Hi,

The second book I need the text written for should be about an
engineer who is working on computer systems on a nuclear submarine. 
The father of the eight-year-old girl I am writing the book for
actually does this.  I developed a lot of the ideas for the story and
they appear below.  The writing needs to be cleaned up and made less
amateurish, more consistent stylistically with a children’s book tone
and developed better thematically.  As in the previous story it is
meant for one or two copies only.  I will illustrate it.  If it ever
gets published you or any the commenters whose ideas are used will get
33% of the profits to split among you.

The father whom we will call Andre, (the French name pronounced Andray
and spelled in French with the accent André) dozes off at work inside
the sub, when suddenly he is awoken by a jolt and he hits his head
against a pipe, which then knocks him out again.  The jolt is from the
submarine going out to sea again.  He awakes to find himself out at
sea.  He wanders around and finally talks to the captain who says they
can't return, but will be surfacing near the North Pole where he can
walk to a research station at the Pole where he can get help to get
back home.

This discourages our hero, because it is close to Christmas and he
thinks there is no way he can get home in time to celebrate it with
his two daughters.  He can’t call from under water because the phones
don’t work there. The captain assigns him an empty bunk bead cot, and
he discouragingly trudges back to it after finding out where it is.

Along the walk back our protagonist passes the sonar station and one
of the operators flags him down and tries to cheer him up, by letting
him listen to whale calls they can hear through the headphones. 
Something very strange happens now.  Our guy listens to the whale
sounds and he swears to himself that they are intelligible words and
sentences albeit spoken very slowly and in the very bass or
high-pitched tones.  He swears the whales are saying the sonar is
hurting their ears and they are debating whether to ram the sub.  But
the school of whales call off the attack and decide to swim off to
catch some krill, a school of which comes by.

Our hero is confused but shakes it off and says to himself that he
must have some delusions because of his concussion received earlier. 
Next he walks by a window in the sub (a window in a sub?...it's a
children's book).  He now swears he sees some fish outside and the
fish are making fun of him because he breathes air and they can
breathe water.

Now Andre really thinks he's gone crazy. He goes back to bunk, and
goes asleep after taking two Tylenols.  He wakes up, when he feels fur
brushing up on his cheek.  He wakes up to find a cat purring, only he
can understand the words in which the cat is purring.  The cat is
saying it’s nice to see a new face in town other than the gung-ho
sailors.  Andre starts purring words to the cat, with the cat purring
intelligibly back.  Andre is surprised that he knows how to purr with
meaning.  After a little bit some of the other sailors in nearby bunks
start noticing what is going on and they start joshing Andre saying
things like "That cat really likes you", "Your a regular Dr.
Doolittle", and "That cat is going to have you in the palm of his
hand".

Andre purrs to the cat that he will talk to him later when all the
sailors are asleep or doing other duties.  Andre and the cat have
several conversations over the next few days, and the cat tells him
all kinds of fascinating things.  He also tells Andre mysteriously
that there is a whole race of men that can talk to animals, but he
won't give any details.

The day comes when the sub will surface, and it breaks through the ice
shelf near the edge of the pole shore and Andre is let out with warm
clothing, a tent, five days worth of food and a GPS system to get home
to the North Pole Research Station 50 miles away.  After the sub
departs Andre sits on some ice and gets depressed again because
Christmas is only a few days away, and he thinks he'll never get home
in time.

Just then Andre spots some penguins and Andre can understand them too
(I know there are no penguins in the Northern Polar Region but this is
a kid's book).  The Penguins are obviously juveniles, and they are
talking about ways to get free sodas from the vending machines found
in the Eskimo villages.  One of the penguins makes an intelligent joke
about how they actually have to have machines that warm the sodas up
here in the polar region, so they don't freeze.  Another one chimes in
that maybe if they unplug the machine the sodas will start bursting,
breaking open the devices so they can steal the soda.

Andre now starts trudging off across the landscape with the food and
the tent in his backpack toward where the GPS says the North Pole is. 
He is sad, but the landscape is beautiful and there is no clouds or
wind.  When nightfall arrives Andre sets up the tent and pulls out his
cell phone (which now works since he is out from under the water).  He
calls home to his wife and explains the situation and that it could be
a couple of weeks before he gets home.  She puts the kids on the phone
who say they understand, but he feels he can hear their disappointment
in their voice.

