Mr. Claus

Chapter 11

Over the past week, Elmore had learned three things about Nicholas.

1. He was not a talker.

2. He carried the nutcracker with him at all times.

3. He could build a small castle with all of the papers he worked on throughout the day.

Elmore was wondering if he should comment on the world's current deforestation issues, when Mr. Cranberry walked into the stables holding yet another stack of papers. The third stack that day. Nicholas had just finished scribbling on the second stack, and Elmore was going to ask for help filling the water, but it seemed Nicholas would be busy. Nicholas groaned when he saw Mr. Cranberry walk in. Elmore had never really thought about what Nicholas did this close to Christmas before, and was not at all jealous.

"What are these for?" Nicholas asked Mr. Cranberry.

"Reports on how the wrapping is going mostly. Each division has a separate report, as you know, and this year we've added three more, so you have more than previous years. There are also some requests from individual elves regarding post-Christmas leave. You'll have to have those back as soon as possible." Mr. Cranberry explained. He looked mildly sympathetic.

Nicholas massaged his writing hand and took the papers. Mr. Cranberry left soon after, presumably to manage the elves and prevent chaos. He had developed a hand tremor a few years before, and wrapping was no longer his strong suit, so he mostly overlooked other elves and harshly criticised their wrapping skills.

Elmore left Blixem's stall and picked up the stack of buckets sitting in the corner. He walked with them to the heated tap and started filling each as high as possible. When every bucket was full, he picked them up one at a time and carried them to each stall. Other than Vixen ramming the stall when he walked by, it went smoothly. Elmore looked behind him and saw Nicholas falling asleep against the wall. He was sitting in Elmore's usual spot; a hay bale on the floor by the wall, covered by a rug meant for the reindeer during blizzards. The stack of papers was about to fall out of his hands. Elmore walked up to him and took the papers, placing them beside him. "Wake up."

Nicholas shot up and almost fell off of the hay bale. Elmore had forgotten that his sasquatch feet made him speak a lot louder than he thought, scaring the hell out of the sleeping Santa. "Have some grace!" Nicholas yelled, panting.

"Apologies. Come help me brush the hormone monster." Elmore said.

"I have work to do."

"You didn't look like you were doing anything just now though."

Nicholas glared. "Fine."

Elmore knew the man could use a break, and knew what his answer would be before he said it. They brushed for a while, then Elmore got Nicholas to help him feed, then they swept and cleaned stalls. Soon, Nicholas had to get back to work, and Elmore had to sit down.

Elmore picked up one of the papers Nicholas had already looked at and skimmed it. "The jewellery department isn't wrapping at all this year?"

Nicholas nodded. "They're behind. They still have a few hundred presents to make. They say they'll be done by the end of the month but I'm not confident. It'll be a close call."

"Doesn't that happen every year? Last year it was the clothes, the year before it was the childrens toys." Elmore asked.

"Yes. Somehow, even after centuries of making toys, we still can't get everything perfect." Nicholas sighed.

Elmore picked up another bundle of papers. "The electronics department is way ahead in wrapping this year. They're making up for a lot of the other department's delays."