William and J.J. landed the Volvo station wagon sleigh on the street in front of Leroy’s apartment in Copenhagen, where he had been living for the last several years. He admitted that it was a long way from the South Side of Chicago where he grew up and always pointed out that that was the idea.
Leroy was already waiting for them in his “getting down to business” clothes that meant black from head to toe with a fleece watch cap all the way down to tactical boots.
“I can see you’re in the Christmas spirit,” said William as Leroy opened the back door and threw his duffel bag onto the seat.
“I wasn’t sure if you were going to call this year or not,” said Leroy.
“It wouldn’t be Christmas without an adventure,” said William.
“Amen to that. Hey J.J., how are you doing?” asked Leroy.
“I’m hanging in there. Anxious to see what’s going on with Mr. Claus this time.”
“So fill me in,” said Leroy.
William brought him up to speed about the move to Berkeley, the missing phone calls and the unusual tweet.
“That’s it?” asked Leroy.
“That’s enough. Everyone at The Pole just had a bad feeling over all of these small things. It’s not unusual to get radio silence from him, but it’s December and we just want to be sure everything is okay,” said William.
“So it’s on to Berkeley. It’s been years,” remarked Leroy.
J.J. smiled and said, “Our ETA is five minutes.”
“I love these sleighs,” said Leroy.
“J.J. has narrowed down his location so the first thing we’ll do is to have a look at his house. Just make sure he is okay,” said William.
“And give him a kind reminder that we have better things to do in December than chase his petulant ass all over the globe,” said J.J.
“Wow, where did that come from?” asked Leroy.
“Sorry. I guess I’m just a little worried,” said J.J.
“No need to worry. Let’s hit the road and get this all sorted out,” said Leroy and buckled up for the journey to Berkeley.
