Dancing Snow

                   –-:four.

\\.Tennyo

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          Something startled Serena from her sleep. One of her eyes popped open as her heart beat suddenly sped up. Was it an intruder? What was going on?

          There! She heard it again! There were jingles coming from her living room! Serena looked to her side to see if Darien had heard it too. Either she was beginning to hear things or he was just too deep in his slumber to notice.

          Serena quickly got out of bed and grabbed the nearest weapon she could find. She didn't play baseball, so the only weapon she had was her… lacrosse stick. Never mind, it would have to do!

          Slowly, Serena edged her way towards her closed door and saw that there was light peeking at the edge of her door. Didn't she turn the lights off?

          She turned the knob and ran into her living room. "Freeze right there mister!" Freeze… right… there? Where did that come from? Oh never mind that!

          The intruder paused midway into her window and looked like a deer caught in front of headlights.

          "Mr… Waltham?" Serena asked, bewildered.

          Mr. Waltham was trying to squeeze his pudgy self into her narrow window with a sack of toys behind his shoulder. He had the whole Santa Clause thing going, complete with the red suit, black boots, and the white flowing beard.

          Serena dropped her lacrosse stick and tried to help her employer in. It's not everyday that you see a fifty plus man trying to fit through your twelfth floor window. She did, however, have to wonder what he was doing climbing in through her window when he could've simply ringed the doorbell. But then again, what in the world was he doing at this hour? She glanced at the clock that was perched atop her television set. It was past two in the morning!

          Finally, Mr. Waltham climbed through her window and stumbled onto her living room floor.

          "That," he huffed, "Was," he wheezed, "A long ass climb."

          Serena dusted the snow off his suit and helped him towards her couch. "Are you all right Mr. Waltham? Why are you climbing through my window?"

          All of a sudden, Mr. Waltham glared at her, "Am I ALL RIGHT? This tyke asks if I'm all right," he muttered, "If you hadn't been so hell bent on getting your own apartment, it would've been much easier for be to get down here!"

          "What?"

          "You! You college students these days always want to go out on their own and," he mocked, "Find yourselves."

          "Well piss that!" he exclaimed, his jolly red face getting redder by the second, "You know how much trouble it was to climb down from the roof?"

          "I-" Serena said but Mr. Waltham interrupted her with a wave of his hand.

          "You young'uns have no idea how hard it is! In the old days, there weren't any CARS or AIRPLANES or special HARNESSES to climb down steep mountains."

          "Well," Serena remarked, "I don't suppose there were any flying sleds in the old days either."

          Mr. Waltham paused and looked at her. "You…" he pointed at her, "You reckless college student! My back will hurt for months now. If only you had listened to your mother and stayed at your nice two-story house, I could've simply come down your chimney! But noooo, you just had to move into one of these chimney-less apartments! Why, I ought-"

          Serena interrupted Mr. Waltham. "Sir," Serena said, "If I may ask, what you are doing in my living room, and at such a late hour!"

          Mr. Waltham finally toppled off his mighty horse and had the decency to blush. "Er," he muttered, "About that. You see, you were part of a plan-"

          "A plan?" Serena's eyes bulged.

          "Yes, you see," he continued, "The little boy that is currently sleeping in your bedroom is none other than Mr. Darien Shields of Shields Enterprises."

          Serena frowned, "That doesn't ring a bell."

          "Of course it doesn't," he said, "Right now, it is only a fledgling company. But a year from now, it will be one of the most powerful companies of America!"

          "And that has to do with me… how?"

          Mr. Waltham frowned at her in disapproval, "Let me finish and you'll find out!"

          "All right, all right!" she mumbled, "Sorry."

          "As with all successful businessmen, something had happened to them when they were children, something that caused them to have this ambitious drive that allowed them to be business geniuses," he said, "With Mr. Shields, it is no exception. However, we had deemed him a special case because unlike his competitors, who perhaps had just grown up from a poor family, Mr. Shields had no family."

          Serena's face fell. "No family?"

