Making a List, Fixing It Nice

by Linnea West

  “There was something I wanted to talk to you about,” Nick said. “It is of great importance. I’ve noticed you’re a bit distracted and I’m worried about it.”

  Cordelia stared at the fire, worried that if she looked at Nick, he would catch on that something was actually wrong. She took another bite of cookie to stall for a little time.

  “Oh, well you know how it is during crunch time,” Cordelia said with a laugh.

  “I do, which is why I want to address this now,” Nick said. “We don’t have much time.”

  Cordelia munched on her cookie. Did Nick know what had happened to the List? Sure, he kept tabs on the human children of earth, but his all-seeing eye didn’t extend to the North Pole. At least, she thought it didn’t. Perhaps she was wrong.

  “Christmas Eve is coming up fast,” Cordelia said, feeling a bit lame with her response. Her stomach was turning itself in knots as they talked.

  “That isn’t what I’m talking about,” Santa said.

  She snuck a glance at Nick, who was staring at her with a confused expression. His hands were clasped over his rotund belly and his cookie was sitting uneaten on his plate. He must know about the List and how she tried to cover it up without telling him. It was the only explanation for him not eating his cookie. She was about to open her mouth and come clean when Nick spoke.

  “We haven’t talked at all about where we will be vacationing after Christmas,” Nick said.

  Cordelia exhaled so much she felt like she had deflated. Leave it to Nick to have their vacation be the biggest thing on his mind. It was better than him knowing about the List.

  “You’re so right, we haven’t talked about it,” Cordelia said. She reached over and patted his hand. “Thank you for reminding me. We will need to make plans soon. Any ideas?”

  Nick perked up a bit. He reached down next to his seat and pulled a handful of travel brochures out, passing them to Cordelia over the teapot. Apparently, he had quite a lot of ideas. Rifling through them as Nick happily ate a cookie, all of the pictures of beaches and tropical places seemed to blend together. She really didn’t care where they vacationed, but Nick expected her to have some sort of input about it each year.

  “Oh my, this is going to take me some time to go through,” Cordelia said. “Are there two or three that you are leaning toward?”

  Nick smiled and started to prattle on about islands and beaches. Cordelia tried to listen as she sipped her tea, but it was hard when she knew that she needed to get back to the List Room. There would be no use planning a vacation if there was no Christmas Eve present run beforehand.

  Cordelia was trying to find a way to slip out of their conversation. It wasn’t that she wanted to leave. She was in her favorite place with her favorite person. When it wasn’t crunch time and especially when the fate of Christmas wasn’t resting squarely on her shoulders, Cordelia loved spending hours upon hours in this very chair. But right now, she needed to find a way to leave.

  She checked her watch to make sure she had spent a sufficient amount of time with Nick. It had been a half-hour, which should be enough to placate him for now. Cordelia made a mental note to pencil in an extra-long tea time with Nick once this entire List debacle was solved. Now she needed to make her exit, as soon as Nick stopped debating the merits of different beach vacations.

  A frantic knock on the wooden door startled them both. Santa finally stopped talking about vacations and swiveled in his chair to face the door.

  “Come in,” he called.

  One of the doors flew open, pushed hard by Clarence as he stormed into the room. Cordelia was trying to figure out if he was upset, but his expression was more one of alarm than one of rage. He bustled over to the sitting nook, his clipboard clutched to his chest.

  “Mrs. Claus, I hate to interrupt,” Clarence said. “The kitchen elves are waiting for you to okay their cookies now. I know you were there before, but they are ready now.”

  “Oh dear, look at the time,” Cordelia said. “Please save these brochures for me to look at again soon.”

  Draping her lap blanket over the arm of her chair, Cordelia handed the pamphlets to Nick. She couldn’t help but deflate a bit as she noticed his crestfallen face. She hated to disappoint him, but he had no idea what she was really working on right now. If he did, he would understand, not that it meant she should actually tell him yet.

