Prologue for Wendell

On Christmas Eve 1896, Wendell was ready to embark on the ride of a lifetime, something he’d dreamed about for as long as he could remember. This adventurous night was to be for him alone, without anyone else sharing or stealing his glory, and he won the experience fair and square. Out of all the elves up at the North Pole, he was the lucky one. His time had finally come. He’d won the lottery, and as the other elves were busily loading the last few presents onto the sleigh, Santa looked over at Wendell, patted him on the shoulder, and gave him a wink.
Wendell wasn’t what you would call your typical “jolly old elf,” or an overly happy elf, or even a well-known elf. He was more of a quiet, busy-at-work, stay-out-of-trouble, shy type of elf with just a handful of close friends. Every year, at least for the last one hundred or two, a lottery was held to pick that one lucky elf to assist Santa Claus during his Christmas Eve ride around the world. Santa decided long ago that taking someone along to help with the bazillion deliveries would make his job much easier.
Once the sleigh was ready, Santa grabbed hold of the reins, gave another quick wink and a wave to all the elves, and yelled out “Merry Christmas!” When the reindeer heard those words, they immediately took to the skies, and then they were out of sight in two blinks.
As Wendell looked about, everything seemed a blur. The reindeer were running at a normal pace, and Santa’s voice, as he called out to them, was normal, But everything around them was moving at an astonishing speed.
“Don’t worry Wendell,” Santa assured him. “It’s completely safe…just takes a little getting used to. You’re doing fine.”
“Thank you, Santa. By the way, how will I be assisting you tonight?”
“It’s simple, Wendell. Every time I stop the sleigh, you’ll reach into the bag and pull out the first present you touch.”
“How will I know if I grabbed the right gift?”
“You will; that’s the beauty of this process, Wendell. It’s magic.”
During the first five minutes, Wendell couldn’t believe that he handed Santa over ten thousand presents, and he wasn’t even tired! The night was, indeed, full of magical surprises. Everything was running like clockwork…absolutely perfectly.
After what seemed like several hours, Wendell started to get bored with the same old routine of waiting for the sleigh to stop before he grabbed the next present, and he decided to start collecting them while the sleigh was still in flight. While this seemed to work well for the second half of the night, and Santa didn’t seem to have a problem with the change in procedure, something was about to happen that would forever alter Wendell’s life.
With only a few thousand more presents to deliver, Wendell hopped up onto the seat, and instead of reaching for the next present, he decided to pull out his pocket watch to check the time. This turned out to be a huge mistake. When he reached into his pocket to pull out his watch, he did so with his left hand, the hand he’d been using to hold himself steady on the seat. At that very moment, Santa pulled the left rein toward him to bank the sleigh left as he descended over a mountain, within that split second, without Santa knowing what happened, Wendell was tossed out of his seat and over the edge.
When Santa brought the sleigh to a stop, he reached back to Wendell to get the next package, but Wendell wasn’t there. Santa immediately jumped up onto the seat and searched in every corner of the sleigh.
“Wendell!” Santa yelled. But there was no answer. Santa jumped out of the sleigh and made a quick search of the area, but still, there was no sign of Wendell.
For the remainder of Christmas Eve, Santa had no choice but to continue on his way, until the very last present was delivered. Then he quickly flew back to the last spot where he last remembered speaking to Wendell. There he circled the area over and over again. As long as Wendell’s pocket watch was still chained to Wendell, there was hope of finding him. An elf’s specially designed pocket watch and chain are intended to serve as a lifeline; it’s the one thing that keeps an elf forever young. The watches have magical devices built in that give off a signal in case an elf gets lost, as long as the watch remains intact and attached to the elf. But if the watch and chain become separated, there’s no longer a signal. After several passes and no signal or sign of Wendell, Santa feared that his favored elf and the elf’s watch had become separated. If this turned out to be true, Santa knew that Wendell would be lost forever. Feeling very sad at the end of this magical night, he slowly guided his reindeer through the sky and back to the North Pole.