Matchsticks and Candy Canes

by C. E. Wilson

  “That’s not good advice,” Carter said, shaking his head, “but yeah, I’ll be back. I’m sure everything’s okay.” He pushed the door open and started to run down the street.

  Carter retraced his steps from the day before, soon able to follow the growing river of elf footprints as they joined and left this main path to the edge of town. The bright, flashy Christmas decorations grew sparser and sparser the further he went.

  Soon he had reached the pubs where Brynne had left him the night before. In the full light of morning, he could see the elf houses more clearly. They weren’t that bad, he thought as he walked past a handsome two story elf home with two gawking children in the windows. Mixed in with the human trailers, there must have been twenty of them. “Not a bad little neighborhood, honestly,” he said under his breath as he approached the curve in the road.

  Then he rounded the corner and found himself looking at a real slum. Dozens of shacks lined a dirty trail that led off to his left away from the road. They came up no higher than his hips and were made of everything you could think of. Some were plywood, some plastic or Styrofoam, some little more than piles of old brick. Which one was Brynne’s? What had he been expecting, a neon sign?

  His mind was blank. As he tugged at his scarf and considered walking back home and calling this a failure, a voice as light as cotton candy called up to him.

  “You lost, sir?”

  Carter looked down, shocked to find a girl standing dangerously close to the ankle of his boot. She was small. Probably half the height of Brynne which would put her at a numbingly hard-to-grasp six inches. He swallowed hard and took a step backward and her neck craned as she watched him move. His cheeks grew as red as the wild hair on the top of her head.

  “Uh, no,” Carter lied immediately. “I’m looking for a friend.”

  “Who you looking for?” a new voice piped up. Another small figure stared up at him. Somehow smaller than the red haired girl, but more intimidating because there was no fear in his eyes. “We can help you! I’m Tommy!”

  “And I’m Tammy,” the girl said. “That’s my little brother. He follows me.”

  “Do not!” the boy wailed before he whistled up at Carter. “You’re really big. Can I ride on your shoe?”

  Carter paled. “Can you what?”

  The boy skipped over to the trailing end of Carter’s bootlace. “I bet it would be like one of those carnival rides I saw on TV at that store!” He picked up the lace and pumped it hard to create waves in it like a heavy rope. Finding it sturdy enough, Tommy put one foot on the rubber tread of the boot and boosted himself up onto the toe.

  “Tommy, wait!” His sister called after him, but the boy had already seated himself on the top of Carter’s shoe.

  “Ok, I’m ready!” he announced to Carter’s ankle.

  “Hey, I know you.”

  Carter looked over and saw yet another young elf standing nearby. This one appeared to be older and larger than the other two. He crossed his arms across his chest, wearing a coat that was actually a collection of fabric squares.

  “You’re the giant who carried Brynne’s cart for her.”

  The girl’s face looked up at Carter. “You know Brynne? I know her, she’s so nice and I feel bad since—”

  “Yes, I know Brynne,” Carter stammered. Despite the anxiety building with all the children swarming his ankles, he tried to keep his voice low and calm. Not that it mattered. One child was already secured to the top of his boot and Tammy was starting to climb him despite her retorts. “And I helped with her cart yesterday.”

  “Are you here to see her?” the older boy asked. “You’re not here to start trouble, are you?”

  “He’s not going to do bad stuff,” Tommy, the child on his shoe yelled out. “And he can’t be bad. Look! He’s fun!”

  The boy narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t you gonna shake them off you?”

  “No, of course not!”

  “You’re just going to let them climb you? You’re not going to throw them off?”

  “I... uh... how?” Carter looked confused. More children were already joining Tommy, Tammy and the bossier older boy. Carter almost didn’t dare to move but as he took a slow step forward, a peal of laughter erupted from Tommy. “Maybe you should get out from there. What if you fall off?” He’d never been so nervous about hurting anyone, but the more he stammered, the more children assumed he was safe to approach.

  The older boy ignored the antics of the younger children. “Look, are you going to tell me why you’re here?”

  “I’m looking for her,” Carter said, watching as two boys swung themselves into the cuffs of his jeans. Another was already scaling up his ankle towards his shin. “Do you know where her family lives?”

  The boy thought for a moment as the younger children squealed with delight as they swarmed his boots.

  “I know where she lives,” the older boy said finally. He stood proudly, craning his neck to watch Carter shift uneasily in the snow. “Thought the place was cleared out, though. I’ll still take you there if you want.”

  He turned to lead the way, and Carter caught up to him in one step, making the kid flinch in alarm.

  “Not so fast, you big dummy!” He kicked the bottom of Carter’s boot with gusto while the children on his feet hooted and cheered.

  Carter hissed in surprise when a weight shifted in the pocket of his jeans. “You need to be careful,” he muttered. Slowly, he dug his hand into the pocket before he pulled out a red faced little girl.

