Tracy
Tracy stood at the top of a metal staircase high above the warehouse floor. A huge circular platform descended with a loud squeal into the center of the room. On it sat Santa in his now-empty sleigh, and his eight reindeer. Surrounding the platform were hundreds of gray metal shelves, each ten or fifteen feet high, stuffed with wrapped packages. The shelves stood in long, neat rows. Each row was labeled with a three digit number, reminding Tracy of the huge library downtown. Many of them were only half-full, or altogether empty. She assumed the presents were all for this year. That had been one of her points for the project. How did Santa fit all of those toys in his sleigh? Now she knew. He didn't. He reloaded.
On instinct, Tracy reached for her cell phone before remembering it wasn't there. She cursed herself for jumping off that stupid roof. She needed her phone, and she needed it now.
Or did she?
She didn't need her phone specifically, just a camera. And in a warehouse full of Christmas presents, there was bound to be dozens of them.
Tracy raced down the stairs and ducked into the first row she came to. She felt a moment of guilt for what she was about to do, but when she thought about Pim and the reason she was doing this, her actions seemed justified. Still, she didn't want to randomly start ripping apart boxes. She had to do this methodically. She quickly gathered a small pile of presents that were about the size and weight of a camera, then she started opening, peeling back just a little bit of paper so that it looked like it had been accidentally ripped. In the fourth box, she found exactly what she was looking for, a digital camera that came with batteries, so it didn't need to be charged. She clutched it to her chest and smiled, silently praising herself for her idea.
By the time Tracy had set up her new camera, the platform had disappeared behind the towering shelves, so she darted from aisle to aisle until she found a hiding place with a good view. She rounded a corner just in time to see a line of about twenty of those elf things marching single file to the sleigh, all wearing tiny yellow hard hats. The creatures each held a bundle of presents so large, they looked like ants carrying elephants.
She snapped a dozen pictures as one by one, the elves stepped onto a small black square on the platform beside the sleigh. Off to the side, another elf pressed a red button set into a control panel, and the square lifted to the top of the sleigh. There, the first elf arranged presents in one of Santa's red bags, then was lowered back to the platform.
The elves continued on, with their assembly line until Santa's sleigh was once again loaded. Through it all, Santa and his reindeer remained perfectly still, each of them wearing that same glazed over look that she'd seen on those figures in the wax museum she'd been to out in California. Her skin prickled as she imagined touching Santa's face and feeling nothing but lifeless wax.
No! she reprimanded herself. There had to be a reasonable explanation for this. This was the longest night of the year for Santa. Maybe he was simply taking a quick nap. Her friend, Macy, had once brought a picture to school of her little brother sleeping with his eyes open. He looked pretty much like Santa did now, except she couldn't tell if Santa was drooling like Macy's brother did.
A few seconds later, the elf at the control panel punched another button. The ceiling opened again with a squeal of metal scraping metal, and the platform rose back into the night sky. As it rose, some stray pieces of the elves' yellow dust drifted off the sleigh and floated to the ground.
Once the ceiling shut, the elves all scuttled off in different directions.
Tracy slid the camera into her shirt pocket and made her way through the stacks. She could have climbed back up the way she'd come, but she was betting on there being a door somewhere that led back into Santa's house. She still believed Mrs. Claus was the person she needed.
As Tracy picked her way through the maze of shelves, she spotted a yellow dust spec sitting on one of the presents. It almost blended in with the gold foil wrapping paper, but the sparkle caught her eye. Always a scientist, she realized the opportunity when she saw it. Very carefully, she pinched the dust spec between her fingers. It felt warm, and it tingled between her fingertips. She couldn't wait to get back home and analyze it.
She pulled her neck pouch out from under her shirt and searched it for a plastic baggie. She had already contaminated her evidence by touching it. The sooner she had it in its own container, the better. She zipped the dust spec into the plastic bag, but she quickly realized her mistake. Once the dust touched the plastic, it started to glow. Then, it pulsed and expanded. She knew that certain chemicals reacted badly with others. Maybe something in the dust didn't agree with the plastic.
She wanted to open it and get that dust out, but the bag grew hot in her hands. Volcano hot. All she could think about, while the bag heated up and the dust expanded, was getting it out of her hands and getting away.
She quickly stuffed it into a crack between two presents and ran. Before she got halfway down the aisle, the bag exploded. There was no smoke or fire, but there was a loud bang and a gaping hole where about a dozen presents should have been.
She might have been worried that someone had heard the explosion, but at that exact moment, the ceiling split open again with a deafening squeal.
Tracy forgot about the dust and looked up. Santa couldn't be back already. Could he?
As she looked toward the ceiling, she knew she was wrong. Santa and his team were descending once again with an empty sleigh. She figured it had only been about a minute and a half since he left. That made no sense at all. In the half an hour she'd ridden with him, he hadn't managed to empty the sleigh.
Her mind was busy trying to come up with a logical explanation when she noticed Santa's beard. Less than a minute before, it had been as curly as a ribbon. Now, it was as straight as her own hair. Her mouth gaped open at the sight. She had just discovered another one of magic's “helping hands.”
“Impressive, isn't it?” said a voice behind her.