He Sees You When You're Sleeping, Part 1

Any other time, I’d be all over this woman trying to convince her to come to my bed. Now is not that time. And, well frankly, I never saw myself as father material, let alone step-father material.

Ten p.m. could not come soon enough. A half hour left. I could only see three more kids in line.

Maybe they’d close the line after them and I could go home a bit early. Being Santa at the mall was no joke. And yet it was my penance this year. My father deemed that I partied way too hard for the past several years and was not showing enough dedication to my future career. Not that I had any chance of taking over from my father for at least another twenty years.

Somehow the three kids go by pretty quickly. Even if that second kid really wanted to talk. His mom shut it down though because I could tell by the look on her face that she was over being there a lot more than I was. Everyone was closing it all down when a woman called out. Desperation lacing her voice.

“Please tell me that you are still open. Please.”

The head elf looks over at me with a questioning stare. I give her a shrug. Might as well. The kid that is with the woman is cradled in her arms and has her head bouncing off of the woman’s shoulder as she hurries towards us.

It is only once she fully comes around the corner of the photography area that I get a good look at her. My spine straightens and I wobble in my chair in desperate need of some relief. It is like a bolt of energy shot right through my veins.

Don’t get me wrong. The woman is hot. Like my cousin who is always judging women on the Richter scale he would call her a seismic ten, because a woman like that only shows up every one thousand years. And considering my family line and how long we live, that is a feat even for us to come across one.

Her long auburn hair swings around her shoulders, about mid-back. It has streaks of dark blonde through the ends of it, as if she had tried to lighten it once and has since grown it out but hasn’t had a chance to trim off the edges. Her face is round and her cheeks ruddy with the effort of making it in time. The eyes that peer around are a dark emerald green. If they didn’t look so tired, I could picture them shining just as much as the polished gemstone. She looks like she stands about five foot three, a whole foot shorter than me. And the curves on the woman. Damn.

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning out loud. Shimming in my seat I try to think of reindeer poop instead of the evergreen that is trying to grow in my pants. Any other time, I’d be all over this woman trying to convince her to come to my bed. Now is not that time. And, well frankly, I never saw myself as father material, let alone step-father material. I avoid women with kids like I avoid being at home under my father’s rule. Which is as much as possible.

“Welcome to Santa’s Village. You just made it,” the head elf tells her. She waves her forward. “You are the last to arrive and you can go right through.”

“Thank you so much,” the woman gushes at her. “You don’t know how much I appreciate you staying open for me. It’s been a day and I don’t know when, or if, I’d be able to make it here again.”

The woman surges through the gate and heads my way. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I need to put my game face on, just as I have for the last three weeks. Only one more week until I can get out of this hell-hole of a mall.

I reopen my eyes and hold out my arms. “Ho. Ho. Ho. Merry Christmas. Please, come forward and tell Santa what you want for Christmas this year.”

The woman’s step falters as she takes me in. Yeah, baby. Give me a good gander. Not quite the Santa you were expecting, huh?

I know what I look like. Six foot three. Slender. Muscled. Stacked in more ways than one. My beard is short and has some gray in it. I am forty-three after all. Even if that translates to barely a teen in human years when compared to our length of life. Though I am all man. Make no mistake.

“Um. Hi.” Her words are timid and a blush creeps over her cheeks as she stares at me.

The little girl in her arms gives me a small wave before sticking her thumb in her mouth. Upon closer inspection, the little thing looks a lot like her mother. Though you wouldn’t know it the way she is bundled up until you got close enough.

I search my brain for a name now that they are close enough. For some reason I am having a hard time pulling it up. I swear this woman is frying every bit of me from the inside.

I pat my lap. “Would you like to tell me what you would like for Christmas this year, young lady?”

The little girl lifts her head from the woman’s shoulder and looks deeply at her. The woman gives her a nod and sets her down. “Go ahead. It’s okay.”

I watch as the little girl toddles her way towards me. She can’t be more than three or four.

Usually, I would be able to pick up on these things, but all my senses are fixated on the woman.

The way she smells like hydrangeas. Her beauty. And the way I want to eat her like my father snacks on cookies.

The girl reaches me and I put her on my lap. “And what is your name?”

“Mayleesa.”

The woman chuckles. “It’s Melissa, but she hasn’t been able to say it like that yet for some reason.”