  Following Clarence to the door, Cordelia tried to keep a smile on her face. Nick was not hiding his disappointment well and Cordelia knew that she would have to make it up to him sometime. But right now, she had to go to the kitchens. Clarence was unknowingly leading her to exactly where she needed to be to hopefully solve this mystery once and for all.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cordelia and Clarence pushed open the kitchen doors and stepped inside, stopping as Cordelia let the scent of fresh cookies and the sound of joyful laughter surround her. It helped make her feel a little better about leaving Santa feeling sad. Nick would understand one day. But right now, Cordelia needed to get on with things. She wasn’t sure how she was going to okay the new cookies and talk to Robin without Clarence being around, but hopefully things would fall into place.

  Clarence rifled through his clipboard and pulled out a sheet of paper that had some words hurriedly scrawled on it. Cordelia smiled at Clarence’s “in a rush” handwriting. When he had time and it was important, Clarence had beautiful handwriting, but times like this when ten million things were happening at once, it ended up looking like a bunch of scribbles that only he could read. It was a bit like Leon’s handwriting, actually. Perhaps it was a male elf thing.

  “Ahem, let’s get started,” Clarence said, clearing his throat. “We don’t have all day, you know.”

  As the elves assembled on the other side of the workstations, he arched one eyebrow at Cordelia as if she may have forgotten the other thing they were dealing with. Cordelia pressed her lips together to stop a snarky comment from coming out. Of course, she hadn’t forgotten about the List debacle. If anything, she was the one who was totally mired in the muck of it now that she had been sworn to secrecy by Leon.

  She tore her eyes away from the Head Elf to scan the crowd for Robin. All of the bakery elves were gathered, but Robin usually stood out in a crowd. She was effervescent and bubbly, almost seeming to glow no matter what the circumstances were. But Cordelia couldn't see her or her glow. This was going to be even tougher than she thought it would be.

  “Here at the first table is a simple sugar cookie,” Clarence said. He gestured to the tray of cookies cut in holiday shapes sitting on the workstation in front of them.

  “Oh, it is more than a simple sugar cookie,” Arnold said, jumping forward from the crowd of elves. “It is a zippy sugar cookie. Perfect for the child who likes sugar and spice.”

  Cordelia could feel her smile starting to flatten as she had to force it to remain on her face. Of course, Arnold had taken a holiday classic and added something horrible to it.

  “So what else is in it?” Cordelia asked.

  “Take a bite and see,” Arnold said.

  Cordelia almost expected him to rub his hands together like an evil villain, forcing Mrs. Claus to try some horribly spicy and disgusting cookie. She glanced around at the faces of the other kitchen elves, but none were grimacing or shaking their heads to try to stop her, so she decided to take the plunge. Biting in, she closed her eyes, waiting for an awful taste to hit.

  To her surprise, the cookie tasted like a sugar cookie with a little zip of cinnamon and nutmeg at the end of it. She opened her eyes as she smiled at Arnold. He was swaying back and forth, wringing his hands as he anxiously awaited her verdict. Instead of saying anything, Cordelia took another bite, drawing cheers from the crowd. Arnold jumped up and down a few times before he stepped toward Cordelia.

  “I’m so glad you like it, Mrs. Claus,” he said. Arnold’s green eyes were twinkling and he couldn't stop smiling. “I know many of my flavors are unique and not quite your cup
of tea, so I am glad to make something you actually enjoy for once.”

  “I truly enjoy these,” Cordelia said. “I hope you’ll set aside a batch for me.”

  Arnold’s smile grew even bigger and he nodded his head vigorously, unable to speak. As he walked back to the crowd of waiting elves, he wiped a tear from his eye.

  Cordelia and Clarence stepped to the next workstation as Cordelia looked through the crowd again. Robin was still not out there, at least not that Cordelia could spot. She tried to keep her eye out without taking any attention away from the cookie tasting.

  She tasted some homemade graham crackers, a peppermint brownie, and caramel bars, among other things. Cordelia loved tasting the new things, but the official tasting was something she dreaded, just a bit. It was hard to taste all of the new things without eating more than a few bites, but then she usually ended up with a stomach ache.

