Santa's Big Helper

by Olivia Gaines

“Would you care for a glass of wine with dinner?”

  “No, I still have to drive home afterwards,” she said with some apprehension. She stared at him as if the answer to her question would miraculously pop up on his forehead.

  He ordered a glass of Malbec for himself and watched her curiously. “What is it you would like to know, Patience?”

  Nick got straight to the point, she would respond in kind. “That is the second time you have had a physical reaction to me. Does that happen to you often around women?”

  He lowered his head. “I’m embarrassed by this whole thing. But no, I never have that kind of reaction outside of the normal circumstance.”

  “Normal circumstance?”

  “Yes, a date. Alone. Intimacy,” he said as he tore off a piece of bread and buttered it.

  She was still unsettled by it. “So, reacting to a woman like a 16-year-old is out of the norm for you.”

  “Yes. It is,” he said as he raised his hand to call the waitress over.

  “Do you know what you would like to order?”

  I want to order up an explanation so I can know whether or not to be scared out of my mind.

  “Yes, I will have the grilled chicken breast, with rice and steamed broccoli – no salad for me please,” she stated flatly.

  Nick ordered a steak. But Patience was feeling impatient and wanted some answers.

  “I’m sorry, but I am a bit uncomfortable. I am not understanding...” she whispered.

  He leaned back in the chair holding his wine glass. “And I am not understanding what is confusing to you, Patience? You are a very attractive woman and I am a red blooded man.” He took a sip of wine. “You turn me the hell on.”

  Patience’s jaw dropped as Nick extended his arm as if he was reaching out for a dial on a radio and simulating turning up the volume. He stared into her eyes and gave her a coy smile, extended his hand and pretended to turn the volume up to maximum. “I’m certain your boyfriend-slash-fiancé-turned-husband has told you often how absolutely sexy you are,” he gave her a half smile.

  “I am married to my job right now,” she said as she nibbled on a corner of bread. His smile became very large.

  His reaction surprised her. “What the hell are you grinning about?”

  “Then I have an opportunity,” he said, still grinning like a fool.

  “An opportunity for what?”

  “To woo you. Win your trust, your affection, spend some time with you once I get Dad settled.”

  She shook her head. “Not going to happen.”

  “Why? Afraid you may like it?”

  The food arrived and suddenly she had lost her appetite. “I’m not some game or some conquest Nick. I have a serious job and a very serious life. I don’t...”

  “I’m very serious, Patience,” he told her as he cut into his steak. “For a woman to walk into a room completely covered from head to toe and give me a...” He stopped himself. Find the right words, Nick. “That type of reaction... is no game to me.”

  “Then what is your end goal, Nick?”

  He leaned back in the chair again. “Take you to dinner. Maybe a couple of dates, get to know you....”

  She wasn’t buying it. “And then what? Get me in bed?”

  He chewed slowly as he looked at her. “If my end goal was simply to get you into bed, we would not be here, but in my bed.” The look he gave her warmed her from her toes all the way up to her Christmas present. “But, I would like to make love to you so sweetly, so thoroughly, so completely, that when I am done, you will feel like it is Christmas morning.”

  Her breath caught in her throat. “Damn! Now that turned me the hell on!” She reached out her hand, grabbed her imaginary dial and cranked up the knob.

  He laughed loudly. “Good, we have a start.”

  The chicken suddenly smelled really good and she cut into. He looked at her again, this time with fire in his eyes. “Patience.”

  “Yes, Nick,” she responded.

  “No, I am just talking to myself and my friend,” his body wracked with laughter.

  She looked confused and his eyes wandered to his lap.

  “Oh my stars,” she blushed and looked at him square on.

  He was staring back at her in a way that a man looks when he declares his intentions for a woman’s affections. To make certain she understood, he said, “I am not kidding about how much I want to be with you, Patience. I am very serious. You do know that, right?”

  “Yes, Nick, I do.”

  “I am also a man of my word,” he said as he held her gaze.

