Dear Deer

Dear Claas was not the Reindeer’s real name. Dear was a nickname he had picked up when he was little because he was always known as being the sweetest of the reindeers. Most reindeers were nice, but the soon to be nicknamed Dear was especially nice. When everyone joined in to tease another reindeer who was a little different, Dear would always be the one who would try and stop the others from being mean. Dear also had really kind eyes. Anyone that looked in to Dear’s eyes always get a sense of the kind of giving nature of Dear.

“What a dear reindeer”! is what was heard, over and over from parents and teachers who were around to watch the about to be nicknamed Dear. Dear was always helping with homework or making sure everyone was included in games, and honestly, since I am not a reindeer doing special things that only reindeers know are really special to make a reindeer picking up a nickname called Dear.

Dear did have a given name, which only he and his parents remember, but since it is not relevant to the story, and since it is difficult to remember to spell, we will just say, the whole East North Pole community knew this reindeer as Dear.

Now that we have that settled, we can talk about the last name. Claas is a very common last name in the North Pole. The fact that Claas is a common last name does cause a bit of a confusion at times because the most famous resident of the whole North Pole has a last name as Claus which has a U, instead of consecutive As.

Many people around the world may think that Christmas Eve night, after that Claus person leaves for work, would be the biggest party of the year up in the North Pole. It is not. Everyone is exhausted. Anyone that has a large family or works at a business who has to prepare for holidays has that same pre-Christmas exhaustion

Dear had just finished for the night and was walking to his home and happened to see his mail box was open. Most mail delivered to the reindeer is designed for the reindeer to open with its mouth and most mail holiday cards had already been delivered and read, but what stood out was there appeared to be a card in his mailbox that was red, without a handle.

“Everything ok buddy”, Mariah, who one of Santa’s managers and lived next to Dear asked walking up to Dear. Buddy was her nickname for a lot of the inhabitants of the East North Pole. Dear did not recognize Buddy at first as she had recently shaved all of her long blond hair off which was unusual in a cold climate but told everyone she was really wanted a different look for the holidays. She was also known for not wearing typical red and green and was responsible for more of the two leggeds East North Pole wearing denim.

“Do you have a letter in the mailbox”? asked Mariah. Reindeer didn’t actually speak, but they could communicate through their eyes and through their thoughts.

“Well let’s see”, said Mariah. She looked in the mailbox and grabbed the red envelope. The envelope was addressed to the North Pole, but what was odd was that it said, Dear Claas, North Pole.

“Do you want me to open it”, Mariah asked Dear “yes”, Dear said without saying anything.

Mariah opened the letter. The letter looked like it had been written by a 7 year old in purple crayon.

“Dear Claas”, I am 7. This yeer my dad dide. My mom and I are sad. Can I have a train set? My dad was going to get it for me and it would make my mom and I happier . Love Berty”. (There were a few more misspelled words in the original note from Berty but the author of this story does not want to feel like it is picking on a seven year old for sounding words out and not being able to spell.

“Hmm”. Mariah said after she finished reading the letter. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a child’s letter getting delivered to anyone other than the Claus.

“What do we do”? Mariah said repeating Dear’s thoughts.

Mariah was about 5 feet 5 and one of the taller two leggeds that lived in these parts. All of a sudden she felt shorter standing in front of Dear because Dear was now floating at least 2 feat in the air. The nice thing with the two leggeds in the North Pole is they were used to being able to float up to 30 feet in the air but she had only ever seen Santa’s team of reindeer float in the air.

Dear had a joyous look on his face as if he was really happy to finally get off his feet after a really long few months of constantly working.

“Let me see the envelope again” said Mariah as she now started to have a suspicion of what might be happening. “This Christmas wish was addressed to you”, she said excited. “This means you have the magic! You can deliver the present”!

Dear concentrated on landing and landed safely on the ground? “Should we check with someone?” Dear thoughtfully asked.

Mariah was already running in to her house. She had been working at home for months and already had the present picked out. “I have the best train set already wrapped”! she shouted. “Stay here Buddy”! She shouted joyfully to Dear.

Dear was not sure how they would be able to deliver a present. He had never flown before. He had never traveled out of the East North Pole before. He was comforted that Mariah was confident in what they could do as Mariah was well known for being one of the greatest managers of the North Pole that they had ever had. She was known for being a fierce and friendly manager who would get things done.

“I’ve got them”! She said coming out with a small bag. “I’ve got a few gifts for Berty” as she ran towards Dear with a red bag.

“Let’s Goooo!” She shouted.

Dear did not gooooo. He stood for a moment as if he was a deer staring in headlights as even though he was excited to deliver a toy that may help a child, he was also worried about this long travel to a place called Pine Bush, New York.

“Don’t worry about the trip, it will be easy. “We just need to get to the Abridged Bridge and think of our distination of Pine Bush, New York.”

Dear had barely realized he had lifted off as Mariah was speaking. He figured out quickly that this may be easier than he thought as Christmas magic is now in him and Christmas instincts took over. Mariah, who opened the letter, was also now able to fly higher and faster as she was now also part of the Christmas letter magic.