  That couldn't happen this year, though. This year she needed to be able to function when the tasting was over because unlike other years, she couldn't go lay down in her office and finish some of the more simple tasks. Cordelia still needed to figure out the List and save Christmas.

  The situation grew more and more desperate as each time she moved to the next workstation, she scanned the crowd. But each time, Robin was nowhere to be seen. Cordelia really didn’t have time to hunt her down to ask her the questions. Clarence would never allow her to just wander around the North Pole and Cordelia couldn’t tell him what she really needed to do because Leon had sworn her to secrecy.

  Finally, she was at the last workstation all the way at the end of the kitchen. This one had a double layer fudge with caramel in the middle. As much as Cordelia was excited to try it, she was also a bit distraught about what she was supposed to do next.

  Carol stepped forward and started in on a long spiel about how the two layers of fudge were different and how they had made the caramel layer stiff enough so that it didn’t run out from between the fudge. Cordelia smiled and nodded, trying to keep her eyes on Carol instead of searching the crowd for Robin again.

  As Carol rambled a bit, Cordelia came up with a plan. After she tried the fudge, she would have to send Clarence on some kind of wild goose chase. If she could get him out of here, she could ask around the bakery for Robin. She would have to say that she wanted to ask the bakery elf about the cookies they had talked about earlier. Then no one would be suspicious about why she needed Robin.

  Cordelia suddenly realized that Carol was done talking and was now nodding at her, waiting for her to step forward and try the magnificent fudge in front of her. Mrs. Claus smiled a wide smile at her, hoping Carol would forgive her for her absent-mindedness.

  The fudge really was phenomenal. It was so good that despite Cordelia’s very full stomach, she had a second piece and insisted that Clarence and all of the bakery elves also try a piece. That was all they needed to descend en masse on the workstation, clearing out the tray of fudge in ten seconds flat.

  Clarence appeared next to Cordelia’s elbow. She was happy to see that he was also munching on a bit of fudge. He might be a stickler for doing everything the right way, but no proper elf could turn down a delicious treat like that caramel fudge.

  “We really must be going,” Clarence said. “We need to track down that elf.”

  Cordelia wanted to roll her eyes at Clarence’s attempt to be secretive, but she just couldn't. She was trying too hard to figure out how to get him away from her for a while so that she could search for Robin. Glancing around the kitchen, she still couldn't find the bakery elf anywhere. Was Robin hiding from them perhaps?

  “You are so right,” Cordelia said. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “But we also need to fix the List. I think you are better at lighting a fire under Leon. Maybe you should go take care of that and I’ll come in a bit. It isn’t polite for Mrs. Claus to simply run out from all of her engagements.”

  Clarence narrowed his eyes at Cordelia, suspicious of her intentions. Cordelia put on her most dazzling smile, trying her best to look as innocent as possible. She couldn't let on that there was more behind it than just saying goodbye to each elf.

  When Cordelia’s face didn't reveal her true intention, Clarence finally gave up and sighed at her, exaggeratedly shrugging his shoulders to let her know that he was not happy. He didn't have to be happy with her now because he would be after she talked to Robin and figured out what happened.

  As she watched Clarence walk through the kitchen and out the doors to the hallway, she thought about Robin. She was sure that no matter what, she had just accidentally messed with the List. Perhaps she had thought she was helping Leon or maybe she didn’t even realize she had anything wrong. Robin seemed like such a sweet elf and Cordelia couldn't help but dread having to bring all of this up with her. That is if she could find her.

  Strolling back toward the double doors, Cordelia slowly said goodbye and chatted with each elf she went by. She hoped that dragging out her time here would make Robin appear from somewhere. She planned that if she got all the way to the door without seeing Robin, then she could double back, saying she had almost forgotten that Robin had something special for her. Then she could ask around without it being too weird.

  The bakery elves all curtsied and bowed and said goodbye, a few even reaching out to shake her hand. Cordelia loved how excited they were to talk to her. This was the best part of her job, not because they all bowed to her like royalty, but because she loved being able to chat and make personal connections. If only her schedule were a bit more clear so that she could do this more often.

