Kung-Fu Science

It was the twentieth of December. The decorations at the mall had been up for nearly two months. They had started putting up decorations at home on the saturday after Thanksgiving as usual. The tree was in place and there was even a scattering of gifts under it, giving promise of the pile that would appear on Christmas morning. Nonetheless Jimmy was worried.

His homework was done and two lame teams were playing on Monday Night Football, so he was sitting and looking out of the window. His mom was playing a Christmas CD on the stereo. Some kind of cool sounding bells were playing. But outside the window it did not look like Christmas. Instead of vast swaths of white snow he looked out on a dreary grey-green wasteland. There was less than a week until Christmas and there was no snow.

Intellectually Jimmy knew that a white Christmas was not really necessary. He even knew that hundreds of people had visited the north pole and none of them had ever seen Santa's workshop, but they had been looking with their minds. Santa could never be found with scientific instruments. You needed to look with the eyes of the heart. Despite all practical considerations Christmas needed snow. Thus it was with a heavy heart that Jimmy went to bed.

In a place no further away than the thickness of a thought a man trudged down the road. His dirty white robe made him look like a fugitive from a toga party. His clothing was totally inappropriate for the cold temperature and the biting wind. His tangled beard was coated with snot that sheeted down from his bluish nose. His long grey hair was matted, greasy, and full of leaves and twigs. His bare feet left bloody footprints on the frozen soil. He looked fearfully behind him at the distant howl of wolves and began to walk faster.

In the morning Jimmy woke to the sound of his sister Jenny repeatedly singing. "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Dad stuck his head in the door. "Guess what buddy! Snow day!" Jimmy jumped from bed and ran to the window. Snow lay deep on the ground and a few flakes stilll drifted down. "Your mom is going to stay home and work on the computer here. I've got four wheel drive so I have to go in to work. I've got a job for you this morning. I want you to shovel off the sidewalk. Your sister will sweep off the porch. Do a really good job, okay?"

An hour or so later Jimmy whisked a broom across the sidewalk, putting the final touches on his work. Jenny had finished the porch and sat on the steps watching him. In fact, much of what he was sweeping was what she had swept off the porch.

"Jimmy, I had a dream last night."

"Did it involve a magic flying pony?"

"No, it was about an old man. He was running away from something that wanted to kill him."

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it was just a dream. It wasn't real."

"Like Santa Claus isn't real?"

Jimmy parked his broom and sat on the steps beside her. "A couple of weeks ago I saw a TV show about some scientist. He had a theory. I didn't catch the name of it, but I think it started with a K. It sounded Chinese, so I just call it Kung-Fu science." Jenny looked skeptical. Even to a seven year old that sounded rather dubious. "That's not its real name, it's just what I call it. But the guys on the show took it really seriously. As best I understood it he was saying that things are only real if you pay attention to them. So if you ignore your dream it won't be real."

"But what about Santa Claus?"

Jimmy put his arm around her. "Kung-Fu science says that as long as you believe in him, he'll be real"

"Do you believe in him?"

Jimmy thought for a moment , then nodded. "Yeah, I do."

At that moment mom opened the door and called to them. "Hey, your mom must be really dumb. You aren't even smart enough to come in out of the cold! Come in and have some hot chocolate!"

After getting warmed up inside and out the kids put their coats back on and went back out for some serious play. The area between the house and the side path to the driveway was just the right size for two kids to lay side by side. They fell backward and vigorously waved their arms and legs. Then they carefully got up and contemplated two perfect snow angels.

Next they moved to the main part of the yard. A rolling stone may gather no moss, but every child knows that a rolling snowball grows steadily larger. They built three increasingly larger snowballs and piled them up. Then they began working on the details that made it unique.

Jenny grabbed some stones from the flower bed to make the mouth. Jimmy got a couple of blue marbles from his room for the eyes. Mom contributed a carrot for the nose. Two sticks made the arms, with a pair of mom's old gardening gloves for hands. A beat up old hat and a muffler from the front closet completed the ensemble. The handle of a rusted rake was jammed into the snow and leaned against the right hand. Once the sculpture was finished there was much visiting back and forth to view the other snowmen on the block. Jimmy and Jen secretly thought theirs was the best, but others no doubt held other opinions.

Lunch was tomato soup and grilled cheese with spiced tang, For dessert there was a gingerbread cookie each, purloined fom the Christmas batch and hot from the oven. In the afternoon they watched Rudolph, then mom put in some black and white movie that she said she had loved since she was their age. He would not have admitted it under torture, but Jimmy actually thought it was pretty cool.

When dad came home he admired their handywork, then predictably enough he launched into a long story about how terrible the winters had been when he was young. By that time darkness had fallen since this was about the shortest day of the year. After their vigorous morning the kids were more than ready for a quiet evening and an early bedtime.

On the other side of the imagination barrier the old man stumbled down the road. His pace was slower and more erratic. He knew now he could not escape the wolves. Despite continuously scanning for weapons he had not so much as a rock to throw at them. He sped up as best he could as the pack came into sight behind him.

As they coursed toward him he stumbled and fell. He rolled over and held out his arms in a futile attempt at defence. At the last moment a blue eyed figure stepped in front of the leading wolf. It wielded an implement that a soldier might have called a trident, although it had far more than three tines. Two glowing figures floated behind it. The wolf's attempts to stop failed. It impaled itself on the wicked looking weapon. Other figures appeared on either side of the pack. The old man struggled to his feet and watched open mouthed as a snarling, yelping fight developed.

In the morning when he came out to go to school Jimmy was shocked to see that their snow man had been knocked down. The upper two snowballs had been stomped flat. The stick arms had been reduced to kindling. even the carrot nose had been snapped in two.The tines of the rake had been bent every which way and its handle was broken. There was no sign of hat, gloves, or muffler. As he hurried toward the bus stop he saw that several other snowmen had been destroyed.

Elsewhere a vigoruos young man strode down the road. His long hair and beard were dark and well groomed. Over his clean white robe was a wolfskin cloak and there were wolfskin boots on his feet. He wore gloves, a muffler, and a hat with a sprig of holly in the hatband. As he crested the hill and walked out of sight he found himself looking forward eagerly to the new year.