by Linnea West
Leon’s voice trembled as he spoke and he seemed to melt into the floor a bit. His entire body hunched over and he got lower and lower to the floor, not daring to look at Cordelia and Clarence. He continued folding, but instead of the efficient, productive folding he had been doing before, now it was slow and methodical like Leon didn’t want to get up off of the floor anytime soon.
Cordelia looked at Clarence again. The Head Elf looked like he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, but something was stopping him. The speaker that was piping Christmas music into the office was somewhere behind Clarence, offering an odd juxtaposition to Clarence's angry snarl. It was up to her to calm this situation because Clarence wasn't going to and even though Leon looked timid, he had dug his heels in and was not going to cede.
“Perhaps we all need to take some time,” Cordelia said. “I would offer my help to fold the List, but we all know how good I am at that.”
She chuckled to herself, looking back and forth between the men. Neither one laughed or made any move to indicate that they had heard her talking. She tried again.
“I think Leon should continue folding up the Lists and I can help shelve and organize the previous books,” Cordelia said. “Once that is done, we can focus on getting this year’s List back together. Clarence, I’m sure there are things on my agenda for this afternoon that you can take over?”
Clarence’s nose wrinkled and he gracefully sat back down in the leather chair, taking the list out of his pocket. It was carefully folded, the only wrinkles being the folds to make it fit in his pocket. As always, Clarence was careful and meticulous with everything.
“We do need to okay the program for the Christmas Day program,” Clearance said. “I believe that is a job that Mrs. Claus should do. I could go retrieve one and bring it back here for you to go over.”
“Oh, I trust you could do a magnificent job making sure everything is in order with that,” Cordelia said.
She was trying her hardest to nicely and gently get Clarence out of the List Room for a while. Things would never get cleaned up and back in order if he was in here. Besides, Leon obviously had someone else in mind who was now suspect number one, but he wasn’t going to tell Clarence. Mrs. Claus on the other hand? She could probably weasel it out of him.
But Clarence’s eyes bore into her as he folded his hands on top of the to-do list on the desk. Leaning forward, he enunciated everything slowly.
“It is a job for Mrs. Claus,” he said.
“But I’m sure just this one year, it would be okay if you approved the program,” Cordelia said. She put her widest Mrs. Claus smile on her face, hoping to sway him. “You’ve helped me with it every year until now. I think you know exactly what it needs.”
Clarence leaned forward, putting his head in his hands. He rubbed his temples while he sighed slightly. Cordelia stole a glance at Leon, who was still slowly folding the Lists, listening in on their conversation. Turning back, she kept the jolly smile on her face, hoping Clarence wouldn't be able to say no to Mrs. Claus.
“Cordelia, no,” Clarence said. “You know that I am probably the most traditional elf you will find here at the North Pole. I’m okay bending some things, but Mrs. Claus is in charge of the Christmas Day celebrations and therefore should be the one making all of the hands-on plans. I am the Head Elf. I am here to make sure you do your job, but you aren’t making it easy on me.”
Rats, he was a stubborn old elf. Cordelia sighed, knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to convince him, not this time at least.
“Fine, go get the program for me,” Cordelia said. “But do me a favor? Make it take a little while.”
She dropped her voice so that Leon couldn't hear the last part. Clarence’s face wrinkled in confusion, so Cordelia jerked her head in Leon’s direction, hoping Clarence would understand. After a moment, it seemed to dawn on Clarence. He stood up and slowly walked around the desk, being more careful this time to step around the papers that were still on the floor. When he got to the door, he turned and snapped his fingers until Leon looked up at him. Cordelia rolled her eyes at him.
“Leon, pick up the pace,” Clarence said. “Mrs. Claus will assist you, but we need to move on to repairing this year’s List.”
Opening the door, Clarence slipped through a crack in the door and pulled it shut behind him without a goodbye. Cordelia bustled through the papers and books to slide the deadbolt shut again. Leaning her back against the door, she took a deep breath. Crunch time was always hectic, but this day was not going the way she thought it would. Not at all.
