Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Things had never felt so cold in the North Pole as they did after Toy Santa's hostile takeover. The elfish morale had reached Great Depression levels of low, while the imposter's mood seemed to soar ever higher. Each individual toy department had been closed and turned into divisions of a coal mining operation. Jess had spent hours trying to think of a way to free Bernard, but so far she hadn't come up with anything. She didn't want to act rashly and get herself locked up right along-side her husband. The only thing working in their favor was that Toy Santa had trusted her to oversee a small portion of the factory. One of the elves working in that small portion was Curtis, but she hadn't gotten a chance to really talk to the number two elf yet. In truth Jessica knew she was in way over her head. There was no way she'd be able to stop Toy Santa alone. While she racked her brain for a solution, Toy Santa was patrolling the workshop roaring demented Christmas carols.

"Dashing through the snow, in a strip mining machine!" He screeched cheerily."C'mon!" His metallic voice cooed at a particularly upset group of elves. "Put a smile on that face little troll!" Now's my chance. Jess thought as she snuck over to Curtis' work station.

"We have to do something!" She whispered.

"We have to get Santa back." Curtis agreed.

"But what about the Mrs. Clause?

"It's almost Christmas Eve." He pointed out. "If Santa hasn't found a wife by now..."

"Ok," Jess sighed. "And how do you propose we get to Santa? It's not like the tin general here is going to let us just run off, no questions asked."

"No, but he might let you. You're the only one he hasn't force to mine the coal." Curtis observed. Jessica took a look around the workshop and realized for the first time that he was right. All the other department heads had been forced to work alongside their crews chipping away at monster blocks of coal. "You have to think of an excuse." The number two elf explained hurriedly. "Figure out a way to get up to R&D, and get us a pair of those jetpacks that Quintin's been testing."

"ARN'T YA SUPPOSE TO GET BACK TO WORK?" Toy Santa screamed from the other side of the workshop. "ALL OF YOU! YOU LITTLE IDIOTS! BACK TO WORK!"

"Okay. I'll figure something out." Jess told Curtis in a quiet voice before calling out to Toy Santa. "Say Dad?" The plastic father of Christmas turned to face her. "Curtis here was just reminding me that the Research and Development Department have had some great ideas about the best way to harvest coal. I think the plans are still up there, Do you mind if I have a look?"

"That sounds like an excellent idea, Jessica!" Toy Santa bellowed with approval. "Bring me these plans!"

"Right away...Santa." With lightning speed, Jess raced upstairs to R&D department. Ok, Jessie you can do this. She thought to herself. Of course there were not any actual plans to improve the harvesting of coal. Elves hated giving out coal and really didn't care about the best way to secure it. But Toy Santa didn't know that. He was expecting Jess to produce the plans that she had promised and she had to think fast. Ok think, Jessie think. A beat passed and she still didn't have any genius ideas. She knew she couldn't stay up there much longer, otherwise Toy Santa would get suspicious. Bernard I wish you were here. She huffed. You'd know exactly what to do. You'd probably come up with something crafty like...I don't know grab a bunch of random plans and somehow convince Toy Santa that they were the coal mining blueprints.

"Say, that's not a half-bad idea." She smiled, feeling a sense of hope for the first time since Scott had left the Pole. Jess quickly sought out Quintin's workstation, know it would have the most complex and difficult to read plans. She also grabbed the two only functioning jetpacks and headed back to the main workshop. Channeling her inner Bernard, Jess calmly made her way over to the Towering Toy Santa.

"Dad," She breathed."I have the coal mining plans."

"Why thank you Snowflake!" Not-Santa seemed impressed with his not-daughter.

"The plans are a little complicated though." Jess was playing dumb to help formulate an escape. "I Suggest having Quintin, the head of R&D take a look at." She searched out Quintin in the crowd and waved him forward. She would spend years trying to explain what happened next. Somehow Quintin knew that Jessie just needed him to keep Toy Santa distracted long enough for her and Curtis to escape. He practically read her mind with little more than a look shared between them. She silently thanked him a million times in her head before sneaking away with Curtis.

At the Miller's home, a melancholy Scott was playing a game of Go Fish with Lucy, when they heard a crash in the backyard. There was a ding at the doorbell and Lucy jumped up to answer it.

"JESSIE!" Lucy's face lit up when she saw her older sister standing at the front door. "You were gone forever!"

"I know Luce, I'm sorry." Jess apologized as she hugged her youngest sibling. "Say Lucy, is my Dad home? Or Mom?" Lucy didn't answer right away. Her eyes grew wide as she stared from her sister to Curtis.

"Are you an elf?" The little girl asked. The two elves exchanged a worried look. In their haste to escape the Pole, they'd forgotten all about hiding their elfishness. Self-consciously, Jess pulled her hair forward to hide her own ears. Lucy was still staring at Curtis, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"Of course not!" Curtis managed to cough out. He wasn't a very good liar. "Why would you ask such a silly question?"

"How come you have pointy ears?"

"It's because I never ate my green vegetables." The number two elf said very seriously. "Do you eat your green vegetables?" Nervously Lucy felt the tops of her ears to make sure they were still round. She then wondered into the house calling for her 'Uncle Scott'.

"Don't scare my sister!" Jess hiss. She gave Curtis a gently whack on the arm before dragging him inside the house.

"Yeah, I'm right here, what's wrong?" Scott asked, coming from the dining room. "Jessica and Curtis? What are you doing here?"

"There's a little trouble at the...plant." Curtis explained vaguely.

"Lucy," Scott bend down and looked the little girl in the eyes. "Curtis is a friend of me and Jessie's. He works in Canada with us. So we're gonna talk about business."

"What business?" She was curious.

"Well you see, it's business that's none of your business."

"Soon I'm gonna be seven." Lucy announced. "And then I can know things."

"Come on Lucy," Jess offered a hand out to her sister. "How about I read you a story and tuck you in?"

"Okay." Lucy sighed. She wanted to know more about Curtis and Uncle Scott's business. Maybe Jessie would tell her.