F6
"Santa has a fat face, Santa has a fat face!" the bullies of the Vancouver primary school chanted as Santa ran helplessly from their gang, he wasn't fat, in fact, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him whatsoever. Santa yelled at the top of his lungs hoping that anyone could hear his solemn plea for help, he ran into a dead end and… BANG! He bashed the back of his head on the solid wall of the church while walking backwards, he just wanted to be left alone, to be respected by anyone.
"Look, fat face is also klutz!" someone yelled, everyone was laughing as if that were the funniest joke ever, everyone but Santa. "What are you going to do, call your mummy?" More laughter erupted. Santa sprinted faster than he had ever sprinted before, shoving his way out of the gang, he headed home, the only safe place left on Earth…
"What's wrong Santa?" Eugene asked as Santa approached the rusted door, "What's wrong?" Santa didn't utter a single word as he bolted up the rickety flight of stairs towards his room. He didn't know what to feel, melancholic or livid, jolly or exhausted; he just leapt towards his bed and sobbed for hour.
"Enjoy each day because for all you know the next day could be when a cyclone strikes." Eugene spoke trying to imitate a wise king from the medieval era.
"Leave me alone!"
With that, Eugene left the room hoping that Santa's Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) wouldn't kick in as it did previously; he nearly knocked out Mum (Cheng), my cousin (Jeff) and even my mighty Dad (Yong).
"Wake up Santa!" Cheng yelled as the irritable odour of luxurious maple syrup drifted up the flight of stairs and filled Santa's nose. Santa didn't reply. This wasn't a very wise choice as Jeff marched up the creaky stairs towards Santa's room demanding him to treat his elders with more respect rather than ignoring them, Santa still refused to budge and even ran through the wide legs of Jeff and stomped out of the door. No one bothered to chase after Santa nor look each other in the eye, let alone speak to anyone.
Santa strolled aimlessly up and down the cracked roads of the village-like place. He didn't have a home nor did he have peace, all he wanted was to dig a hole and bury himself in it until his final day on Earth. He spent his day roaming the community, bullying the weak for sheer amusement, he felt joyous taking out everything that he attempted to ignore for years and years. He didn't care whether he offended anyone or ended up being chased out of a shop, Santa did whatever he felt like without his conscience bothering him. The sun has begun to set, Santa was famished, he decided to head home for dinner.
Cheng didn't feel right… The last time this happened was directly before she had a premonition that a death would occur. Abruptly, an overpowering image pierced in her mind, a dreadful mist of darkness gradually glided towards her, she was swept from the kitchen where she was preparing roasted beef towards it and… what was that? Cheng's perfect sense of hearing heard a thunderstorm, she called Jeff to the kitchen to observe the symptoms of the weather.
"A tremendous cyclone is approaching." Jeff cautioned as a whirling mist of darkness formed in the background.
"We have to pick Santa up!" Yong reminded Cheng after overhearing their conversation, "We need Eugene's ingenious plans in order to succeed!"
"What did you say!?" Eugene yelled inadvertently "A tornado is heading straight for us?"
"YES!" everyone else bellowed in unison as the storm approached.
"Look!" Eugene shrieked, "The head of the statue of liberty, a cow, a house and even part of a building this must be a terrible tornado!" Jeff started to record notes frantically on his notepad. You see, he was a diligent university student who studies the weather and this was a once in a lifetime chance to complete his essay to finally meet the nearly unachievable standard of his lecturer.
"Now we have to hurry if we are to rescue Santa!" Eugene urged as they stepped out of the house in the middle of the storm and climbed into the sleek new Honda Civic.
"Santa usually hangs around the arcade so I suggest that we search there first." Eugene recommended. Since everyone regarded him as a pure genius, they did just that. The arcade didn't look how normal arcades look like; this looked similar to a casual home of a wealthy person with the sign 'ARCADE" in front of it.
"There, I spotted him!" Yong claimed as no one underestimated the accuracy of his perfect eye-sight. The Civic tilted left and came to an abrupt stop as Yong climbed out and grabbed the little boy by the arms and shoving her into the car.
"We're running out of time!" Eugene warned as the tornado caused the Civic to vibrate.
Jeff drove us to the church, the sturdiest place in the town. There we took cover under the wine cellar for what seemed like days! Soon when they finally awoke from their slumber, they realised that Santa was sobbing uncontrollably.
"What's wrong Santa?" asked Eugene with concern secretly hoping that his ADHD doesn't possess him.
"YOU!" bellowed Santa, "That's what is wrong, I'm not Santa!"
"What!" Everyone yelled back in unison.
"I'm Ben!" he shouted while running out of the condemned cellar.
"Watch out!!!" Jeff yelled as he leapt for Ben to drag him back down, "This isn't an ordinary storm, the devastating damage it had caused is much more than anything written on my scale, it materialised here but had the ability to pull the head of lady Liberty that is all the way in New York!"
"But isn't New York 100 miles away, if that is so than this tornado is incredible!" Ben exclaimed, "I myself have experience on natural disasters."
"This tornado is the first of its kind, it is a F6, totally of the scale."
3 Day Later…
CLANK! The cellar door creaked open.
"Are you guys alright?" a voice questioned.
"Thanks to you!" we croaked back as he inserted a ladder to us asking us to climb out.
"Any casualties?" this man in a green uniform asked.
"No sir."
He lead us to a helicopter which flew to their headquarter in Washington D.C.
"Sir," Eugene asked.
"Please do not call me that," the officer interrupted, "I'm Major Luke, nice to meet you."
"Major Luke, our brother wasn't found when we left our house to conduct a mini search, have you by any chance located a person with by the name of Santa?"
"Nope, there is no Santa Clause here."
"I'm dead serious Major Luke." Eugene sighed.
"So am I"
The Lee family landed on a ship close to the shores of New York. They were instructed by Major Luke that they had to march to the front of the ship to claim something.
"Eugene Lee," an officer called, "I am the general and I'm honoured to present you with the knowledge badge for that exquisite mind of yours saved your family, the last survivor of the village."
"What?" Eugene roared, "The last survivor?"
"A-hm" the general interrupted, "Jeff Lee, for your excellence in measuring the scale of the tornado therefore, you have graduated from university."
"General!" Eugene bellowed, "I'm asking…"
"Yong Lee, for his marvelous athletic ability and Cheng Lee for the splendid ability to predict the near future."
"Zip it!" yelled Eugene courageously.
"I beg you pardon."
"I was asking you a question and all you do is interrupted me and ignore me, what the heck happened to the other villagers?"
"I'm afraid that I'm not supposed to tell you but all I may say is that there have been many casualties caused by the vigorous tornado!"
"Did you notice anyone by the name of Santa, an aggressive boy who might become fierce for no particular reason?" asked Eugene with a tingle of fear in his voice.
"I will have to break the bad news, there have been no survivors."
Eugene staggered back.
"You shall be spending your life in New York, of course we will supply you with a house and a car, don't you worry!"
Everyone remained silent. No one could accept the fact that Santa had simply perished, how could that be?
The unknown general broke the silent abruptly, "Nah, just pulling your leg, how could anyone miss a lad as aggressive as Santa who was screeching his name over and over again. Unfortunately, you'll still have to be a city family, you don't mind do you?"
"Where's Santa?" everyone asked in harmony, "We'll live anywhere as long as there's all of us."
"Great!" the general replied as a trapdoor behind him slid open as Santa ran arms out-stretched towards the Lee family.
"Eugene, Cheng, Yong, Jeff!" Santa squealed as he sprinted vigorously towards them.
They were stunned to see each other after such a long time of separation but finally got together in harmony again.