“Come on Leon, let’s get moving,” Cordelia said.
After Leon explained his shelving system to her, Cordelia started putting the books back in order. Once she cleared away the fortress around the desk, she started putting the books away that Leon had refolded. Together, they were able to put the List Room back in order in a speedy manner.
Cordelia offered her hands to Leon, pulling him up off of the floor. Whereas before she would have probably blushed at holding the handsome elf’s hands for even a moment, now Leon seemed like a totally different person. He was still very handsome, but Cordelia knew a bit more about what he was like personality-wise and now he seemed like a regular elf more than a supremely handsome, mysterious Keeper of the List.
“Alright, now we just need to focus on the List,” Cordelia said. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to help with that.”
“I’m not sure there is much you can do to help,” Leon said.
He made his way over to the desk and sat down in the chair. Cordelia stood next to him, looking at the List and trying not to cringe. It seemed like so much work in such a small time frame. It wasn’t like they had until Christmas Eve to get it back in order. The List must be done at least a week ahead of the big day, even earlier if possible so that it could be okayed and the appropriate presents could be made, wrapped, and packed.
Last-minute additions or changes to the List were very rare. After so many centuries of running Christmas, the elves could pretty well tell if someone was going to have a last-minute change of behavior in the run-up to Christmas. And there were always extra presents packed onto the sleigh for any babies born after the List was finalized. No one was forgotten. The elves had a system and it had always worked.
Except for this year when the List had been tampered with and now Christmas was in jeopardy. Cordelia's eyes swam as she tried to read the scrawling chicken scratch in the book. She still wondered why it was so hard to read this year. She might be gray-haired, but her eyes weren’t aging.
“How do we fix it?” Cordelia asked. “Do you have to start from scratch?”
“I’m not sure,” Leon said with a sigh. “I’ve never had this happen before. Typically each January, we start with a new book. I usually start preparing it the last week of December so that we can start making entries on New Year’s Day. I don't know what I’m supposed to do about this.”
Tinny music filled the room as the two elves stared at the humongous task in front of them. If Leon was at a loss, Cordelia really didn’t know what to do. But that wasn’t the only thing bothering her. She needed to figure out who else had been on that tape. Leon had let slip that it was a girl elf, but which one? It was something she needed to figure out before Clarence came back because Leon would never tell the Head Elf, but he might tell Mrs. Claus. Cordelia decided to just try a straight approach.
“Leon, I know you don't want to say who else you saw on that tape,” Cordelia said. “I respect that you want to help protect whoever it was, but we need to know so that we can figure out if they are capable of doing something else to disrupt Christmas this year.”
Leon pounded his fits on the desk, making Cordelia jump. But when he turned to look at her, his face looked pained. He wasn't angry, just distraught.
“She would never ruin Christmas,” Leon said. “It wasn’t her. She didn’t have anything to do with it. I just know.”
“Who?” Cordelia asked.
But Leon just shook his head and went back to staring at the List. He was a tough nut to crack. Cordelia decided that perhaps she should just look for evidence instead. Maybe the female elf had left some sort of clue behind as to who she was.
Then Cordelia realized where she could look. The current List had been mostly unmoved, so the desk had not been properly searched.
“Leon, fold up the List and take the book off of the table, please,” Cordelia said.
Leon stared at her like she was crazy and Cordelia understood. Their priority was supposed to be fixing the List. Putting it away wasn’t going to help that. But Cordelia had a different priority for now. She needed to find their next suspect. Leon folded up the page they were on and put the book on his lap, scooting back so that Cordelia could stand in front of the desk.
Cordelia looked around. Something had seemed strange earlier, but she hadn’t been able to put her finger on it. Now she realized what it was. When they had first come into the List Room, there had been a plate of cookies on a small side table. Eating in the List Room was supposed to be a big no-no.
