“The Santa Paradox” • by Mark Vandersluis

After naughty and nice, Santa had a third list. 

He sighed and scanned it again, wondering what gifts they should have: the faeries, witches, ogres and trolls. The list grew longer the more he pondered: Hansel and Gretel, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty. Then he laughed out loud as he realised the answer and screwed up his list: “Of, course! They get nothing, because they don’t exist!”

Too late, he came to the startling realisation that neither did he, and promptly winked out of existence.

…and then he was back, because you can’t keep a good idea like Santa down.

“Where was I?” he thought, staring at the crumpled ball of paper before tossing it on the fire.

“Ah yes, naughty or nice or…”

Mark Vandersluis works as a Senior IT Manager for a Cable and Internet company in Berkshire, England. From an early age, his home was the Science Fiction section of the local library. After a lifetime reading science fiction, he recently started writing his own. Mark has had stories published in Nature Futures, and also has one appearing in Diabolical Plots early in 2022. Mark blogs occasionally at markvsf.design.blog and you can follow him on Twitter at @markvsf. 

» HOME