Santa’s Friend Father Time
Father Time was old. So old he wasn’t entirely sure when he began. He knew he’d been around for as long as people had been around and he was the one who whispered about the passage of time to the earliest people. It was because of those whispers that people began to count time themselves.
So he found himself watching and monitoring what people did as the centuries and the millennia passed. It wasn’t until some people exploring what they would later call America that he once more became prominent in the minds of humans. They came up with the idea of changing their clocks twice a year to better manage their daily lives.
Father Time of course was thrilled. Although he didn’t much care how they managed their lives, he was happy when they started calling on him as the day approached where they would adjust their clocks. Suddenly people were saying things like, “Father Time will come around to make sure we’ve set the clocks forward this year.”
He really did no such thing, but it made him happy that they were thinking about him.
So he watched the world with interest as people went about their business. He also watched the magical creatures in the world as they went about their business. He sometimes went around to remind Santa Claus or Peter Rabbit that their times were coming, but they already knew. They were gracious and thanked him just the same for which he was grateful. In fact the magical creatures looked upon him with something akin to awe, as he had been around much longer than they.
And so it came about that he began to watch Saint Valentine. He knew that Eros was something of a trickster, sometimes shooting his love arrows at the most incongruous of pairs. But for the most part Cupid didn’t do any real harm and simply spread the love around wherever he went.
This year it was different. Eros had taken an interest in a certain human. An interest that Father Time looked upon as unhealthy. Poor Katie Wilson had been spied upon at Christmas time when she fell into the arms of Santa Claus. The big red man had only been rewarding the girl for remaining loyal to him throughout her life. Most people gave up on Santa shortly after their seventh year, but not Katie! She maintained her belief in Santa’s magic right into her twenties.
Eros had taken advantage of her belief in magic. He followed Santa Claus into Katie’s bedroom and salivated over their lustful tryst. Then he had crept into her bedroom on Valentine’s Day and ravished her for the entire night.
Father Time was a little upset over this. He was worried that Katie was being taken advantage of. He resolved to visit her and find out how she felt about it.
The day came when people set their clocks one hour forward. Father Time appeared at Katie’s door and knocked slowly three times.
Katie was watching one of her favorite fitness programs and working out dressed in her skin tight yoga pants and a loose fitting halter top. She wasn’t wearing underwear.
She turned off the TV, tossed her towel around her neck and smiled as she opened the door. There she saw what looked like a very old man, but very unlike any other old man she’d ever seen. For one thing, he wasn’t stooped over with age. This man stood tall, almost six feet. He had a long flowing beard that matched his snow-white hair which fell past his shoulders. The oddest part of him though was his clothing. He was wearing long flowing white robes that fell to his feet. It was belted by a broad leather band wrapped around his waist from which hung a large watch on a chain. She could hear the ticking of that watch even from a few feet away. He had a long staff that he planted at his feet and he looked down at her with kindly eyes.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Hello Katie,” he said with a deep sonorous voice, “I would like to talk with you about something rather serious.”
“Really?” she asked, wondering how this man she’d never met knew her name, “What could be so serious?”
“May I come in?” Father Time said, “It would be better if we could speak in private.”
Katie frowned but decided it couldn’t hurt to hear the old man out. She invited him in and she led him to the living room. She gestured for him to sit and then sat opposite him in the over-stuffed easy chair.
“Now what’s this about?” she asked.
“Katie, I’m a little concerned over some visits you’ve received lately,” the old man said.
“Visits?” she replied, “What visits?”
“I know that Saint Valentine came to see you a little over a month ago,” he said.
Katie stiffened and felt herself blushing. Who was this man and how did he know about that?
“You see, I keep tabs on the magical beings that inhabit this world,” he said, “I’ve been around a lot longer than any of them and sometimes they become, well, unruly.”
“Who are you?” Katie said, trying not to think too much about what this man might know.