Elizabeth Perard
“Alright Max! Are you ready?” the Grinch grinned, patting on a seat on the sleigh they were riding, which also was pulled by Fred the reindeer. We were training Fred so he would be able to pull us through Whoville on the 25th of December. You're probably wondering how I got in this situation. I’m honestly not too sure myself. One day, I was just doing chores and KABAM! The Grinch, it’s a classic story, everyone knows it. But no one stops to think about my point of view. Here is a story about how I helped the Grinch steal Christmas. Plot twist, he didn’t steal Christmas.
It was just a regular day, I was pressing these random buttons on a machine that gave the Grinch his breakfast, and I was just existing. When he came downstairs, I served him breakfast. He groaned at the lack of food on his plate. When I reminded him who ate it all, he replied with ‘I don’t eat my emotions that often.’ That was a lie. He did in fact, eat his emotions often. He realized we had to stock up some more food for the winter, so he got dressed and we left for town.
While we were headed towards the grocery store, the Grinch grimaced at all the joyful people he passed. For some reason, he didn’t like Christmas. He especially hated it when we had to pass by the choir. They seemed to follow us for some reason. Not going to lie, it was kind of terrifying.
Soon, we reached the grocery store. While we were shopping, there was a short lady who was trying to reach a jam on the top shelf. The Grinch picked it up and ‘accidently’ smashed it. I found it kind of rude, but the lady didn’t seem mad at the Grinch. She seemed more mad at herself, than anything else, which was weird. Why wasn’t she mad at the person who purposely tried to ruin her day?
After we were done, it was time for the final challenge. We had to pass by the happiest Who in all of Whoville, BrickleBaum. Me and the Grinch hid behind the trees while the man decorated his house. We almost made it, before the inflatable santa popped and fell on the Grinch. BrickleBaum saw this and ran to the Grinch’s rescue.
“Oh! I’m so sorry about that, Mr. Grinch!” BrickleBaum said, helping the Grinch up. He then pointed to the inflatable Santa Claus and called it a ‘bad boy.’ He was a strange man. Then, BrickleBaum motioned to his house.
“Do you like this year’s decorations? The mayor said that this Christmas is going to be four times bigger than last year!” BrickleBaum said, and the Grinch rolled his eyes, although I don’t think BrickleBaum noticed. For some reason, he thought the Grinch and him were the best of friends. The Grinch didn’t seem to think the same.
“That's ridiculous!” The Grinch said, laughing so hard he nearly cried. “Four times as big? That's surely something!”
“Yes, yes, it really is!” BrickleBaum laughed with him. Soon, we were on our way back to the mountain, and the Grinch kept muttering something to himself.
Once we were home, he asked what I wanted to do. I suggested a game of chess. The Grinch agreed, and we had a good old game of chess! That was, until a ball somehow flew my way. The Grinch didn’t notice it, and I kind of forgot we were playing chess. I went to go catch the ball, and when I came back, the Grinch was gone! I assumed he went up the mountain to go play on his huge piano. I decided to play along on my little drum set. The Grinch didn’t seem to like that too much.
The next day while I made the Grinch his morning coffee, I saw him working out. When he noticed me, he stormed up to me and declared he was going to ‘steal’ christmas. I just jumped in the air and barked. What was I supposed to do, shake his hand and tell him congratulations? Not like I had hands anyways. It was really random, too. Why did he decide to steal Christmas? I don’t know. He seemed a bit too excited for it.
Then, we went to his secret underground workshop and he started making a plan. Then he was finally ready to show me the plan he had prepared. He wrote it on the big chalkboard, but obviously, I couldn’t read. He read it to me.
“Santa Claus.” he said, and I cocked my head to the right, unsure of what to make of this short plan. The Grinch saw my confusion and explained.
“I’m going to pretend to be Santa Claus. But here’s the plot twist. Instead of me giving presents, I take them!” the Grinch said, and cackled loudly. I barked and wagged my tail. Not much else I could do.