  Reaching the door to the hallway, Mrs. Claus turned back and surveyed the kitchen. Still no Robin in sight. She planned to go out into the hallway and then turn and come right back in, bustling around as if she had just remembered about Robin’s cookies.

  Cordelia turned and swung the door open. She stepped out and ran smack into someone trying to come into the kitchen. They hit so hard that Cordelia sat down hard on her bottom, her hat falling down over her eyes.

  “I’m so sorry,” a voice said. “I was rushing because I’m late. Did I miss the tasting?”

  Pushing her hat back on her head, Cordelia looked up to answer but stopped short. Robin was in front of her, leaning down and offering her hands to stand Cordelia back up. This was it. This was Cordelia’s moment to talk to the culprit behind the mess-up with the List. Cordelia just wished it would have happened in a slightly less hurtful sort of way.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Cordelia took Robin’s hands and let the elf help her up. Once she was back on her feet, she tried to adjust her hat. Robin reached forward hesitantly and Cordelia nodded. Smiling, Robin adjusted the hat for her.

  “There, back to normal,” Robin said. “I’m so sorry about that. I was out and I lost track of time. I suddenly realized that you were due in the kitchen right now so I rushed back so that I wouldn't miss you, but it looks like I wasn’t quite fast enough.”

  “Actually, I think it was a bit too fast,” Cordelia said with a giggle, rubbing her bottom. Thankfully the voluminous skirts of her dress had saved her from feeling the fall too badly.

  Robin giggled, her face squishing up in girlish delight as she covered her mouth with her hands. Her brown curls bounced up and down from under her baker's cap. Before Robin could turn and go into the bakery, Cordelia grabbed her by the arm and started to walk her away from the doors down the hallway.

  “I had something I had to talk to you about,” Cordelia said.

  “Is it about the chocolate chip cookies that I promised you?” Robin said. “I have them done, I just hadn’t run them to your office yet. I’m sorry about that! I’ve been a bit absent-minded lately.”

  “No, it isn’t about the cookies,” Cordelia said. She tried not to think about the warm, gooey cookies that she was missing out on. Any other day, she could have just focused on eating those instead of interrogating a perfectly lovely and happy elf. “I actually came to talk to you about the ab
sent-mindedness.”

  Cordelia looked around to make sure they were the only ones in the hallway. They had ventured down toward the hallway where Nate’s office was, which was a bit quieter than the rest of the North Pole. The elves here were few and far between, so Cordelia felt a bit safer talking. She tried not to look into Robin’s big, questioning eyes as she glanced around. It made her too nervous.

  “What do you mean?” Robin asked. “I know I’ve been a bit forgetful, but I’ve only burned one batch of cookies. I’ve tried to make sure that my work hasn’t been interrupted by it.”

  “No, no, I don't think it’s done anything to mess with your work, at least not that I’ve heard,” Cordelia said.

  She turned and looked at Robin. She needed to be straight with the woman, not beat around the bush. Robin turned to look at her and as hard as it was, Cordelia looked her straight in the face as she spoke. She needed to see her reaction, no matter how nervous it made her.

  “Robin, I know about your relationship,” Cordelia said. “And I know that you were in the List Room.”

  Robin gasped, stumbling back a step as she looked at Cordelia’s face. Cordelia tried to remain serious. Right now, her job was to investigate, not help this poor elf through her emotional turmoil. Normally, Mrs. Claus would be there to provide a shoulder to cry on, so Cordelia wasn’t used to being the one making someone cry. Robin’s eyes welled with tears. She moved her lips like she was trying to speak, but nothing came out.

  “I’m not here about your relationship with Leon,” Cordelia said. “In fact, I think that you are both incredibly happy with each other. But I’m here about the fact that you snuck into the List Room by yourself, which is clearly against the rules.”

  “I was just trying to leave a surprise for Leon,” Robin said. “Crunch time is hard for everyone and I know that as the Keeper of the List, he has an even more important job than most. I thought that if I gave him some cookies, he would be a bit happier. It felt almost serendipitous that the door was unlocked and he wasn’t there. Leon spends most of his time in that room, so he is a hard man to surprise.”