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Callum peered out the flap of their tent at the families queuing patiently in the cold. He turned back to Rainie, who was adjusting Stuart's beard, with a pensive look.
"Rain, are you sure this is a good idea? There's loads of kids out there."
"What do you mean 'am I sure'? Callum, it's a slam-dunk-homerun! £5 to meet Santa and have a family photo emailed to you, we hand over one of these crummy toys Skinny Elvis palmed off on us, AND we get a bunch of locals email address to sell to Nish! Quids in!"
"It's honestly one of your best schemes ever, darling, im so proud of you. " Stuart gushed from behind a sea of polyester white curls.
"It just seems a bit, I dunno, scammy... for Christmas. Plus why would Nish pay for email addresses?"
"I dunno, marketing to locals and that. Business stuff. And the kids don't care, they get to meet Santa, that's what Christmas is all about, Callum!" Rainie grumbled through a cloud of candy cane flavoured vape smoke.
Callum rolled his eyes at that. They were the wrong crowd for a "goodwill to all men" speech.
"Come on, bruv, it'll be fun! Ho ho ho and all that! You love it!" Stuart settled himself onto his big Christmas throne, his little round face looking pretty jolly actually now Callum saw him in all his Father Christmas finery.
He gave one last pointed glare at Rainie, who responded by chucking a green felt hat with a little bell on it right at his face, grinning, "let's get this show on the road, Dobby!"
Several hours later, as the bright blue afternoon sky gave way to a pink and orange twilight, the queue of families dwindled and the makeshift grotto decided it call it a day. Callum began letting the air out of the inflatable reindeer at the front of the tent, when he heard a clatter of tiny feet and a breathless voice shout "Wait, mister Elf wait!"
He looked down to see an urgent little girl's face, halo'd with blonde hair, out of breath, staring up at him.
"Oh, hello?"
"Is he still here? It's really important that I see him!"
"Umm.." Callum looked around, but couldn't see any adults that looked like they were responsible for this small human.
"Please? I'll be quick."
He stuck his head around the back of the tent where Stuart was having a crafty fag and said loudly so she could hear "Oh Santa, don't... fly away... there's one more little girl for you"
Stuart threw his hands up exasperated he mouthed "soft lad!" quickly put out the cigarette and buttoned up his big red coat.
"In you go darlin, I'll wait here and tell your mum where you are."
The moppet rolled her eyes as if to say "Elves! Usless!" and stomped by him, muttering "That's what I need to talk to him about!"
"Alright love, up you get!" Rainie hoisted the girl into Santa's lap.
"Hohoho, Merry Chri-" Stuart started, but the child held her hand up imperiously to stop him.
"I know you're not the real Santa Claus," she said.
"What makes you...!?" Stuart began, as Callum frantically gestured from behind her that his beard was under his chin. He fixed it and finished lamely "say that...?"
"I'm old enough to know how it works." She said, soberly. "But I also know that you work for him! And I'd like you to give him a message."
Stuart nodded, bemused, "Alright?"
She took a deep breath.
"I'm Lexi Pearce, Albert Square, Walford, England. Do you need the post code?"
"Uh, no that's alright"
"Okay. Thus is extremely important. Would you please tell him that, instead of presents this year, I just want my family back. No toys. Nothing but Mum, Uncle Jay, Pops, Honey, and my Nan and my cousins. And if he has time my Uncle Ian. Okay?"
Stuart and Callum exchanged horrified glances. Callum silently nodded at Stuart.
"Um... okay? I'll see what I can do?"
The girl, Lexi, made to jump down with a "thanks" and head out the tent.
"Hang on!" Cried Callum, aghast at this poor kid losing her whole family at Christmas. He dashed to the present box, but there were only broken dolls and airguns left. He patted his elf outfit down. "Every kid gets something for seeing Father Christmas..." He pulled a fiver out of his back pocket and handed it to her.
"Nice one!" She beamed as she turned and skipped out the door.
Callum's heart broke for her. He quickly remembered there was no-one with her, and went to chase after her when they all heard a bemused voice draw closer.
"Oi! Who's giving my little girl a fiver? Eh? What do you mean 'its a secret', Lex?"
Stepping outside, Callum saw an angry-looking man in his 20s in a very flattering blue and black chequered coat heading his way, the tragic little girl looking almost convincingly innocent at his side.
"It was me, I-I gave her the money" Callum stammered. "We'd run out of toys and they were crap anyway, and it was so sad what had happened... I just couldn't let her go with nothing and it was all I had on me. I'm sorry! I was just coming after her now to check that she wasn't on her own"
The anger on the man's handsome face quickly morphed into confusion as he looked down at his wide-eyed daughter and back up to this peculiarly tall Elf in front of him.
"Sad? What was sad?"
Callum lowered his voice and moved toward them. "She asked Santa ... to bring her all her family back. I'm so sorry for your loss."
The man blinked once. Twice. Shook his head as he looked down at his now very shifty looking child and thew his head back and laughed.
Now it was Callum’s turn to be confused.
"Are they not..."
"Dead? No! They're in Portugal. Little miss here," He hoisted Lexi into his arms, and playfuly growled into her hair making her shriek with delight, "got chicken pox the week before we were supposed to go. Her mum never had it, so I got the Walford straw. They're all there for Christmas and she thinks they should all come back and stop having fun without her!" Lexi nodded in strong agreement with this statement.
"But, mate," he continued, eyes dancing with mirth "it was really nice of you to do that. Give him his money back, Lexi."
"But it's from Santa..." She whined.
"It isn't, though is it? It's from" He trailed off, tilting his head expectantly.
"Callum!" He blurted after a minute.
"It's from Callum. And we don't take money from strangers. No matter how kind, or handsome, they might be." He said with a wink that would definitely land him on the naughty list.
Lexi begrudgingly handed back the crisp note, as Callum blushed and laughed.
They stood in silence for a moment, just smiling at one another, until a cough from behind them brought Callum back to Earth.
"Oi, Legolas, this grotto ain't going to pack itself up. Get his number and give him a lick of your candy cane later!"
"Rainie! For f- goodness sake!" Callum whirled on his heel and glared at her. When he turned back, the man was holding out a business card.
"Ben Mitchell. That's my number. Don't lose it." He bit his lip and gave Callum a final long look before re-jigging the child on his hip. "Come on trouble, let's get you a hot chocolate. Merry Christmas, Callum!" They called out as they disappeared into the market throng.
Merry Christmas indeed.