Delayed Flight

Whirr, grunt, click. "Look I know the reindeer fart a lot and contribute to global warming but whose daft idea was it to fit an electric engine to the sleigh? Bloody thing's flat as a pancake."

"Sorry Santa, we couldn't charge it. The electric's been cut off." The elf accountant cringed.

"It's your job to pay the bills, make sure things like this don't happen." Santa was more red-faced than usual.

"But ... but ... the bill, it was enormous. You didn't put enough in the kitty this year." The elf fawned and tried to back out of the garage.

"Excuses, excuses ...Come back here and tell me what you're going to do about this."

"I don't know Sir."

"Can we still use the reindeer?"

"Er .. there's a bit of a problem with that. We ate them Sir."

"You ate MY reindeer?"

"And so did you. Have you seen the price of food at the moment?" The elf was getting braver. "The war in Ukraine started it all. I will not buy anything from Putin's mob."

"How are we going to get all these presents delivered without the sleigh?"

"The kids will understand if we're late. They're used to waiting weeks for deliveries."

Santa's son, Nick Jr. came to see what the holdup was. When the problem with the electric was explained he had an answer. "Dad, aren't you a member of the AA? They can give you a jump start."

It all worked out in the end.

246 words