Page 24 of Santa’s Lawyer

“How carefully did you read the NDA you signed with the application?” Louis asked. He bit down on his lower lip.

She dropped her hand and stood up straight. “I read through it. It looked standard. Why?”

“Ah. Yes,” Louis said, turning away from Avery to lean his back against the door frame and look up at the ceiling.

“You better tell ‘er, mate,” Gregory said, the music missing from his voice.

“This is so unnecessary,” Louis grumbled.

“Obviously not,” Tilly growled back.

Louis sighed, resigned, and pressed a button on his bracelet, which projected a hologram of the NDA Avery signed. He scrolled down to the section entitled “Destruction of Confidential Information.”

“Here,” he said.

Avery scanned the language. It was all boilerplate. At the conclusion of her time at the North Pole, she was to destroy everything containing confidential information about the interview process, including but not limited to emails, photographs, communications, and—

“Memories?” Avery whispered.

“Avery—you know this all has to be a secret,” Louis explained.

“You can trust me, I’d never disclose anything,” she insisted, grasping his wrist.

Louis shook his head, a pained look on his face. “I’m so sorry, but it’s North Pole policy. To ensure total secrecy, for everyone’s safety, if you leave, we have to destroy your memories of all of this. That includes associated memories as well, so that nothing can trigger any kind of recurrence. I'm afraid, erm, we’d have to wipe every memory of Christmas from your mind.”

“What?” Avery steadied herself on the doorframe. “How could you do that?”

“I—it’s—you know, that, to keep the magic of Christmas alive, some truths...must stay hidden. Some people around here,” he said, tossing the pointed words over his shoulder, “feel that precautions must be taken to uphold tradition, and to ensure the…security of Christmas.”

“You’re saying you would wipe all my Christmas memories. From childhood? The ones with my grandmother? My mom?”

Louis hung his head and said nothing.

“I’d have to forget…you?” Avery asked, her voice quavering.

All the Christmas Magic in the North Pole couldn’t dampen the stomachache forming low in Avery’s gut, or the tears welling up in her eyes.

Louis turned back toward the group and gestured toward Avery with both hands. “Would you look at what this is doing!” he loudly implored, his words cracking in his throat.

Tilly, Ander, and Gregory looked down at the table and said nothing.

“You’re willing to watch this happen again?” He demanded of the others, his plea turning to accusation. “To her? To me?”

Tilly’s ears pinned back. “How dare you put that on us,” she scolded. “We followed the rules, just like you, just like them.”

He whipped back to Avery and held her hands, squeezing tight, desperation in his voice. “Listen to me. That’s not going to happen. You are so close to the finish line. I know what he’s asking you to do.”

“Louis!” Tilly admonished with a growl, standing up and putting both paws on the table. “You cannot interfere.”

"Don’t you think I realize that?!” Louis shouted back at her, a burst of snow billowing out behind him, a cold wind swirling into the Break Room and scattering their cards. Tilly, Ander, and Gregory froze.

Louis’ chest was heaving.

Avery needed to move. She put a hand on his arm. “Hey,” she said softly. “Take me on a walk.” She tugged him gently out the door.

He looked at her, and his expression softened. “I’m sorry,” he said, sparing a sheepish glance at the group. They began gathering the cards and poker chips that he’d strewn about the room with his frosty outburst. He led her away down the hallway. She looped her arm through his and held on tight.

“How does it work?” she asked quietly, after a moment.