Soon, we got to making the costume. It was made out of this really itchy bright red cloth the Grinch had stored in the bathroom. I don’t know why we had that there. I also don’t know why he chose that horrible material out of all things, but I guess he couldn’t feel the cloth under all his green fur. I don’t know why he has green fur. He looked kind of ridiculous. And for some reason he couldn’t feel things the same way other humans did. I mean that physically and mentally. He told me once he had a heart 2 sizes too small. If that was true, I’ve always wondered how he was still alive with a heart that size.
Anyways, his costume ended up looking super cheaply made. He could have bought a kiddie one at the toy store, but I guess he didn’t want to face the Whos again. I don’t understand how he could ever hate the Whos, I love seeing them. They’re super nice!
Next on his list was some reindeer.
“Santa's reindeer pull his sleigh, so therefore I also need reindeer!” the Grinch exclaimed, and then took out a map to mark out a path. He decided to leave with me in the next hour to go grab us some reindeer.
As we were walking, we heard a sound. A goat. It was really ugly and it kept screeching, so the Grinch kicked it. Bad choice. It bit him and ran away. The Grinch cursed as he wrapped his wound in bandages.
Soon, we arrived towards our destination. We looked out at the field, and there were a bunch of reindeer! We had hit the jackpot. Until the goat arrived. It screeched, and scared off ALL of the reindeer! That stupid—
“Look! There’s still one reindeer!” the Grinch said, and ran to capture it by the antlers with the rope he had brought. The reindeer looked around, unaware of the Grinch. Then, it turned around. Luckily, the Grinch saw it just in time, so he quickly made a small hole in the ground and he hid there. It could have worked, but his hair was still sticking out! The reindeer groaned, delighted to find ‘grass’ in the snow! He chomped the hair and pulled the Grinch out of his hiding spot, and the Grinch tied the rope around the reindeers neck. It got distracted by the rope around its neck, and let go of the Grinch’s hair.
Turns out the reindeer’s name was Fred, and he was quite friendly. We bonded really quickly. I gave him a ball and he ate it. I felt offended.
We explained the plan to Fred, and he agreed to it. He would pull the sleigh all through Whoville while the Grinch and I took away the presents and decorations. We decided to test out Fred tomorrow, to see if he was qualified to pull a sleigh. Instead of eight reindeer, we had one that looked like it ate the other seven.
When I went to get breakfast for the Grinch, I saw Fred had gotten to the coffee-making machine before me. I was scared Fred would break it because of his size, so I closed my eyes. Luckily when I opened them, the machine was still intact, and there was a perfectly good coffee sitting on the table. I told Fred not to do that anymore, and he seemed sad, so I told him to go make breakfast. He agreed and seemed to brighten up. I went in my mini-elevator, and when I came back, there were a bunch of shattered plates on the ground. I cleaned it up before the Grinch noticed, and helped Fred clean up his mess. He was really stupid.
“Today, we need to go steal a sleigh,” said the Grinch. He told us he put together a plan.
“We’re going to go to BrickleBaum’s house and steal the one he has on his roof!” he declared, and Fred and I agreed that it was a good idea. We went together to town nightfall and commenced our evil plan. It was dark, so we had less of a chance of being spotted. I went ahead to make sure the coast was clear and signaled to the others to move along. Soon, we made it to BrickleBaum’s house. Me and Fred stayed behind a tree, because the snow was too crunchy for all of us to help out. I watched as the Grinch made his way to BrickleBaum’s house. He then climbed to the roof to get the sleigh and slipped it over the edge. It fell onto the ground, and so Fred and I pulled it to safety. It was all going well until BrickleBaum’s dog woke and started barking ferociously at the intruder on the roof. The Grinch slipped and I watched in horror as he fell to the ground, safely landing in a patch of snow. The dog saw all this and chased the Grinch, who climbed over the portico, where the dog couldn’t reach him. The Grinch accidently pressed the doorbell while climbing up, and the door opened just as the Grinch was out of sight, hiding behind a fake snowman. BrickleBaum was the one who opened the door, and for some reason he was convinced that his dog was the one who rang the doorbell, and so he brought the dog inside. The Grinch descended and I comforted him while pulling the sleigh. He seemed traumatized. Honestly, I would be too. When we got back home, we went right to sleep. It was a tiring day for all three of us.
