Chapter 14

Rick, Kate and Kevin started walking along the tracks heading for the tunnel that Rick had pointed to. Rick was a little disappointed that there was no shear drop underneath the railway tracks. If he was writing this story he would add an element of danger by having a bottomless pit that the tracks crossed over and he would have the heroes of his story having to carefully cross the tracks.

Rick was the first to reach the tunnel entrance and he stopped. He looked behind him waiting for Kate and Kevin to catch up. They came to a halt beside him and all three of them stared into the darkness of the tunnel.

"You are sure this is the way to go?" Kate asked him.

Rick could hear the music filtering through the tunnel. He turned to look at Kate and he gave her a nod of his head. Yes, he was sure.

"What if a train comes?" Kevin asked nervously.

"No train will be coming through." Rick assured him.

Sensing Kate was about to question him, Rick turned to her and an arched an eyebrow almost as if he was challenging her to say what she was going to say. Kate closed her mouth and just shook her head. She had told him that she trusted him and she was not about to change that so soon.

"Let's get going, we don't want to be late."

Rick quickly walked into the tunnel. Kate had to jog to catch up with him as did Kevin. After having walked about twenty feet through the tunnel the darkness that surrounded them was dispelled by the lights high on the walls. The same kind of lights they had seen in the other tunnel they had pass through.

XX

They had been walking for some minutes through the tunnel with no sign of it coming to an end. The tunnel seemed to go on for ever. Kate was starting to think along the lines that they might have made a mistake in taking this tunnel. She cast a glance at Rick and saw that his face showed no sign of doubt. He still wore that confident grin on his lips. A smile that Kate found that she liked seeing, though she would never tell him that.

"How far is it to the end of the tunnel?" Kevin asked.

"It shouldn't be too far." Rick replied.

"Uh-huh.

Rick caught the note of doubt in Kevin's response. He glanced at the boy but Kevin continued to stare at the path ahead as if he was ignoring Rick. Rick turned to look at Kate and found her looking at him. He raised a questioning eyebrow at her, silently asking her if she shared Kevin's thoughts.

Kate saw the the hesitation and hint of uncertainty on Rick's face. Despite her own thoughts on the matter, she had placed her trust in him, and so far he had not let her down. She offered him a reassuring nod of her head. The uncertainty vanished from Rick's face in an instant and the grin returned.

They continued to walk in silence for a few more minutes with only the sound of their footsteps echoing off the walls.

"Kevin, tell me about what you guys do for Christmas?" Rick asked suddenly.

Kevin cast a quizzical look in Rick's direction.

"Why'd you want to know?"

"I'd like to know."

"Why?"

"I want to know how families celebrate Christmas." Rick said. "And besides it will help to pass the time."

Kevin thought about what Rick had said. He did not see anything wrong with telling him how he and his family celebrated.

"Christmas Day all the family gets together at someone's house, all the uncles and aunts and cousins." Kevin said. "This year we're having Christmas at our place."

"It must be so cool having so many people around?" Rick remarked.

"Yeah. We get to play all these great games." Kevin said with growing excitement. "And all the food! Mom's been cooking for days."

"Turkey with all the trimmings?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, and ham and all this other stuff."

"Sounds great."

"We eat so much until everyone is ready to explode." Kevin added, laughing. "And afterwards Dad and my uncles, they've all had too much to drink, well, they all start singing, Christmas carols and Irish songs..."

"Must be amazing." Rick remarked.

"Yeah, it is." Kevin agreed, smiling.

"What about presents, do you open them on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning?"

"Oh, in the morning, after Santa has come." Kevin said.

Rick listened to Kevin with a hint of envy. He had always wondered what it would be like to be part of a big family, sharing a big family Christmas, loud and raucous and loving. For Rick it had always been just him and his mother.

He glanced across to Kate and saw that she was unusually quiet.

"What about you, Kate?" he said. "What are your Christmas' like?"

Kate was startled by Rick's voice. She had been listening to Kevin about his family's Christmas and had felt a pang of sadness. It reminded her of Christmases she had experienced back in happier times. Shaking off her reveries she looked at Rick. She gave him a frown and a shake of her head. She did not want to talk about what she did at Christmas.

"What about you, Rick?" She asked.

Rick regarded Kate for a moment and saw the reticence in her eyes and knew that she did not want to talk about her own Christmases, hence her question.

"It's always been just Mom and me." He said slowly. "No big family gatherings. And ever since I can remember we've never spent Christmas in the same place twice."

Kate shot Rick a questioning look in response to Rick's remark. He smiled back at her.

"Mother is an actress." He explained. "Usually around Christmas time we travel with her theatre group performing Yuletide plays from town to town."

Kate nodded her head in understanding.

"Usually for me, Christmas Eve is spent in some motel room in some small town, and Christmas lunch is attending an actors' party where I'm usually the only kid."

"Don't you get any presents?" Kevin asked sounding a little shocked.

"Yeah, Santa brings me a present. He seems to know where to find me." Rick replied.

Kate rolled her eyes at that response. She listened avidly to the stories he spun of his Christmases past, laughing along with Kevin at the jokes Rick cracked but as she listened she also detected an underlying note of sadness, of longing.

