicott!” admonishes Santa gently.
“Well, they ARE cardinals,” Endicott mutters.
“Let’s go see these Red Birds,” says Santa. Dink runs ahead to lead the way. Endicott follows still muttering, “They’re cardinals”. The three of them look out of the workshop door to see Red Birds covering every evergreen tree branch, every reindeer and there was even a brave red bird perched on the horn of one of the Magic Unicorns. As they stand there trying to take in the amazing spectacle of the bright red against the white snow on the green trees, a large Red Bird with a scarf wrapped around its neck bowed and said, “Greetings Santa. We are here to help with delivering presents this year.”
Attracted by all the shouting, Mike Maloney, Santa’s head elf, arrives just in time to hear the Red Bird’s greeting. “Well,” he thinks, “What can they do? They are so small. They won’t be able to pull a sleigh.”
As though he heard him, the Red Bird with the scarf says, “We can dash around the world to check on the camp directors in an instant. So many humans have fallen ill in this pandemic, it would be good to know how many can help carry presents this year as they did last year.”
“OK,” thinks Mike Maloney, “that’s helpful but then what? The camp director’s will not be able to enter the house with the presents because of the COVID-19 virus. It just wouldn’t be safe. How do we get the presents IN the house? Dr. Fauci has graciously guaranteed Santa will get a vaccine in the first wave but the camp directors will certainly not get vaccinated by Christmas Eve.”
Again, the Red Bird answers Mike Maloney’s thoughts, “We can drop off the presents if the camp directors can bring them to the house. We will not get sick if we go inside and no one will get sick from us! We can carry the presents if we work together to carry them one at a time. There are so many of us that it will be easy.”
“Maybe red birds can read minds,” Mike Maloney is almost afraid to think.
“No, we can’t” says the Red Bird, “but we have heard you and Santa talking about your concerns and the North Pole Red Birds keep us up-to-date. You also have a very expressive face, so I knew you were wondering how we knew of your dilemma. It was just plain old eavesdropping, nothing else.”
“Well,” says Santa. “It sounds like you have taken care of our biggest challenge this Christmas—how to get the presents in every house and keep everyone safe this year.”
“We will be on our way then to gather the healthy camp directors to join us with their version of a sleigh (or boat, or golf cart, or pickup truck),” the Red Bird with a scarf said. There was a giant rush of air as the Red Birds flew off on their errand and the red in the forest was gone as if it was never there.
“Woof! Woof!” they hear frantic barking.
“Now what?” asks Santa as he walks around the corner of the workshop to check on all of the noise.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!” Blackie, Santa’s border collie, is buried in the snow with just the very tip of his black licorice nose and the white tip his black tail showing. He is barking up a storm at a curious sight. Even Santa cannot believe what he sees. There is a pile of presents moving through the snow as though they are floating on air. As he continues to watch, the presents reach the shoveled workshop walk and he realizes that they are precariously balanced on the back of a tiny gray hippopotamus. Helping keep the presents balanced on the tiny hippo is an equally tiny light blue narwhale.
“Greetings Santa. We have come to help deliver presents this year,” says the tiny hippo. “That’s right,” said the tiny blue narwhale in a surprisingly loud voice.
“Not this again,” thinks Mike Maloney, hoping that these animals are not mind readers as well. He is not altogether sure he believes the Red Bird with the scarf’s earlier explanation of answering his thoughts.
“We think that we can help. See.” The light blue narwhale demonstrates taking the presents off the back of the tiny hippo with his horn and putting the presents back on the tiny hippo the same way.
“That is wonderful! Don’t you think so?” says Santa turning to Mike Maloney. “Mike here can get you set up with the other camp directors. I see they have started to arrive.”
On the lawn, a huge circle of camp directors starts to gather with their masks firmly in place while keeping their six feet social distance. Mike escorts the tiny hippo and the light blue narwhale into the group. Soon the Red Bird with the scarf flies down to announce that all the red birds had returned and they were ready to fly with Santa and his Reindeers, the camp director’s and the Magic Unicorns, plus the newest additions–the tiny hippo and light blue narwhale. The Magic Unicorn sprays the magic bug juice on the camp directors, the tiny hippo and the blue narwhale and they start to float in the air.
Mike, Dink, Endicott and Blackie watch as Santa and his reindeer rise into the sky. This Christmas, Santa is personally delivering presents to every family who had a COVID-19 scare. He wants to make sure that everyone touched by the virus gets a present this year. It has been a hard year for so many families. The camp directors are visiting all the rest of the families with presents. They hover over the house and the Red Birds fly down to deliver the presents in the house so that everyone remains safe from the virus.
Even though some camp directors couldn’t make it this year because of the pandemic, the Red Birds made sure every present was delivered. As everyone got up on Christmas morning they all heard a jolly voice greeting them. “Take care, stay safe and have a very Merry Christmas.” And a very loud voice saying, “That’s right.”
Copyright 2020 Valerie Jean Wright