12+  The job offer notification pops up on my phone early on Christmas Eve. It's a short-term role helping with overnight deliveries. The regular delivery driver has hurt his back and needs an offsider for heavy lifting.

Once, I would have declined the job and spent Christmas Eve with my kids. I love the excited glow on their faces when they put out the glass of milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. But Mary has the kids for Christmas this year, and I need the money, so I swipe right and freshen up for the Zoom interview.

Mary and I grew apart as her career took off and mine nosedived. The separation was amicable, and we agreed on joint custody of the kids, with alternate birthdays and Christmases. Tomorrow, the kids will be opening presents with Mary and her mother on the West Coast, while I'll be home alone in the East.

My phone vibrates with an incoming Zoom call.

"Hello, is that Chris?" a jolly voice booms.

"Yes, that's right, Mr Clau—"

"Please, call me Nick," the voice interrupts. "I'm very grateful you're available after my silly accident, Chris. I tripped on a toy and wrenched my back. I'm okay carrying small deliveries, but not big ones."

Either Nick has a cheap Zoom camera, or he's fogbound because his image on my screen is faint and fuzzy. 

"Alabaster," Nick shouts to someone, "shut the door, please. There's too much snow inside. I can't see Chris." 

I hear bells jingling and a door slamming. Then, the screen clears to reveal rosy cheeks and twinkling eyes framed by a bushy white beard and a white-fringed red cap with a matching pom-pom.

I blink twice and croak, "You're San—"

"Please, Chris, call me Nick," he interrupts again with a hearty laugh. "Now, let's discuss the job. It's almost midday in the Eastern Hemisphere, and I need to finalise plans for tonight's deliveries."

Nick outlines the Christmas Eve logistics and how he's employing locals like me to avoid the red tape and delays of organising work visas for individual countries. My role will be to help with deliveries in Australia, starting on the East Coast and zig-zagging our way West, chasing the orange sunset.

I'm stunned. The kids still believe in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa. Imagine if they knew Dad was working with, erm, Nick!

I signed a non-disclosure agreement for the job, so I can't reveal much about Christmas Eve other than to say, against all odds, we completed our deliveries, big and small.

Fittingly, the last stop was Mary's mother's house in the West, where Nick let me sneak the kids' presents into their Santa sacks and polish off the milk and cookies they'd left out while he fed his reindeer.

I felt a little lonely in the morning, but the memory of being Nick's helper and seeing the kids' faces plundering their Santa sacks on my phone made it a Merry Christmas.

© 2024 Robert Fairhead

Thanks to Wattblicker for sharing the image of Santa and his sleigh crossing the moon on Pixabay.

I wrote Nick's Helper for the Australian Writers' Centre's monthly writing challenge, Furious Fiction, in December 2024. The brief was that each 500-word story had to:

• Take place (mostly) on Christmas Eve/24 December
• Include a character who has an accident of some kind
• Contain the words AGAINST, TOOTH and ORANGE (longer variations were allowed).

2024 was my fifth December Furious Fiction. In previous years, I had eschewed Christmas themes suggested in the brief (for example, The Gift in 2020 and The Special Tree in 2022), but because this year's story had to take place (mostly) on Christmas Eve, I leaned heavily into a tale involving Santa.

Brainstorming the story, I reasoned that if Santa hurt his back, he'd need help with the heavy lifting on his Christmas Eve delivery run. And to avoid the need for work visas, he'd employ locals.

I created a local temporary delivery offsider, Chris, who would rather spend Christmas Eve with his kids. But this year, they're spending Christmas on the West Coast with his former wife, Mary, and her mother. So, Chris accepts the job offer notification and has a Zoom interview with the delivery driver, who he realises is San—

"Call me Nick!"

Did I deliberately name the main characters Chris, Mary and Nick? Yes, of course. I knew my Santa theme was obvious, but I tried making it subtly so by alluding to the characters and delivery job until Christmas Eve. And then Chris couldn't reveal much about the night because he'd signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Some things should remain a secret!

On Christmas Eve, I learned that the Writers' Centre judges had not showcased or longlisted my story for December. I was disappointed. However, when I read Nick's Helper again on Christmas Day, I still enjoyed the sweet tale of a separated father and his kids at Christmas, so I shared it as my gift to you on Tall And True!

N.B. You might like to read another of my non-Christmas-themed December Furious Fictions from 2023, Moving On.