FREE FICTION | Greg van Eekhout's In The Late December

Tis' the season to spread some holiday joy. And what would be better than a Sci-Fi story about Santa delivering presents at the end of the Universe? Absolutely nothing I tell you. "In The Late December" was a story I read last year and was brought back to mind as the holidays approach. It has quite a bit of heart for such a short tale. Enjoy!

Here's a secret of the North Pole: Santa powders his hands with talc before donning his thick red mittens.

It is a small secret, true, but some would give anything to steal even that. A secret is a detail, and here in the late December, a detail is as precious as a true name.

Santa, a red exclamation in a white world, walks the reindeer line, stroking sugar-and-cinnamon fur. The reindeer shiver and snort and stamp their hooves, the lines connecting them to the parcel-laden sleigh jingling. Santa looks over to his candy-brick castle and waves good-bye, but no one stands in the doorway to wave back. With a sigh, he climbs onto the sleigh's driver's seat, the bench creaking beneath his weight. He pauses, holding the smooth and supple leather reins, and considers how to start the team. Onward? A-heya? Giddyup? Ho-ho? No, he's already used those. He makes a point of uttering a different word to inaugurate every outing, because he's been doing this for a long time, and if he didn't deliberately insert some bit of novelty into the procedure, he fears his jolly round head might well explode. That is another detail.

Enjoy the rest of van Eekhout's "In The Late December" over at Strange Horizons.


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Happy Christmas Eve