The next day Andre starts walking again and after a few hours he sees
some strange looking buildings in the distance.  Andre's heart leaps
because he knows this is the research station. After a couple of
hours, Andre reaches the buildings and outside there is UN flag and a
marker that says, "This is the Magnetic North Pole".  Now Andre walks
up to the entrance but he sees a sign on the door.  When he gets close
enough to read it says to shock and great disappointment "Sorry we are
closed for the holidays".  Andre sits down on the steps and now he
really feels like crying.

After awhile Andre begins to hear some noise and what sounds like
rustling noise.  Andre's heart jumps again, maybe there is somebody
here.  Andre starts walking around to the back of the buildings, when
he hears a roar and then another roar and then roar after roar as if
there was a fight going on between two animals.  Wouldn't you know
Andre could understand the words? When he peaks around the corner, he
sees two Polar Bears saying to each other "That's my bottle of peanut
butter I found it first", the other one roars back "No I found it
first give it to me or I will swipe you with my paw", "No you didn't I
found it first" and so on.

Just then Andre finds himself roaring like a bear like he never had
himself make such a loud noise "Stop it!”  The two stunned bears look
up in shocked surprise, then after a moment one says to the other
licking his lips "He looks pretty tasty for dinner".  The other bear
than says, "How many times do I have to tell you Christopher does not
want us eating humans!  They come after us with guns instead of
cameras and it always a big mess.  Don't even think about it".  Andre
a little more afraid now in a trembling roar says, "Who is
Christopher?”  The bears now seem perplexed and start roaring and
grunting in Polar Bear language to each other "He doesn't have a white
beard, how come he speaks Polar Bear", "Maybe he's Christopher
brother" and "No all the men in Christopher's family have white
beards, I talked to him extendedly about his extended family".  With
that they start arguing with each other again about the jar of peanut
butter.

Now getting a little impatient Andre has a flash of inspiration, he
roars, "Let me see that jar!”  The one bear then says, "Only if you
promise to give back to me."  Andre now remembering that Bears like
shiny things says, "You can keep this GPS" which has a metal covering
"if I don’t give it back to you". With that he walks over to the bear
and makes the exchange.

Andre looks at the jar and it reads "Expiration Date March 1995".  He
then starts chuckling to himself.  The bears then grunt to him asking
him "Why are you laughing?”  Andre roars back "You guys are so silly,
this Peanut butter is 8 1/2 years old and would have tasted terrible!"
 Andre and the bears now star getting friendly and Andre asks again
whom Christopher is.  They tell him a little bit about him.  Andre now
very curious asks them why they said he did not have a white beard. 
The bears then say they have met a whole bunch of white bearded people
who can talk to them and Christopher is their leader.

Andre lets them know what happened to him being bumped on the head and
all and how he needs to get back home.  One the bear suddenly flashes
a knowing smile and says he can bring him to Christopher that evening.
 Very surprised Andre asks how that could be.  The bear just says
follow me and trudges off.  Andre and the second bear follow the first
bear even though it is getting dark.  They walk for miles and miles
and Andre is getting cold and wondering where this is going to end.

Finally even though it is dark out now the moon is out and it
beautifully reflects off the ice.  Off a little ways in the distance
Andre can hear some rustling hooves and snorts.  Soon he realizes
there are many many noises sounding like a huge herd of some animal. 
They come up to a top of a ridge and the lead bear peaks over top.  He
grunts, "Yup, there all there on time just like they're supposed to
be" and than ducks behind the ridge again.  He turns and whispers to
Andre "This is as far as us Polar Bears are going for tonight".  Next
he turns back and peaks over the ridge and grunts "See that flag"
Andre peaks over and sees another UN flag "turn it around three times
in its base and then bump it down five times".  Andre didn't dare to
ask why, but he asks, "Why can't you go any further?”  The lead bear
answers, “Because we'll scare the reindeer of course" and starts
trudging away back to the research camp at the North Pole.  The bears
yell backward "Good luck, and say hi to Chris" and "Thanks for saving
us from the peanut butter".

