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Sam knew better than to lose sight of his brother and father. When he saw a veritable Christmas tree made up entirely of books, how was he supposed to resist? While his dad and Dean discussed the impracticality of brightly colored flannel versus your standard muted greens, browns and grays, little 5-year-old Sam snuck away. He sprinted toward the other side of the department store to where the book and toy section was located.
He found the adventure series of books that he’d been asking Santa for, for quite literally months. He hoped, against all hopes, that they’d have an actual Christmas tree this year and therefore a space for Santa to put his gifts under.
Granted the concept of a strange man sneaking into their motel room undetected or whatever rental place they were at, at the time was a bit strange. But Dean and his dad were hunters of the bad people out in the world and Dean insisted that Santa was not only real and good but that he was magic because of the spirit of Christmas and people like Sam who believed in him.
Sam grabbed the second volume of the series, the one he really really wanted for Christmas and tucked himself away in a nook a bit further back from the book tree. It was a perfectly laid out kid’s reading nook with velvet covered upholstered chairs that were the perfect size for little kids to get comfy in and read to their heart’s content. The bustle, voices and general hubbub around him swiftly disappeared as he dove into the world of adventures. The story played in his head like a movie and he wondered what it would be like to be an adventurer? To follow treasure maps and unearth archeological wonders with the help of his trusty crew. It was a book series illustrated and written in simple English combined with compelling visuals of the worlds that the characters explored.
***
Dean was the first to notice, he had really wanted something for once that didn’t look like it was made to hide away in a closet with. Something that was a true color red, green or yellow, not the muted hunter colors his dad preferred. He rarely put up a fight with his dad but for some reason felt this was the hill he was going to die on this pre-Christmas season.
“Dean, listen, bright colors can mean the difference between life and…”
“Sam!!! Where’s Sam?!” Dean didn’t even let his dad finish the sentence he’d heard a hundred times over.
“Dean, what are you… ?”
“Dad, I don’t see him!! Where is he?”
John rose to his full height, had been squatting to be eye-to-eye with his 9 year-old son. Without any time to waste, he dropped the shopping basket and sent Dean in one direction while he went the opposite way with the instruction to meet back where they’d started in 5 minutes from now.
The staff were completely useless, the ratio of customers vs. shop assistants was too great right now in the busy pre-holiday shopping frenzy. John regretted already trying to make a somewhat normal Christmas happen for his two sons.
He quickly figured out that Dean was likely having more luck with the direction he’d gone in. He was surrounded by stressed adults and frazzled grandmothers weighing the options between one set of china and the next. Somehow he couldn’t imagine Sam getting lost among kitchen and home hardware. He slowly walked back to where he came from, scanning in all directions and saw Dean do the same.
They were almost back in the spot where they started when Dean pointed to his left and that’s when John saw it. Normally, they kept their cool but this was Sammy having disappeared. Emotions were running a little high between the two Winchesters who weren’t the most even-tempered human beings at the best of times.
“Race ya to the book tree dad.” Dean smiled at his dad, somehow so certain in his gut that that’s where Sam would be.
When they got there, however, there was no sign of Sam. Dean’s eyes scanned the area desperately. His heartbeat was racing, hands getting sweaty, worry flooding his small body that he’d let Sam out of his sight.
“Excuse me Miss, have you seen this boy? We’ve lost sight of him in the store, he’s my younger son.”
“Oh yes, please come with me.” The kind shop assistant in her 30’s led John with Dean in tow a couple of rows of books over and pointed down the second one.
“Merry Christmas,” she said by way of goodbye and addressed a frazzled parent going on about how they needed to find a particular book.
Dean was about to speed down the aisle and give Sam a piece of his mind for running off when his dad held him back. “Hey, Dean give him a minute, huh? Can you check what book he’s reading?”
It didn’t take any more explaining than that and Dean stealthily moved in closer to where Sam was curled up in one of the comfiest chairs Dean had ever seen. He used the bookshelves to hide his advance and squatted down low so he could get a look at the cover page.
He returned to his dad and told him the title and name of the author. “Alright, stay close, son. I’ll be right back.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Dean snuck up on Sam again and watched his hazel eyes flying across the page he was reading. He was proud of how smart his baby brother was, he could barely read the alphabet as a 5-year-old while Sam inhaled books like they would all disappear the next day. He was, however, still the big brother and Sam shouldn’t have run away like that.
“ROAR!!!!” Dean jumped out from behind the bookshelf, arms and hands up mimicking the menacing claws of a dinosaur. Sam’s entire body tensed up violently, the book falling to the carpeted floor with a thump as his startled wide-eyes looked up at Dean.
Dean deflated when he realized how terrified Sam looked, his lower lip shuddering corners of the mouth pulling downward. He realized that his brother must’ve been deeply focused on the story he was reading. “You gotta stay aware of your surroundings Sammy, ‘m sorry I scared you.” He gave Sam a big hug and held him for a few moments. Could feel the skinny arms wrap around him tightly.
Happiness rolled back across Sam’s features a few moments later.
“The book tree Dean! Did you see it? It’s completely made of books and it’s so colorful. Do you think Santa will come for us this year?”
“I hope so Sammy, watcha reading? Dean picked up the book that had fallen from Sam’s hands, the cover promising world-discovery and adventures. “Is that what you’re going to be when you grow up, a treasure hunter?”
“Yeah and I’ll discover all the wonders of the world Dean and… and you can be part of my crew. Do you wanna be my pilot?”
“Sure, kid.” Dean just barely kept his face blank at the notion of being a pilot or being on an aircraft for any reason whatsoever. Much less the kind of propeller bush-plane depicted on the cover of Sam's book.
“Alright, can you put that back where you found it? I bet dad’s going to be back any second.”
He could see Sam’s wheels turning as he considered the book in his hands, before he obediently returned it to the spot on the book tree where he’d taken it from.
***
John had been done very quickly indeed. He had gone back for their basket, grabbing two colorful flannels and undershirts for Dean and picked up the next two books in the series Sam was so enthralled by brandishing his latest stolen credit card to pay for it all. The lady who had helped him in the book section offered to ring him up, so he wouldn’t have to contend with the massive line-ups at the main check-out counter.
“You’re an angel, thank you so much.”
“It’s my pleasure. Good evening, Sir.”
***
Sam concluded that Dean was right, Santa was real and he’d come for them this year.