“What’s the Abridged bridge”? was another one of Dear’s thought questions.

Mariah explained to Dear that the Abridged Bridge was used to help make longer trips seem shorter. All trips to deliver presents would always take 6 hours as the speed of how many reindeer and how many presents needed to be delivered would be factored in as a mathematical equasion. This is how a gazillion presents could be delivered in 6 hours through the world. It is all because of math which the writer of the story will just have to trust because the writer is not a math expert.

Mariah knew from frequents talks to Santa Claus, spelled with a U, instead of double A’s like Dear’s last name, was that The Abridged bridge was a bridge in a sky, like one might see in a video games. When one would fly over the bridge, it almost felt like they would be in a sleep state as the rest of their consciousness would be experiencing the real events. The Abridged bridge would make the six hour journey feel like 15 minutes and all the memories of what happened to them would just appear as if it had just happened after they made it through the bridge to their destination. If this seems confusing, then remember, this is all math and physics and that is not what this story is about. If one is interested in finding out about the Abridged Bridge and the physics and math of it, then the writer suggests looking online for Abridged Bridge for Dummies written by a very famous person in the world of this story.

Dear was a bit nervous to enter the Abridge Bridge as they both flew side by side. It took a while for Dear to stop moving its legs to fly, as magic was what was making Dear fly and not the kicking of his legs. Mariah found a way to fly with one hand in the air but also being vertical. They were a very striking looking pair flying through the air. It looked like they were standing next to each other in the distance, and yet they were flying really really fast.

There were some conditions for the writer to be able to write this story, and one of them was to not describe the Abridge Bridge because if it was found by the general public then everyone would want to use it. Dear’s heart raced a bit as they approached but he looked at Mariah’s confident face and had her lead the way.

Mariah and Dear entered the bridge and opened their eyes to see that they were flying over Pine Bush, New York and it did in fact feel like only fifteen minutes had passed. Mariah now had dirt all over her face that she could feel and Dear had a bunch more sticks on his antlers as hey both felt the memory of the mishap they had flying over the Catskills when Dear got tangled in to an old ski lift. But that is another story and there is a reason why this part of the story is abridged.

“Thanks for not laughing at me when I got really stuck and thanks for helping me out”, Dear thought to Mariah. “No problem Buddy”, said Mariah as she felt the warmer air of Pine Bush on her face and the wind felt good through her newly shaved head.

The magic of the bridge guided them right in from of the house where they had to deliver the presents for Berty. This magic/math/physics is really amazing tech and hopefully some day will make it’s way down to the lower countries of the world.

The house was on the corner of a street and there was a light on what looked to be the living room. “It’s 5am, just as expected”, said Mariah.

Dear and Mariah were now in front of the house wondering how they should get in to the house as Mariah really did not want to go down the chimney even though her face was still somewhat dirty from helping Dear get out of the ski lift and then had to help him get of the second ski lift after the first ski lift which was worse then getting out of the first ski lift which they decided not to talk about.

“Maybe the door is open”, Mariah said and quietly took the bag of presents towards the front door. The door was locked but part of the Christmas Science Magic Physics enabled whoever was going to deliver the toys to the children to be able to unlock any doors just by their touch.

The door opened to find a room to a naked Christmas tree. A woman, who Mariah figured was Berty’s mom Sarah, was standing in front of a couch and staring at the tree. Sarah was staring at the tree with a very sad look on her face. Sarah did not notice the door had opened and Mariah did a little skip to get out of the doorway entrance as not to be seen.

Dear was having a difficult time with his emotions after they had landed. Dear was able to feel the sadness of Sarah and it was something he had never felt before. Most in the East North Pole never experienced sad emotions. The worst thing that ever happened to the residents of the North Pole was more of a tired feeling of being overworked. Occasionally, residents would feel embarrassed or frustrated for being teased if part of their face was much too red. Huge red noses were always a target for teasing at the North Pole.

The thing with the North Pole residents though was that they never felt a sense of loss before as the magical place of North Pole never had to worry about losing loved ones. They never felt a sense of loss. This is what Sarah was feeling so this is what Dear was feeling.

Now, standing in front of the door, looking in to the house, to see Sarah standing, Dear felt her deep sadness and sense of loss. Tears started to stream down his eyes and because Mariah was linked to Dear’s thoughts, she started feeling the emotions of sadness and loss for the first time as well.

Sarah, now starting to feel the cold warm air of coming in to the living room and she turned to see Dear in the doorway. She was not startled and in a magical sort of way started to feel a little calmer with his presence. She looked at Dear’s eyes and saw sadness and it felt as if she was looking in to a mirror.

“Hello Deer”, Sarah said sweetly and Dear wondered how she knew his name. Sarah slowly walked over to him to not startle him and reached out her hand to touch his short brown hair.

“I really wanted to do Chistmas for Berty”, she said quietly to Dear. “I drove to the stores and could not get out of the car” “Chris was really looking forward to the holidays.