Andre hesitatingly walks over the ridge to the flag.  The reindeer are
not afraid of him but are thousands in number.  He walks over to the
UN flag and there is a sign next it that says “This the true North
Pole, 90 degrees Latitude”.  There are two North Poles you see, one
where all the magnetic field of the earth disappears and a different
one where the earth spins around on its top. Andre does as was
instructed to the flagpole and suddenly a flap of the ice pops up. 
Andre looks on the door of the flap where a sign says, “Access
permitted to stature challenged Unicef Workers and members of the
Christopher Cringle Family”. There is a steel door beneath the flap
hinting at something below.  There is also a phone on the flap so
Andre picks up and dials zero.

A woman’s voice comes on and says “Santa’s Workshop can I help you?”. 
A little more shocked now then even when he began understanding and
talking to animals, Andre now begins to put things together.  Andre
half jokingly says, “I don’t believe in Santa”.  The woman on the
other end says, “That’s your prerogative, but how can I help you this
evening”.  Andre explains his situation i.e. that he is upstairs next
to the flagpole and everything that has happened to him.  The
receptionist identifies herself as Mrs. Claus and asks Andre “You can
talk to and understand animals now but you still don’t believe in
Santa Claus”.  Andre isn’t totally sure but he says she has a point
and could she have someone come up to let him in because he is getting
cold.

Soon someone with a beard and in what looks to be long underwear comes
up and unlocks the door and lets Andre come in down a ladder.  At the
bottom of the ladder Andre finds himself in a glass booth with glass
on three sides and an elevator on the fourth wall.  The booth looks
over a vast warehouse and factory four that stretches out as far as
his eye can see, at least 200 times as big as a Wal-Mart.  The man
says, Mr. Chris Cringle heard your story and wants to see you but
you’ll have to hurry because they are getting dressed for their big
night.  Suddenly Andre realizes it is December 24th and he starts to
feel even 10 times more strange than before and that this must be a
dream and a most vivid one.

The man in the long underwear and Andre get in the elevator.  Andre
says that he looks like Santa Claus, and the man tells him that Chris
will explain it all when he gets there.  After the elevator stops,
Andre can now see they are below the warehouse/factory floor and they
are walking down a long plush corridor lined with pictures of jolly
looking men with white beards.  At first the portraits are dressed in
very ancient almost Roman dress but as they walk on the dress of the
white bearded men becomes more and more modern, passing from Medieval,
to Renaissance to Victorian dress.  Under each portrait is an
inscription Christopher Cringle the 1st, the 2nd the 3rd and so on. 
Finally they get to a big Oak Door, which has a nameplate Christopher
Claus the 25th.

The man in the underwear opens the door and inside there is a big Oak
desk with a big man with a white beard who looks almost identical to
the long under wear man.  There are all kinds of little people
scurrying to and fro and there are several other men with white beards
who definitely have a family resemblance to the man with the beard and
to the men in the portraits.  In the room all along the walls there
are mounted flat screen computer monitors showing graphs, figures,
shots of the warehouse/factory and a big screen behind the desk which
has 24 time zones, each listing how long it would be until Christmas
Day break when the kids would be getting up.  Mr. Cringle is
cheerfully barking out orders and talking on the speakerphone but
motions Andre to come in. Two little men, who later turn out to be
elves are pulling up long black boots on Mr. Cringle’s feet.

Santa Claus (as kids the world over know him) gets up and gives a
hearty handshake to Andre.  He says “You have quite a fascinating
story Andre, my wife told me all about it”.  He goes on, “This kind of
event, where someone outside our family can speak to animals, has not
happened since it happened with the founder of our workshop Chris
Cringle the 1st”.  He continues, “We have been expecting someone to
come along but we did not know when it would happen.  You see in Roman
times all the races of men traveled the world and they intermarried. 
Cringle the 1st was a mixture of so many kinds of different people,
his genes became like the first man on earth.  This first man on earth
could also talk to animals but his genes got deluded and the ability
was lost.  It has not been until recent times when the races mixed to
such an extent as back in those ancient days.  Cringle the 1st and the
rest of my ancestors have kept are genes strong with this special
talking ability because we always marry our second cousins, not our
first cousins because that would be too close and not our third
cousins because that would be too far away.  You could be a new
founder of a family that talks to animals”.

