THE MOMENT
"Alright, Freddie...," Roger smiled into the phone. The deep Santa laugh he'd created over the last three hours came out naturally. "I'll have one of the elves write your name on a node right now; but, you've gotta keep being good 'til Christmas, okay?"
Roger chuckled as he lied to the child. He didn't know where all the calls were coming from, nor what a node was. It was even stranger that all the children were asking for the same thing. But, Roger was in his 70s and lived alone. He was happy to take any interaction he could get.
He almost hung up on the first child, a little girl named Molly. She sounded so defeated when he started to explain that she had the wrong number that he couldn't hang up. He quickly backtracked and saw no harm in humoring her. He knew mall Santas were a thing and considered himself to be more or less the same in that moment. He was banking on Molly's parents to be nearby to hear her Christmas wish.
After she wished for a node, Roger said he would do his best and hung up the phone while enjoying the warm glow of a child's hope. His red rotary phone rang again as soon as the phone was in its cradle. It was a little boy that was ecstatic that he reached Santa; Roger couldn't disappoint him.
After getting Freddie to be good until Christmas at least, Roger hung up the phone ready to pick it up again. But, this time it didn't ring. He held on to the receiver for several seconds but, it did not make a sound. Finally, with a disappointed sigh, he let go of it. He continued to stare at the silent phone for almost a minute, hovering his hand nearby.
"Guess it's over...," he grumbled to himself. Roger gave up and leaned back in his rocking chair.
"It doesn't have to be," a woman's voice startled Roger. The chair rocked back almost to tipping, but he managed to lean forward and hop out of the chair to look around; then, he froze.
"Who are you?" he asked. A lean, red-skinned woman stood in his living room wearing a black suit with a silver tie. She appeared to have a crown or rubies embedded around the top of her head that twinkled in the firelight. Roger knew that he was too old to get to his shotgun faster than she could stop him. And, her initial statement made him curious once the surprise wore off. She gave him a polite nod.
"My name's Ruby," she said. "You've been getting misdirected calls for the past three hours. I came to apologize on behalf of Chroma Corp. and see if there's anything we can do to make it up to you."
Roger chuckled and immediately relaxed. She seemed sincere; but, if she was lying he didn't have anything to lose anyway. Though, he felt a slight pang of embarrassment. As the calls continued, part of him began to believe that they were meant for the real Santa. But, Chroma Corp. sounded like any other business cashing in on the holiday spirit.
"Sure there is," Roger nodded. He hadn't had that much human interaction in over a decade. He was grateful for the short experience and wanted to thank the children if he could. "Any way you can find out who called me and get all those kids a node; whatever that is?" he shrugged.
"This is a node," Ruby smiled and held her hand up. She held a card-sized pane of transparent glass. "It's like a cellphone; but, better." Roger tilted his head at her, then he glanced at his rotary phone.
"Cell .. phone? What's that?" Ruby couldn't help but giggle.
"It's like a node, but not as advanced," she replied. "You'll get caught up if you take the job," she said.
"Huh?" Roger asked. "Now, I know I'm getting up in years, but I don't remember applying for a job, nor getting one offered." Ruby put the node in her pocket with her right hand and gestured at his phone with her left.
"We found, and fixed the problem that was sending you the calls. However, you actually did a fantastic job with the children you did talk to. As I said, it doesn't have to be over if you'd like to take the job; we could always use more Santas," she said.
Roger was ready to take the job then and there. It'd been the best day of his life, and it only lasted for a few hours. But, he'd learned quite a few hard lessons in his 70 years. And, on top of that, he wasn't keen to trust any corporation that saw children's hopes as a commodity. He decided to play it cool; he shrugged.
"It was fun, but I'm not sure I can take that many calls for hours at a time every day," he said. Ruby nodded.
"The position of Santa is flexible; if you'd rather do deliveries we can arrange that." Roger shook his head.
"I'm kind of old to be a courier," he said. Ruby tilted her head for a moment and stared at him.
"I'm sorry, I think you're confused at what I'm offering," she said.
"Phonebank Santa or mail delivery seem to be my only choices," Roger shrugged. Then, Ruby nodded with a slight smirk.
"Definitely a misunderstanding," she said. "I'm offering you the chance to BE Santa. The real presents in one night Santa Claus. Chroma Corp. employs millions of Santas spread out across millions of universes. Usually they're Myths, but we have some regular Zeros doing the job too; you'd fit right in."
"Millions of Santas in millions of universes??" Roger asked with a blank expression. His mind was trying to make sense of all the new information she threw at him. If he believed her then not only was Santa real, alternate universes were too. Or, she was crazy, or she wasn't even real. Roger was willing to accept he was crazy, or maybe even dead. Spending the day making children happy was as good a version of Heaven as any other. Whatever the explanations, he had an opportunity in front of him and he was willing to risk any of those truths to take it.
"Yeah, alright," he nodded with a smile. "It'll be good to get out of the house again, even if it's just for the holidays." But, Ruby shook her head.
"This is a full time position, all year round," she said.
"Oh.. yeah, I guess I gotta keep an eye on toy production or something?" he asked.
"Oh no, you'll be delivering toys every night. Starting tonight if you're ready."
"What? Christmas Eve isn't until tomorrow night," he said. Ruby nodded.
"That's on SST, Sharp Standard Time. It's a centralized time stream that helps keep the multiverse coordinated; but, every Earth moves at its own time. Not all Earths follow SST, but it's always Christmas somewhere. The calls you received were spread out across different Earths. So if you accept the job, you'll be the one delivering those nodes," Ruby explained. Then, she asked, "So, what do you say?" Roger grinned.
"HO, HO, HO! MERRRRY CHRISTMAS!"