December 12

Jigger's Journal, Part 11

I looked stunned. Kate looked stunned. Even Leroy looked surprised.

“Does that mean no mince pies to steal?” he asked.

“It will mean I will be stuck in the North Pole with more toys than you could shake a stick at, and nothing to do with them. Mrs Claus will be annoyed – she liked the place tidy. The children will be annoyed because they get no gifts. You can be good all year and nobody cares. It's a disaster.”

Leroy threw in a silly suggestion.

“You could just give a gift to every child in the world. Then the good children get what they deserve, and the bad children see what comes to good children and they might change for the better.”

I felt like hitting him over the head with a banana, but Santa didn't find the suggestion half a ludicrous.

“That could be a good Plan B,” he said softly. “But let's go with Plan A first. Jiggers, your mission is to recover the missing memory stick.”

“Yes Sir!” I stood up and saluted.

Then I began to think about the huge problem that presented.

“How? Who stole it?”

Santa looked at me.

“We all know what the black feathers mean.”

Leroy stood up on Santa's lap and put both his front paws on Santa's shoulders.

“For the four thousandth time, I don't know what the black feathers mean.”

So Santa explained.

“It's Krampus,” he began.

Santa looked at Kate and Leroy.

“Do you know how old I am?” he asked.

“Four hundred years,” said Kate.

“Older than Kate's dad's smelly socks,” said Leroy.

“1,700 years young,” said Santa. “I grew up in Turkey, and when I was a young man I used to make toys for all the children in the village. Then I made toys for all the people in the surrounding villages. But after a number of years it became clear that I was not going to die for a long time, and more and more children wanted toys. So I decided to move to somewhere I would have the peace and space to make toys for everyone. I picked Lapland because of the elves, who could help me, and the North Pole for my home because I was tired of the sun and beaches. So I walked all across Europe to reach there.”

“You could have flown,” said Leroy.

“I did think of that,” admitted Santa. “But no one had invented the airplane so I didn't see that working. Instead we put everything we owned on a big cart and we took our favourite horse to tow it. We walked from Turkey through Greece and up along the coast to Italy. All the time I was making maps so that I would be able to find the children every year. It took two years to get to Italy, and then we had to cross the Alps, a fearsome mountain range. It was in the Alps we first met Krampus.”

“I've never heard of Krampus,” said Kate.

“That's because you've been a good girl for so many years,” he said. “Krampus is a very bad creature. I'll start with what he looks like. He is bigger than a person but not quite a giant. His face is very dark, like he's been underground for a long time digging in the dirt. His teeth are sharp and yellow, and his eyes glow with red fire. He is covered in hair from head to foot like a big ugly bear, but that might be a coat. And his feet are hooves.”

“Wow,” said Kate. “I bet he doesn't have a girlfriend.”

“The most scary thing about Krampus is his horns. He has two huge horns sticking out of his forehead, making him look a bit like a goat with a human face. And his breath stinks of rotten eggs or smelly socks.

“Both very good smells,” said Leroy. But dogs are odd like that.

“It is wrong to judge people by their appearance,” said Santa. “Some very ugly people have beautiful souls and generous hearts. And some beautiful people are mean and withered up inside. Our true character is not on the outside. It is inside of us. So when I saw Krampus first I didn't recoil. I thought he was a nice man.”

“You think everyone is nice,” said Leroy.

“And I am usually right,” said Santa. “But not always. When I heard Krampus had been alive for thousands of years I was very excited. I thought I had found someone like me. But I was very wrong, as I found out when they told me what he did.”

Kate looked up, breathless with excitement.

“On one night every year, in the darkets depths of winter, Krampus travelled all over Europe looking for children. But he wasn't looking for good children. He was looking for the bad ones. And you didn't have to be very bad for Krampus to come looking for you. Even small things could get him on your case. Forgetting to tidy your room, or not doing your homework on time, or not brushing your teeth when you tell your mum they are brushed, small things like that were enough. Just one small black mark against you and he could call to your house.”

“Did he leave a lump of coal?” asked Kate.

“No. He left a single black feather. So now you know what the feathers mean.”

Leroy nodded.

“That's not so bad,” said Kate. “You could throw it away.”

“It gets worse,” said Santa. “He would leave the feather but he would take the child. He stole the children away, putting them in big sacks and throwing them on the back of his cart. And when he had enough of the baddest children gathered he would take them away to his cave high in the mountains, and he would cook them and have them for his supper. Krampus eats naughty children.”