Page 8 of Run, Run Rudolph (Fairy Godmothers and Other Fiascos #2)

~ Tamara ~

I parked in front of my red barn with the white trim, letting the car’s heater blast me for a few more seconds before getting out.

It was so cold, it felt as if my entire face was going to break off.

Even with the heat cranked, and me, driving hunched over my steering wheel with all the vents angled at my fingers and face, I was frozen.

My jaw chattered so hard, I feared I might shatter my teeth.

Driving with the roof down in a Canadian blizzard was not something I’d ever recommend.

My joints creaking, and the fabric of my winter coat crackling in the cold, I got out of the car.

The snow that had swirled into the cab and coated my shoulders and lap dropped to the ground like a sudden avalanche.

I held the big wing of a door open for Rudolph and looked to the sky for the other reindeer.

I hadn’t seen them while driving, and feared I’d lost them.

What was I going to do with Rudolph if they weren’t here to guide me?

Moments later, I relaxed as they silently landed in the snow, careful not to knock over my lit-up reindeer lawn ornament, which was significantly less beefy than they were.

There was something off in the way they moved.

Their movements were slightly uncoordinated, and they walked with a fluid grace that made me more and more convinced that they were tipsy, if not flat-out drunk.

The boys surrounded Rudolph and the car, and I stepped back to shoot off a quick text to the GAL PAL text group, cringing as I hit Send.

ME

Benjamin met Rudolph tonight. Advice? Have him at barn. Char called Estelle. Haven’t heard back. SOS!

I knew Samantha and Gabby wouldn’t be helpful since they didn’t believe in the magical world, or at least, they hadn’t last summer.

Josie was in the chat thread, though, and she was our resident expert, seemingly understanding way more than Char and I did despite her lack of forthcomingness whenever we ran into an issue.

I opened the barn door, the doorway strung with multi-coloured Christmas lights, and turned to find the herd of reindeer coaxing Rudolph along.

He was limping, collapsing down into his hips when he walked, which didn’t look very promising in regards to a speedy recovery.

His nose was blinking slowly, and I swore his eyes spun with pain.

We maneuvered Rudolph through the doorway, and I went to close the door behind us.

One of the herd was rubbing noses with the reindeer ornament, which was a white, wire-frame deal with white lights.

I left the door open for the straggler and helped Rudolph into an empty stall near the back of my four-stall barn.

Once Rudolph was situated, I returned to close the door, so what little heat trapped in the uninsulated building didn’t escape.

I checked my phone with half-frozen fingers while hunching further into my parka.

I pulled my toque further down over my ears and eyebrows, trying to fight the intense wave of shivers taking over my core.

Samantha

u drunk?

I think Malachi is going to propose. What do I do?

Gabby

Yay! Say yes!!!!!!

I smiled. Gabby was the most optimistic and romantic of the five of us, and naturally she saw the bright side of Samantha’s mostly likely doomed relationship.

She was the one we relied on for hope, and I bit my lip as I scanned her next message, eager to see if she had anything helpful for me despite her lack of belief.

Gabby: Please tell me u don’t mean Rudolph as in the reindeer…

I could picture her rolling her eyes. It looked as though she still didn’t believe in the magical world.

Me

Yes. That Rudolph.

Char

Nothing from Estelle or the jolly fella?

Me

Not yet.

Gabby

Um? So we’re doing this again?

Samantha

They’re drunk. Ignore them.

Dots appeared under Josie’s name, and I held my breath as I waited for her to chime in.

Josie

This is bad. Very bad. It’s almost Christmas Eve! What were you thinking?

I shivered, and not from the cold. Her message should have been the helpful one I’d been counting on. Instead, it only gave me a deep, unwelcome sense of foreboding.

Me

I didn’t ask for this! I didn’t make a wish.

Why was this happening to me?

Char

Call Haden.

No. I pocketed my phone.

I couldn’t do that. He was my ex’s brother.

He didn’t like me, and would have things to say about me bringing a ‘wild’ reindeer home.

One with a blinking nose. Assuming he could even see any of this.

He probably couldn’t even help me, and would think I was nutso, or trying to lure him into something like one of his HAGs—Haden Appreciation Group fan club members.

What was I going to do?

Maybe Rudolph could allow Haden to see him, but not his magical blinking nose.

Haden. He was the kind fixer, and I was the girl in need of fixing.

My long-ago crush on him had formed on the first day of grade one.

