The Sleigh Ride

by The Bard of New Mexico

silverdolphin12@hotmail.com

Jingle held Rudolph's reins and whispered to his fellow elf, Jangle, “Santa's not going to like this! Not one bit!”

“I know,” Jangle whispered back.

The sound of heavy boots crunching in the snow heralded Santa's arrival. “HO, HO..... WHOA! What happened here?”

Jangle hung his head. “It's my fault, Santa. I took the sleigh for a ride.”

Jingle finished for his dejected friend, “And you see, Santa, cell phone towers are rather a tricky business these days. They disguise them as trees or as anything that fits their environment. It's almost completely seamless.”

“I see.” Santa noted with relief that the reindeer were fine, but wasn't happy about the sleigh's damage. “Luckily, we still have four days until Christmas Eve.” He turned to Jangle. “We can get the sleigh to Mike to fix, but YOU'RE going to help him so he can finish in time.”

Santa took a kinder tone. “Life is about learning from your mistakes, boys, and Christmas is a season for forgiveness. But,” he addressed Jangle again, “we'll still have to talk over the holidays.”

Half relieved to be off the hook for now, but still feeling bad, Jangle replied, “Understood, Santa,” and they hauled the sleigh away to Mike's carpentry shop.