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5
For Pim Christmas Eve Day went very slowly. He could hear the clatter and chatter of elves working in the sled room, but he dare not make a sound himself. It was dark, musty and hot inside his sack. Uncomfortable, too, because he had to stay hunched up most of the time. Still, he managed a little snicker when Fanafroo barged into the room.
‘Where is the knave!’ the foreman bellowed.
‘Goodness, Master Fanafroo,’ Dabbledee chided. ‘It’s Christmas Eve Day, sir, the happiest day of the year. Please don’t ruin it with ill-humor.’
Pim giggled.
‘What’s that?’ Fanafroo demanded, and Pim could feel the old elf’s glare through the canvas. ‘Santa hasn’t ordered anything into the sleigh yet. What’s this sack doing here?’
‘Santa put it there himself,’ Dabbledee explained without hesitation. ‘I believe it’s a puppy.’
‘Woof,’ Pim confirmed.
‘That’s the strangest sounding puppy I’ve ever heard,’ Fanafroo growled. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was some imp pretending to be a puppy.’
‘You should know better than to question Santa,’ Dabbledee countered tartly. ‘Please, Fanafroo, can’t you cheer up just a little. I’m sure Pim is somewhere nearby, and I’m sure he is doing what he can to make Christmas Eve Day a resounding success. He stayed up very late last night and helped me prepare Santa’s sleigh for its journey. He was very helpful.’
‘Bah!’ Fanafroo grumbled, then turned and marched off.
After that Pim did slip into a restless sleep. Whether it was the stuffy air inside his sack, or his tiredness from not having slept a wink the night before, he could not say, but his eyelids drooped, then dropped like curtains, and he slumbered on in his hiding place as everyone else prepared for the great send-off. It was not until Christmas Eve had actually arrived that Pim woke up. The cheering of elves and Santa’s booming voice could mean only one thing: The countdown to Christmas had begun.
‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’ the Chief Elf laughed.
‘Hooray!’ the citizens of Borealis roared.
Pim’s eyes opened wide in fear and wonder. He had forgotten where he was. Then he remembered stealing a sack from the factory floor, sneaking into the sled room, clambering into the back of the sleigh and pulling the heavy canvas up over his head.
‘Hooray!’ the crowd shouted again.
He felt ashamed, then, and a little frightened. What am I doing? he asked. I should be with all the others, cheering Santa on his way, not hiding in a sack in the back of his sleigh. He would have crawled out and slunk into the crowd if he could, but there was no chance of that, for all Borealis was gathered around and every eye in the community would have seen the shamefaced elf climb out. So Pim held shut the mouth of his sackcloth prison and prayed he would not be discovered.
The sleigh rocked as Santa climbed on board, causing another tumult from the crowd. Pim imagined Santa standing there, portly and grand in the rider’s box; and the reindeer stamping and huffing, eager to fly. He also thought of Dabbledee, and wondered if she was thinking of him… If only he had mustered the courage to crawl out of hiding and fess up when she’d prodded him with her boom handle, there might have been a chance for him to make things up. Now that he’d deceived her and Santa… well?
These gloomy thoughts were interrupted by a commotion outside. Now Santa will make his farewell speech, Pim guessed, and I won’t be in the crowd to clap and cheer.
‘Borealians!’ Santa began, his deep, friendly voice calming the room. ‘My friends, for another year you have worked with good cheer and devotion so children throughout the world might have presents under their trees. In all that time I have not heard one single complaint, except of course from old Fanafroo, who has a special permit for complaining…’
A snicker rippled through the crowd, and one wiseacre shouted ‘Good old Fanafroo! We’d never make Christmas without him. Someone has to be grim!’
‘Thank you Fanafroo, for your earnestness,’ Santa continued, ‘and thank you all for the spirit of giving, which you keep alive all year long. My job this evening is to deliver your gifts. It’s a delightful task, for I am delivering the love each and every one of you has lavished on the world. And all the world heaps praises upon me for sharing your good will!‘
A murmur went through the crowd.
‘You work all year, too, Santa!’ a voice protested. ‘Yes!’ the citizens of Borealis agreed. ‘No-one works harder…’
‘And until this year, no-one has received as much adulation for making Christmas come true. Why, when I fly over the cities of this world, I can’t look anywhere without seeing a thousand pictures of me. I am on billboards, in greeting cards, in magazines and on television screens. I am in the drawings of countless children, pinned up on walls and refrigerators throughout the world.
‘Tell them Whizzpop. Tell them what you’ve seen through that ioscope of yours.’
Pim knew Whizzpop must have turned bright red, and that he was probably bobbing and bowing in the gaze of his fellow Borealians. ‘What you say is true, sir,’ Whizzpop reported. ‘There’s not a place you could go at this time of year without seeing an image of yourself.’
‘You see!’ Santa laughed. ‘It’s high time others were recognized for their contributions, and it’s time others got to see the world on Christmas Eve.’
Now the crowd positively buzzed with excitement. Nobody had ever heard a speech like this on Christmas Eve, and everyone wondered what it could possibly mean. It took some time for Santa to restore order, all the separate conversations adding up to a hubbub, which he had to quell by raising his hands for silence – an unprecedented gesture from the Chief Elf.
‘Small beginnings lead to great ends,’ Santa resumed, ‘and my small beginning in this direction will be to take one of you with me on this evening’s trip, and one elf each year hereafter.’
Again Santa had to pause and hold up his hands for silence. ‘Who will it be, Santa?’ several elves shouted all at once. ‘How will you choose?’
