Dear readers and reading deer,

as Christmas approaches with fast steps, this short story is evolving in 24 days, where each day partly random sentences will be added by anyone who wants to participate. I want readers to post their ideas in the comments to make the story more diverse, developing from different minds and perspectives of storytelling, creating a unique 24-parts story!

Maybe it will be romantic, maybe dinosaurs will fight cats over world domination; you may decide the direction of the story! You can check out the previous stories here:

• A Step-By-Step Christmas Story
• Another Christmas Story

Because I don’t know the story yet, I am really eager to see the end result of this collective experiment.

Happy writing!

Picture credit: Origami Sunshower

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Christmas Story III

1) “I am afraid your husband suffers from a severe case of amnesia”, the chief physician of the national hospital in Lisbon repeated. He continued after a short break, “Can you please tell me once more, how this accident happend, Mrs. Claus?” (Gregor)

2) She looked at her husband with tired eyes, than to the doctor and tried to smile. “How should I start with this story… I think with… Yes… Yesterday there was a stormy night in the town where we lived in.” (Bianca)

3) “We went out for a small meal in one of our favorite cafes. The day was looking nice and we were not aware it was going to get so weird. The rain started suddenly, and we decided to leave the cafe as soon as it dimished. After the rain stopped for a few minutes, we left. While walking back home, a thick fog surrounded us. We were not able to see much. Out of nowhere, we head a sound followed by a powerful white light that blinded us…” (Isaac)

4) “The thing is, Doctor”, continues Mrs. Claus, “that we were relaxing before all the activities we will have before Christmas. We did not expect such a weather in Lisbon by this time of the year nor this terrible accident.” After a short pause she continued more emotional, “Amnesia! Mi husband has amnesia! Oh my, oh my! How are we going to manage this situation? Tell me please Doctor, is there a solution, is there a cure for Mr. Claus’ amnesia?” (Silvia)

5) With a dismal tone the doctor replied, “We have run thorough examinations but we have been unable to provide a conclusive report to what is the cause of the amnesia. However, he is showing signs that he will recover, but we are unsure how long this process will take”. The poignant doctor left the room, as the grieving Ms. Claus shed a tear from her right eye. She turned around to take her husband’s hand but before she could reach it, one of the nurses came in the room and closed the door behind her. “Tell me about the light you saw!,” said the nurse with an ominous voice. Ms Claus felt fear at the beginning, as she did not recognize the nurse, but the woman had beguiling hypnotic eyes that not only made her feel at ease but also gave her a sensation of losing herself to her eyes. So, she began to talk, and the more she talk the more she remember the light and all what she had seen, and the more she remembered the more details she could point out. (Silvia)

6) “As we walked along the street in the darkness, bright lights suddenly appeared from the sky. Thousands of different lights like I have never seen before surrounded us and in the middle of it a shape of a person became visible. No, it was actually an angel with big wings standing in front of us, around him a sea of lights. And all of the sudden he called our names and began to speak”, said Mrs. Claus. (Klara)

7) „He said: ‘Santa and Anya Claus! I am archangel Gabriel and I am here to bring you an important message from above.’ After he finished speaking his voice was still echoing over the street and a deep warm feeling spread throughout my body. I turned to my husband and saw a worried expression on his face. Thousands of questions ran through my head but I did not dare to speak. Claus on the other hand replied shortly afterwards. …“, Ms. Claus took a break to look for a seat, clearly upset by the incidents. (Phillip)

8) Then she continued, “Santa asked ‘ What is God’s favorite son doing down here, brother?’ And Gabriel answered, ‘Father send me, you are to sloppy with humans. He wants you back home!’ Claus then stuttered, ‘… What about the children? They will not get their presents.’ Gabriel replied in a deep voice, ‘I will take care of them!’ Knowing that Gabriel is harsh, Santa looked at me craving and worried. ‘You have to make him quit, it’s the childrens only chance for Christmas’, he whispered to me. Archangel Gabriel vanished and Santa fainted.” After Mrs. Claus finished the story the ominous nurse shouted: “So you do remember!” (Tina & Andreas)

9) Anya Claus started to get suspicious. Who was this nurse? She obviously knew more details. The real question was: is she friend or foe? “Priorities!” she thought to herself. She needed to find out how to make Santa recover from this Amnesia and maybe this nurse knew how. After a long pause she decided to respond to the nurse: “And what do you remember? You were also there, right?” She bluffed. Mrs Claus had learned over the years how to tell when people were hiding information. After all, it was part of her husband’s job to tell who was on the good list. Mrs Claus also remembered some valuable lessons she learned while helping out in the North Pole Consulate in Russia. And then she figured out how to interrogate the ‘nurse’ further. (Alejandra)