Kate did not know how long they had been walking through the tunnel but her laughter and Kevin's laughter echoed off the walls as Rick eagerly told them some funny stories of some of the Christmas parties he had been too. He had just finished telling the story of a party where the Santa had drunk too much of the spiked eggnog and could not keep his hands off the ladies.

"There's something up ahead." Kevin shouted.

Rick had been looking at Kate as she was laughing at his story, enjoying the sound of her laughter. Slowly her drew his gaze away from a smiling Kate and looked at the way ahead. He saw in the distance a light at the tunnel's exist. He cocked his ear and listened. Sure enough he could still hear the Christmas music. He could also hear some other noise, something that he could not quite make out. All the same his face lit up with excitement.

"Come on, guys." he shouted.

Kevin and Kate had to run to catch up with Rick who had started to run ahead.

They emerged from the tunnel to find themselves on a wide platform that ran the length of a wall and descended to the floor of an enormous factory. Rick walked over to the protective railing, Kate and Kevin followed him. All three of them peered down to the floor and gasped at what they beheld.

On the floor of this enormous building were five long conveyor belts which emerged from large doors at one side of the building and ran the length of the floor and disappeared through other large doors on the other side. On either side of each conveyor belt were elves. Hundreds and hundreds of elves all dressed in brown jackets, green woollen leggings and matching hats. Trundling along the conveyor belts were toys of all shapes and sizes. The elves picked up a toy taking it off the conveyor belt placing it on a table beside them where they quickly and efficiently wrapped the present before returning the present back onto the conveyor belt. At the end of the conveyor belt stood an elf with a red hat who placed a name sticker on the wrapped gift. The gift then continued on and disappeared through another doorway.

"Do you know where we are?" Rick said excitedly.

Kevin shook his head as he stared as he stared down at the elves as they went about their work.

"We were kind of hoping that you'd know." Kate said.

"I know where we are."

Kate cast a glance in Rick's direction and waited for him to speak again. Rick was staring down to the floor watching the elves at work. "You want to share it with the rest of class, Rick?" she demanded.

Rick dragged his eyes away from the elves and faced a frowning Kate. He beamed at her.

"This is the Great Wrapping Hall." Rick declared, waving a hand to the floor below. "This is where the elves wrap up the presents that Santa delivers."

Kate stared at Rick and shook her head.

"You mean this is part of Santa's workshop?" Kevin said, having caught some of Rick's excitement.

"Yeah."

"Oh wow! I wonder where my present is?"

"Sitting under the tree at home." Kate replied in a deadpan tone.

Rick gave Kate a look and she shrugged her shoulders in response.

"It is, this is part of Santa's workshop." He insisted. "Are those not elves that are hard at work?"

Kate cast her eyes down to the floor below. She had to concede that they all looked like elves. She nodded her head in answer to Rick's question.

"And are those not presents that the elves are wrapping?"

Kate could feel Rick's gaze on her.

"Okay." She ground out.

"See, that wasn't hard was it?" Rick said leaning close to Kate. Kate was startled by his nearness. She risked a glance in his direction but Rick had straightened up and looking down at the elves.

As they looked down to the floor watching the elves working, there erupted a loud, long whistle. All the elves stopped working. The conveyor belts came to a halt. The elves quickly began to march out of the Wrapping Hall. Within a couple of minutes the hall was empty and quiet.

"Now what?" Kate asked, looking at Rick. "How do we get out of here?"

Rick turned away from the railing he was standing and looked at Kate. He wore a confident smile on his face.

"We go that way." He announced as he pointed in the direction where the wrapped presents had disappeared.

"Why that way?" Kate asked.

"Because that's where the presents went."

"Why not go out the way the elves did?"

"Because they're not going where we need to go."

Rick started following the railway track as it wended its way down to the floor of the Wrapping Hall. Kevin followed him but Kate remained where she was standing. With a loud sigh she too started walking.

Reaching the floor of the hall Rick turned and made his way towards one of the doorways which the conveyor belts passed through.

"Rick." Kate called out.

Rick stopped and turned to look back.

"Are you sure this is the right way to go?" She asked.

"I'm sure." he replied and then grinned. "If it's not, then we back track and go the other way and you can spend as much time as you like telling me, 'I told you so'."

Kate tried very hard not to smile at his remark but when Rick started walking again, she allowed her smile to reach her face. She shook her head and started following.

As they passed through the doorway, Rick, Kate and Kevin found themselves in the largest warehouse they had ever seen. There were rows upon rows of shelves. Shelves that rose high into the air, all the way up to the roof of the warehouse. The one thing they all noticed was that all the shelves were empty.

"Hey, what's that up ahead?" Kevin pointed out.

Rick turned away from gazing up at the empty shelves and focused his gaze directly ahead of them. In the distance beyond the open doors of the warehouse was a sight that had him beaming.

"Is that Santa's sleigh?" Kevin asked hesitantly.

"Cool!" Rick exclaimed.

XXXXX

Tell me what you think of this chapter.

Con