“I like it,” I tell the child. “Maybe you should change it,” I say with a smile. “More unique for such a special child.” I reach and tickle her belly through her coat and she giggles. It brings a shot of warmth through me.

Time slips by too fast and the two of them begin to get up to leave. The last thing I want, even if I want to get out of the mall as soon as possible.

I reach for the candy canes at the side of my chair and pull out two. I hand one to the little girl and hold one out to the woman. “And what about you? What do you want for Christmas?”

Her eyes seem to travel over me and I feel every bit of it. I bite my bottom lip to hold back a smile. “I’m fine, Santa.”

Yes, baby, you sure are. “Are you sure…?” I let the words hang there as I still try to search inside me for a name. One that still isn’t coming.

“It’s Camille. And I’m sure.”

It hits me like a freight train. Camille Scottsdale. Suddenly my brain is infused with her entire life. One that I will be picking over later.

I let them leave. I have no choice. But I will not be using my families powers for good tonight.

Not when I find out where they live. Not when I slip into their apartment unnoticed. Not when I watch Camille sleep as I sit by her bed in a chair that I quietly brought in from their kitchen.

Camille doesn’t know it yet, but she’s mine. And so is Melissa. I will be watching to see if they are good and bad every day of my life from here out. And the day that I get to bring them home with me, well, that day will be coming soon enough.

A grin splits my face and I hold back the deep chuckle that wants to pour out. Oh yeah. Soon. Very soon.

There is something different about this Christmas. I can feel it.

***

Waking up Christmas Eve, I wander around my apartment and have a sense once more that someone had been there. I’m not anal about where things go in my house, but I can swear that things have been moved overnight.

My best friend told me it is the Christmas elves as she laughed about my paranoia when I told her about it last night. She is set to come over today and help Melissa and I bake cookies. We bring some to the senior center every year. It’s where my grandmother has lived most of my life.

She seems to prefer it there, as she tells me the only other choice is to live with her son, my father, and she would rather go jump off the Golden Gate Bridge buck naked than to do that again.

I get it. My father is not someone that you find entertaining in the least. I prefer to stay as far away from him as I can get as well. I was never so happy as the day that he told me that he was moving out of Chicago and heading to New York. My mother threw a party to celebrate his departure and they haven’t even lived with one another since I was six, over two decades ago.

“Momma?”

I turn to find Melissa hugging a blanket and a bear to her chest as she makes her way out of her room. “Hey, baby girl.” I go to her and pick her up. “What do you want for breakfast today?”

“Dino nuggets.”

A laugh escapes me. Of course that is what she wants. She always wants dino nuggets. “How about oatmeal?”

Melissa scrunches her nose at me and shakes her orange colored head. She’ll eventually have auburn hair similar to mine, but for now it is almost carrot colored. Just like mine and my twin sister’s had been. “Bacon.”

“I can definitely do bacon. I took some out last night.” I tap my chin. “Hmm. What about dino pancakes?”

Her head bobs up and down excitedly. “Pancakes like dinos. Yum.” She rubs her stomach.

“Dino pancakes it is then.” I walk us into our small kitchen and set her on one of the chairs.

“Don’t fall, okay?”

She nods at me. “I okay.”

I boop her on the nose. “You always are.”

“Is Santa coming tonight?”

“He sure is,” I tell her as I gather the things I need to start making breakfast.

“Will he leave presents this time?”

“Huh?” I spin around with the milk, pancake, and eggs that I just pulled out of the refrigerator in my hands. “What do you mean this time? He leaves presents every Christmas.”

She shakes her head but then nods. “He does on Christmas, I guess, but not the last three nights he came.” Melissa tugs at the bear in her hand. “He helped me back to bed and told me a story, but that I had to stay quiet and not to wake you up because you work too hard and needed your rest.”

I set the items down harder than I planned on the counter between us and kick the fridge door shut. My eyes feel huge in my face. “He did what now?”

“Santa. Froms the mall. He’s nice. But he didn’t leaves presents.”

What the fuckity fuck! I suck in air because my lungs hurt since it appears that I haven’t been breathing. Not that I blame them for losing function. I swear all the air was swept out of my apartment at Melissa’s words.

Paranoia, my ass. There was someone in my apartment. “Um. Well, he will be leaving some presents tonight. I’ll make sure of it.”

There wouldn’t be any sleeping on my part until I got to the bottom of what the hell was happening while I have been sleeping.

***