          "Yes," Mr. Waltham confirmed, "Mr. Shields had led a pretty harsh childhood. First, he lost his parents-"

          "His parents!" Serena exclaimed, unable to keep her emotions from surfacing.

          "Now, now my dear Serena," Mr. Waltham held his hand up for silence, "Let me continue."

          Serena nodded numbly and sat down across from him on her coffee table.

          "He lost his parents at a very young age, quite a tragedy I might add, and endured extreme hardships in the orphanage that he was thrown into. All in all, his deprived childhood had turned him into a ruthless businessman, incapable of love and incapable of trust."

          "But… Darien's not like that."

          Mr. Waltham smiled. "Of course he's not. And that's where you come in, my dear."

          "I do?"

          "You see, Mr. Shields was leading a pretty pathetic life. However rich he was or is going to be, he would never be happy. His future consisted of nothing but the occasional whore to keep his otherwise cold bed warm, and basically just buying up his competitors without remorse."

          "Still, I don't see what that has to do with me."

          "You, my dear Serena, were given the task to fulfill Mr. Shields' wish. He never had a loving childhood you see, and we planned for you to give him one."

          "But… how am I able to do that?"

          "You already have!"

          "I have? How?"

          "By showing him compassion and generosity, you have made up in a day what he had craved for years."

          "Oh… really?"

          "Yeah!" Mr. Waltham leaned over and patted her on her back, "Good job!"

          "Er… thanks," Serena muttered, still slightly confused, "But that doesn't explain why Darien's a child. Isn't he supposed to be an adult now?"

          "Well, yes. That's where I come in," he said, "We-"

          "We? We who?" Serena asked suspiciously.

          "The elves and I, of course!" he said like it all made perfect sense.

          "Er… right."

          "Well, we basically turned back the clock for Mr. Shields. He is actually twenty-eight years of age at your present time, but we made him into a child for a day so that he can experience what love and kindness really is."

          "So what happens now?"

          "Well, twenty four hours after the time we turned back the clock, he will be twenty-eight again, hopefully with a better heart and an extra spring in his step."

          "Oh," Serena looked down, disappointed, "When did you guys change him?"

          Mr. Waltham glanced at his watch, "Oh about a quarter to four."

          Serena looked at her own clock, dismayed to see there were only ten minutes left before Darien reverted back to his normal self.

          "Wait a minute," she said, "So this whole thing, the shoe causing the whole structure to tumble down, Sandy leaving for a last minute vacation, the blackout… everything! It was done for this reason?"

          "Yes!" Mr. Waltham chuckled proudly, "It was rather an ingenious idea wasn't it?"

          "Er… I guess."

          "So what happens now?"

          "Well, it's Christmas Eve now and I still have lots more houses to visit."

          "Are you really Santa Clause?" Serena eyed his beard suspiciously.

          Mr. Waltham laughed. "Go ahead dear. I know you want to go for a tug." He stuck his chin out and Serena was slightly disappointed to see that it didn't come off.

          "But I don't remember you having a beard, Mr. Waltham."

          He winked at her. "Magic," he whispered. He glanced at his watch again. It was time for things to come back to normal.

          He stood up, but Serena urged him to stay put and quickly ran into her bedroom.

          The sight before her was amazing. She had to force herself not to rub her eyes to make sure it was real.

          There were sprinkles flying around little Darien's body, trailing all over his sleeping form and making his short legs grow longer and his cute, chubby face grow leaner. He grew and grew until the oversized shirt wasn't so big on him anymore, and his big feet stuck out of the warm blankets.

          Serena looked on, her eyes wide with shock. How could this be happening?

          "Wait!" Serena yelled and ran back into her living room. However, she was disappointed to find it empty with her curtains billowing from the wind.

          When she went back into her bedroom, the lights turned back on and Darien was nowhere to be found.

          "What's about me?" she muttered.

          Serena walked slowly to her bed and collapsed on top of it. Tears that she hadn't known were filling up began trickling down her face. Her cries turned into fitful sobs until she quieted and eventually fell asleep.

          Little Darien was gone, and she was alone again.

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