I’d fallen and torn my knee open on the steps leading up to the elementary classrooms. He’d been going past me to the junior high, and had helped me up, dried my tears, and handed me off to a sweet teacher to get bandaged up.

He’d been in grade seven and he could have acted cool, and walked on by like dozens of others. But he hadn’t.

Moments like that dotted our existence.

Well, until Kade had put a record-screeching stop to it all by informing me that his older brother was merely tolerating me.

Ugh.

And if he came here tonight and failed to see the magical flying reindeer in my barn… Yeah, no. There was no way I was calling Haden. We needed to wait for Santa or some other solution.

I checked for more deer outside, then closed the barn door.

From behind me, I heard someone with a Spanish accent crooning softly.

Cupid, I figured, although his accent was much more pronounced than it had been earlier.

Turning, I spotted him at the first stall, which was occupied by my landlord’s mare, Dolly.

“Who do we have here?” Cupid asked her, his voice warm and smooth like melted butter. He received a delighted horsey snort in reply.

I hurried back to where the rest of the herd was surrounding Rudolph.

“Can someone call off Cupid?” I asked, as a few chickadees swooped down from their spots in the rafters, almost landing on my shoulders before veering away.

They thought it was feeding time, even though I fed them, and the other birds that used the barn for protection, in the morning.

“The last thing I need is to try and explain some creature that’s half-horse and half-reindeer to Dolly’s owner, Carl. ”

Prancer gave a derisive snort. “That can’t happen. He’s magical. She’s not.”

“Ever heard of demigods?” I muttered.

“I like her,” Donner stated.

“Thank you,” I told the beer-scented reindeer with the holly and mistletoe in his antlers. “You’re very handsome.”

Donner tipped his head up as though basking in the compliment.

Rudolph had slumped into the clean straw lining the empty stall, and I fit the car blanket around him a bit better. Then I snagged a horse blanket and wrapped it around my lower half and shivered, trying to warm up. It was warmer in the barn than outside, but still well below freezing.

“Ignore Cupid,” Comet advised me. “He’ll have forgotten all about her by tomorrow.”

That wasn’t particularly reassuring. Dolly was snuffling in a, dare I say, flirty way. Even flirtier than when she wanted another carrot. With reluctance, I let the duo be, and returned my attention to Rudolph. I crouched beside him, my worry returning.

“Do any of you have magic that can help?” I asked.

“We’re reindeer,” one of them replied. I couldn’t see who, but I think it was Prancer.

“Is that a no?”

“Yes.”

“No,” another one argued. “You mean no.”

“Yes, it’s a no,” Prancer insisted. “Are you still drunk?”

There was the clack of antlers hitting each other.

“Guys!” The antler clacking stopped. “Do you have magic that can help us right now?”

“No!” the two bickering deer chorused.

“Okay. Thank you.” Yeesh. These guys were as testy as kindergarteners who’d missed snack and nap time. “How about Santa? Is there a way we can call him?”

I was certain Estelle would get the job done of contacting him, but it wasn’t a bad idea to use everything at my disposal, seeing as Christmas Eve was looming up on us.

The reindeer became very busy studying my barn’s inner architecture instead of considering my suggestion. They looked more like my class of students when they were up to no good and trying to go unnoticed.

There were a couple of pranksters in my class, and over the first few months of the school year, they’d mastered that same look of innocence.

Well, if you considered looking way too obviously innocent ‘mastered.’ They thought I was psychic because of the way I always seemed to know when they were up to something.

The teacher and I had shared a few private giggles over that and their cuteness.

In other words, these reindeer didn’t seem to be much different from the five-year-olds I worked with. My guess was that getting drunk and injured would possibly get them into trouble, and they were hoping an innocent act would keep me oblivious to the severity of their misdeeds.

“What did you boys do?” I scolded, automatically falling into my teaching role, hands on my hips.

“Nothing,” Dasher replied quickly.

“Party on!” Blitzen called out. Had Christmas tree ornaments always been hanging from his antlers? How had I missed those earlier?

“We were bonding,” Comet said carefully.

“Male bonding,” Donner added.

I turned to him. “Is that why you smell like beer?”

Prancer snickered beside him.

“And you smell like peach schnapps.”

Prancer’s spine straightened.

“Chiquita knows her drinks,” Cupid said, coming closer.

“Party on!” Blitzen repeated, the shiny glass ornaments swinging from his antlers.