The Mysterious Christmas Sandman

“The Mysterious Christmas Sandman”

A Short Story

Written By

PureSciFiPlus
Aka PureSciFi

     A flash appeared in front of it. If it had been alive it would have been blinded from that flash. As a hand stretches out to reveal a camera within it, whoever held that camera could see the picture that had just been taken.

     Elizabeth smiled. “If this doesn’t get me to the big city, nothing will.”

     For several seconds Elizabeth just stared at that Christmas Sandman. Then she slowly walked toward it. Never taking her eyes off it. Elizabeth didn’t seem to notice that about fifty others were all walking toward it too from three different directions. Only the water edge that it was near didn’t have anyone coming toward it.

     Suddenly, Elizabeth stopped about a hundred feet from the Christmas Sandman. Elizabeth slowly began scanning the crowd catching up to her and stopping too. “Does anyone know how this got here?”

# # #

     The picture of the Christmas Sandman was on the large television screen in front of a big old looking desk that Brian sat behind. Elizabeth entered that office in that chair. She looked back at the picture of the Christmas Sandman. “As soon as I saw that I knew there was a story in it. Especially, after everyone else started showing up there.”

     “I sent it to you on my way back here after I talked to the others there,” continued Elizabeth. “Unfortunately, none of them knows how it got there either.”

     Brian looked up from the papers on his desk at the picture. “Do you really think that is a story?”

     “Yes, I do. Not only do I think it’s a story, but that it could be my way out of this town.”

     For about a minute Brian didn’t respond. “I still don’t see any story here. So, what if a Christmas sandman suddenly showed up on our beach.”

     “That is what makes it a story,” said Elizabeth. “Why is it there now? Who created it? How did it get there in only a few hours? And why is it so close to the water?”

# # #

     Elizabeth drove by that beach on her way home. She glanced down at the Christmas Sandman as she passed it. But she could barely see the top of it from that side of the road. “Maybe Brian was right about this not being a story.”

     “I spend the whole day trying to find out something about that sudden sandman. And the only thing that I found is that we have never had anything like it on our beach.”

     After returning her gaze to the slightly twisted road in front of her, Elizabeth continued toward her house in silence. Once she got to the end of that road she turned and headed into a large residential area. Elizabeth drove past six side streets before she turned down the seventh one. She turned three more times before she reached the street where her house stood.

     Elizabeth sighed as she drove into the driveway of a small two-story house. “Why did I think that this was a story. Do I want to get out of this town and go to the big city that badly.”

# # #

     Just as Elizabeth reached the edge of the road parallel to their beach Elizabeth applied her brakes and stopped at the side of that road. Elizabeth got out of her car and looked at the row of cars facing the beach below. “Almost every parking place is occupied. That’s very unusual for this time of day.”

     After parking her car in one of the empty parking places, Elizabeth walked to edge of that road that overlooked that beach. Elizabeth looked down at a crowd of several hundred people that surrounded the Christmas Sandman.

     A few minutes later Elizabeth was walking among that crowd. Elizabeth slowly walked among them. They were all staring at the Christmas sandman and talking to each other about it. Elizabeth took out her cell phone, opened it up, and hit the microphone App to get it started.

     Elizabeth continued her walk among the sandman curious. Most of them were adults. But there were a few tweens and early teens too. Every few seconds she looked down at her cell phone after hearing someone saying something about it. Suddenly, Elizabeth stopped and stood up straight.

     “Judith Denton, what are you doing here?” Elizabeth turned to face a small group of six tweens. She was looking directly at one of them that looked to be about ten.

     “Why do you think I’m here? I’m here for the same reason everyone else is here, The Mysterious Christmas Sandman.”

# # #

     “I was starting to think that I didn’t have a story after all.” Elizabeth sat down in the chair opposite Brian after she entered Brian’s office. She looked out the window behind Brian just as a newspaper car drove by. “What are they doing here? This is supposed to be my story.”

     Brian looked out the window. “They are here because of you. There is going to be a press conference about you in a little bit.”

     “Why did you call me?” A few seconds later Elizabeth continued. “How did they find out about my story. You told them, didn’t you?”

     “No, I didn’t. Someone else put it on the Internet. You aren’t the only one who has taken a picture of it. A lot of people have. And several have posted them online.”

     Elizabeth smiled. “So, I was right. There is a story with this mysterious sandman.”

     Brian sighed as he turned back to face Elizabeth. “That’s why I didn’t call you about the press conference. We aren’t invited to it.”

     A few seconds later Brian continued. “They are here because there is a rumor going around the Internet that this mysterious Christmas sandman is a hoax.

# # # # #

     “How can it be a hoax?” Elizabeth asked a few minutes later.

     “It can’t be a hoax. It’s real. There are twenty-five thousand people in Beach Front City. And almost everyone here has seen it.”