  She reached out her hand again and reached for her imaginary dial. She turned it some more. Looking at him again, she smiled and turned the crank a bit more, this time leaning back so he could see her hardened nipples through her blouse.

  Nick exhaled and looked down at his crotch. “Oh calm down!”

  They both burst into laughter.

  Making Believe

  The walk back to the hospital was possibly the most interesting ten minutes of Patience’s life. Nick was lost in his own thoughts, but she wanted to bring clarity to the situation. Big Charlie meant a great deal to her. His son was someone she just met. Her connection to one was not an instant connection to the other. “What is weighing so heavily on your mind, Nick?”

  He slowed his pace, and came to a complete stop on the snowy sidewalk. “I would like to kiss you, but I can’t.”

  This was dumb. It was a set up and she knew it. She had to choose her response carefully. “Afraid I am going to slap your face for being too forward?”

  He took a step towards her and she took a step back, almost losing her balance, but he caught her, uprighting her stance. “No, I am greedy. I know one taste of those sweet lips and I am not going to want to stop there.”

  Her pulse was racing. Her body parts were awakening and bra suddenly felt as if it needed to be removed. “Slow your roll, Christmas Elf! I said you turned me on. I never said it was going to happen.”

  “Fair enough,” he told her as he resumed walking towards the building. Without looking at her he said, “Tell me about your relationship with my dad.”

  “Your dad and I are lovers,” she said flatly to gauge his reaction.

  He never stopped walking as the doors of the hospital opened to let them inside of the building. He pressed the button for the elevator car and still did not make eye contact with her. Inside the creepingly slow box, the elevator crawled its way up the shaft to the ninth floor. It was on the third floor that he turned and looked at her. “I don’t believe that shit any more than I believe you not wanting me to kiss you,” he said as he moved closer to her. Patience backed up in the elevator until her back was pressed against the wall.

  Nick lowered his head, leaning in towards her face. As his eyes closed so did hers. Her lips parted slightly waiting for him to press his lips to hers, but he didn’t. Instead he stepped back. “Patience,” he whispered.

  “Yes, Nick?” she said. The disappointment radiated through her voice.

  “Not talking to you....” He shook his head as the doors opened to the ninth floor. He grabbed the sleeve of her coat and pulled her from the car. “Come on, let’s go check on my dad, so you can get home.”

  She wanted him to walk her to her car, but he didn’t. She wanted him to kiss her, but he didn’t. Focus, Patience. Wrong time, wrong man. Although she had been approached by men of other races in college and professional life, she had never dated one. She also had never met one she had been attracted to. Until now. There was something about Nick. There was a cocky self-assuredness about him that spoke to the woman in her. A rich man is great. A man who can fix things is even better. She would take the latter over the other any day. Yeah, the rich man can call a repair man, but a man who can get in there and use his hands... that is a real turn on.

  Nick looked like he could fix all kinds of things. She crossed her legs as she thought about some of the things he could immediately fix in her life. She looke
d about her home. It was a modest four-bedroom ranch with the fourth bedroom converted to a home office. The fire roared in the fireplace as the lights blinked off and on from the over-decorated Christmas tree. The tree was too big for a single woman with no children of her own, but she loved Christmas. This time of year brought so much hope to so many. Patience found herself filling with hope not for the kids at the orphanage, but for herself.

  It was time. It was time to get back out there and start dating again. Nick was right. He was a man and she was a woman. He wasn’t the man for her, but it was time for her to have a man in her life. She sat down the copy of Someone to Watch Over Me by Sienne Mynx that she was trying to read but was having trouble concentrating on the words. Nick.

  Nick.

  Nick.

  And his nice big... Her phone rang.

  She was hoping it was Nick. It wasn’t.

  “Patience, can you stop by the hospital tomorrow? I need to speak with you,” Big Charlie told her on the phone. His voice was sluggish and slow.

  “Yes, sir. Do you want me to come by before work or after?”