“Today’s the day!” the Grinch told Fred as he pulled together the harness over Fred’s head.
“Today’s the day you pull us through the snow and deem yourself worthy of pulling us through Whoville!” Fred groaned, delighted. I yapped excitedly.
“I also made a few modifications to the sleigh this morning.” the Grinch said, and he pushed a button which released a small seat. The perfect size for a small dog. “Your very own seat, Max!” I barked enthusiastically and climbed onto the seat. “On the count of three, I started running, fred! One, two, three-” before the Grinch had a chance to finish, Fred ran as fast as he could. Too fast. We slid along the ice and got stuck! It was too slippery to move, but luckily there were brakes, so the Grinch stepped on them and we halted to a stop. Fred then slowly but surely got out of the frozen lake, and we decided to rest for a bit. That’s when she came. Fred’s wife came, with their son, and Fred asked to be let go.
The Grinch felt guilty about letting Fred go, but he knew he couldn’t keep Fred forever. Now, we had no reindeer to pull the sleigh. Me and the Grinch pushed the sleigh back home and decided to retire for the day. I was disappointed Fred had left us, but I couldn’t stop him from seeing family. Now that I think back upon it, the Grinch seemed jealous. I wonder why.
“I have a task for you,” the Grinch told me the next day. I nodded.
“How would you feel about pulling the sleigh for Christmas?” the Grinch asked me, and I wagged my tail and barked in a positive manner. I would love to!
“Atta-boy!” said the Grinch, and he left to make arrangements to the sleigh. I was significantly smaller than Fred, but as long as I had some training, I was good to go. While the Grinch made adjustments, I practiced pulling various items around the house. These items included my food bowl, a chair, a coffee table, a couch, and the dining table. It was easy enough, so I deemed myself able to pull the sleigh. After a couple of hours, the sleigh was ready. The Grinch decided to go to sleep, as he would need lots of sleep for tomorrow if he wanted to steal all those presents. I also went to sleep, just because there was nothing else for me to do.
“Morning, Max!” the Grinch said, pulling on his Santa suit. I barked and checked the time. Obviously, I’m a dog. I can’t read the time. I think it was noon. I’m not sure, it was still dark outside.
“It’s time!” I wagged my tail, and put on the small antlers that the Grinch got me. I changed my mind at the last second, though and took them off, because it was uncomfortable and would probably get in the way. The Grinch put the harness on me and we made our way to Whoville.
“We’re done!” the Grinch said, hugging me. He seemed a bit distressed after he left that last house, but we were finally done! I was so happy. We brought the bag of toys and decorations to the cliff, until we heard singing. I didn’t understand what was happening, and I still don’t. Why were they singing? It was really weird. I saw people holding hands around this humongous Christmas tree. I looked at the Grinch and he had a guilty look on his face. He then told me he was going to return all the stuff he stole. He took the stuff, and I jumped into the sleigh at the last second to come with him to the town. I have zero clue how the sleigh was being pulled, because we were both on the sleigh and there was no one else there.
As we approached the group of people, the singing quieted down. The Grinch confessed to what he had done, and told me to come with him. I was confused. Why did he do that? Then, a girl came out and said that Christmas was about family. I still had no clue what was going on, for the record. Then the group of people surrounded us and the Grinch started becoming teary eyed. Then BrickleBaum said that we were invited to celebrate Christmas with the town. The Grinch agreed, and then we headed to BrickleBaum’s house to eat. I made friends with the dog that scared the Grinch, and then the Grinch decided we were to live in the town. That was super random. From then on, everyday we were greeted by various people every time we left our house. I don’t know about you, but I was very happy about all the company. At the end of the day though, it's just me and the Grinch.
The End
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