Caroline and the Christmas Wishes

Written by Mitch

Email: mitch_work1@yahoo.com

Rating: PG

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Chapters: 5

Summary: Caroline and Richard frivolously make Christmas wishes to a Macy's department store Santa. But sometimes a little Christmas magic can make wishes come true.

Author's notes: Bits and pieces of various episodes are referenced in this story, it doesn't follow the timeline of the series. Caroline and Richard have yet to meet, Jeannie, Caroline's colorist, quit just one month before the story, and Caroline has just broken up with Joe because he cheated on her with his ex-girlfriend Lisa. A lot of dialog from the "Caroline and the Red Sauce" is included in this story as well as bits from other episodes, for which I take no credit. Characters' thoughts are in italics.

Chapter 1

Caroline was working industriously on some greeting cards at her desk in her apartment. One look at the apartment left no doubt that it was the holiday season. By the window, a large decorated Christmas tree was lit up. There were garlands, wreaths, ornaments, festive plants, and other Christmas decorations everywhere – on and above the kitchen counter, on the stairway railing, the living room chest – basically, every horizontal and vertical surface was decorated in Caroline's typical cheerful style.

But Caroline herself was not so cheerful. For one thing, her colorist Jeannie had quit a month ago, to be with her husband in Chicago. That had left her scrambling, just to keep from falling too far behind in her daily "Caroline in the City" strip and greeting cards for Del's company, Eagle Greetings. But the extra work only caused Caroline to be busy and irritable. What really depressed her was her breakup with Joe, the young veterinarian, who had just admitted that he had cheated on her with his ex-girlfriend, Lisa. To make matters even worse, she had already boasted to her mother that she was bringing her doctor boyfriend (he was a doctor – technically) back with her during her annual holiday visit to Peshtigo. Caroline had told her mom that 'cause she and the other relatives were always pestering her to get married, quit her job, and have children (preferably in that order), and it seemed like a good way to shut them up – at least temporarily.

Despite the looming deadline, Caroline just sighed and looked at the blank pad of paper in front of her. "Maybe I should just color in some cards while I'm waiting for ideas for my strip to percolate" thought Caroline.

At that moment, Annie walked through the door. "Hey, Care."

"Hey, Annie." Despite her depression, Caroline smiled when she saw her best friend.

"I'm free 'til tonight's performance of "Cats". Wanna go do some Christmas shoppin'?"

"Sorry, Annie. I don't feel like it."

"Oh, c'mon! It'll do you good. Deep down, you knew you and young Doctor Joe would break up eventually. He's in his twenties! He's not ready for the kind of deep, committed, lasting relationship that you want."

"I know, Annie, I know. But it still hurts. Besides, he was the one who started all the talking about love and commitment – actually, he did that a little too soon."

"Yeah… but he's in his twenties. He'll talk about love and commitment one day, the next day you find out he meant he's getting a puppy… C'mon, let's go! I haven't found the 'breakup depression' yet that couldn't be cured by a little serious shopping."

Caroline cracked a small smile. "You might be right." Then she shook her head. "No, no, no. Since Jeannie left, I've been really busy. I have all these cards to color, and I have to draw some strips for next week."

Annie walked over to the desk. "Let's see what you got." Eying the blank pad of paper, she cracked "Umm… Blinding snowstorm. Very Christmas-y."

After the last remark, Caroline snapped "Look, with everything that's been happening, I've been a little blocked lately. And your interruptions aren't helping!"

"Whoa, Caroline…! Chill. Maybe… maybe going to the stores and seeing the decorations and kids with bright faces will give you some ideas for you strip. Or maybe seeing two moms fighting over the last robo-transformer or whatever's the hot toy this year will. You never know."

"I'm sorry I snapped at you, Annie. Maybe you're right. Let's go."

******

Richard was at the end of his rope (and his money). Despite his talent, Richard had gone months without finding any work that utilized his artistic skills, and he was one step away from being evicted from his apartment. Desperate, he decided to get a meaningless job during the holidays at Macy's. He was assigned to work in the gift-wrapping department with Melody Fife, a mousy middle-aged woman who was proud of her "empire" at Macy's. Richard had a poor attitude towards his work and towards Melody, and it showed.