10) At first she needed to win the nurse’s trust. Not an easy encounter of course, but duable due to her experience in North. Being sourrounded with the nurse every day for a couple of hours gave Anya the chance to get to know her better and better. (Georg)

11) It was not an easy task, as she needed to take care of her husband also, but it was worthy to try it and spend hours with the nurse. In one of the days, Mrs Claus figured out that the nurse became more talkative after eating some chocolates offered at the entrance of the hospital (apparently they were filled with a liquor that made her talk). So, the chocolates in combination with the gained confidence and the right questions made Mrs Claus really aware of the presence of the nurse on that night. Finally, the nurse with a nervous voice started to explain also what she saw: “I was … (Aitziber)

12) “… I was there. I mustn’t tell anybody but I guess I can trust you. I’ve been a nurse at the Jesus Christ memorial hospital for elves. At first it was a wonderful place. All the elves were happy and just came to me when they cut their fingers on the wrapping paper or their little tummy’s hurt cause they were laughing too much. But as time went by all the children kept on wishing for more and more things and the elves just couldn’t keep up. So they had to work and work and Santa got stressed out over the years. The elves stopped singing and dancing and began to get sick so I … I couldn’t bear it any more … I went to talk to Gabriel but he just wouldn’t listen. He kept on nagging Santa and the elves and I kept asking questions. But then suddenly I woke up in bright light, without any memory. It took me years to remember and it would ruin me to tell you.. but Anya, to help Santa”, the nurse said, “.. you have to remember.. I am sure that deep down you know the answer.” Anya took a look at the hypnotic eyes of the nurse as she started to breathe heavily. And suddenly images got flashing in her head: Images of her and Santa Claus sitting on the back of Rudolf flying over Portugal when suddenly.. (Leonhard)

13) …Freddy Krueger appeared out of nothing (because it was Friday the 13th). The leading reindeer Rudolf suddenly got a shock and stopped the sleigh over the roofs of Lisbon. Then Freddy began to speake with a terrifying voice: “Hohoho! There you are, finally I caught you! So long I´d been waiting for this moment. One of your brave elves is a spy of mine and as I heard how bad the working conditions are in your north pole factory I knew I have to stop these cruel things! And so, I decided to punish you with my…..” (Thomas)

14) “… ultimate weapon: subscribe you to 100 newsletters of city outlets, so you will be swamped by Spam! And deleting them takes you so much time, you don’t find any to exploit the poor elves anymore!” (Sonja)

15) Realizing the extreme difficulty of deleting spam newsletters, Santa Claus turned red from rage. Considering time of the year and how much is yet to be done to bring the gifts, Santa could not afford this. He pulled out a sword from behind the sleigh and brushed it against Freddy Krueger’s slashing hands to declare war. But the sound of sword slashing was strange, it sounded more like honking… what! “Get up, let’s go” a voice woke him up from the dream. “He had fallen asleep looking down below thinking that they got stuck in traffic” said Mrs. Claus. “But he looked baffled and sad, and he asked me ‘but am I treating the elves well? Do they deserve more holidays? What should I do?’… he seemed worried and wanted to change the situation” Mrs. Claus said going into deep thoughts. (Menon)

16) “We arrived home shortly after, and he went straight into his workshop” said Mrs. Claus, trying very hard to remember what happened afterwards. “For two whole weeks, he locked himself in seclusion, but I could tell he was planning something, something big…” As she was recounting what happened after their trip home, she remembered the banging and ticking sounds that came from the workshop. “The elves and I were worried sick, so we decided to put an end to his madness.” Mrs. Claus continues, “we got one of those door breakers and broke down the door…and, oh dear Christmas, we weren’t remotely prepared for what we had witness in the workshop….”(Rebeca)

17) It was not easy to tell, if she was frightened or exhilarated by what she saw, but obviously she was impressed. „He built up a funland for the elves, and if I say funland I mean something that would make charlie and his chocolate factory look ridiculous. There were all kinds of rides, outdoor as well as indoor activities, a big ferris wheel and even a cinema to watch christmas movies before their official release dates.“ Mrs.
Claus started to breathe heavily: „But to power up this incredible masterpiece of entertainment, he had to put in something very important to him. After that he was not the same. I tried to ignore the fact, that the amnesia could be partly caused by that“ (Stefan)

