The Night the Raindeer Landed

"I can't believe New Year's Eve is finally here!" I said as I set out the party snacks on the table. "I've been waiting for this for weeks!"

"Well don't worry," said my friend Verity, from her post at the fireplace. "It's going to be the party of the year."

"I hope so," I said.

We were decorating my new apartment for our New Year's bash. This was my first month living here, so this party would be a double celebration-NewYear's Eve, and my freedom.

"I'm done here," I said. "Do you need any help with the rest of the decorations?"

"No, I'm almost done here. Can you plug in the lights, though?" she asked.

"Sure," I replied. I headed over to the wall socked, and plugged in the light string. There was a loud "POP" and all the lights went out.

"Must have blown a fuse," Verity said. "Where did you get those lights, anyway?"

"Wal-Mart. They were the Binford Exclusive 400 watt Super-Brights. They were on sale because someone had brought them back. Apparently this Mr. Taylor made a few adjustments, but they just didn't have enough power."

"Isn't he the guy that blew out the lights for three blocks around his house?"

"Yeah, I think he was. You know, Verity, mabey I shouldn't have gotten theose lights."

"No duh!" she said. "Let's get flashlights and try to fix the fuse right now, and get some other lights later."

"Good plan," I said, so we both grabbed a flashlight and headed for the roof, where the fuse box was. Just as we were about to open the door, we heart a loud THUMP, and a slow, hissing noise. We looked at each other a moment, then with out flashlights held in front of us like spotlights, we opened the door and stepped onto the roof. The sight that met our eyes was astounding, to say the least. It was a huge green space ship, shaped like a rounded rectangle and with lots of little different colored lights flashing around the edge.

"Wot the heck is that?!?" I exclamed, and Verity's jaw dropped about a foot.

"I wish someone would tell us," Verity replied.

As we stared, open-mouthed, at the strange craft, a slivery-white outline of a door appered on the side we were looking at, and then the door dropped on the ground and 8 guys dressed in brown and green with big antlers growing out of their heads stepped out. The 8 guys looked around a bit, and then turned around and called out, "Hey Red!" and a fat guy in a dark red suit stepped out followed by a ninth antler guy, with a really big red nose. In fact, you could even say it glowed.

"What do you want?" the guy in red asked.

"Isn't the Workshop surronded by white stuff?" asked the first guy.

"Well, yes," said the red guy.

"I may be color-blind, but this doesn't look white to me."

"You're right, Dancer." he said. "I guess we made a wrong turn above Pacola."

"Let's ask directions, then," Dancer suggested. They agreed, and started our way.

"Lets get out of here!" Verity whispered. I whole-heartedly agreeded, and we ran downstairs to my floor. But, unfortinantly, the door was one that automatically locks, and we were locked in. We heard footsteps coming downstairs, and decided to try and break through them and run for the roof. Just then, three of them, including the one Red had called Dancer, came around the bend in the staircase and spotted us.

"Excuse us, but could you give us directions to the North Pole?" Dancer asked politly.

"The North Pole?!?" I echoed.

"Yes, well, we seem to have lost our way, and we're on a deadline."

"Well, I quess the quickest way would be to take I-45 North and follow it to the end, then keep going in the same direction." Verity answered.

They looked at each other, and Dancer said, "I told him he should have taken 45 instead of 40!" Then he turned to us and said, "Thanks a lot. Perhaps you to would care to come with us in case we get steered wroung again?"

"No thank you, we have things to do here." I replied. "But if you don't mind my asking, why are you going to the North Pole?"

"Well," said Dancer, "our leader, Red, has some delusions of being a toy-maker and insists that the toys his company, Elves, Inc., makes should be given away to all the good little boys and girls of the world. The docter ensures that he is in no way dangourous, so we made a deal with him. Once a year, we'll take him and all his company's toys in our sled-ship, and let him deliver the toys to all the kids of the world. But this year, our guidence system got knocked out of whack by a low-flying jet. That, and the fact that our piolet, R.D., the one with the red nose, celebrated a little bit to long and can't fold a map to save his life. So we've been flying around for a week, just a little bit lost."

"Oh, well, that explains a lot," I said. "Thank you for clearing that up."

"You're most welcome,' he replied. "Are you sure you won't change your mind?"

"We're sure," Verity said. "But we'll come up and see you off."

"Sure," I said, "we'll be glad to do that."

So we followed them up the stairs onto the roof and watched them board their ship. As they blasted off, we heard a voice over the loud-speaker saying "Happy New Year's to all, and to all a good night!"

Verity and I looked at each other, and then back up at the sky.

"Did we just see what I thought we saw?" I asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "But if we did..."

"What?"

"Let's not tell any one, O.K.?"

"Fine with me," I answered. "We won't tell a soul."

And we never did.

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