  She could tell Big Charlie was trying to catch his breath and he did not sound good. “I’ll come by first thing in the morning, Big Charlie.”

  He wheezed into the line, “Thank you.”

  This was no longer make believe. Big Charlie was dying.

  A Wish from Santa

  Patience felt colder than she ever had in her life. Although it was mid-December, this morning felt like the middle of February. The wind was icy and cold, sending chills all the way to her bones. In her heart, she had to go and say her goodbyes while he was still here, but Christmas without Big Charlie was going to be hard for her. She could only fathom what it was going to be like for Nick.

  The blessing that Charlie had bestowed upon her 21 years ago still held her close to the old man. Reginald Nelson had turned out to be a pretty good dad to her and Andrea was the best mom any kid could ever want. The saying that some women are just born to be mothers must have been applied to Andrea Nelson. A car crash ended her pregnancy and left her unable to conceive or carry another child of her own, and for many years she and Reginald had contemplated adoption. When they were approached by Big Charlie, he knew something few people did; if their child had lived, it would have been 8 years old that Christmas. Patience, true to her name, was the perfect Christmas present for the couple.

  In her own way, working alongside Big Charlie during the holiday season was how she liked to give back. However, her old Christmas angel was about to ask her to give back in an even bigger way.

  He sat up in the bed. His skin was pallid and dry. His eyes, dull and watery. Big Charlie did not look good. “Hey there, Santa! Grant a girl a Christmas wish?”

  Big Charlie’s head turned slowly to gaze upon her face as a tear trickled down his cheek. “My God, child, you simply get more beautiful every day.” The tears became full blown as she grabbed tissues and began to wipe at his washed-out cheeks. Biting back the bile, the nausea and the emotions that were threatening to overtake her, she held the former jolly old man while he cried knowing the tears were sadness drops that he had been holding in his heart. Today, the big man was a sickly form of his former self.

  “I need your help, child,” he told her once he collected himself.

  “Of course, Big Charlie, whatever I can do,” she said to him as he looked at the nightstand of a picture of him and Nick as a boy.

  “Patience, there are so many things in this world I have done wrong. Being a good dad to this man was not one of them.” He caught his breath. “I was a lousy husband, an even worse business man, and a bit of a drunk.” He chucked another tear from the end of his large, crusty finger. “But once a year, for 30 days, I was the man I needed to be.” His fingers ran across the picture of him and Nick. “I tried, girlie, I did. I taught him right. I did. And he turned out good. My Nicky is a good man.” The tears began to roll down his cheeks again as his large paw-like hands wiped away the salt soaked memories of failures.

  He looked at her with a gaze she had never seen in Big Charlie, a gaze filled with fear. “I cannot leave this world with my son hating Christmas.”

  “Big Charlie, what can I do?” Patience asked not only with concern, but also with care as she rubbed his back.

  He hit a coughing spell as he tried to sit the photo back on the nightstand. It was nice of Nick to bring it to the hospital, but she didn’t understand the request Big Charlie was asking. Her eyes pleaded with the old man to help her to do so.

  There were a wheeze, a cough and a sputter and the old man rested his head on the pillow, staring at the ceiling as tears ran down the corners of his eyes. “I would disappear a great deal during the Christmas season and was not around much. When his Ma took sick, Nicky expected me to stay home at be at her side, but I couldn’t. What I was doing was important. There were children counting on me. I hired a nurse, but to him, it wasn’t the same.” More tears ran down his face almost into his ears. “You see Kelli never loved me. She only married me because she was in trouble and Nicky needed a man in his life.”

  He coughed some more, this time spitting up a bit of blood. “I tried to teach her to love me but she never did. I did my best, girlie. But a man needs a woman to believe in him. Kelli never believed in me.” His hand came up to wipe away more sad streams of bad recognitions of his life’s shortcomings. “But I never let it affect my love for that boy. I raised him. I raised him good.”

  His chest trembled. “But he stopped believing when Kelli died. He stopped believing in the magic of Christmas and he stopped believing in me, too.”

