"Sammy, Sammy, he's done it again!!! I've told him to stop it but he wont he thinks its funny and we cant open anymore windows as its beginning to get cold outside. If you don't tell him to stop it we're going to have a riot down there, the other Elves are getting the hump, the Leprechaun's are threatening to tie his legs together to try and stop him and all he does is sit there doing it again and again. He's your mate, so stop what are you doing and get down there right now!. You have to tell him to stop it, whilst we are all still able to breathe"
I looked up from my desk, covered in drawings of the latest must have toys that we were about to ramp up production on, it was getting closer and closer to Christmas and if we were going to meet the targets I had to make the final decision on how many we would need today. The problem was I couldn't decide, too many and we would be left with loads of unwanted presents, not enough and there would be disappointed children all over the world, and now I had this to deal with on top of everything else!.
"Okay, Okay, Ill come down and tell him to stop it" I said sitting up straighter in my chair and pushing my glasses back onto the top of my head, I rubbed my eyes hoping that this wasn't going to take too long.
I looked at Emily standing in the door way, her hair tucked up under her green Elf hat, her hands on her hips, the golden hoops on her jumper catching the light that came from the window, hanging loosely over her blue jeans. She looked even more beautiful when she was angry. I decided quickly though that this wasn't the time to tell her! I wasn't that brave. I was planning on asking her to marry me on Christmas Eve, we'd been together for 4 years now and I knew she was the one. I just had to get all this work out of the way first!
"Don't you go looking at me like that Sammy, I'm cross with you don't you dare start giving me those sorry eye looks! It may work on your mother but it wont work on me!" she said folding her arms across her chest, the same way my mum did whenever she wanted me to doing something there and then.
"Worth a try" I smiled and stood up stretching my aching back.
So many things had happened since Carl had tried to take over the toy shop nearly 7 years ago. Tommy, as clumsy as he is, was now in charge of production, Jack and Liam were in charge of the Reindeer's, which to be honest didn't always go to plan. Jacob and Reece were in charge of ordering the parts we needed to make the toys, when they remembered to order them, Michael and Billy were now head of security, a joint promotion as we didn't want to upset either of them, Jamie and Grace were in charge of the food in the kitchen, some weird and wonderful concoctions came out of there you just never knew what you as going to get, which led on numerous occasions to the situation I was about to find myself in yet again, William and Laura were in charge of Human Resource's for both the Elf's and the Leprechauns, which meant that more often than not they sat around a table trying to stop them from attacking each other!.
Devel was still in the kitchen scrubbing pots and pans, he seemed to make the best of it, grateful I suppose that he was allowed to stay after trying to steal the Book of Names with Carl. The list of every child in the world and the toys that they wanted for Christmas, every time they were naughty a toy would be removed, but not so often so as there was nothing for them on the day. After all every child deserved something on Christmas morning.
I had replaced Devel as the head of the Elf's when I had turned 18. A huge responsibility that had taken me a long time to get the hang of, with lots of input from my Dad and Grandad. All I had wanted to do was make and design toys, not sort out arguments about who liked who better, but it was my responsibility now and along with HR who dealt with most of that, as frustrating as I found it, I guess it was just part and parcel of being in charge.
Carl was still banished from Lapland, we had kept an eye on him for a while when he first left, just in case he tried anything, but no one had seen or heard of him for a few years. Once the greatest toy designer of all time, he was now an outcast and unwelcome in his own land. I had no sympathy for him after what he had tried to do us all, Christmas was about the children and making sure they were happy, not about commercialism and making profits for huge corporations. Carl had believed that once but the lure of money had changed him and, when he tried to steal the Book of Names it had been me and my friends that had stopped him. It all seemed such a long time ago.
Father Christmas and Mrs Christmas would be back from their holiday in the next few days and I needed to make sure that everything was going to be fixed and ready for them. I needed to speak to Liam and Jack to make sure that the Reindeer's were being exercised properly, not just left to wander around whilst those two mucked about all day throwing hay and Reindeer poo at each other, and also that Michael and Billy were making sure that no trespasser's were trying to get into the village. Not the easiest of jobs because no human could see where we lived and every now and then one of them would stumble onto a hut. They would poke around whilst the alarms sounded and we shut the factory's down. They would be located and a quick smile and a memory wipe and all was good, then sent back on their way with a new map and a slight headache but no idea what had happened to them.
The only down side of this was that Michael and Billy would wait until one of them was asleep and then use it on each other, which they found hilarious but meant we had to keep going out and finding the one who had been sent away with a map. If I got a chance after all of that then I wanted to go and see Peter, who was now living with the Penguins as a mentor for their new King and helping him move the village into the 21st Century, using the new technology in place to develop their ideas into actual marketable products from which they could sustain a better way of life.
I walked towards Emily and gently kissed her on the cheek. She smiled at me and followed me out of the door. As I walked down the corridor I could hear the machines banging and clanging, the smell of wood and paint, wafting in the air. I loved this time of year, we were into full production, making toys for all the children in the world, we'd opened a new technology department in the past few years and it was now getting bigger and bigger as the demands of the children grew and grew. We always made sure that we got as many presents as we could to them all, a logistical nightmare when you first looked at it but Father Christmas had been doing it for centuries and knew what was required.
As I made my way past the machines on the factory floor, stopping briefly to make sure things were running smoothly, I could hear raised voices coming from the lunch room and knew that Tommy was part of it, his voice booming above the noise around me. I quickened my pace, hoping it wouldn't be like last time, when the Leprechauns had, had enough and dumped him upside down in a bin full of potato peelings.
