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I SKITTERED AWKWARDLY around a corner, barely avoiding a group of elves. I couldn’t see a thing with the pile of papers in my arms, and the clicking of my shoes annoyed even me now. For all the noise I made, I might as well have been riding down the hallway on a horse—or a reindeer, as it may.
Teetering on one foot, I attempted to pull off my boots. I jumped in place on one foot, trying valiantly to remove my last boot. As I tipped to the side, a group of elves swarmed around me. Some hands pushed me back upright while others grabbed the papers from my arms. And then someone jammed something warm and fuzzy onto my feet.
I looked down, giving off a heavy sigh as I caught sight of what now adorned my feet. “It had to be Christmas slippers?” I asked.
I looked up to catch one of the elves inspecting my boots. He gave off a snort of derision and handed them on to the elf next to him. She deposited them into a slot in the wall before I could even open my mouth to stop her. “Wait!” I yelled anyway.
“Too late,” she said. “That was the garbage chute.”
“But it must go somewhere.” I jammed my head into the chute, expecting to see the bottom.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” one of the male elves said. “That goes straight into the incinerator.”
“Argghh, those were $200 boots!”
“We’ll make you a new pair. Something more practical for the North Pole,” one elf said.
“I’m not staying here. I’m just going to help my grand... Santa sort through this Naughty List and then I’ll be on my way.”
“Ok,” he said, shrugging.
The elves who carried the stacks of papers started walking down the hall—in the opposite direction I had been heading. I supposed they knew where my room was when I most certainly did not. I turned and followed dutifully behind.
They banged through the door to my room and deposited the stacks of papers on the floor surrounding the bed. I stood in the open doorway looking up and down the hall, trying to determine a way I could remember this as my room. The doors all looked the same, so white and sterile for what they contained.
The elves pushed past me, heading back to their duties. “Wait,” I called out. They all stopped and stared at me a moment, but when they then all turned and continued down the hall, a pretty girl with auburn hair stayed behind. The name Ginger was written in perfect cursive upon her name badge.
“We must hurry,” she said. “With only 214 hours until Christmas Eve, we’re on a tight schedule.”
“Do you ever stop working?” I asked her. “What time is it, anyway? My cell phone got wet and has been all out of whack since I got here, and fifteen hours of flying, plus bus rides, has me all confused.”
She looked up, scrutinizing me. “We rest when there is time to rest, which isn’t now. But just so you know, Santa is a very fair boss. We receive sick days and vacation time, just like anywhere else. And, there’s a clock right there on your wall.”
As I turned and realized there was a clock on my wall, she moved to leave. I called her back.
“What do I do?” I asked, gesturing to the stacks and stacks of papers now filling my room.
My room. It only looked like my room, I chastised myself. I won’t be here long.
“That’s the Naughty List?” Ginger questioned.
I nodded.
“That’s Mrs. Claus’s job.”
“Well, it’s my job now,” I groaned.
“There’s nothing to worry about. She’s just angry at Santa. This will all blow over soon.”
I looked at all the papers, at what I realized would soon be a mound of chaos strewn throughout my perfectly decorated room. “I’m not so sure.”