  Patience wasn’t certain of what Big Charlie was asking of her so she held his hand. His breathing was becoming labored as he turned his head to look at her. “When I close my eyes here pretty soon, girlie, he is going to take it hard.”

  “What can I do for him, Big Charlie? I just met him two days ago?” Patience was welling up with the recognition of her own shortcomings. How could she help Nick?

  “The home going service is going to be tough on him. Stand at his side and help with the details. He is going to need you,” he told her as he reached under his covers and pulled out a small book and handed it to her.

  He wiped at his mouth. “This is my naughty and nice list. Use it wisely, girlie.”

  This made no sense.

  What was big Charlie asking her to do, call in his markers?

  “What do I use this to do, Big Charlie?”

  “Use it to make Nick believe in the power of Christmas,” he told her as he rolled over, giving her his back.

  She slipped the book in her purse and put her coat on. She was going to be late for work if she didn’t get moving. “I love you, Big Charlie,” she said as she walked away from the bed, surprised to turn and see Nick standing there.

  “Hey, there’s Santa’s Big Helper!” She gave him a weak smile.

  He glanced over her head at his father in the bed. “How’s he doing?”

  “Nick,” she said as she placed her hand on his arm. His eyes dropped to where she was touching him. Tell him. Brace him for what is to come. “He is getting weaker.”

  Nick inhaled deeply as if he were trying to prop himself upwards. He isn’t ready to let him go.

  “Today would be a good day to tell Big Charlie all the things you need him to hear, Nick. Make sure he knows how much you love him,” she said as she slipped on her gloves. “Call me if anything changes.” Instinct made her reach up to kiss his cheek, but instead he turned his head so that their lips met briefly.

  “Have a great day, Patience,” he said as he stepped around her to tend to his father.

  Bells on Bobtails Ring...

  The day was moving faster than her legs could carry her. So much of the holiday programming for the orphanage revolved around Christmas. The donations that came in, the clothing, and the financial allotments were all tied to the holiday season. With Big Charlie down, Patience found herself scram
bling to find a replacement Santa at such a late date. The children were going to be heartbroken. Big Charlie was like a staple to the old building.

  In the distance, she could hear the faint chime of her cell phone. Patience stood slowly, hit with the realization of the book that Big Charlie had given her. What is that about? Before she could get to her bag, little Ernestine Dyer ran into her office, screaming at the top of her lungs, “Johnny said Santa died! Tell him it’s not true. Tell him it isn’t true, Ms. Patience.” The warm tears streamed down her cheeks, leaving a clean path on the otherwise grubby pink skin.

  “First, Ernestine, let’s get that face of yours cleaned up, and then we will talk about Santa.” She took the child by the hand, still looking at her purse, hoping the buzzing phone was not a message from Nick with bad news. Weighing heavily on her mind was also the book.

  Judge not, lest ye be judged flashed through her mind as she tried to process much of the information that Big Charlie had shared with her this morning. He had been an unfaithful husband to a woman who did not love him. Wait. Did he also admit that he was not Nick’s biological father?

  “Right, Ms. Patience? Ain’t I right?” Ernestine asked again, interrupting her private thoughts.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart, right about what?”

  “That Santa isn’t dead?”

  Patience stooped to where she could look both children in the eye. Johnny was pulling away from Ernestine’s death grip on his arm, trying to avoid the reprimand he believed he was going to receive. Instead, she took a different approach. “Kids, Santa is as real to me as he is Ernestine. He comes in all forms, shapes and sizes and is reborn every year in the hearts of children. It is your belief in him that keeps him alive. When one child stops believing, there is also another child that starts to believe in the magic of Santa; so Santa lives eternally.”

  Johnny thought the conversation was malarkey and pretty much said so. “You are asking me to believe that some fat white dude in a red suit flies all over the world giving away free stuff because he wants to? Aww, heck naw ... people who give away stuff like that, they either owe the tax man or their dealer!”