Outwardly, Richard made an attempt to be pleasant to a customer. "That was number three. Excellent choice, sir." But his actual thoughts were revealed as Richard muttered while filling out a form. "Perhaps the recipient will be so dazzled by it, he won't notice you bought the cheapest wallet in the store." Richard handed the receipt to the customer and he walked away.

A suspicious Melody queried "What did you just say to that customer?"

"I said 'Have a merry Christmas and thank you for shopping with us'".

"That's not what it sounded like."

"I don't care."

As Richard began to clumsily wrap a box, an impatient Melody took over and demonstrated.

"No, no, no, no. Corner to corner, fold, tuck, and tape. That is how we wrap."

"Does it really matter?"

Melody proudly announced "I invented that fold. It is called the Melody Fife right end fold."

Richard was not impressed, and made a snide remark. "You share your life with a lot of cats, don't you?"

As Richard finished wrapping the box, he picked up the receipt to attach to it – which caused a shocked Melody to respond.

"Oh, dear god, man, what have you done?"

"Obviously something pretty bad for me to end up working here."

An exasperated Melody picked up the receipt. "This is the buff copy of a wrapping slip. When you ship a gift, the buff copy has to be sent to accounting. Buff to accounting, green to shipping, periwinkle to the customer, and canary yellow for our files. Why is this so hard to remember?"

Richard quipped "Maybe this is a good time to tell you I'm color blind."

Still exasperated, Melody replied "Mr Karinsky, you have a very snotty attitude, and that is going to hold you back." With that, she walked away temporarily.

Richard muttered, incredulously "You mean there's 'back' from this?"

A burly cop walked up to the gift wrapping counter. "Excuse me, hello?"

Not seeing who it was, Richard gave his usual rude abrupt answer. "Yeah, yeah, hang on." But when he looked up, Richard became much more polite. "Uh, officer."

The cop put a teddy bear on the counter. "I need this teddy bear wrapped."

"There was a whole table of these already wrapped upstairs."

"No, see, I put this diamond ring on a ribbon around its neck. Then when my girlfriend opens it, with any luck, I'm engaged."

Richard awkwardly joked "How could anyone refuse you, you carry a gun."

The policeman growled "What's that supposed to mean?"

Richard, very subserviently, tried to explain. "I just... meant that you carry a gun. I was just trying to be funny. Get it?"

Their awkward conversation was interrupted by a call on the cop's walkie-talkie.

hiss "Number seven two eighty-six in progress, thirteenth and seventh."

The cop replied "Ten-four". He turned and glared at Richard. "I'll be back. A gift wrapper from another store did a lousy job, so I'm going to go shoot him." Seeing Richard's frightened response, he added as he left "See? I can be funny too".

******

Caroline and Annie had chosen to shop at Macy's. So far, Annie's plan to either lift Caroline's spirits or give her ideas for her strip wasn't working. As Annie passed the gift wrap department and heard Richard snottily mutter to a customer, she got an idea.

"Caroline! Look, see that guy?" said Annie, pointing to Richard.

"Yeah… he's sorta cute, but he's not my type, sorta nerdy. He's not the one to make me forget Joe."

"No, no, no, that's not what I mean… He obviously is here only to earn a little money and hates his job… Let's play with his head." Annie smiled devilishly. "You might get an idea for your strip."

Caroline's mood lightened a little "It could be fun."

After finding suitable "gifts", Caroline and Annie approached the counter.

Melody politely enquired "May I help you?"

Annie responded, pointing to Richard. "Uh, yes, actually, we want that boy."

As Melody walked away and Richard walked over, Annie smiled innocently. "We have a few things that need to be wrapped." That was the cue for them to display a red bowling ball and a potted cactus and put them on the counter.

"Ohh… Why do I always get the…"

Caroline smiled sweetly and interrupted Richard in mid-insult. "Oh, I'm sorry. It was her idea. We just wanted to have a little fun."

Richard was oddly attracted to the cute redhead so opposite in demeanor to himself. He made a show of his disdain, slapping a bow on each item, which upset Melody greatly.

"What are you doing? The bow never touches the gift directly. Bow, paper, box, tissue, gift."

Richard immediately responded "Window, push, pavement, splat, relief."

Caroline giggled, turned to Annie and smiled and nodded, thinking "I got one good strip out of this!" as they left.

