Mickey swore he didn’t mean to do it. Santy was having none of it.
‘Mickey, I’ve told you several times to stop messing around with machinery. Red lights mean stop. You’re old enough now to know that alone. Never mind the fact that you know, you can’t drive any sleigh, and especially my sleigh, without a full licence.’
Santy sat down. As he did, his trousers ripped. Mickey burst out laughing.
‘And you know you have to stop eating cookies, and you still do it.’
One look from Santy stopped Mickey in his tracks. Mrs Claus intervened.
‘I’m sure Mickey didn’t mean it. The sleigh is hard to manage. He’s only had eight hundred and two lessons over a very short period.’
‘Fifteen years isn’t a very short period Mrs Claus. Mickey should have stuck to his scooter.’
‘But you told me never to go near the scooters again.’
‘Yes Mickey, that was ‘the scooters’ as in ‘the scooters in the workshop’ not your own scooter. You painted every scooter maroon after I asked you to get me ‘one’ scooter that was ‘all maroon.’
‘Oh…yeah, sorry Santy.’ Mickey hung his head. No matter how Mickey tried to be a good elf, he always got into a bit of bother.
Mrs Claus adored Mickey. She didn’t have any favourite elves but in a well-oiled North pole workshop, Mickey was proof that you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole. Mrs Claus liked elves that stood out, it made the world a better place.
‘Don’t worry, it will get all sorted,’ she told them both.
‘How? Santy replied, ‘if we work on the sleigh, we’ll be short on production. Some children won’t get their presents. If we keep up production to meet our deadlines, the sleigh won’t get fixed. No children will get presents. The sleigh has been serviced, painted and polished since last Spring.’
‘We’ll think of something, just like I’ve to repair your trousers, you’ll repair the sleigh. Now Mickey, off you go back to the workshop and brush up.’
‘Okay, I’ll get the paint brushes.’
‘No Mickey, the sweeping brush.’
‘Okay.’
Mickey headed back to the workshop and on the way, he passed all the young reindeers playing.
‘Can you drive a sleigh?’ he asked.
They all answered at once.
‘Of course, we can, short journeys for materials and the likes. Why?’
‘So just the small sleighs?’ Mickey asked.
Rudolf junior stepped forward.
“Yeah, my dad and our uncles bring the big sleigh on the big night. Why?’
‘It’s broke.’
‘You drove it, didn’t you Mickey? You used the automatic drive. That’s only for reversing it into the garage and getting into tight spots the reindeer can’t.’
Mickey nodded his head.
‘But I have an idea, if you all took a small sleigh and filled it for the children in different countries, you could do the deliveries
‘They don’t know the route,’ called Prancer
‘They know parts, they already get materials from them.’ Mickey beamed.
‘True’, Dasher commented. The senior reindeers came forward. ‘You know Mickey that might just work. If all nine of us took charge of teams, we could actually do this.’
They all got together and looked at the logistics and then approached Santy and Mrs Claus,
‘Great work, Prancer.’
‘Wasn’t my idea Santy, it was Mickeys.’
‘Operation Christmas Bypass,’ Mickey announced proudly.
‘Well done, Mickey,’ Santy said, smiling at last.
Mrs Clause nodded approvingly, ‘And your pants are fixed too.’
And so, with teamwork, small sleighs and a very determined elf, all the children received their toys, thanks to ‘Operation Christmas Bypass.’
