No Crying on Christmas!

The Northside Mall… Also known this time of year as the North Pole by many of us bright eyed kids, excited to explore endless shops of magical toys and frilly outfits. It was one of the biggest shopping centers in the whole hemisphere and didn’t spare any expense decorating for the yearly festivities.

Lights rimmed the already decorative walls. Trees dotted with even more tiny LEDs sat at each corner of the roof. The lamps in the parking lot were swirled with garland and topped with sparkling wreaths. A magical sight when coupled with the constant nighttime snowfall that seemed to never end.

I stood there to take it all in, inhaling the cold, fresh air as if the moment were a picture being processed in my memory. Actually, it really was since my head is run by a computer.

“Isn’t it lovely, Yalda?” Yamin asked, leaning over the railing on the second level of the filled up parking lot. Her hands grasped tightly to the chilly metal beams, which had been softened with green garlands. “I can’t wait to explore it!”

I exhaled my breath, letting the hot air rise between me and the view of the mall.

“Neither can I,” I replied. “This is my first time here, so I can’t wait to check it out.”

“It’s my first time too,” Yamin replied, a dreamy look in her sparkling eyes. “Where should we look first? Is there anywhere you want to check out?”

The mall was full of hundreds of stores, piled up three stories high. I couldn’t say for sure that every store was going to be for me, but I wanted to check them all out.

“Why don’t we start at the beginning?” I said, unfolding a map of the mall. “We’re close to entrance C, so let’s first go to…” I squinted to read the tiny print. “Boyfriend Bahamas…?”

It was some sort of lingerie store for girls trying to impress their partners according to the online description I tapped into.

Oh my…

“Uh, how about no?” Yamin cringed. “I know you want to check ‘every store,’ but let’s narrow it down a little to something you actually want, yeah? We gotta get home eventually.”

I’d already kinda made up my mind that I wanted to look everywhere, but if I had to pick a particular place…

“How about this one?” I pointed to a different spot on the flimsy paper map. “Gamer X Paradise. They just opened up last month!”

I let my voice squeal with excitement, so Yamin could probably tell this was a place I wanted to look at.

“It sounds like a light novel title…” Yamin mumbled as she traced her finger along the path we’d have to take from entrance C. “If that’s where you want to go, that’s where we go!” she proudly started strutting down the steps toward the front doors, like doing some goofy little dance, not the least bit deterred by Jack Frost nipping at our noses. “Let’s go! Hee Ho!” she threw her fist in the air, marking the beginning of our adventure.

“Onward!” I joined in on her silly strut and we marched on into there with style. “Hee Ho!”

We weren't the only ones heading inside, but we sure made a statement as we practically danced on in, humming a christmas tune about Santa coming to town.

Yamin held the door for a jolly looking elderly couple, letting them through the first barrier of doors. “After you, young lovers,” she said with a smile.

“Ho ho ho! Thank you, young miss.” The old man with a big white beard tipped his hat, while his wife let out a giggle and patted her shoulder.

As for the second set of doors, that was my domain to hold open for them.

“Aren’t you both just so sweet?” the older lady said, reaching into her purse for something. “Here, have this for being so kind.”

“Oh, you don’t have to-”

But she insisted we have a gift for our troubles. Too bad she placed two Pier tokens in my hand. Those things were glorified pizza parlor coins that nobody could get rid of.

“Gee…” I feigned a smile. “Wow… Thanks!” I gave a thumbs up.

I had a feeling she just handed this over to get it out of her purse.

“You’re welcome! If you're good children, you can have more later!” She laughed. “Have a lovely night, you two!”

When Yamin finally caught up, I handed over her share.

“She gave you this?” Yamin snickered. “How generous.”

“What were you expecting, diamonds and gold?” my brow arched, lips curved into a grin. “Come on. Let’s head inside.”

We were blasted from above by cascading hot air the moment we got past the doors. Huge vents were glowing a hot orange with elemental energy, allowing that to act as a barrier to keep the cold air from coming in.

Once past the several egresses to keep winter outside, I had to stop and really take in the extravagance of this shopping mall. Its scale was on a level like I’d never seen, wide as a plaza, and tall as a cathedral, taking hints from every beautiful piece of bright coloured gothic architecture mankind had ever produced.

To make it even more magical, every inch was decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments. Little evergreen trees dotted the concrete landscape, supposedly grown there by friendly fairies each December from mere acorns.

The sight was wondrous to a human, almost like a paradise, but that went a step further in my mind and actually drew a tear from me. These lights were like diodes embedded into a wall. The decorative architecture was like Exceed interiors, ones made by my people long ago. And the trees were like nature incorporated into everything to give a natural touch. It was all like my home, Elysium. The place I grew up in. Clearly there was inspiration drawn from my ancestors.

It had been so long since I’d been there. A wave of nostalgia overwhelmed me and that one tear bubbled into many that spilled down my cheek.

“Dad…” I uttered in a soft whisper, remembering the man who gave me life, who I hadn’t seen in a while. “Another holiday without him...”

“Yalda…” Yamin cupped her hands in front of her, then kindly cuddled up to my arm. “Everything okay, sweetie?”

I brushed the tears away with my sleeve, then smiled. “I’m good.” My smile grew twice as big. “You humans are such copycats.”

“Oh, we are?” she giggled. “Well, this copycat would like to move along, if you don’t mind?”

