Santa and the Stranger, Part 6 (The End)

The next morning there was a message on Santa’s answering machine. Santa pushed the blinking red button to hear the message. “Good morning, Santa,” said a cheerful voice on the answering machine. “I was wondering if we could get together around lunchtime tomorrow to discuss my proposal I gave you the other night. You may reach me at this number before lunchtime. The phone number is Find-a-way (34632929) – an eight-digit number because it is an intergalactic number assigned to the Milky Way galaxy.” Santa turned off the message machine and began to dial the recorded number. A meeting was arranged at lunchtime at the same meeting place as before. Santa informed his wife Valada and asked her if she would be available to sit in on the meeting with him.

The meeting started promptly at lunchtime as Santa and the stranger laid the paperwork out in front of them on the large dining room table. Valada sat next to Santa so she could go over the paperwork with him. Although the fireplace was producing a lot of warm air, there was a coolness in the air that settled like a gloom of despair around the conversation. Santa spoke first with a touch of sadness in his voice. He looked the stranger in the eyes as he began to speak in a low voice.”Valada and I, along with our entire elf community, have given this proposition a considerable amount of attention. This proposal seems to affect almost everyone involved, including the senior citizens of the elf community and their descendants. It affects the faith and belief system of children all over the world. It concerns a lifetime of tradition, history, and a legend that has transcended time. Breaking tradition for the sake of progress is a hollow concept for most of us to believe in, and I have to consider all of the people this will affect. The elves have been an intricate part of Christmas for as long as I can remember. Their devotion, skills, and work ethic are at the top of the list when it comes to quality, dedication, and pride in their work. The children throughout the world still believe in the magic of Christmas. The spirit of Santa Claus is forever imprinted on the minds of adults as they reflect back on their childhood filled with imagination, enthusiasm, beliefs, and wonder. Perhaps there is no single individual event that creates more anticipation, joy, and laughter than the fulfillment of their belief in Santa Claus. This tradition of belief in the minds of children is as old as the Mother Goose rhymes that were read to them. The way I see it,” said Santa as his voice became stronger, “is that you are asking me to change our tradition that has brought more joy and love to this world to more people, second only to our celebration of the birth of baby Jesus. You want me to be personally responsible for the crushing of children’s dreams, imaginations, and beliefs. Can you imagine your own children growing up believing in nothing? No dreams, magic or fantasy world? The wonder of imagination is one thing that separates human beings from all other species on earth. Our people have a conscience, a belief system, and a will to strive to make this world a better place for mankind. I cannot possibly tell you how many children have sat on my lap and told me about their wish list for Christmas. I cannot even remember how many songs, poems, and stories that have been written about the joy of Christmas and the arrival of Santa Claus. I hear the voices of so many soldiers that are serving in the Armed Forces either in peacetime or protecting freedom in foreign countries all over the world. They are protecting our beliefs, freedom, and our way of life against people who would try to destroy these fundamental rights. I have to speak for all of these people as one voice, but before I give you my decision, I would like to hear what Valada has to say about all of these changing events.

“Well, Santa, I think you summed it up pretty good!" Valada concluded. "I too believe in the system, the tradition, and the spirit of our country. I still believe in motherhood, apple pie, and saluting the American flag. I believe in children being respectful to their parents and adults. I believe in respect for each other’s feelings, loyalty, and religious beliefs. I believe that stimulating a child’s mind with wonder, amazement and imagination is worth a lot more than programming children to believe in technology that has no feelings, shame or love for the overall learning process. Learning is accumulated from a variety of experiences that no technology on earth can ever duplicate. We learn from our mistakes by making them over and over again, less and less. We all learn from vicarious experiences that no machine or technology can interpret, explain, or solve. We are a problem-solving race of people, and we believe in our faith to guide us through when times get hard. The spirit of Christmas is in danger of ever-changing to a point that it won’t be recognizable in the future. I can only guess how sad a world that it will create. I would just like to say that I believe in Santa, the elves, and all the children in the world, along with all their parents and the adults of the world in the spirit of Christmas.” Santa clapped his hands with delight!

The stranger leaned back in his chair away from the table. “I am sure you people must realize that change is inevitable. The guardians are offering to intervene on your behalf to make your life easier and more productive. We can give you the technology that will advance your race throughout the galaxy. All of this is right before you at your fingertips. Please take this offer before I have to return to my home to report back to my committee. A rejection like this would be frowned upon by the overseers and the opportunity may not come again in your lifetime!

After the stranger had left the workshop, Santa turned to his wife and said. “We must go over to the elves’ workshop and explain to them the dilemma we face. We are on a limited time schedule, and I don’t want to be pressured into making the wrong decision before I have had adequate time to consider as many opinions as possible. We will take a vote on it, and as usual in our democratic system, the majority of the votes will speak for the will of the people.”

Santa and his wife organized all the ballots for distribution throughout the elves’ community. The ballots simply read, “Vote yes or no, whether you are in favor of this new contract or not; then place your ballots in this large box.” Santa placed the box for everyone to see. Valada and I will count the ballots tonight and give you the results the first thing in the morning.