Richard, perplexed at himself, suppressed a smile, happy that he could make the redheaded stranger laugh. He found himself staring at her as they left.

Interrupting his reverie, the cop who brought in the teddy bear returned.

"I'm here for my teddy bear."

"Oh. Yes, of course, Officer. Right away." Richard looked around, but couldn't find the bear. "Uh...just one second." Nervously, Richard walked over and interrupted Melody.

"I am curling a ribbon, Richard!"

Anxiously, he asked "There was a wrapped teddy bear here before. Where is it?"

"Did it have a peacock blue hold slip with it?"

This annoyed Richard, who replied "I don't know what kind of bird it had with it."

"Well, if you can't remember whether it had a hold slip or not, how could I possibly know where it is?"

"Because your entire life is gift wrapping, Melody, and if you don't know where a gift is, doesn't that make your whole life a fraud?"

Incongruently, Melody revealed how out of touch she was with reality by responding "You're falling in love with me, aren't you?"

At this point, the cop demanded "Hey Stretch, where's my ring?"

Richard was desperate. "For god's sake, where is the bear? This guy has a gun and no sense of humor!"

"Well, I was wrapping a lot of them for the toy department, so if it didn't have a hold slip, maybe it's up there."

Richard stalled the cop and rushed off to look for the bear. "Uh, could you just excuse me for one moment? I just have to get a special policeman's bow. I'll be right back."

The skeptical cop asked Melody "Is he coming back?"

Melody self-confidently replied "Oh yeah."

******

A little later, upstairs at Macy's, Richard frantically ran up to the manager.

"Where are the bears?"

Misunderstanding, the manager replied "I think they played Detroit this week."

"No, for god's sake. I went to the toy department, and they said the wrapped teddy bears were up here."

Still misunderstanding Richard's intent, the manager replied "Sir, if you want to buy a bear, we have a lovely…"

"No, I don't want to buy a bear. It's for a customer. I work here."

The manager proudly responds "Well, I can tell you that this was my idea. You see, we have these underprivileged children visiting us today, and Santa is giving away the bears."

Richard shouted "The hell he is!" and ran up to the display and started rummaging through Santa's sack.

"Santa", normally very jolly, was shocked, and told Richard "What are you doing? You can't do that!"

Richard was intent on finding the bear with the ring. "Fine. Put a lump of coal in my stocking."

The manager ran out to get help. "Security! I'm getting security!"

Santa admonished Richard. "This is Santa's bundle of toys! It's sacred!"

Richard didn't care. "Hey, hey, look! Lighten up. In a month, you'll be back at off-track betting, smoking Kools."

Just then, from outside the Santa display area, a child was heard." Mommy, look! My bear has a ring!"

"The hell it does!" said Richard, running towards the child.

******

Back at the gift wrapping department, the manager was lecturing Richard.

"Mr. Karinsky, the store takes a very dim view of ripping toys from the tiny hands of underprivileged children."

Richard weakly defended himself. "It was only one child"

The manager continued. "Be that as it may. Now, our original reaction was to let you go, but Miss Fife has made an impassioned plea on your behalf. We'll give you one more chance." Melody smiled at Richard as the manager went on. "So, we're going to transfer you to another department where you can better absorb the holiday spirit. Follow me."

******

"Ohhh..." thought Richard morosely "If I wasn't so desperate for money to avoid being evicted, I never would have even applied for this meaningless job at Macy's." Richard's morose thoughts were reflected in his face, which clashed with the cheerful, adorable elf costume he was wearing. "It was bad enough in the wrapping department – there at least I was only bored out of my mind. If that damned Melody hadn't sent the teddy bear with the ring upstairs, I'd still be there. Now I have to be bored and humiliated! I have to wear this ridiculous elf outfit and be Santa's assistant. That'll teach me to wish I wasn't in the wrapping department. At least I got to deal with adults, albeit sometimes impatient ones. Here I have to deal with bratty little kids. How can this job be any worse?"

Richard's job as Santa's assistant was fairly simple. When it was the next child's turn, he led the little boy or girl to Santa, who sat on an ornate chair in his toy workshop. If the child needed help onto Santa's lap, Richard would lift them up. After each little boy or girl talked with Santa awhile, a photographer would snap a picture, then the whole process would start over again for the next child. Because of their previous encounter, Santa sometimes eyed Richard suspiciously.

