Forbidden

By Alisha Sethi

With Christmas approaching fast, the scene at the North Pole was one of havoc and hysteria. Reindeers were excercising to build up strength for all the long journeys they would soon have to undertake ; Santa's helpers (the elves) were busy manufacturing goods in the factories; and last but not the least the Santas were sorting out their Wish Lists.Wish Lists were mailed to them early November and now the Santas were busy planning their itineraries, which house to visit first which to visit last and all that. However in the midst of all this madness, sat Martin, a most unhappy Santa, sulking in the corner of his cubicle. He had been in service for twenty years now, twenty long years of delivering presents and having kids pull his beard but not once had he been appreciated. Not once had he been made Star of the Year. He was fed up of his job, his life and the same monotonous routine that took place every year. Each year Martin's mind would race through the endless career alternatives that waited out there, he was not quite sure what they were but he knew that there were many and he knew that they HAD to be more exciting than being a Santa. He had been thinking of resigning since quite a while now but because of the severe consequences of leaving the profession, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. People didn't just become Santas, either you were born into the profession or you weren't, and he,Martin, was born a Santa. His ancestors had been Santas too, he couldn't just pack up his bags and leave. It was Forbidden.

On the 26th of November 2011, a miracle happened. His colleague,who had been with him in service since the start, couldn't remember his name.Ralph, looking around for an intern to deliver files to the office of the Head,saw Martin sitting at his desk and asked him if he was new. Upon looking at the appalled look on Martin's face, Ralph realized that he was mistaken and then made several attempts to recall Martin's name. Morris, Mickey and others were tried in vain before Ralph finally slammed the files on Martin's desk and told him, whoever the hell he was, that he wanted the files delivered to the Head right away. 

Something snapped inside Martin.

Suddenly all of the reasons why he couldn't, why she shouldn't, leave his job flew out of his mind and a wave of anger and determination took over. Fury raced through his veins and clouded all sense of reason. He marched up to the office of the Head, but not with the purpose of delivering the files.

Without knocking on the door, as required by unspoken and unwritten rules he banged open the door.

" That's it! I've had enough! I'm done! I want to resign NOW!", yelled Martin.

The Head, Sir Christopher Jones, looked taken aback at first due to the hard,blazing look on Martin's face, but then within a few seconds of the outburst, he regained his usual calm demeanor. 

" Excuse me? ", Sir Christopher said.

Martin retorted that what the Head had heard in the first go was right, that he, Martin was sick of being a Santa and wanted an out. Then without waiting for any further questions, Martin went on to narrate how much he loathed being invisible and doing a meaningless job.  The Head listened patiently and waited for Martin to finish, however after all the endless complaining was done all that came out of Sir Christopher's mouth was a simple ' No '. He told the elf sitting in the corner of the room to escort Martin out of the room. The elf, copying his boss' smug and sarcastic smile took an entirely bewildered looking Martin out of the room and then slammed the door on his face.

Though it was clear that the Head wanted Martin to forget the conversation ever happened, it was very difficult to do so. Not only had Martin not given up but also the constant whispering and muttering that always surrounded him these days made it very hard for him to put that little outburst out of his mind.He was greeted by stiff looks wherever he went. He could sense people pointing at him behind his back, referring to him as the traitor' or the rebel , the person who dared to go against tradition. Every Santa felt honoured to be part of a family which had for years engaged in a 'noble profession' and since Martin on the contrary loathed his ancestors for forcefully deciding his future the moment he was born, he was the Oddity. A disgrace to all Santas. Rumours quickly spread suggesting reasons why Martin could possibly want to leave service, some, the wackier ones, involved him wanting to be a disco dancer at a shabby pub instead.  His reindeers, who he thought for years to be his loyal friends, had also turned their backs on him. One of them actually assaulted Martin.

However Martin's sense of determination had not left him. He turned a blind eye and deaf ear to all the disapproval that surrounded him and worked on his plan with renewed vigour. His plan involved the father of the only kid that Martin had grown to like over the years. The father, Rupert, was a nutty scientist. When they had met last Christmas, Rupert had told Martin that he was working on a machine that could go anywhere in the world within a few minutes. The machine,which was called Rocker 007, was going to be complete roughly around the end of 2011. One phone call was all that was needed to put his plan in action. 

Exactly a week before Christmas when everyone was so busy that they had even forgotten to gossip about Martin, something rather starnge happened. The elves,busy in loading prepapred packages into trunks, noticed the sky grow darker.  The sudden lack of light was felt by many others who left whatever they were doing and turned to look up at the sky to discover a possible source of obstruction for the sun. And then they saw it. A flying rocket, atleast thats what it looked like, was coming down upon the North Pole fast. The moment it touched the ground all went dark and there was lots of screaming to be heard. The darkness though left as quickly as it came, and once the crowd had accustomed themselves to the sudden light they saw something which made their eyeballs pop. Martin, with a man on his side, was sitting in a machine full of what appeared to be suitcases. Then suddenly, a puff of smoke emerged from the engine of the machine and left a message in the sky:


                                                           SO LONG LOSERS!

The sound of Martin's evil laughter, echoed loud and clear in the ears of the baffled community of the North Pole.