‘Well,’ Sant pondered. ‘I chose an elf who loves to talk and has been faulted often for his flapping tongue. I wanted a companion whose excited report of what he’d seen would spread far and wide and inspire all his fellow Borealians.’
‘I like talking,’ Pim frowned. ‘He might have chosen me!’
Santa waited patiently while the Borealians looked at one another, trying to identify the most talkative elf in the city. But such a person was nowhere to be found. When they had satisfied themselves on that point, they turned to Santa again, their babble subsiding.
‘I had chosen an elf who is a bit of a dreamer – in fact, he has been roundly chastised for his daydreaming, because there are some who do not see the value in things as insubstantial as dreams…’
‘I love to dream!’ Pim all but cried out loud. ‘Why wouldn’t you pick me!’
The Borealians went wild with speculation now. There seemed to be a general consensus, though, that the dreamiest daydreamer of them all was not among them.
‘I had chosen an elf who works in – um – unorthodox ways, and who some people get impatient with because he simply cannot do things the way they do. Adventures call for new methods, and what is seen as a flaw here would make my candidate perfect for the job at hand…’
‘I do things differently,’ Pim bristled, pouting at the bottom of his sack.
‘I had chosen an elf who seems to have disappeared,’ Santa concluded sadly.
‘Not him surely!’ Fanafroo grumped.
‘Yes!’ Santa laughed. ‘Pim Anterlaffston is the very elf I had chosen…’
‘Well if it’s him you’re taking, I suggest you make Master Anterlaffston a present to the Antarctians, because that’s about as far away from Borealis as you can get.’
Even Santa laughed a little at this quip, although he gave Fanafroo a stern look. ‘Has anyone seen Pim?’ he asked. After some shuffling and searching it was determined that the one known as The Naughty Elf was nowhere to be found. More than one eye turned in Fanafroo’s direction. ‘Don’t look at me!’ the foreman protested. ‘I might have tweaked his ear, if I could have found the scoundrel, but I haven’t seen Pim since yesterday.’
At the bottom of his sack, Pim cringed miserably. He wanted more than ever to crawl out, but the thought of revealing himself was simply too much. So he shrank as far down into the bottom of the sleigh as he could. Santa would have chosen me all along,’ he thought wretchedly, and here I am, playing a mean trick, stowing away in the back of his sleigh.
Pim didn’t have long to wallow in his pity, though, for the next words Santa addressed to the crowd added to his already insupportable embarrassment.
‘Since Pim cannot be found – I’m sure he’s nearby somewhere, but we haven’t time to wait – I have chosen someone else to sit beside me on tonight’s journey. This person I have chosen because of her dedication and love and kindness. And,’ Santa paused, grinning slyly, ‘because my reindeer have made it known to me that they won’t fly tonight unless I do choose her.’
Up front Rudolph shook his head and pawed the floor in agreement, and all the other reindeer rattled their harnesses and jangled their bells
‘The person I have selected is Dabbledee Hort’n’furzz,’ Santa announced.
‘Who?’ Dabbledee asked Whizzpop, standing next to her.
The genius beamed, grasped her by the shoulders, and whooped, ‘You, you ninny! You’re going to be the first elf ever to ride in Santa’s sleigh!’ Then he held on to her firmly, for he was afraid Dabbledee was going to faint.
‘Me?’ she asked solemnly, as a huge cheer went up from the crowd.
‘Yes you, my pet! You my wonder! And I can’t think of a better choice in all Borealis!’ Whizzpop hugged his dear friend, then, because he saw she was overwhelmed, and that tears were brimming in her eyes.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.
‘I – I’m overjoyed, of course,’ Dabbledee shouted.
‘But?’
‘I just wish Pim were here,’ she confessed. ‘He really is the best choice and I hate taking his place.’
Whizzpop nodded, because he understood. Then he clapped Dabbledee on the shoulder and said, ‘Come on. We can’t think about that now. Millions of children are waiting for Christmas morning and we can’t delay Santa a second more.’ With that he hustled Dabbledee up to the sleigh. ‘Here’s your passenger, sir,’ he shouted up to Santa, who was beaming down on the two of them.
‘Thank you Whizzpop,’ Santa yelled over the hullabaloo, as he helped Dabbledee into the box.
‘Could you do me a favor?’ he asked, once Dabbledee was on board. He raised his bushy white brows and looked fondly upon the inventor, who nodded his head. ‘What a silly question!’ Santa exclaimed. ‘You are always doing me favors and I never seem to have time to reward your loyalty.’
‘What is it, Santa?’
‘Be sure to keep an eye on us as we are departing,’ Santa confided. ‘Leave the sled room right now and go to your observatory. As you know, the ioscope will not be able to keep up with us once the sleigh breaks through the barrier into accelerated-time. But in leaving, I shall go slowly and I think you will have tremendous news to report to the good citizens of Borealis… Yes, I think you will have quite a tale to tell.’
Puzzled, Whizzpop exchanged a quick glance with Santa, then said, ‘Yes sir.’ Nor did he wait a moment. He turned and flew out of the sled room, his long legs carrying him through the Toy Factory and down the ice tunnel at an astounding rate.
Santa straightened himself, surveying the cheery faces of Borealis. The moment had come – the moment to pronounce the words everyone eagerly awaited. He paused, just long enough to get the crowd worked up to a fever pitch, then cupped his mittened hands to his mouth and shouted so the whole room echoed with the call: ‘Load the presents!’
A deafening whoop went up, and the first bulging bags were passed hand to hand down the line, then heaved into the back of Santa’s sleigh. Whump, whump, whump, went the big bags; ‘Ouch! Ooch! Ouch!’ cried Pim under the growing heap.