  “Put me back in!” she squealed. “It’s warm! You’re warmer than my house!”

  “I’m sure that’s not true,” Carter said nervously, setting the child back nonetheless. He couldn’t think of what else do with her as he needed his hands free to watch the children climbing over him. “And you said you know where she lives?” he called down to the older boy.

  “Yes,” he said in an exasperated tone. “Some of us don’t got long giraffe legs, you know?”

  Carter couldn’t help but respect the little guy. Despite obviously towering over him, the boy led on without fear. Carter couldn’t imagine not being scared of something so much bigger than himself.

  “This is fun!” Tammy squealed from somewhere around his ankles. Carter glanced down to see three children in each cuff of his jeans. He tried to soften his steps.

  “Is it much further?” Carter said. How many more children could climb on him without someone getting hurt?

  “Just around the end of this street here,” the boy called over his shoulder.

  The further down the crooked street they travelled, the narrower the road became. Soon, Carter found himself having to shuffle sideways so he didn’t bump into any of the low ramshackle homes.

  “It’s that one. The one with the green front door.”

  Carter squinted. One of the shacks had a door that might have been green at one time. It was made of weathered plywood and one end appeared to be leaning. It looked abandoned, with trash scattered about and a broken chair in the front yard.

  “That’s it?” he questioned.

  “What were you expecting?” the boy grumbled. “The Ritz?”

  “You don’t even know what that is, you dope!” Tammy yelped.

  “I know what a Ritz is! It’s a fancy cracker!”

  “I thought she said she had a brother and a sister.” Carter looked more closely at the structure and noticed a shadowed awning at the side of the house. Parked under it was a cart. Brynne’s cart.

  “This is her house,” he muttered.

  “That’s what I just told you!” the older boy cried out. “The rest of them went and shoved out for work yesterday.”

  “Shoved out?” Carter strained his ears, trying to catch his voice over the squeals and laughter of the other children. “What do you mean?”

  The boy shrugged. “They left yesterday, them and some others. Chasing a paycheck a few towns south of here. Factory work. I don’t know. I’m gonna miss Henri. He was a good one
—”

  “So they’re gone?” Carter’s face blanched. She left without saying goodbye? Without thinking about the children clinging to him, he took several long strides to the front of the little home. The older boy yelped in surprise as he stepped over him, but all Carter could think about was Brynne. Had she gone? He bent over and knocked on the front door as hard as he dared with his gloved knuckles.

  “Brynne?” he called. “Brynne, are you home?” He frowned.

  “I haven’t seen her this morning. She might have followed them,” the older boy said as he caught back up.

  “Brynne was with me yesterday,” Carter reasoned. He knocked harder.

  The only sound was the squealing of the children as they scrambled over his boots.

  “Mister!” The girl in his pocket tugged at Carter’s shirt. “Mister, there’s a piece of cookie in your pocket. You didn’t mind me eating it, did you?”

  “Jenna! Don’t eat his snacks! He might have to eat you now!” A young boy yelled from the ground.

  The child cried out in fear and disappeared within the pocket. All the chaos and no reply made the house’s emptiness ring mercilessly in Carter’s ears.

  And then, without warning, there was a scuffling inside. All the children fell quiet as a latch released and the door swung inwards.

  Brynne stepped out onto the threshold, a weathered blanket hanging from her shoulders. Her eyes were red and sunken, but quickly they grew round with surprise.

  “Carter,” she breathed, her words pooling in the cold air. “What are you...” She caught the movement of almost a dozen local children hidden away in his shoes and the cuffs of his pants and something between a laugh and a cough erupted from her chest at the sheer ridiculousness of the sight.

  She wasn’t dreaming. He was there. In front of her house.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Brynne closed her eyes for a moment to make sure that her shock hadn’t left her crazy and imagining things that weren’t there. When she opened them again, the boy from the bakery was still standing in front of her home… in the slum… with children crawling all over him like he was a playground. It was such an absurd sight that she momentarily forgot her sorrow.

  “Carter, what on earth are you doing here?” she asked disbelievingly.

  “Hiya, Brynne,” the older boy called out. “Is this guy here to cause trouble?”

  “I am not,” he huffed.

  Brynne glanced around. “You seem to have quite the following.”

  “I came to see you,” Carter said awkwardly and Brynne’s eyes widened. His confidence shifted. “You asked what I’m doing here so I was saying that I’m here to see you.”

  “I ate almost all the cookie!” a voice squealed from his cargo pocket. Carter rolled his eyes and dug into the pocket to pull out the girl – along with the cookie.

  “Listen,” he said. “I need to talk to Brynne in private. Do you want to take the cookie and go home for now?”

  She nodded. “Yes!”

