Young Writers Society

    A prologue to my other short story Waxies Special day. Someone mentioned it seemed like a part of a larger story and that they would love to see more. I honestly hadn't thought about writing more and that got me wondering. How and when did Bob Malarkey meet Waxie?

               It was the night before Christmas and all through the house. Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. But children will be children so young Bob Malarkey was laying perfectly still in his bed under his blankets with eyes as wide as dinner plates. He was barely able to keep from shaking because he was so excited to have another chance to catch Santa this year, and every child knows that if you make noise Santa will hear you coming and will be gone before you can scream with enough child like glee to wake the whole neighborhood up. Little 8 year old Bob was trying very hard to be good. He had a strict eight o'clock bed time that there was no compromise for. He had to be in bed and laying down quietly when the clock struck eight or else no bed time stories.

               Bob used to be very bad about not being in bed on time. He would be running around playing with his friends the Babaloinks at 6 and what he would swear was only 5 minutes later it was nine, his parents had been looking for him for over an hour and he was in big trouble. Of course the Babaloinks were always gone by the time his parents showed up. They said that his parents wouldn't be able to see them, and they wouldn't understand even if they could see them so it was better this way. At least that's what Bob interpreted from the weird combinations of chirps, buzzes, and trumpet noises that they used as speech. Bob was taking trumpet lessons so that one day he could be fluent in Babaloink. His teacher would argue with him over whether or not he was playing ode to joy or giving a formal Babaloink greeting. Regardless she said he was a phenomenal trumpet player, just terribly mannered. That's why his trumpet got locked up after those men in uniforms showed up complaining about loud noises last time he tried to talk with the Babaloinks.

               Bob lay in bed while the clock ticd-and tokkd all the way over to four AM when suddenly there was a soft light outside his window. At first he thought a cloud had moved letting the moon shine down on his street but it was different then moonlight. This light felt.... alive. He was so curious about the strange light but he didn't want to startle Santa. Then a thought struck him like lightning and left him shaking with excitement. Maybe that light IS Santa!!!! He was so excited he didn't even realize how much noise his bed frame was making as he shook away such enthusiasm.

               The light danced about as if its source was moving. it would fade away and come back, sometimes it would become very bright very fast accompanied by a noise of some kind. Maybe Santa was putting on a fireworks show for the good children. Then something hit his roof. The excitement was too much and Bob jumped out from under his blankets and stood up on his bed dancing with excitement. He listened carefully and realize he must not be the only one dancing. It almost sounded as if Santa was aggressively tap dancing on his roof. Sudden sharp thumps and cracks spread out between pitter patter that moved back and forth across his roof. Maybe they had a bug problem up there and santa was taking care of it for them because Bob had been good. Well... Better. Positive reinforcement helps tremendously Dr.Polt had told his parents. Maybe he wrote Santa and told him that too. That was nice of Dr.Polt. As Bob was contemplating this a sword fell past his window. He felt that was a pretty clear sign that something was wrong. Then a cabbage fell past, then a log, then the neighbors cat. but before the cat hit the ground a blue light flew down from the roof and caught Mewly and set him down gently before doubling in size and pulling a large sword out of nowhere and charging back up to the roof.

               That must have been one of Santas elves. but if one of Santas elves was fighting that must mean that Santa was being mugged on his roof! If that happened there would be no Christmas for anyone so Bob decided it was up to him to save Christmas without waking his parents. He ran to his toy chest as quick as he could trying to be quiet and pulled out his sling. he has a couple rocks he could use but he would need more ammo, and better to save the rocks till he needed them so he shuffled quickly downstairs to the fridge, grabbed the eggs, and ran outside. There were a lot more random items littering his lawn now. There were toys, bottles, boxes, pots and other things. one of the pots was made of clay, he recognized it as one of his mothers flower pots from the back yard only now the flowers were gone and one side was broken. It would make a perfect helmet and considering he was about to join the fight for Christmas it seemed like a helmet would be a good idea. Having donned his new helmet he felt like a knight, he felt courageous, he felt strong enough to save Christmas and Hanukkah to!

               Bob turned to the roof and saw the blue light dancing around a purple light. They moved so fast and they kept changing sizes so they looked like people and then changing back. The roof was covered in paint, plants and splats of all kind most of them trying to help the blue light. he watched as the blotches of red and green rose up and flowed around the purple light trying to grab it and hold it down only to turn hard and grey as they crackled away into dust. The plants would shield the blue light while it readied to strike with its sword. Despite all the help the blue light was getting it seemed to be getting tired faster than the purple light. Now was the moment of truth where a true Knight Flora would not hesitate. Bob picked up an egg, raised his sling and fired at the purple light.

               He yelled "LEAVE SANATS ELF ALONE!" as the egg sailed through the air.

               The purple light grew slightly and turned to stare at bob as the egg sailed over head. While it was distracted the blue light flew up and snatched the egg out of the air and hit the purple light in the face with it.

               "Thank you little gnome!" The blue light called back. Sir Gnome sounded like a beautiful title so Bob kept firing eggs for the blue light to catch and throw at the purple light. Of course not every egg was caught. A couple hit the garage door, some landed on the roof, others went over the house into the back yard, and a couple of times his grip slipped and he ended up hitting the car. Mom and dad were going to be angry at the mess he made but he would be grounded for a year if it meant saving Christmas. Nearby the Babaloinks were moving through the bushes and he heard them trumpet to him to keep going while they got ready to help. But he ran out of eggs, and he couldn't risk using the rocks. Even Christmas wasn't worth how angry his dad would be if he broke another window. so he started throwing things back up the too roof for the blue light to use. little train cars, fake swords, a real dagger, some cookware. Eventually the purple light started throwing purple at him so he picked up the pan lid and used to deflect the icky purple. his pan lid started getting old and rusty with every shot though and his hand even started to feel weird. Just as his shield was about to break the Babaloinks all jumped up on the roof and started trumpeting loudly making the air around the purple light shimmer with their magic. Another Babaloink brought Bob his trumpet urging him to use it and finish the spell while the purple light was distracted by the Babaloinks.

               Bob raised his trumpet and said in his best Babaloinkian. "I SAID LEAVE SANTAS ELF ALONE"

               It was a loud and shrill set of notes but it seemed to get the job done. The air rippled and stretched in a vortex shape and then there was a door. He was used to seeing those doors and going through them but that one seemed scarier than the others. Both lights tried to run but were being pulled to the door by a strange force. The blue light started fluxing in panic and was trying to fly across the street. the light was so close that even though it was small as a mouse he could see it's face. It looked like a she, and she was scared. She was terrified. The Babaloink door was getting bigger and louder. It pulled harder and she started to slip back towards it. Bob felt sorry for her , and was confused why the Babaloinks magic would affect her too. She is the one they were trying to save in the first place. He decided he had to save her. For Santa, and for all of Christmas so he reached out to her and she grabbed hold of his finger and quick as a flash she pulled herself all the way up his arm and into his ear. And with that the door closed, Bob couldn't see the Babaloinks anymore and the neighbors and his parents were all coming out to see what all the commotion was. The yelling started again. All it was at this point was loud white noise that made him feel bad. Made him feel like he had done something wrong trying to save Christmas. But he heard something else over the noise. A quite sound in his right ear. He tuned out the yelling and listened close to his right ear and heard someone crying and repeating over and over again.

               "Thank you."