Chapter 21
"Princess!" Timmy trembled head to toe with excitement on Tabitha's arm. "I see Santa!"
"Blast!" Tabitha grumbled. "If it isn't that good for nothing Kris Kringle."
With round, astonished blue eyes, Timmy opened and shut his mouth several times before coming up with anything to say, looking much like a young bird seeking nourishment. "Princess knows Santa! But Timmy thought Princess said…"
"Santa exists, Tim-Tim," Tabitha grudgingly admitted, "but he's not the nice, jolly man you think he is. You could say there's bad blood between us, Dollface. There was a time, a very long time ago, mind you," she reminded Timmy with a wag of her finger under his nose, "that I fancied myself the next Mrs. Claus. Of course, then he went and chose that dreadful old biddy." Tabitha fluffed her abundant blond curls as she said this, oblivious to the hamster wheel frantically turning inside Timmy's precious doll head. As they neared the congregating townspeople, Tabitha shuddered in disgust. "All this holiday cheer is making me positively nauseous. Look. Over there," she pointed discreetly to where Sheridan Crane and Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald seemed mesmerized by the mere sight of one another. "It's that damn Angel Girl, playing matchmaker again."
With a flurry of bright, twinkling white light and the faint sound of tinkling bells, the heavenly child appeared before Tabitha and Timmy, a cherub's smile painting her face. "Hello, Timmy. Santa's very anxious to meet you."
Before Tabitha could stop him, Timmy had squirmed out of her hold, sprinting as fast as his little legs could carry him to join the crowd that had formed around Santa's sleigh. "That…that traitorous toy. You," she glared accusingly at the cheerfully smiling Angel Girl. "This is all your fault. I didn't create him to be a cheerleader for Good. I hate Christmas. Too many angels and elves, brat-faced children singing those dreadful carols, and that horrid fruitcake," Tabitha ranted, jabbing a finger at the Angel Girl and scowling when the bright protective glow around her stung her flesh. "There'll be no Merry Christmas in Harmony. Just you wait and see."
Unaffected by Tabitha's blustering threat, the little Angel Girl simply shook her head as the tinkling sound of bells returned, and she disappeared in a blinding flash of white light, her sweet voice echoing in Tabitha's ears. "You're wrong, Tabitha. You can't fight love."
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