Santa Trouble #3
“Not hurting?” She interrupted her song to ask.
“No, ma’am.”
“Good. Still bleeding a little so I’m going to have you put a little more pressure on it. I’ve got it all cleaned out. I don’t think it needs stitches, but I’ll have Pop-Pop come take a look.”
Henry held the gauze in place where Grammy put it, then waited while she left the room. He wished he could write down the words, but he had a feeling she didn’t want him to move. Probably so he could think about what she’d said.
All is calm.
That meant settled, right? Which is what they wanted, for everything to be calm and settled. And if it was bright that meant light. So put holes in things to let light in and everything would be okay? It made sense.
But silent night.
This was going to be a tricky clue. He really needed to get back to his brothers and sisters and tell them what he’d found out. It worked out better than he hoped because he heard a bunch of footsteps coming, and then Papa flung open the door.
“Henry!”
Papa had him pulled into a hug before he could even say a word. He hugged him super hard for a minute before he pulled away while his brothers and sisters watched from the door to the exam room.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t hurt. Grammy said head wounds bleed like… Um, a word I’m not allowed to say.”
“Right,” Papa said. “That’s not my favorite word for sure. But head wounds do tend to bleed quite a bit. Let me see.”
Henry carefully lifted the gauze, and Papa checked his cut. “It’s not too bad.”
“Did Grammy call you?”
Papa snorted. “No. Ben saw Zaire walking you over here and came to tell me. I notice that Zaire took off.”
“She doesn’t want to make Daddy mad.”
“Pfft. She doesn’t want to make me mad.”
“That too,” Henry said. “You’ll talk to her.”
Papa scowled at him, but Henry smiled. Papa couldn’t even pretend he was wrong. “She does hate it when I talk to her. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. You’re okay; that’s the important thing.”
Pop-pop came in next and looked him over. He didn’t need stitches, but he did get a special Band-Aid and some ointment for his head. As they walked back to the house, Papa kept Henry close. Henry finally managed to give a significant look to Ben and mouthed octopus.
Ben stumbled a bit but caught himself. He nodded and turned to Natasha, passing Henry’s coded message along to her.
She nodded and turned to Ollie, who skipped along beside her.
She whispered something in his ear, and he nodded before getting a very serious look on his face.
He chewed his lower lip for a second before grinning.
“Papa!”
“Yes, Ollie?”
“I need to talk.”
Papa looked a little confused. “Okay.”
“It’s private stuff, Papa.”
Henry tried not to smile.
“That sounds important.”
“It is, Papa. Very important. Can we talk in your room? Cause you say you and Daddy do private stuff in there.”
Papa made a noise and turned bright red. “Sure. We can talk in there. Let me get Henry settled—”
“I’m fine, Papa. Grammy said I should lay down for a while, so I’ll go up to my room.”
“We’ll go with him,” Emily said. “We can color quietly so he doesn’t have to be alone.”
“You guys are amazing.”
Behind Papa’s back, Jack gave Ollie a high five. Henry wished he could too. It was good thinking. Papa loved to talk.
They made their way upstairs, with Ollie staying behind to do his duty as a Papa distraction. Henry explained everything Grammy had told him the moment the door closed behind them.
“Interesting,” Natasha said.
Ben wrote down more notes in their notebook and nodded. “Definitely trying to tell us something.”
“But holy. That’s the weird one. Where do we put the holes? It’s gotta be in the clue somewhere.”
“Or…” Natasha paused dramatically and went to the window. “It’s in who she told the clue.”
“What do you mean?” Henry asked.
“Well, Nana told all of us her clue, right? But Grammy waited until she had you alone. That must mean her clue is significant to you somehow.”
“Magic,” Ben said.
“Yep. And if your magic is air, what’s the best way to get air in the house? Through a hole.”
“Or a window?” Jack said helpfully.
“Could be, but why would they specifically say holy night? I don’t know. It sounds like Henry’s going to need to be able to move some air, right?”
Ben nodded. “We can open the windows for sure. But… I agree. I don’t think that’s what she meant. Holes. What else?”
“Brooks makes holes in the walls with his drill,” Jack offered. “Remember when Pop-Pop hung up our artwork in special frames in the clinic? He had Brooks come, and he used his drill to make the holes.”
“Good thinking, Jack,” Natasha said. “How can we get our hands on the drill?”
“We ask.” Emily looked around at all of them. “He’ll let us borrow it if we ask nicely.”
Henry chewed his lip for a minute and thought it through. “He will. But what about the silent part? Drills aren’t quiet.”