Just outside "Santa's workshop" was "Santa's mailbox". Some of the younger children were too frightened to approach Santa. Waiting in line with their parents, they would just cry, and cry, and cry. So, the parents would relent, leave the line and go to the mailbox, where pens, paper and envelopes were provided. They wrote the letter for their child, and assured them that Santa would bring them what they wanted, even if they didn't tell him personally.

At first, Richard was very cynical about his elf job. "What a racket! Greedy little kids tell "Santa" what they want for Christmas. Santa makes sure the parents overhear, and Macy's makes more profits when they buy their gifts here. Merry Christmas!!! Ka-ching!!"

******

Annie pointed to Santa's workshop. "Look, Caroline, Santa's workshop. Maybe seeing kids talking to Santa will lift your spirits. Let's take a look."

As they passed a line of children to look at Santa, Richard approached them. "Hey! No cutting!" Then he saw who they were, and though attracted to Caroline, Richard's mood was so foul, he added disparagingly "Oh, it's you two."

Caroline protested "We weren't trying to cut, we were just trying…"

The little spat briefly caught Santa's attention. He stared thoughtfully at Caroline and Richard during the few seconds it took for the next child to approach him.

Suddenly, for some reason, the beautiful stranger irritated Richard. He didn't know her at all, maybe he was just embarrassed to be seen in the ridiculous elf outfit by her. But why her? After all, she was just one amongst many strangers at Santa's workshop. Without understanding why, his irritation triggered even more rudeness from Richard, as if he were trying to shoo her away. "Back of the line, lady. You have to wait with everyone else. Besides, aren't you a little old to be sitting on Santa's lap?"

That snapped Caroline out of her depression. Now she was just angry. "There's no need to be rude, Mister… Mister…"

"Karinsky. Richard Karinsky… Yeah, yeah, yeah, go write a letter."

"I think I will! C'mon, Annie!"

For the second time that day, Richard was perplexed by his reaction to the redheaded stranger, and watched as she left. "Why did I do that?"

Just outside Santa's workshop, Annie pointed to Santa's mailbox.

"There's paper, a pen, and envelopes over there."

But when Caroline actually started to put pen to paper, she hesitated – as the always did when it came to her offending someone or getting them in trouble.

"Oh, I don't know if I can do this, Annie. I mean, even though Mr. Karinsky was rude, and I am angry, I don't want to get him into hot water. What if he gets fired?"

Santa could not see his mailbox, but with his acute hearing, he could hear Caroline and Annie talking. He pondered awhile before Richard raised the next child onto his lap.

For some reason, it suddenly became important to Annie that Caroline stand up for her rights. She retorted "Pleeeease, nobody gets fired for one letter of complaint. Caroline, you're such a wimp. He'll probably get a good tongue lashing at worst, and he deserves it."

"You're right, Annie. I'm gonna do it."

Caroline's anger subsided somewhat during the time it took her to write a letter of complaint. As she finished, Annie got another idea to get Caroline into a better mood.

"Look, Caroline. We're at Santa's mailbox. Why don't you write Santa a letter telling him what you want for Christmas, while I find someone to give your complaint letter to. I know it's silly, but it couldn't hurt. And who knows…" Annie winked "…Santa may get you what you wish for."

Caroline was reluctant at first. "I don't know, Annie…"

"C'mon… by the time you're done, you won't be mad anymore."

Caroline saw what Annie was trying to do, and agreed.

"Okay, great!" Annie took the complaint letter and left.

"What do I want…? Hmm…" thought Caroline. "It won't matter anyway, so I might as well wish for something useful." She started to write.

"Dear Santa,

I've been a good girl this year."

Caroline giggled, and continued.

"For Christmas I would like:

A colorist for my comic strip"

"Boy, that would really help" she thought. "Should I put anything else…? Why not?" Caroline pondered for awhile, then wrote:

"A companion to go with me and confront"

Caroline erased 'confront' and completed the wish.

"A companion to go with me and meet my relatives in Peshtigo"

"Ah, what the hell…? Since it doesn't matter, I might as well go all out."

"The man of my dreams"

Caroline smiled at the last line she wrote.

"Thanks, Santa

Caroline Duffy"

Caroline sighed wistfully, folded the letter, put it into an envelope, and stuffed it into Santa's mailbox.