Deeper in past a row of diagonal stores was the central plaza of the mall, which housed a large tree as tall as a building, decorated with more ornaments than I’d ever seen in my whole life, and topped with a shield star with seven lights dotting the edges, and a big blue star in the middle.

Under it were dozens of children dancing and playing together, throwing around large foam boxes decorated to look like presents.

Just behind the tree was a big snowglobe that a bunch of children were lined up to enter into.

“Want to head up there and meet You-Know-Who?” Yamin’s brow bounced as she gave me a goofy grin.

“Voldemort?”

“No!” she shook her head. “Santa, silly.”

I was stunned for a moment at her clarification, but turned and saw a very obvious sign that read ‘Line for Santa starts here!’ Just below that read another sign that said he’d just got back from break and was ready to take requests.

“S-s-” I looked up to her, eyes wide as saucers. “D-do you mean…he’s up there?”

“Yeah!” Yamin nodded. “Why else would there be an endless line of children waiting to meet him?”

“Heck yeah I want to meet him!” I jumped into the air with excitement, not realizing I let my wings lose and actually flew up toward the ceiling. “Woops!” I snickered, gently flying back down.

Nothing could have kept me from jumping into that line and awaiting jolly ol’ Saint Nick along with various ages of youth. I was a little taller than most kids here, but still fit in well enough not to turn any heads.

A few squeals left my mouth as everyone in the line excitedly shared their wishes they would request of the big man himself. Many of the boys wanted toy guns and blasters from movies, while girls wanted dolls and clothing.

As for me… I wanted one of the new Pro Y-series controllers that fixed the recent stick drift issues. Preferably one in blue, but without the rubber grips on the side. Those things never last…

The line slowly crept forward and I entered an area where Yamin couldn’t join. She was too big to sit on Santa’s lap, so we parted ways. Deep within gingerbread themed housing we kids walked through was a plush snowball pit with a huge slide leading into it. Children leaving the so-called ‘Santa’s Snowglobe’ were sent down that slide like it were a winter water park attraction.

Would that be an ice park, or a snow park slide?

It looked really fun from here, but the kids getting to the end were all crying and scared, like someone really hurt their feelings. Parents would ask what was wrong when reunited, but the children would refuse to answer.

“Weird…” my brow arched with curiosity.

I heard some sobbing coming from another direction, which had nothing to do with any of the kids in the ballpit. There was a girl hiding in one of the corners of the fake gingerbread house.

The girl was in a tattered looking leather coat. Her hair was a bit messy and her cheeks were rosy red, as if she’d just gotten out of the cold. If that wasn’t enough of an obvious indication that she was freezing, the poor thing was shivering like a fall leaf in a wind storm.

I couldn’t let her struggle like that, so I abandoned my position in line and sat down next to her. Then I upped my body heat enough to warm her, like a makeshift furnace.

She didn’t notice me until her shivering eased up, then she fell toward my shoulder and rested her head on instinct.

“So warm…” she uttered, cuddling up slightly closer to capture more heat.

She definitely was homeless if I had to guess. Her less than fragrant smell supported that, the poor thing. I’d heard there were a bunch of kids like her fleeing to Urnan for a better life, but were too afraid to ask anyone for help with how little they trusted adults.

Ideally, getting her to an orphanage would be the best case scenario. I worked closely with a few of them in town, and they were perfect places for lost kids like her to have her needs met.

“Warm up as much as you need,” I said. “But I can’t do this forever…”

“What?” she softly whimpered as she pulled away with a sad face. “I-I mean, of course you can’t…”

“...So why don’t I get you a nice coat?” I said with a smile, ready to use a little of my allowance to help her out. “Maybe a warm meal to go with it?”

Her eyes fluttered and became watery, then she shook her head. “No, I couldn’t ask a stranger for that…”

“In that case…” I stretched out my hand for a shake. “Hi, my name’s Yalda. Who are you?”

“M-my name… I’m Alice.”

“Nice to meet you, Alice. Now we’re friends. And friends do nice things just cause.” I stood up and helped her to her feet. “Sounds better than being strangers, doesn’t it?”

“W-well…” she blushed and looked away toward the big snowglobe above us. “I actually was going to ask Santa for something warm to wear. Maybe a new family. But, when I got in line, those elves up there said I was too dirty to sit on Santa’s lap.”

Blasphemy! How dare those awful elves deny a poor child such kindness?!

I glowered toward the snowglobe, sending an ethereal thought out into the world in response to those dastardly two gatekeepers.

“Santa would never deny anyone!” I announced. “I should go have a talk with those ‘elf’ right now.”

Alice took my arm and held it tightly, clearly not wanting me to go away just yet. But I had to leave her behind for a little while until I sorted this problem out.

“Why don’t you go out there and meet my friend Yamin?” I said with an encouraging smile. “If you tell her you’re friends with me, she’ll get you some new clothes and something warm to eat.”

“I-is she a grown up?” asked Alice.

“More like an older teen,” I replied. “She’s good though, I promise."

Alice had a skeptical frown, but nodded, trusting I wouldn’t steer her wrong.

A lot of these kids didn’t know who to trust, but that made it all the more important to show them how kind this city was to people who needed help.

Once she grew the courage, she walked back out into the main mall and I left the rest to Yamin, who was very much of the same mind as me when it came to matters like this.

“Alright… Time to go figure out what sort of Christmas capper is afoot…” I declared, marching toward the snow globe.