Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Jessica!" a very frustrated Bernard shouted his wife's names as he stormed through the main floor of the workshop. The two had been married for five years now, and for the most part they got along like cookies and milk. Bernard had maintained his post as head elf while Jessie had been promoted to chief elf of the paint department. In order to increase productivity, all painting work was moved to a large department under the direct control of the newly turned elf. So far both the paint department and Jessie had been working out great. That wasn't to say that there weren't occasional mishaps. One of those mishaps was clutched between Bernard's hands as he marched towards the department in question. Jess was standing in the middle of the paint center mixing a new batch of Christmas green when she'd heard her husband's disgruntled shouts.

"Jessie, do I need to remind you that our job is to provide quality toys to the children of the world?" Barnard snapped. He didn't like being rude to his wife but this was workshop business. Neither elf held a grudge about things that happened during work hours.

"What is it this time?" Jessie sighed. She looked up at him from a curtain of her wavy brown hair.

"This!" The head elf hissed. He tossed a wooden duck down on the counter in front of her. At first it didn't seem to be so bad. It was the right base colors, the bill was orange and the body was the correct shade of yellow. Upon further inspection, Jess realized someone had neglected to paint eyes on the toy fowl.

"It's just eyes, Bernard." After placing the toy back on the counter, the chief painter grabbed jars of black and white paint and a detailing brush.

"Just eyes?" Bernard repeated, flabbergasted. "Curtis and I already copied fifty of these before we realized something was wrong. I lost forty five minutes of production time!"

"Don't be so dramatic." Jess rolled her eyes. "I'm already halfway done fixing it. Once this guy is dry, Curtis can up the speed on the toy duplicator and make up for the time lost." Her husband didn't argue because he knew she was right. Instead he leaned against the counter and watched her work. Jess always painted with an elbow on the counter, her head rested on that hand. She was right handed, which was uncommon among elves. Though Jess herself wasn't a common elf and she certainly didn't dress like one. That day she was wearing a pair of Bernard's old brown slacks and a reindeer sweater. Still just four feet ten inches tall, she favored sneakers over traditional elf shoes. In fact Jessie would hardly resemble an elf at all if it weren't for the pair of pointy ears that stuck out through her hair. "What are you staring at?" She growled, now finished with her task.

"Your ears." Bernard confessed.

"My..." Jess's left hand shot up towards her ear self-consciously.

"Darling, you have beautiful ears." The head elf promised.

"Sorry to interrupt..." Curtis said entering the paint department. Jessie and Bernard both glared at him, but the number two elf pressed on. "I have an update on Charlie."

"Charlie? Is he still getting into trouble?" Bernard asked.

"It started out as normal teenage rebellion but it's been getting worse." Jess explained. "What's he done now?"

"Something at school." Curtis said. "Dr. Miller, called there's a meeting with his principal. Should I tell Santa?"

"No." Jess said immediately. "No, I'll go down to the meeting with Mom, Neil and Charlie's principal. No one tell Santa."

"Question, how exactly are you going to do that?" Bernard questioned her with crossed arms with crossed arms.

"I'll take a reindeer. Not Comet, obviously, Dad would notice if he went missing. But I'll go down and explain that Dad couldn't come because of his work, so he sent me instead." Jess shrugged.

"There are just a few problems with that. For one thing, no human is going to believe you're twenty three." Bernard waved his hand at his wife's beautiful figure. "You're an elf now. You'll age much slower than you did before. Jessie you look exactly like you did when you were eighteen! Never mind the fact that you're two inches shy of five feet! When we visited with Charlie last he towered over me! I can only imagine the height difference between you two now."

"But I am Charlie's older sister and one of his legal guardians in the school records." Jess reminded him.

"That was only suppose to be for emergencies!" Curtis jumped in.

"Well this is an emergency...kind of." Jess insisted.

" What about your ears?" Bernard questioned. "They stick out of your hair like two pointy little billboards!"

"All I need is a hat." She decided before plucking the green velvet hat off her husband's head. Tugging Barnard's favorite hat onto her own head, Jess tucked the pointed tips of her ears into the brim of her hat. "See! Basically human. I'll be back before you even notice I'm gone." Without another word Jess walked out of the workshop and towards the stables.

"She took my hat." The head elf frowned.

"You're married." Curtis shrugged ."What's yours is hers and what's Hers is hers!"

"Get back to work!" Bernard yelled at his number two elf.