Santa Clause, Curtis.
Disclaimer. I do not own the Santa Clause. Disney does.
Author's notes. This is a sequel to my other story, the Santa Clause, Human Clause. This is also a one shot. Bernard and Judy are back from their trip to the mortal world. Bernard has to contend with a problem on his first day back.
Scene 1:
The sleigh finally had come to rest in its underground hanger. Santa disembarked first.
"Well guys. I am glad to see you back." He told them with a smile. "But I have to get home to Mrs. Claus now. Buddy has a cold and I'm afraid that the missis didn't get much sleep last night."
The elves told them that they understood. The elves quickly jumped out of the sleigh. Bernard and Mason began the task of unhitching the sleigh so that the reindeer could return to their stalls. Bernard noticed Judy was waiting impatiently tapping her foot.
"Whoa Judy. What's the rush." asked Bernard.
"Are you feeling all right. Mr. Lets Get Busy Making Toys High Elf is asking me what's the rush." asked the Naughty and Nice list elf.
"Judy. Its only February remember. The elf work force is not required to report back to work until the end of March." replied the Arch Elf.
"I know that. I am going to see my friends about my adventures out in the mortal world." Judy answered. She, Toby and Beth began to unload some of the bags from the sleigh. They placed them on the luggage carts located nearby.
She turned back to Bernard. "Let me guess. Even though the workforce does not have to report yet, a certain elf named Bernard is going directly to his workshop office anyway."
He wished that the elves could continue working all year. It just could not be. An elf had to have time to recoup the magic that was used on the previous years. It took the younger elves even more time to recoup the magic. That is why the new Santa, Scott Calvin, instituted a rotation plan. The elves under 1000 years of age worked one year on and two years off. The elves under 1500, worked one year on and one year off. The ones older than 1500 worked each year but had to take a three month break beginning Christmas day.
"Yes. You know me. I am just going to check the files for the last few years. See if there were any problems that I should know about" He sighed. "I admit to you being in the mortal world wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was even fun at times. I just don't like the fact it kept me this long from work."
The group of elves pushed their luggage carts toward the main office of the housing department.
The face of a young elf whom Bernard didn't recognize appeared in the window. She identified herself as Cindy.
"Hello Cindy. I'm Bernard. My friends and I have just returned from the mortal world. We would like our bedroom numbers so that we move back in."
"Your bedrooms have not been relocated, sir. They have not been touched since you have left. Please leave all of your bags on your carts. We will place them in your bedrooms once the rooms have been aired out."
The elves nodded their thanks to the elf and headed into town. Beth and Mason ran toward the cocoa shop while Judy headed over to see her friends, Abby and Cocoa. Bernard continued on his way toward the factory. He paused. Standing in front of the factory was a melancholy Curtis.
"Hello Bernard." he said.
"Hello Curtis." he answered back.
Bernard gazed at the sad elf before him. Curtis had a growth spurt in the years since he had been gone. He must have some Trivoly elf blood in him.
Bernard continued on his way toward his office and noticed Curtis following him. "Curtis is there something wrong?"
"Yes there is. I want to resign." Came back the reply.
"You don't have to resign as high elf, Curtis. I'm back. You can take some time off now. You deserve it." Bernard told him.
"You don't understand. I want to resign as a Christmas Elf. I really wanted to resign after the Christmas 2006 Jack Frost mess. I stayed on as your replacement for Christmas 2007 because Santa still needed a high elf."
Bernard stopped in his tracks and stared. "Curtis I don't know what happened but I am not accepting your resignation. The pole needs every elf. You are still young. A young elf makes mistakes. You will get better."
"Once you review your files you will see the lousy job I did." Curtis complained.
Bernard put his hand to the bridge of his nose. "Come with me. I will get the files for Christmas 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 to my office. We are going to pour over the files together in my bedroom."
Scene 2:
"You see Curtis. The factory did will on Christmas 2004, and 2005. It had just had some rough patches on 2006 because of Jack Frost. It bounced back on 2007."
"It was more than rough patches. The toy production was already behind schedule before Jack Frost arrived. I am just not cut to be an elf."