Now looking at the desk, there were cookie crumbs littered around on it, just enough to make Cordelia suspicious. Looking back at Leon, there was one more clue to fit in. The leather-bound cover of the book had flour on it. Whoever the girl elf was, she had to be a bakery elf.
Chapter Ten
“Ah-ha!” Cordelia said.
She jabbed the air with her pointer finger, yelling loud enough that Leon yelped and clutched the book to his chest as if she were the saboteur and she was going to have another go at wrecking the List.
“Sorry, but I have narrowed down who your elf friend was by finding a few clues,” Cordelia said.
Leon swallowed hard, but he didn’t respond. It was probably smart of him not to say anything at this point if he wanted to keep it a secret. Cordelia pointed to the desk.
“I’m afraid you’ve been breaking a few rules, haven’t you?” Cordelia asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Leon said.
Cordelia sighed. Of course, it wasn’t going to be easy, but she had been hoping it would be fast. She wanted to figure out the elf’s name before Clarence came back. Just what she didn't need was for him to accuse an innocent elf of sabotage.
Clarence had been restrained enough when they went to interview Nate, but Cordelia knew that the wrong turn made the Head Elf even more gung-ho to figure out who had actually done it. He wasn’t going to be so restrained this time.
“Leon, there are cookie crumbs all over the desk,” Cordelia said. “You know you aren’t supposed to be eating in here.”
She pointed to the desk and Leon looked again. He grimaced as he noticed the remnants of cookie scattered across his workspace. Gritting his teeth, he glanced up at Cordelia to see what she was going to do.
“Do you admit that there were cookies in here?” Cordelia asked.
She was starting from the very beginning. She wasn't sure she could lead Leon all the way to an admission of who the elf was, but Cordelia was going to try her hardest to get him there.
“Yes, there were some cookies in here,” Leon said. “But I didn't bring them in. And I removed them from the List Room as soon as I could.”
“Then how come there are cookie crumbs all over the desk?” Cordelia asked.
“I may have eaten one first,” Leon said. “It would have been rude not to.”
Leon was mumbling toward the floor, talking over the List, which he was still clutching to his chest. There was something else about this situation that Cordelia couldn’t understand. Leon wasn’t just embarrassed that he got caught eating in the List Room, but Cordelia wasn’t sure what the emotion was.
“Did you bring the cookies in here?”
“No, someone else was trying to be nice,” Leon said. “They didn’t know the rules. That’s why I got the cookies out as fast as I could.”
“But you ate one first?” Cordelia asked.
Leon just nodded. He bit his lip and glanced up at Cordelia, just long enough to make eye contact with her. Cordelia tried to soften her expression a bit. Leon was working with her the best he could and she needed to remember that it was easier to catch flies with honey than it was with vinegar. She needed to keep her tactics nice and sweet because Clarence would certainly take over that vinegar part if she wasn’t careful.
“I’m getting the sense that you are protecting someone,” Cordelia said. “I understand that because my job is to protect Santa.”
Leon looked at her, skeptically looking her up and down. Her plump figure and gray hair didn’t have the sense of any sort of protection.
“I don’t mean physically,” Cordelia said with a giggle. “But I am his gatekeeper. Especially now during crunch time, everything goes through me. I don’t want him to stress over anything he doesn't have to. I want him to focus on Christmas Eve and making the world happy.”
Cordelia paused, wishing there was another chair in the room so that she could be down on Leon’s level. She knelt down and put her forearms on the desk, her face at the same level as Leon’s. Looking straight into his eyes, she got to the point.
“I think you are doing the same thing for someone,” Cordelia said. “You might have a different reason, but you are trying to protect them just the same.”
Leon slowly nodded, his eyes looking pained. He loosened his grip on the List, letting the leather-bound book fall to his lap. Leaning forward, Leon started to brush the cookie crumbs onto the floor. Cordelia sat still, watching him. Once he had cleared a spot, Leon set the List back down on the desk and then leaned back in his chair.
