Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Scott turned to see what they were screaming at. All together the four adults shouted:

"It's naked!"

Jess, rolled her eyes at the three men and searched the area for something to cover Toy Santa with. She found a stretch of fabric nearby and draped it over his shoulders. Curtis had to admit he was disappointed the Toy Santa didn't look as life like as the toy mouse had been previously. Instead of white and soft, his beard was greyish and rubbery. Toy Santa's blue eyes didn't glisten the same way that Scott's did and his "skin" had an unnatural sheen to it. All that aside it was still pretty cool.

"It's incredible!" Curtis beamed with pride.

"Can it talk?" Santa questioned before making his final judgment on the matter. Curtis gestured at Toy Santa suggesting Scott give it a try. Shrugging, the real Santa turned to his toy counterpart. "Hello?" At first, just a few drunkish garbles were all Toy Santa could manage. Scott attempted to try again. "Hello?" This time Toy Santa was able to repeat the greeting in an exact copy of the real Santa's voice. "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Scott laughed.

"Ho, ho, ho." Toy Santa repeated, his tone lacked the cheery disposition of the true father of Christmas, but for the elves who didn't know Scott well it would work.

"Not bad." The genuine Santa nodded with approval.

"You're not too bad yourself!" Toy Santa remarked.

"You watch him, we'll be right back." Scott instructed Curtis before dragging his daughter and son-in-law away by their elbows. "Listen you two, I know you have your own issues going on, but I really need your help on this."

"What do you mean?" Bernard asked. His voice squeaked, as it tended to do when he was nervous. If Jess wasn't so mad at him, she'd have giggled lovingly at her husband.

"I mean that I have to go see Charlie." Scott said. "I need the two of you to convince the elves that 'Toy Santa' is me."

"Uh, hmm, Have you seen that thing?" The head elf prodded skeptically.

"I've seen it." His father-in-law assured him.

"Bernard's right Daddy, No one's going to believe that it's really you." Jess agreed.

"they might if my elf-in-law and his wife tell them it is." Scott insisted.

"But I wanted to go with you to..."

"Jessie, I can handle Charlie on my own. He's my son remember?" Santa insisted. "Maybe after a few days you can come down and visit your mom and Neil, but right now I really need you up here helping Curtis and Bernard with this Toy Santa thing. Can you just do that for me please?" Jess wanted to argue with her dad but it was the first thing he'd asked her for since they'd moved to the pole.

"What exactly do we tell the elves?" She sighed against her better judgment. Scott thought for a minute before replying.

"Keep the elves at a distance and say that I've changed my look. It'll work!" To Bernard it sounded more like Santa was trying to convince himself that this half-thought out plan would work.

"I'm not going to lie to the elves." The number one elf insisted. He didn't care what his wife or Santa said. This idea would never work.

"I hope you know we're in way over our heads with this." Bernard hissed at his wife. Santa had left for the Miller's house thirty minutes ago and it was now time for the head elf, his wife and Curtis to introduce Toy Santa. The three of them stood together at the top of the main staircase waiting for the rest of the elves to gather as they'd been instructed.

"It'll be fine." Jess whispered back. Most of the elves were staring at them from the bottoms of the staircase, wondering what the emergency meeting could be about. "Aside from the three of us, how many of the elves really spend a lot of time with Dad?"

"Well there's Judy, Abby, Quintin, the elves at the stables..." Curtis began to ramble off the list of several elves who came in close contact with Santa on a daily basis.

"Curtis!" Jessica and Bernard snapped at him in frustration. He immediately closed his mouth knowing that this was not the time to further irritate one of the North Pole's biggest power couples.

"Is everyone here?" Jessie asked the number two elf impatiently.

"Just about." Curtis confirmed.

"Alright, let's do this." Bernard heaved a dramatic sigh before addressing the crowd of his underlings. "Hello? Hi! Yes, Uh, Curtis, Jess and I have an announcement to make. Jessie..." He turned the attention over to his wife uncomfortably.

"Right, ah...um...We just want..." Jess wished she'd had a more thought out speech prepared, but then again this whole plan hadn't been very thought out. "We, Bernard, Curtis and I, we just wanted to talk to you about my dad...about Santa's new look. As you're all aware this time of year is very, very stressful." There was a pause in her speech as several elves erupted with either groans or slight laughter. The pause gave the young elf time to stitch together a better excuse. "Santa is a Legendary figure of course, but in his heart, he's also human and, er, when humans get stressed they tend to change their appearance."

"That's right!" Curtis jumped in, coming to her rescue. "Santa has made a few changes to his appearance because he has been really stressed out this year, we're confident he will go back to his usual look after the busy season."

"I myself think he looks absolutely terrific!" Bernard added on awkwardly. "Better and fresher somehow than he has in years! There's a more...supple veneer to his skin and an added luster to the thickness of his hair. You could almost say there's a...a toylike quality to him. Most importantly, he's very happy with his new look and I would caution you all not to point or stare or use the word 'plastic' okay? Thank you, that's all. Back to work please!" With Bernard's final words, the elves returned to their workstations throughout the pole.

"See that wasn't so hard was it?" Curtis smiled as the others dispersed.

"I have to check on my painters." Was all Jessie said.

"And I have paperwork to file." Was all Bernard added. The husband and wife walked off in separated directions obviously still at odds with each other. Curtis' smile transformed into a frown as he was left alone at the top of the stairs. He'd thought for sure Jessica and Bernard would have worked their issues out by now. He'd also assumed it that Santa was trying to force them together by putting them in charge of Toy Santa. "I've got to do something to fix this..." he mumbled before wandering into the kitchen to devise a plan.