     “That’s why they think it’s a hoax. They think that someone created it on purpose.”

     “You said the press conference was about me, didn’t you? They think I did it, don’t they? Elizabeth asked. “They’re wrong. I didn’t do it.”

     Elizabeth suddenly looked at Brian in anger. “You think I created it, or had someone do it for me, don’t you?”

     “I have to admit that thought has crossed my mind several times in the past week. But can you blame me for thinking it. After all, you are always saying that you only need one big story to get you out of this town and into the big city.”

     “Do you really think I would do that?” Elizabeth asked. “Yes, I want to get out of here. But I’m a professional. I would never create a story to do it.”

     Elizabeth sighed. “I don’t now how I’m going to do it. But I’m going to prove I didn’t do it.

# # #

     It was just after dark when Elizabeth returned to the beach where her creation still stood. As she walked down the narrow path to the beach Elizabeth saw that there wasn’t anyone at the Christmas sandman. When she reached the bottom of that path Elizabeth turned beside the beach restrooms and walked directly to her creation.

     Stopping just before her creation Elizabeth just stared at it for several minutes. “If I am the one who created this, then it’s mine to destroy.”

     Aiming her foot at its head, Elizabeth kicked the sandman with the bottom of her foot. Her foot just bounced off it. Elizabeth fell. She looked at it as she got up. The sandman hadn’t changed. Except for her footprint on the side of its head. Elizabeth saw that as she slowly walked around it.

     After circling it one more time, Elizabeth stopped where she kicked it. She brushed the sand off the sandman where her footprint was. Elizabeth stepped back in shock. “It’s only coated in sand. Most of it is a man-shaped rock.”

     “Only a sculpture could have done this,” said Elizabeth. “But we don’t have anyone who does sculptures in Beach Front City. And even if we did, how did they sculpt it so quickly?”

# # #

     About a half hour later all the sand was off the sculpture. Elizabeth stepped back. “This isn’t a sculpture after all.”

     Elizabeth ran her finger along the seam that connected the head to the body. She lifted the head off that body to reveal a pipe sticking out of the top of it. “That’s why I didn’t knock the head off.”

     A few minutes later the mysterious Christmas sandman was in pieces on the beach. “All this does explain a lot. But it still doesn’t say who or why they did it.”

     “It also doesn’t explain how they put it together in only a few hours without being seen. The beach is closed after midnight. And the police drive by it a couple of times an hour. They would have seen movement down here and checked it out. The only way someone could have done it is if they did it in only a few minutes. And that’s impossible.”

     Elizabeth looked up at the road above just before looking down at the beach restrooms below it. “After the big earthquake a few decades ago that cave was sealed off as unsafe. But it’s still there.” A few minutes later Elizabeth was in that cave. Only she wasn’t in there alone.

# # #

     After several minutes of just staring in shock, Elizabeth finally spoke. “You can’t be the one who created that Christmas sandman,”

     “I’m not,” said Peter. “I mean, I did. But I wasn’t the only one who did it. I’m just the one who is watching over it tonight. We have been taking turns doing it ever since we put it up.”

     “Why are you watching it overnight?” Elizabeth asked.

     “To make sure it remains a sandman. Between the ocean breeze and the tide that hasn’t been easy to do.”

     “That’s something else that I’m curious about. Why did you build it so close to the water?”

     “We didn’t plan on doing that. But the body got away from us as we were rolling in onto the sand. It stopped there. So, we decided just to build it there.”

     Elizabeth slowly scanned that large open cavern. On one end of it was the remains of a workshop. And on the other side there were six sleeping bags. Lanterns and lighted candles lite that cave on both sides. Elizabeth looked over at the sleeping bags again. “Are all of you involved in this disaster tweens? Is my daughter, Judith Ashley Denton, one of you?”

# # #

     “Here’s my story about the Christmas sandman.” Elizabeth handed her story to Brian.

     Brian mumbled softly as he started reading it. Suddenly he looked up at Elizabeth. “Are you sure you want me to print this.”

     “No, I don’t. But you have to do it.”

     “Are you sure about that? We could still tell it without going into all the personal details.”

     “That’s exactly what everyone wants us to do. It will prove that I am responsible for all this after all.”

     Brian sighed. “I don’t want to do it. But I will.”

     A few seconds later he asked. “Why did they do it?”

     “They did it for Judith. I’m not the only one who has been talking about me getting my big story and moving to the big city. Judith was talking about it a lot too.”

     “Okay, I can understand that. But why did they make it a Christmas sandman.”

     “I asked them that too. And they said they did it because they didn’t think a regular sandman would be interesting enough.”

     Brian returned to reading her story. Suddenly he looked up at her again. “Do you really want me to print this last paragraph.

     “Once again, I don’t want to do it. But I have no choice. I can’t be a Reporter anymore.

Word Count = 1,992