“I just don’t want her mixed up in all of this,” Leon said. “I know she didn’t do anything to the List and I don’t want her to get in trouble for bringing the cookies in here. She didn’t know the rules. She was just trying to do something nice for me.”
“I believe you,” Cordelia said. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn't investigate her. We can do it quietly, just like we did for Nate. We did not make a big hoopla about it and we didn’t even tell him that there was something wrong with the List. We simply focused on the fact that he had come into the List Room when it was unlocked. We can do the same for your friend.”
Leon bit his lip before spinning his chair around to face out the window. Cordelia stood up and walked around the desk. Leaning against the windowsill, she looked out on the wonderful winter scene. The North Pole was amazing. Anytime Cordelia was unhappy or stressed, she simply had to look out her office window at this same scene to feel better. Christmas was a time of happiness, togetherness, magic. Seeing the decorated trees sitting in their banks of snow made her remember to focus on those feelings and not her packed schedule and never-ending to-do list.
Cordelia opened her mouth to tell Leon all of that, but he started talking first.
“I love being the Keeper of the List,” Leon said. “Originally, I didn’t. I wasn’t sure what job I was cut out for here at the North Pole, but this job seemed boring and isolating. When it was passed down to me, I was actually angry about it. But then I stepped into this office for the first time with the mantle of that title weighing down on me and I realized that I was the Gatekeeper. I was the one who made sure those who were nice got presents and those who weren’t had a reminder to change their ways.”
Leon sat up a little more and leaned on the windowsill beside where Cordelia was leaning. He surveyed the scene outside for a moment before looking back at her.
“Whenever I feel alone, I turn around and spend a little time watching the snowfall,” Leon said. “Those trees out there remind me that I am the only thing standing in the way of someone’s Christmas wish. And usually, that is a comforting thought, that perhaps I can put someone on the watch list and catch enough nice moments to move them out of the naughty column and into the nice one.”
Cordelia's heart warmed a little to hear that. She had always wished they could simply have everyone on the n
ice list, but that wasn’t how it worked. Of course, everyone got presents on Christmas Eve, but those on the naughty list got smaller and fewer than those on the nice list.
“But my job is isolating,” Leon said. “I felt so alone for so long because security for the List is so tight and I take my job seriously. I spend my days here, by myself. Finally a few months ago, I told myself that I couldn't keep doing that. I was losing the spirit of Christmas by cordoning myself off. I pushed myself to get out and meet people, do things with friends. And I ended up meeting her.”
Leon’s face relaxed into a wide smile. Cordelia could feel his mood change, the anger and fear from before melting with the love that he was feeling. The air in the room seemed to loosen like someone had stirred it up with a spoon. Cordelia smiled, thinking of the love for Nick and everything they had been through together. Leon seemed to feel the same way for his special friend that she did for her husband.
“She changed everything for me,” Leon said. “She made me want to be better, both as the Keeper of the List and as an elf. You must know what that is like. You’re Mrs. Claus after all.”
Leon looked at her, his eyes shining with hope as though he were waiting for her to confirm the existence of love. Scenes of her relationship with Nick ran through her head like a movie. It had been a whirlwind romance when the two elves had met each other working in the wrapping department. After a romance that intensified throughout crunch time, Nick and Cordelia were married on Christmas Day that year and they had been together ever since.
Nodding at Leon, Cordelia could feel her cheeks turning pink, but this time it was from love and nostalgia instead of embarrassment. She and Nick had been together for longer than a mortal lifetime, but she still felt like she was falling more and more in love with him every passing day. It was part of the reason why they had been chosen to take over the roles of Santa and Mrs. Claus.
“I understand that feeling very well,” Cordelia said. “It sounds like we are both taking on major responsibilities in protecting our partners. I know I don’t want Nick wrapped up in all of this just like you don’t want your friend wrapped up in it. But if we want to get to the bottom of this, we’re going to have to question her.”