He went even further “Chris Cringle the 1st learned a lot from animals
especially kindness.  He developed a soft heart for the children of
the world and he knew how much they love presents, so one day he
decided he would take the one special day a year and give presents to
as many children as he could”.  He chose the greatest day of the year
Christmas and he was off and running.  The operations have grew over
the years so Chris the 1st started sending out his cousins and
brothers who looked like him at Christmas time to distribute gifts but
this still wasn’t enough.  One day Chris the 1st realized he could
speak all the languages of the world including the languages of the
little people so he recruited the elves to help out too.  With the
help of the elves in making the gifts and the various Cringle brothers
and cousins delivering the presents, soon every child in the world had
a gift at Christmas.  Of course Cringle the 1st was able to get the
help all the animals in this big operation most especially I might
point out, the reindeer.”

Chris the 25th says even more “The reindeers first pulled sleighs
through snow because Chris the 1st was from the Turkish Mountains and
that’s where everything started.  One day Chris was grazing his
reindeer in the region of Turkey that is supposed to be where the
Garden of Eden was, and he saw a few of his Reindeer were jumping over
rocks much higher than he had seen any reindeer or any animal jump
that high before.  He then did an experiment and beefed up a few
reindeer on the grass in the region continuously before Christmas. 
Mind you he put weights around the ankles of the deer.  When that
Christmas Eve came, wouldn’t you know the reindeer could fly, and they
could still pull sleighs.  Around the same time, he also designed a
hollow sleigh which when filled with air he could heat or cool to
provide buoyancy and control up or down.  With the reindeers pumping
their legs they could move forward.  When the age of science came
around in the 19th century Chris the 20th discovered that the special
grass from the Garden of Eden had a high Helium content.  This Helium
dissolved into the blood of the reindeer and allowed them to fly.”

He finished by saying “All my brothers and cousins who look like him
still pack sleighs with present on Christmas Eves like that night,
still have hollow sleighs and the reindeer still eat the special grass
although they are now planted in special preserves in Canada Alaska,
Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden.  Since computers and wireless
technologies like satellite phones have come into the picture the
family no longer uses pigeons and swifts (a kind of bird) for
communication and coordination of Christmas Eve.  I go up in a main
sleigh and makes sure everything gets done.  If you would like to come
along, I can drop you off at your home before Christmas Morning.  I’m
sure you will enjoy the trip and we’ll have a lot to talk about.”

With that Chris pulls on his familiar Santa Claus Red Suit Jacket and
motions to come with him out to the elevator again.  This time they go
to the main floor of the warehouse/factory.  Andre now sees rows and
rows of sleighs lined up and packed to the brim with what looked to be
white duffle bags.  There are also red suited men with white beards
climbing into them all over looking like fighter pilots going off to
war.  There are also elevator like things, which start pushing the
sleighs up to the ceiling.  When they get to the top, doors open up. 
There is one sleigh apart from the rest, which looks quite odd. It has
a flattened egg like shape and the egg thing is revolving.  It reminds
Andre of the thing attached to radar planes, which the US Air Force
uses to track objects in the sky.  This is obviously Chris the 25th’s
sleigh.

Andre and Chris climb in, and Chris motions to start the elevator
under it, up.  As they are going up to the surface Andre notices all
the computer screens and controls which are all over the inside of the
sleigh.  When they reach the surface there are several elves that have
tethered up nine reindeer.  When Andre notices the first reindeer has
a red nose, which was lighting up a chill runs through his spine. 
Chris offhandedly laughs when he notices Andre looking at the deer and
reports that this was the great-grandson of the famous Rudolph the
family of Reindeer of which had recently developed a particular
affection for the decayed amounts of the Garden of Eden grass.  He
tells Andre that decayed grass has a lot of alcohol in it and is
therefore bound to give you a red nose albeit a special kind of one
considering the special grass.  Finally the deer are hooked up and
Chris surveys the field of sleighs all with reindeer hooked to them
and their white bearded pilots within.  Chris then looks on a screen
which seems to tell him all the sleighs are ready and then he snorts
in reindeer which Andre can understand saying “Rudolph are we ready?” 
Rudolph snorts back “I, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid,
Donner and Blitzen are ready to work”.  With that Santa (Chris the
25th) snorts “Let’s go”, and the reindeer take off with Rudolph in the
lead.