Meanwhile, the tall stranger was back among his peers monitoring the balloting process. “Sir,” said one of the agents, “we have the technology to change the results of their balloting system without the community ever knowing.” “What method do you suggest?” asked a committee member. The agent replied, “I believe in using the old method that has been tried and proven to be most effective in the past, and it still seems to be foolproof today. All we have to do is simply replace the ballots with our own photocopied ballots in the ballot box. Of course, we can make it look like it’s a close vote but not close enough for a recall. After their ballots have been safely placed inside the ballot box, we simply change boxes. When everyone is asleep, all we have to do is beam up the original ballot box and replace it with our own bogus ballot box. It’s simply a matter of teleportation to get the results we’re interested in. “What are the possibilities of someone finding out, or something going wrong with the system?” asked another committee member. “Well, the answer to the second part of your question is, we have never had a breach or malfunction in the teleportation system in the last millennium. However, there is one remote possibility that may leave evidence for a very astute observer to recognize that the ballots have been tampered with.” “And what would that be?” asked another committee member in a disgruntled voice. “Well Sir, the system has failed once before, almost by accident.” “Go on,” said the committee member. “Explain yourself!” “Well, it seemed a local union in Florida held an election for a well-known candidate with years of service in the union. He was a shoo-in to be elected. However, he was running against a new lady that represented a paraprofessional organization that was new to the union. The new lady won the election with a landslide vote and was elected to serve as a state representative for the local. The gentleman she defeated was somewhat dismayed and couldn’t believe the results. He went to the director of the union and filed a complaint. “Mr. Dunbar, I have some serious doubts about the outcome of our voting system.” “What do you mean, John?” “Well, first of all,” replied the gentleman, “there are two factors that determine most elections. The first one, which is often the most important one, is name recognition. The second one is a large number of votes must be cast from several large schools to control the vote. The lady in question that won the election is new in our system and couldn’t possibly have the name recognition that I have because of my length of service. Secondly, she works in a small school with very few union members. So the question is, how did she win this election?” “Well, John,” said the director, “she might have run a large scale campaign to get herself known.” “I rather doubt that,” replied John. “She’s too new to the system. I am telling you, this election was fixed!” The director conducted an investigation by recounting the ballots. On closer examination, one of the ballot members noticed something suspicious about the ballots. Each ballot was marked the same way! All of the checks were identical in the same place! Suddenly she exclaimed these ballots have been xeroxed! Someone has tampered with the ballot voting system.” “Of course, there have been other voting precincts throughout the nation that left many unanswerable questions about the outcome of their voting results, but this example is the only real proof of organized fraud involved here. The committee met for a few minutes behind closed doors. The spokesman for the group spoke directly to the stranger in black. “It is the opinion of this committee that under no circumstance should we alter or change the voting ballots of the Santa Claus community, no matter how small the risk. What we recommend is to offer a buyout or enough incentives that will change their mind. No matter how primitive the people are, there is always a price that will meet their needs. The committee has recommended that we incentivize this proposal and offer it to the elf community as a package deal,” the spokesman said as he handed the proposal to the stranger in black. “If this proposal is rejected, we will just wait them out. We feel that time is on our side.”

A meeting was arranged in the elf community the following day. Santa Claus and his wife Valada would explain the terms of the new contract and a new vote would be taken. To save time, Valada suggested using a show of hands to count the votes either yes or no.

“Before we start the voting process, I would like to express my opinions,” said Santa Claus. “What we are about to do is change the course of history. Not only are we changing history, but we’re altering and changing tradition which is interwoven throughout the communities of the world. Our old tradition is being ousted in the place of greed and commercialism for the sake of profit. New technologies will change our way of life forever. Human individuality may become a thing of the past. That little boy or girl who still believes in miracles, fantasies, and perhaps a make-believe world, will be left without any choice. It will be like the age of the radio and television. Do you remember when families would gather around the radio? They listened to the news, sports, and entertainment programs for the thrill of visualizing in their imagination the characters and events that the sound of the radio created for them. Then along came a new technology called television. Our people no longer had to visualize or use their imagination to create the characters and scenes in the story. Television did that for them. People slowly began to evolve into a visual society with decisions and outcomes being programmed or influenced by the mass media. There is something romantic about riding in my sleigh on a cold winter’s night, listening to the sound of jingle bells making their tunes from a windblown chime. It is a wonder to see the moon on the new falling snow light up the town and the objects below. I cannot forget hearing the sound of each reindeer’s hooves as they danced around on the rooftops. I love the thrill of sliding down each chimney with a bound and spreading the toys throughout the town. While the children are all nestled and snug in their bed, dreaming of magical things swirling in their head. I can only tell you on a personal level how wonderful it’s been to bring so much joy and excitement to so many people. Maybe that’s what makes Christmas so special. It has a history and a tradition that make people happy. Folks all over the world look forward to this special occasion. It is a time for love, happiness, and all our inner feelings mixed together. It is these feelings that make people human beings. Why on earth would anyone want to change these feelings, traditions, and emotions, just to modernize with some new technological machine? We must remember that this spirit of Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus and the love of mankind. Once we lose these fundamental concepts, we become a part of the machines without any feelings. How sad that must be to live or exist in that kind of future! So I ask you before you vote, remember all the good times in the past, the legend we have created, and the joy we have brought with all the imagination we have helped to create in the minds of the children. Without imagination, a child is destined for failure … and so is Christmas.”

Loud applause echoed throughout the elves’ community, followed by a roar of “three cheers for Santa Claus!” The vote was soon taken, and it was unanimous in rejecting the contract. Valada expressed her appreciation for all the communities in the world that still wanted to preserve their traditions, values, and beliefs. She thanked them for all of their services and their goodwill towards mankind. “It’s refreshing to know,” said Mrs. Clause, “that this spirit of Christmas will prevail into the far future as long as people believe in their past. Change may be irreversible, but traditions are stronger in the will of the people."

"Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!” she cheered.

(Story by George F. Kohn, author of Holiday Favorites series.)
Holiday Favorites stories available on Kindle and in paperback at Amazon.com, especially for youth.  May we always be young at heart!