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Sarah Sues Santa – P.J. Leonard

Chapter Twenty: Sarah and Santa

It was bitterly cold outside, as though she'd just walked into a giant freezer. Zipping her jacket right
up to the top so it covered her nose, she walked slowly towards the North Pole. A thin slice of the
moon was rising, illuminating everything with a ghostly blue light. She reached the pole, and
looked up at it. It gleamed in the moonlight, sparkling with a thin layer of frost. It looked
completely smooth. Maybe the button is hidden or something. She ran a gloved hand over the
surface, rubbing away the frost. Nothing. She knocked on the pole three times as if she were
knocking on someone's front door. Nothing. Feeling frustration boiling up in her, she yelled "LET
ME IN!"
Nothing.
She punched the North Pole so hard that it shuddered. Sarah howled as pain throbbed in her hand,
and she slumped to the ground. Why? Why was nothing working? Santa had bought her all of this
way, through a rich house, a poor house, an orphanage and finally the North Pole. Why wasn't he
here, waiting to greet her at the door of his workshop with a merry smile and a big mug of cocoa?
But no. Here she was, out in the cold polar night, alone.
Why...why was Santa doing this? Every step of the way, the things he'd shown her had only made
her even angrier at him. Her rich parents could afford to buy everything in the world, and yet Santa
had given her more presents than ever. Her poor parents had been so nice and had tried really hard
to make Christmas special, but Santa had given her almost nothing. And the orphanage...where did
Sarah start? As much as she disliked Mr. Vekil, she felt sorry for him, his mean parents who
claimed to love Christmas pushing their own son out of the family. And those kids at the orphanage,
who needed some Christmas joy the most, got absolutely nothing.
Why? It almost like Santa was doing the opposite of what he was supposed to do. This went against
everything Sarah had learned and believed about Christmas. And now, when Sarah was the most
angry and confused she'd ever been, Santa wasn't even here to answer for himself.
Sarah felt a chill on her cheeks. Tears ran down her face and froze over on her chin. She wiped
them away.
"I'm not going to cry for Santa Claus," she said aloud, "You hear me? If you can't show yourself,
then what am I supposed to do?" Her voice grew louder, "If you won't speak to me, if you can't
explain to me what is happening and why you are so mean, then...then...I DON'T BELIEVE IN
YOU ANYMORE!"
The words burst out of her and echoed across the land, carried far and wide by a blast of wind.
As she listened to her own words of "I don't believe in you anymore" bounce back at her, something
seemed to clear in her mind, as though a fog over her mind had lifted.
Santa...not real...could it be?
If...if Santa Claus was not real...then suddenly a lot of things made sense. It hadn't been Santa who
had been giving out the presents and spreading the Christmas spirit all along. Her parents had been
the ones who gave out presents. Yes, that made sense - after all, her rich parents had a lot of money,
so they could buy her so much. Her poor parents had probably spent so much of their own money
just to get her those few Christmas presents. And of course the orphans had nothing: those poor kids
had nobody who would get them anything. Mr. Vekil sure wouldn't.
Sarah felt wide awake, as though she'd just woken up from a long dream...so, Santa Claus isn't
real...she felt funny, as if she'd learned some deep secret. Strangely, she wasn't angry or sad. In fact,
she felt...taller, as though she'd grown up just a little. But then, what had caused all of the magic?

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