I entered the room and saw Tommy standing on top of a table, a chair held out in front of him, keeping back the Elf's and Leprechauns which were trying to get at him.
"Its not my fault is it!" Tommy cried helplessly looking at all the people trying to grab him
"Yes it is" came a voice in front of him, a large angry looking Elf with a peg on his nose
"No its not, its theirs!" Tommy yelled pointing at a confused Grace and Jamie who were standing in the door way of the kitchen looking at what was going on in their dinning room.
"What have you two fed him this time?" I asked trying to fight my way through the crowd of upset Elf's and Leprechauns
"Why are you blaming us?" Jamie said crossly
"Because its normally your concoctions that lead to Tommy having the worst case of wind anyone can ever remember, that's why" I said finally reaching Tommy
"Well he does love his food" Grace replied happily
"That's not the point is it" I said hauling myself up onto the table next to my friend.
"Sammy will you tell them to leave me alone?" Tommy pleaded, his face was blood red and he was crossing and uncrossing his legs at an alarming rate.
"Just grab him and stick a cork up his bum" one of the Elf's at the front yelled
"I've got one here" shouted a Leprechaun waving the biggest cork Id ever seen above her head.
"No lets not do that" I pleaded, "So everybody please back off and let me get him out of here before we all pass out from the smell" It was even beginning to turn my stomach a little.
"Well were not putting up with it anymore, every time he has that cake this happens" a voice echoed from the crowd at the back
"What cake?" I asked looking at Jamie and Grace
"Our newest invention" Grace said proudly
"Yep its brilliant this one Sammy" said Jamie grinning and holding a plate with a piece of cake on it
"And Tommy was only too happy to try it for us, weren't you Tommy?" Grace asked almost hoping that he would agree with her.
"To be honest Sammy it was pretty good". Tommy said sheepishly
"What cake?" I asked helping him down off the table
"Baked bean and scrambled egg sponge" Grace said handing me the plate she'd taken from Jamie with the slice of cake on it
"What on earth is that?" I said turning my nose up at the orange and yellow sponge cake with scrambled egg sprinkled on top.
"We call it baked bean surprise" Grace proudly said
"It took me ages to create that" Jamie said just as proudly
"Tommy how many pieces did you have?" I asked gently leading him out of the room
"Three I think, but then I started to get tummy rumbles and I tried desperately to keep it in but I couldn't and well then it began to leak out, quietly at first, then it started to smell and I knew everyone would blame me, but I couldn't help it and when I started I couldn't stop" Tommy embarrassingly said
"Lets get you outside for a while, you can help Liam and Jack look after the reindeer this afternoon until you've got it out of your system, okay?" I was having trouble breathing now myself the smell was awful
"Okay, and Sammy I'm really sorry but it is great cake" he smiled
"Tommy no more okay" I said holding my nose.
"Okay I promise, no more today" he smiled hopefully at me as he said it.
I watched the room part down the middle as he walked towards the door, his hat in his hands and the aroma of his cake experience following him towards the door. Elf's shaking and muttering to themselves, the Leprechaun with the cork still waving it at me as passed by.
"Right you two, no more experiments okay, normal food only from now on and stop giving it to Tommy to try all the time! You know he'd eat anything you put in front of him" I said handing back the plate with the cake on it as we reached the door of the canteen.
They looked at each other and nodded in agreement silently.
"The rest of you get this place cleaned up, open some windows and get back to work". I said looking at the mess that had been created in the rush to get to Tommy.
I watched briefly as they started to pick the chairs up from the floor and place them back under the tables. I walked towards Emily, standing in the hallway, trying not to laugh, and doing a bad job of it to be honest.
"So you think its funny do you?" I asked trying to be cross
"Oh come on Sammy, those two will cook anything and Tommy will eat anything, its a match made in heaven and you know it" she laughed no longer able to hold it back
"I guess, I just wish he wouldn't eat everything they give him, he must have a cast iron stomach"
"Tommy's always eaten everything that's put in front of him that's why those two like him so much, do you remember the egg and hot dog porridge? The Elf's were threatening to wear gas masks" tears were no falling down her cheeks as she laughed harder and harder trying to catch her breath.
I couldn't help it I had to laugh at that one. We walked back towards my office remembering all the other concoctions that Tommy had eaten down the years, he was my best friend but I did wonder about some of the decisions he made sometimes.
"Sammy, Sammy are you there?" I reached down to my waist and grabbed the walkie talkie clipped to my belt
"Yep whats up Michael?" I said holding it to my mouth so as I could reply.
Michael and Billy were out doing their rounds so it wasn't unusual for them to check in with me from time to time.
"Err we have an issue here and we think you'd better come and have a look straight away?" He said slowly
"I'm busy Michael, what kind of issue?" I didn't mean to be short and Emily gave me 'that' look I shrugged my shoulders as an apology and placed the handset closer to my ear.
"Well I'll let Billy tell you" he said weakly
"No you tell me!" I was getting worried now I had so much to do and I didn't have time if they had memory wiped each other again.
"Erm, well, I'm not quite sure how to tell you this but".... Billy was taking forever but their was defiantly something wrong I could hear it in his voice.
"Just tell me!" I shouted finally losing patience.
"The reindeer have been stolen" he replied quietly
To be continued................
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