18) The nurse looked at Mrs. Claus with shock and suspense, “what did he put?”. Mrs. Claus clenching her chest exclaimed, “The letters from the children around the world”. You see what the nurse didn’t know was that the powers of Mr. Claus came from the thoughts of the children that believed in him and depleting the magical powers of the letters also drained Mr. Claus of who he was. “But with Mr. Claus having amnesia who will deliver the gifts for Christmas?” asked the nurse. At that moment a daunting thought came to Mrs. Claus, she knew someone she could ask a favour of, a person she had history with. She looked at the nurse and said don’t worry my dear. She got up and took out her cellphone and placed it to her ear, she said softly, “Hey Thor I’ve been thinking about you my love”… (Christine)

19) “Who’s speaking?”, said an unfamiliar female voice that utterly surprised Mrs. Claus as she expected the low-pitched creamy voice of the last summer paramour, the summer when Santa was all about the fun-land, the summer when she took a mini-weekend gateway, the summer of the unforeseen rendezvous…

“Oh, lord. This must be Jane.” All sort of possible responses rolled into her mind, but… it was certainly not a good time to overburden Thor. After all, they were just back together.

Tuuu… Tuuu… Tuuu…

‘It was the correct but absolutely not the most desirous move to hang up the phone. Did I mess things up? But as I recalled, he said she was into someone else on the last call. Pretty sure! Wait! She should focus on her beloved husband right now. Why did she pick up his phone? No! No! No! Focus dear! Santa! Amnesia! Remember? That is what you need to deal with right now and someone must deliver the gifts on the day of Christmas, that is to find a sub in less than six days! SIX DAYS! Would anyone be able to memorize all the roads and routes of the children’s homes in just six days?’

“Are you OK, Mrs. Claus? You look upset,” the nurse interrupted her thought. (Caro)

20) „Nevermind, it must have been the wrong number, I need another solution as soon as possible, I need to find something!” “Isn’t there any other employee in the workshop who knows about the delivery process of the presents?”, the nurse suggested. Anya got really excited, “Of course! We had a bunch of trainees two years ago from all over the world, to be more precise, from every single country of the world. The plan was to provide for Santa’s old age and therefore the future of Christmas and since only my husband is influenced by the power of the children’s faith, he’s the only one who can remember all the routes.” “So you hired all these trainees to learn the routes of each of their home countries?”, the nurse asked curiously. “Exactly…”, Anya replied with a lowering voice as if she discovered another problem. “… oh no, that doesn’t work either. Until now we only have one suitable sleigh which means that all 193 trainees must squeeze together in this one sleigh if they want to deliver the presents in time. Also, the sleigh is going to be so heavy, that during the delivery through the chimney they will destroy the roof…” The nurse interrupted the obviously desperate, almost hysteric woman: “Calm down Anya, this might indeed be risky, BUT…” (Sabrina)

21) … The nurse started making all kinds of out of out-worldly suggestions, as she was clearly concerned about this year Christmas but mostly, she was mortified by her part in this turmoil. Mrs. Claus keep on listening to all what she had to say, while passing onto her more of those liquor chocolates and using a few of her learned techniques from the Russian embassy to make her talk. The nurse suggestions ranged from having the trainees guide polar bears and penguins to delivered the presents to contacting aliens helping do the job. Mrs. Claus was shocked about the alien suggestion as she was not aware that this could be possible, but then again “This is a world full of magic, so why not” she thought to herself. After a while hearing these incredible solutions to present-delivery crisis (PDC), she stopped the nurse and said “thank you dear for all these ideas, but it is time I take things into my hand, I will have the trainees guide the sleigh in the most difficult areas, but there is no one better to take care of Christmas than me.”

Mr. Claus, who was already awake and hearing all the conversation smiled at his wife final solution. He was sored from laying on a hospital bed for this long time, he really just wanted to go home and have some of those famous cookies made specially in Christmas time. Yes, he had had amnesia, but thanks to his wife care and the treatments in the hospital of Lisbon he had almost entirely recovered. Yet, he decided to keep this to himself as he knew that his Anya could do an equally good job as he had always done before.

“wait?… Are you saying you come from Ceres, the moon of Jupiter” Mrs Claus asked startled to the nurse… (Adriana)

22) The nurse seemed a little bit nervous by the very direct and random question. “Ummm..no?!” she answered irritated. Suddenly someone was knocking at the door. “Who is it?” Mrs. Claus was asking. No one answered to her though, so she went to check herself. As she opened the door Mrs. Claus was surprised to find no one behind the door. She looked to the left and to the right but… nothing except… “What in Dashers name is this?!” said Mrs. Claus as she picked up the unknown object from the floor. It was a small wrapped package shipped by Amazon. The package had a small note attached. The note said “I hope this can help you solve your logistic dilemma. Best regards, Jeff Bezos”
“Oh.. I forgot that nowadays there is no more privacy.” Mrs Claus said to herself.
What could be inside of this box? Is it a GPS system with all the routes? Is it a drone? Mrs Claus and the nurse made a shocking but yet fascinating discovery as they opened the package. (Lisa)

