Said I'd post another one up :)
Check out my poll please, and enjoy!
Arduous, adj.
- Tiring and needing a lot of effort
North grumbled as he sat down at his desk, sighing slightly as he pulled his mug of coffee closer and slipped a hand into his inside pocket for the hip flask he knew was there and added a generous helping of vodka to the coffee.
He might be Russian, but that didn't mean he didn't appreciate what the Irish did.
And he needed it for the next few days, pulling a stack of papers in front of him he started going through all the names of the Naughty list.
He hated the Naughty list. It was needed, it was necessary, but it didn't mean he liked it. What could he possibly find attractive about prospective candidates for the list, children who would not get toys and would instead get coal? He had to go through every name and review what they had done to see if they were definitely on the list, or if they just needed to be monitored to see if their behaviour improved and they could perhaps redeem themselves.
Tommy Aarons, a seven year old boy was a prospect for the Naughty list for... taking his sisters' doll and breaking it. Reading into it however, North realised breaking it was an accident, and he was currently saving his pocket money to buy her a new doll. Sure, taking the toy in the first place was a bad thing to do, but he was trying to make up for it. He'd be on the good list if he made up for what he did.
Francesca Bowlers, ten years old, smokes cigarettes she steals from her parents and shot the neighbours cat with an air riffle. It saddened him to read that, remembering three years back when Francesca was on the good list. That was before her older brother died and she wound up hanging out with a group of older teens and getting into trouble. Naughty list.
After fifty four names, North felt drained both emotionally and physically. He didn't know how some children could be so cruel, and they'd not ever started in the world properly...
Leon Farris, stabbed another boy in the eye with a pencil. Naughty.
Jessica Riches, killed her hamster because she couldn't get sweets. Definitely Naughty.
The list went on and on, and with each name North wrote on the list, the sadder he felt until he had to physically make himself put the pen down and leave the desk for a little while, walk around the work shop and clear his head.
As he went around and examined toy barns, he realised that sometimes the job of being Santa Clause wasn't the best in the world. Seeing so many children were so horrible, and if they couldn't see the wonder in life and enjoy it, be good and help keep that wonder going, then what was the point really? Although when he did the Nice list next month, he knew his mood would pick up again and he'd see the worth in the job again, his faith would be restored a little.
Each year it got harder, it seemed in a world where all they knew was war and violence it was getting harder to push past that and bring the balance with peace and love.
His blue eyes looked up at the globe, where billions of lights twinkled and glittered. It was sad to think that quite a lot of those lights were children who were so consumed with hate that before Christmas even came around they'd stop believing, move on to other things to keep their minds occupied.
Then again... the brighter lights shone through, put those Naughty lights to shame, and with a small smile North consoled himself with the thought that if enough of those Nice children could keep their belief, or even pass on their own values, then they'd make the world a fractionally nicer place to live in.