“No. But maybe we have to be? Is that part of the magic or something, Henry? That we should be quiet when we make the holes?”
“Oh, or should Henry be the one to make the holes?” Ben asked. “And then he can ward them. But we usually have to be quiet when he’s warding so he can concentrate. Right, Henry?”
“You guys are awesome,” Henry said. “Yeah. I can make wards on the holes and that way we can have more. Plus, if we open the windows, it’ll give Santa easy access. But he can’t get through a tiny drill hole, right? But air can. Man, that was a tough clue, but we got it. I’m sure of it.”
“We need to figure out the best place to put the holes. We need a plan.”
“We can use my sticky goop,” Jack said. “Papa says it’s allowed on the walls because it comes off. We can mark the spots with it like Brooks did when he hung the pictures. Then we’ll know where to drill.”
Henry crawled onto his bed and laid down. His head did hurt a tiny bit. Ben frowned and walked over to him. “Do you need an ice pack or something?”
“No. It doesn’t hurt that bad. Just a little.”
“You were trying to make a stronger ward, huh? To get ready for Santa?”
“Yeah,” Henry confessed. “Zaire says I shouldn’t push so hard, but we don’t have a lot of time. I’ve gotta make sure I can ward the chimney and now ward all of the holes. It’s a lot.”
“We’ll help you,” Natasha promised. “I’m sure that’s part of the challenge. We all have to work together.”
Ben nodded. “We’ve got this. This Santa guy won’t know what hit him.”
Henry closed his eyes while his brothers and sisters found spots on his bed beside him.
He dozed off while they kept making notes.
He was glad Grammy had given him his clue when she did so they had plenty of time to plan.
It was definitely complicated, but they would figure it out.
He had all his brothers and sisters to help. Santa was doomed.
If Natasha had learned anything since coming to live with her new pack, it was to observe. It was something Calli taught her the first time they worked together. Aunt Calli was a badass hellhound. Natasha wanted to be a badass fox. It was pretty different, but she asked Calli to help her anyway.
Papa was always telling them to pay attention, and Calli said the same thing too.
With the Santa threat quickly approaching, she’d asked Papa to have Aunt Calli come a couple extra times for training.
Of course, Aunt Calli had been on a mission for the goddess, so Natasha had to wait for her to arrive.
It was then that she got her clue. From Grandpa William, of all people. He’d asked Brooks to take him into town for some important business. But then he’d come home with a bunch of bags from the mall.
Natasha tried not to be upset that she’d not gotten to go with him. She loved shopping, and Grandpa normally let at least one or two of them come with him. And he usually bought them something too.
Brooks carried the bags upstairs for him while Grandpa made his way into the house. His back was clearly bothering him, and Natasha opened her mouth to fuss at him for overdoing it, but then Grandpa started to sing quietly.
“Deck the halls…”
He smiled at her as he continued to walk slowly up the drive. She waited on the porch, trying not to get too excited. This was it. Her clue. She focused on the words, even though some of them were kinda funny. And who was Holly? No one in their pack was named Holly.
Calli arrived as Grandpa reached the steps. He ran his hand over Natasha’s head and smiled down at her. “All right?”
“I’m good. Being observant.”
“Excellent. Come see me when you’re done. We haven’t had a chat in a while.”
“Okay, Grandpa. And you get your feet up and make sure you put a heat pack on your back. And take your medicine, too.”
Grandpa chuckled and saluted her. “Yes, ma’am. Such a bossy thing.”
“You’re important, Grandpa. You have to take care of yourself or we will.” Nana said that all the time and she was right.
He cackled again and opened the door. “Just as fussy as your Nana.”
Natasha went over the words to the song again while Calli talked to Teague on the other side of the yard. This was the toughest clue yet. She practiced saying the words over and over to make sure she wouldn’t forget them.
“What’s on your mind?” Calli asked. She shrugged out of her leather jacket and dropped it on the steps.
“What’s deck mean?” Natasha asked.
“Deck? Like on a boat?”
Natasha frowned. A boat? That didn’t make any sense. “Like if you deck something?”
“Oh,” Calli said. “That means hit. Like punch. Nobody better be decking anyone around here or I’ll have something to say about it.”
Natasha smiled up at her. Calli clearly knew about the Santa challenge but wasn’t worried. They totally had this.
“Do we know anyone named Holly?”
“Not around here, no. Why?”
“Just wondering.”
“Well, let’s get to work. Defensive stances. Let’s go.”