23) „… A remote control“ Mrs Claus mumbled surprised as she obtained the tiny object from the amazon gift box. „A remote control! I got it! We can use it to access the command over the entire satellite-controlled fleet of automated delivery drones and save Christmas this way!”. Happy about their discovery Mrs Claus and the nurse did not notice the thick fog appearing in the hospital corridor, as lightning struck again a thousand fold. “Halt! I command thee to stop interfering with my holy guidance! You shall not intercept my divine plans!” Gabriel dictated in a bellowing voice as he grabbed Mrs Claus, his angelic sword in hand. The alarming scenery was suddenly cut off again by the screeching sound of a shattering window. “Ho Ho Ho, Motherf***ers!” no other than Freddy Krueger himself proclaimed as he broke into the already crowded corridor surrounded by an army of now jolly elves, well rested from their summer holiday at Santas Funland. “release your hostage, you filthy, feathered angel scum! The elves are happy again and there is no reason for you to destroy Christmas!”. With a stroke of his mighty wings Gabriel cast a sonic wave and struck all the joyfull elves and their psychotic leader with a paralyzing blow, yelling: “you hold no power against my godly might, there is nothing you can do to stop me now!”.
With the situation now completely out of control, the almost recovered Santa grabbed his phone and dropped a WhatsApp for Thor – the only one powerful enough to stand against the Archangel… (Michael)

24) But as soon as the WhatsApp message was recorded, Archangel Gabriel spotted Santa Claus and casted both, Santa and the phone against the nearby wall with a powerful blow of his graceful wings, knocking Santa unconscious. Anya, freed of Gabriel’s grasp by Freedy Krueger’s surprise entrance, cautiously made her way to her motionless husband, while some of the elves faced the angelic fiend in a surprisingly well executed but not really effective series of martial arts combos they learned in the “Mortal Combat” area of their funland. But before Anya could reach Santa, Gabriel could free himself from the onslaught of elf Kong-foo and in a window of opportunity he rushed to the weakened Claus family and stroke down his mighty sword….

In the very same moment, the “read” symbol of the WhatsApp message appeared and suddenly the time froze in a mysterious field of electrostatic pulsation followed by a mighty roar. A flash, then the thunder!

Gabriel looked at the tip of his sword. Instead of cutting through Claus, it was parried by a mystical tool of ancient times. A hammer, charged with the power of all seven worlds, wielded by the one worthy Prince of Asgaard, Thor, halted the mighty blow of Gabriel. “Hello Gab”, an deep voice echoed in the half destroyed hospital room “it is that time of the year again!” “Thor! Against my expectations, you made it. This year it was really close!” answered Gabriel with an disappointed tone in his voice.

Thor started laughing and exclaimed, “for over 1249 years we are fighting this holiday war and every year I beat you and save Christmas. I can tell that your strategies got better and better over time, but what only really improved are the hospitals and means of communication.” He continued in the direction of Anya “Can you remember Christmas 1825? You had send me a message-dove telling me about Gabriel’s invasion, and I only found the message after eating that poor thing! Hahaha!” Thor laughed uncontrollably and only Gabriel angry screech could silence him, “Enough! Yes, you might have defeated me again this year! But next year, I will get you, Santa and Anya!” “I can’t wait to see you try! Farewell old friend!”, Thor answered and while shaking hands both Gabriel and Thor vanished into the next bar, where Gabriel has to pay the next round of Christmas Eggnog as part of the lost bet.

“Well then” Santa said “Anya, I am proud you wanted to save Christmas and deliver the presents by yourself! But I suppose you and I deserved some holidays. Nurse, I give you the Remote Control. Just press the “Prime” Button, and all presents will be delivered to the children. Hohoho, happy holidays!” And with a sudden *blop* the Claus family, elves and Freddy Krueger were teleported back to the North Pole.

The nurse stood alone in the rampaged hospital room. She looked closly at the remote control, throw it on the floor and stepped on it with all her force. She pulled out her cell phone and called a suspiciously long number. Tuuuu. Tuuuuu. Tuuuuu. “Hello, here is the mothership of the Ceres exploration force!” “Hello, Admiral Nörs speaking”, the nurse said with a big grin on her face “you can deliver all the presents now!” (Gregor)

I wish you a galactic Christmas and many extraterrestrial gifts!

The End!