Higher and higher they rise in the sky and Andre can see sleighs under
them taking off in an orderly manner and departing in all directions. 
Santa says they were going to head for the equator where he needs to
be to direct the operation, but they will stop off in Maryland in the
US where Andre lived.  The flight south is quite fast considering
reindeer powers them.  Santa is busy with all the computer displays
and with giving directions for carrying out the massive Christmas Eve
Operation but has some time to talk with Andre.

He asks Andre what he planned to do with his newfound animal language
skills.  Andre says he doesn’t know but that he didn’t want people
making a big fuss over him, or having to run a big operation like
Santa’s.  Chris chuckles and says his family has a lot of experience
with this sort of stuff and that it runs in the family.  Andre sits in
silence for a while and Chris sees he is a little troubled to have
such powerful powers and not be able to put them to good use.  After a
little bit Chris speaks up, he says, “There is something you could do
which I’ve wanted to do for a long time which could do a lot of good”.
 “Oh” Andre said.  “Yes” Chris said, “The great Charles Darwin wrote
up his theory of how life works in his theory of evolution and did a
lot of good.  But a lot of animals are upset when I tell them what
Darwin said.  They believe they are miscategorized as totally selfish
creatures who just want to eat each other and fill the earth with just
there own kind.  They tell me they respect other species for the
contribution they make to the environment and only eat each other when
it is necessary and for the good.  They respect humans for the good
they do too, but they say sometimes humans act less respectfully and
more selfishly than the animals”.

Andre thinks for a minute and then says, “You mean I could study
animals and plants and go out and actually talk to the animals and
find out how life really works”.  “Absolutely” Chris says a little
excited, “this would be a great contribution”.  Andre thinks for a
minute and then says a little sadly “The problem with this is humans
figure out how life works, they might use it in a bad way as humans
sometimes do with things like nuclear physics or chemistry”.  Santa
says, “You’re right that’s true, but that’s sort of the risk we have
to take”.  Andre doesn’t like this response completely as Santa sees
and they sit quiet for little while longer.  Finally Santa says, “Well
if you really find out how life works, you can always sort of keep a
secret and only let those who you trust will use if for good.  Just
look how we’ve kept the secret of who Santa really is.  I realize that
this is relatively unimportant in the way things go, but we have
limited things so that only a few people around the world know.”

Andre is still not happy with this response, so finally Santa says,
“Finding out how life really works is very important.  People since
Darwin have used his ideas to destroy a lot so it can’t be the truth.
Knowing the truth is of the utmost importance and from my experience I
can tell you it makes you a happier and better person.  But the thing
that makes me happier still and even the happiest is when I can let
someone else, who will cherish it, know the truth.  You can trust what
you know is the right thing to do”.

Andre is finally happy with this answer and Santa announces they are
going to be at Andre’s house in 20 minutes”.  Andre sits back in the
sleigh and looks up at the stars and thinks about his two daughters
and how they would look Christmas Morning.  He thinks about how much
his life had changed over the last few days and how changed it will be
in the future, but he feels a real peace in him, which surprises him. 
Santa looks over at him and smiles.

When they land on Andre’s roof Santa says he has a surprise for Andre.
 From underneath the dash he pulls out a little sack and says they are
the Christmas presents for him, his wife and two children.  As one
last thing he pulls out another gift and tells Andre that he wants him
to open it right there.  Andre opens it up and it is a silver cross
with a chain around.  Santa says “All that we do with our work is to
bring Children happiness on Christmas Day, but you should always
remember the real reason for Christmas is the birth into this world of
whom makes all life possible, that is the birth of the baby Jesus.  We
all have our work to do in this life but if you follow his teachings
and teach your children to do also, you will make the biggest
contribution you can make in this life and that even includes any
other truth you might learn and pass on.”

Santa and Andre say their goodbyes.  Andre comes in the house opens
the sack and put presents under the tree.  He quietly tiptoes upstairs
and looks into his two children’s rooms and sees they are peacefully
asleep.  He climbs into bed with his wife who sleepily said she is so
happy he has come home for the kids to see him on Christmas Morning
and he falls into a peaceful sleep, more peaceful than he has ever
had.


The End