"Curtis. The toy production was behind because there was a shortage of magic up here. There was also a big shortage of kids not believing in Santa. You know that the magic and belief go hand in hand don't you?"
"I know Bernard I was there." Curtis said reminding him.
"I know you where here. But I was talking about the mortal world. Jack Frost is one of the Legendaries that can cast an invisibility shield around himself when he goes to the mortal world. But that does not mean he can't make himself heard by the mortals." Bernard shook his head angrily.
"The first year I was in the mortal world I encountered Jack Frost. I was with Beth and Mason at a birthday party for one of the best friends. Everything was going smoothly. The Mother could not stop raving about the cake that her Mother in law had made. The kids all loved the pony rides that had been provided. It was going great."
Bernard paused. "That was until a chilled wind blew into the room. The Mother seemed to be listening to somebody. Somebody that wasn't there. The next thing I know, She took the cake and dumped it all over her Mother in Law screaming 'You know that I don't like the color pink.' There also appeared to be someone whispering into the all of children's ears. A little girl threw mud on her best friend's dress because the other little girl had on the princess hat. One of the little boys untied the ponies from their harness because he wanted to ride it like they did on the westerns on tv. The ponies took off and destroyed all of the outside furniture. Beth and Mason told me that they could hear someone whispering in their ears that it was okay to be naughty." He paused again.
"Then in January, 2006, Beth and Mason told me that some of their littlest friends had stopped believing in Santa. I mean some of these kids were only two and three years old. Some of the children that I visited in the hospital had also had stopped believing. I talked to one of them and almost had them convinced that Santa was real. Then I felt that same cold chill in the hospital room that I felt earlier at the birthday party. Soon I heard the voice whispering in my ears that it was wrong to tell little kids lies. I realized that Frost had come into the room. Well I wrote MotherNature a letter about what was happening. Later on December, 2006, I spotted a poster of Jack Frost with Merry Frostmas written on it. I realized that he had been shaking the children's belief in Santa so that he could try to take over Christmas."
Curtis sighed. "There is something I didn't tell you about. Jack Frost found out about the escape clause. He tricked me into showing him where the hall of snow globes were kept."
"What!" Bernard fumed and glared at the other elf. He took a deep breath. "Okay so Frost found out about the hall of globes. He didn't use it and Scott Calvin is still our Santa."
Curtis handed Bernard another file. "Actually he did. You see the Big Guy was so stressed with the baby coming and all. Jack tricked Our Santa into saying the words. Jack followed him back to the past and stole the coat. Thus Jack Frost became Santa."
Bernard felt a shiver of fear go through him. "So that dream I had on Christmas Eve actually took place."
"Yes it happened under the Frost/Santa time line. But Scott Calvin still remembered being Santa. He realized that he had been tricked by Jack. He went to the pole and fought with the Jack Frost/Santa. He was able to trick Frost and restored the Calvin/Santa time line. FatherTime now has to keep two separate time lines for period of the December 24th 1994 until December 24th, 2006. He wasn't happy with Jack. Neither was MotherNature."
"Well, Jack is his and MotherNature's son."
Bernard frowned as he watched Curtis drink his fifth cocoa milkshake. "Curtis, stop that. Drinking is not the answer. I still can't accept your resignation. The only one who can accept an resignation is Santa."
Curtis frowned. "Can't you just give it to the Big Guy for me."
Bernard shook his head. "Come with me. We are going to talk this mess over with Santa."
"We!" exclaimed Curtis.
"Yes. We. I am the Arch Elf. Its my duty to assist the elves under me. Curtis, Santa will agree with me. You need to stop beating yourself over the head about this business."
Scene 3: The Clauses Chalet.
Santa had just gotten one year old Buddy Claus to accept some strained peas. He wiped the boy's runny nose and placed him in the elf sized chair by the fire. The boy cried when he was set down and raised his arms up.
"Daddy, want up." Indicated that he wanted to be held.
Santa smiled. "Okay Buddy."
Santa heard a soft knocking on the door. 'I wonder who that could be.' He opened the door and spied Bernard and Curtis.