As Sarah continued to speak to Dear, she started to cry. She had been keeping in her sadness for so long as not to upset Berty. Her family and friends had stopped coming around a few weeks earlier as the “mourning period”, for Chris had started to fade and her family and friends went back to their lives. She talked to Dear about how Chris died. She talked about how she and Berty would wake up each day and go through the functions of getting ready for school, getting ready for dinner, getting ready for bed and just tried to get through the day. The only reason they had a Christmas tree was because a neighbor. She had a difficult time just getting through the normal functions of the day, and adding Chistmas and seeing everyone so happy and saying how it was the happiest time of the year was too much for her heart broken brain to handle. They didn’t listen to holiday music this year, she didn’t hang stockings and didn’t get presents. She felt like she had failed her son because she was not strong enough to fight through her grief for her son.

Over two hours passed and it was starting to get light out as Sarah started feeling better having a Dear, Deer to talk to. Mariah was now sitting next to Dear and listening as well and made sure she had as supportive a look on her face as she could muster. She didn’t know if she should say anything to Sarah, or if she should just continue to listen. She didn’t really know what to say anyway. Normally, in uncomfortable situations, she would try and fake her way through anything awkward, but this morning was different. She really felt connected to Sarah, at first just though Dear, but now through Sarah’s sweet words about what she had lost and how much love Sarah had felt for Chris and Berty.

“I miss Chris so much”! Sarah said but this time, all three of them heard a small voice that said “Mom?” it was Berty in his pajamas and he was looking at Sarah, Dear and Mariah.

“I miss Daddy too”, Berty said earnestly. “We never talk about him”.

Sarah turned to her son and with tears streaming down her face she smiled. “I know”, she said, “I’m so sorry, we SHOULD talk about him”.

Dear and Mariah now felt another new emotion. As Mother and Son were talking about Dad, and as they were saying how they both missed Dad, they both could feel a sense of relief, like a burden was being lifted, and now it was almost more of a loving kind of sadness. “I didn’t want to talk about daddy because I didn’t want you to be sad”, said Berty to his mom as they were now hugging.

“Let’s spend the day talking about him”, said Sarah. “He would want us to have a nice day”, She picked Berty up and said, “Remember how he used to give you foreheads and she banged her forehead gently on his head and Birty laughed and reached down to his mom’s elbows to pinch them. Birty used to pinch Dad’s elbows as well for comfort.

Dear and Mariah was now standing in the living room by themselves. Mariah had the bag with the train set and the few other items that she thought he might like. “I guess we should put these under the tree” she said. Through an open door they could see that they were now in a bedroom and cuddling, talking about Dad.

“I was so excited before we got here to have the presents make them feel better” Dear thought to Mariah. “I think it was your presence was what Sarah needed”, said Mariah astutely. “I think she really needed someone to listen to her. And I don’t think anyone is better at listening than you”, she said to Dear and gave him a hug.

They left the house and closed the door. It was now light out. They looked around to see if anyone was walking around as a few homes are on the same block as Sarah’s house. Dear looked at the house across from Sarah’s house and was able to feel the emotions of the people that were in that house, and this time it was the more familiar feeling of excitement.

They decided to walk down the street to a park before they took off for the journey back to the North Pole thinking the park would be empty. Each house they passed they felt different emotions from the houses. One house had one person feeling angry and another person had fear. Another house had extreme loneliness and they thought they could hear that person inside the house talking to Elvis. They made it to the park and they had decided they would not take the Abridged bridge back home. They had much to think about with all the new emotions they had been feeling. They also wanted to enjoy each others company as they now felt a connection to each other that they had never felt before.

Dear had been living next to Mariah for a while and always liked her but also thought of her as being focused mainly on work. Her humor and helpfulness was something he had learned about her on this trip especially when she was helping him getting out of the two ski lifts which of course would be part of the story if they had taking the unabridged bridge.

They took off in to the air at the park, this time with Mariah with her arm around Dear. Well as close as the arm could be around Dear as Dear was fairly large, and Mariah was only 5”5 with an arm that could not reach around Dear. But Dear appreciated the effort and they both took off feeling good about what they had learned this Christmas Day. They had known happiness and joy and love was part of the holiday, but they now knew that emotions of the season could also include sadness and loss and and fear and anger among many other emotions. They learned that not everyone in the world is happy and joyous around Christmas. They hoped these people that were sad had someone to talk to. Mariah decided she would talk to Claus about maybe getting a list of sad people to see if they could brainstorm a way to help. But then again, she also understood that she didn’t understand these emotions as they seemed very complicated.

As they approached East North Pole, towards the end of the their journey, they knew that this trip had forever changed them. Dear and Mariah did receive a gift that day as they would now be the best of friends with each other as they had a new appreciation for how important it is to spend time with family and friends. Tis the season to not just give presents and check items off of a list, it is also the season for loved ones to be remembered and cherished as all seasons are a time to embrace all loved ones we hold dear.