"Bernard. Didn't I tell you that I had to be with Buddy today. Can't you handle the problem."
Bernard nodded sheepishly. "Yea. I seem to remember you saying that the baby was sick. But Santa this requires your input. "
Curtis interrupted him angrily. "Bernard can handle the problem, Santa. He is just chickening out of something that he could handle himself. All you have to do is give him your permission to handle it."
Santa stared at Curtis astonished at the outburst. "My permission for what?"
Bernard shook his head. "Curtis wants me to accept his resignation."
Santa shifted Buddy in his arms and wiped at his forehead. "Get in here, guys."
Bernard and Curtis went into the living room and sat down on the couch.
Santa sat in his easy chair. "Curtis, what's all of this about."
"I've already explained to Bernard my reasons." Replied his number 2 elf.
"Well, please explain them to me."
"Jack Frost tricked me. I trusted him. Its all my fault. The whole 2006 Christmas thing with Jack Frost was my fault. I figured I would resign before I was fired."
"Curtis. If I fired you than I would have to fire myself too." sighed his boss.
"What are you talking about. You're Santa. I am the one who goofed it all up."
"Oh Curtis. I'm the one who messed it up by allowing Jack to be here in the first place. I allowed myself to become distracted by all the pressure that year. Frost just took advantage of the situation. Even Santas can make mistakes. Bernard probably told you, you're still a young elf. You learn by your mistakes. The 2007 Christmas was one of the better one that we had in nine years."
"You mean that Santa!" Curtis exclaimed.
"Yes I do." Santa nodded.
He nudged Bernard in the ribs. "Thanks for not accepting my resignation."
Bernard nodded his head. "Sure thing Curtis."
"I'm going to the bakery to talk to Michelle." Curtis said with a smile on his face. He said his goodbyes to Santa and was off.
Bernard looked up at Santa with an intent look on his face. "Did you really mean that his job on the Christmas 2007 was the best job in 'Nine Years', Santa."
"Bernard I wouldn't lie about something like that." Santa paused remembering that Bernard had been the one in charge for some of those nine years. "I'm not saying he is a better high elf. He just instituted some some new ground rules in 2007. They worked out pretty well."
"Yeah. I noticed some of them. The one that allowed the tinsel elves and the ornament elves to switch jobs . Did it work."
"Yes it did. It stopped the two factions from fighting with each other. Now each of the elves can make either tinsel or ornaments together. No more tripping on the tinsel. No more broken ornaments."
"I'm glad to hear it. There is nothing as bad as walking on a broken ornament."
Bernard was beginning to get up from his seat when he saw Santa give him indication to stay. The baby was stirring in his arms.
"Bernard, I have to heat up Buddy's food. Could you hold him for me. I don't want to wake Carol up yet."
"Um. Sure. I think I can handle that."
Santa placed the baby in the elf's arms.
"Buddy, this is Bernard. Bernard this is you're future boss." Santa smiled as he went to fix Buddy his cereal.
Buddy stared at Bernard's curly hair and pulled.
"Ow." Said the elf as he disengaged the baby's fingers from his hair.
"I should have warned you. He loves to pull hair." Santa mused as he put the cereal in the kettle.
"Ow." Bernard said again this time louder. "Santa, please hurry up. He also loves to pull an elf's ears."
Santa looked into the room and saw Bernard massaging one of his abused ears. He went over and took Buddy.
"Oh sorry. Why don't you watch the cereal for me. It needs to be just barely warm."
The elf nodded and ladled out the cereal into Buddy's bowl.
"Bernard, I hadn't turned on the kettle yet. The cereal has not been heated yet."
Bernard just smiled. He pointed his finger and sparkles came off and toward the bowl. "Santa, I'm an elf. This is an emergency. I don't need to heat things up in a kettle when I can use my magic."
Santa settled Buddy into his high chair. "Thanks Bernard."
"Santa, I'm going to the bakery and check up on Curtis."
"You mean that you're going to the bakery to tease Curtis unceasingly."
"Santa you read me like book." Bernard replied with a laugh.