  “Consider it yours.” He lowered her to the ground and immediately she broke out into a sprint with her small cookie piece. Relieved to possibly have a moment of privacy, Carter and Brynne watched as a few children jumped from his pant cuffs to follow her. Several remained. “Guys, I uh...” He bent over further and started to gently remove the children from his clothing. Several squealed in delight and one sounded terrified.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, quickly setting the screaming child down on his two feet. “Sorry again.” His hands and fingers eventually removed all the children but Tommy. He smirked down at the boy between his laces. “You’re gonna have to help me out here, bud,” he muttered, eyes flickering nervously to Brynne. “I’m sorry. They kind of all attacked me when I got here.”

  Bending down on one knee, Carter painstakingly and meticulously managed to pull Tommy out from his laces and set up on his feet. “I need to talk to Brynne,” he said. “Please?”

  “Will you come back?” Tommy asked, latching on to his pointer finger.

  “I don’t know,” Carter tried, not wanting to lie to a child and sneaking a look over at Brynne again. He looked apologetic, and finally the child released him completely.

  “You should come back some time!” he called. “You’re the nicest big person I ever met!”

  Carter watched him run to join the other children. “I’m sure that’s not true,” he muttered, turning his attention back to Brynne. She was still watching the children scamper away, and eventually turned to face him. “Brynne, what happened? These kids said something about your family going away? Is that true?”

  She still clasped the note in her hand and was debating what to do with it. At first, she intended to toss it aside and keep him in the dark, but he had come all this way, into an elf slum. It was more touching than he could know.

  And because of that, she let him in. She brought out the note and smoothed it.

  “It’s from my mother.” Her voice cracked at the end.

  “What does she know?”

  Brynne shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. She’s gone. They’ve all gone.” She swallowed hard and her breath hitched, fighting to hold in the tears that she didn’t want to shed. Not in front of Carter.

  “Gone? Just like that?” He shook his head as he tried to comprehend the idea.

  “They couldn’t wait. Good work is hard for elves to come by. We’ve got to pounce when opportunity knocks.” Her voice seized and she turned away, hiding her face in her blanket.

  “Here, let me see.”

  Brynne held out the paper and he pinched it between a finger and thumb and brought it up to his face. The writing wasn’t too terribly small, but he still needed to squint to read it over. His hands trembled like Brynne’s as he lowered it.

  “And they left you? Here? Alone?”

  She nodded. “You read it. It’s pretty simple. They left, I didn’t.”

  Her shoulders trembled and she fought to control them. She didn’t want him to see her like this. Weak. Vulnerable.

  “How could they leave without you?” Carter bit his lip. His hand started to lift and hover towards her, but it looked so freakishly huge compared to her trembling back that he couldn’t bring himself to touch her. Instead, he lowered it back to his side and pressed it into the slush. “What are you doing to do?”

  Brynne wiped her nose on the blanket and shrugged.

  “Get by, you know. It won’t be bad once spring and summer rolls around,” she said unevenly. “I’ll have to make do until then.” Her lips were chapped and blue, and no amount of chattering helped her warm up. “I wish I got to say goodbye, you know? Henri and Abigail… we were close.” She wiped her eyes, shoulders shaking.

  “I don’t think they went very far,” Carter said, lifting his head to look past her house. “We could try to look for them. They’re only a few towns away.”

  “Who said that?”

  “The boy I was talking to on the way here. He said it was a few towns over.”

  “He’s just a kid. Everything is a few town over to him,” Brynne said dismissively.

  “We could try. We could look—”

  “You should go, Carter. This doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

  Carter flinched. “That’s not true, Brynne.”

  “Of course it’s true. This isn’t your problem.”

  “Your problem is my problem,” he said simply.

  “Why?”

  “It has to do with you.” His hands quivered in time with silent spasms wracking her body. “Tell me it’s okay,” he said suddenly. He inched forward on one bent knee and started to reach forward.

  She glanced up with a tear streaked face and a surprised expression. “Tell you what’s okay?”

  “To hold you,” he said, positioning his soft hands to either side of her. “Say it’s okay.”

  Her eyes glazed over with tears. “It’s okay.”

  As soon as the words left her lips, Carter picked her up and brought her first
to his chest, but that felt awkward so then he shifted her up to his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry if this is weird,” he muttered into her hair, feeling the slightest prick from her pointy ears.

  “No,” Brynne said. “It’s good. Just don’t.” She let the words hand in the air for a moment as she tried to still her tears.

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t point out that this is weird,” she said. “It’s fine, okay? If it’s fine with you, it’s fine with me.”

  Carter squeezed her as hard as he dared, just holding her in silence as she gripped his coat with terrible strength. He smoothed her hair down with his thumb.

  “It’s fine with me,” he muttered. “You hear that? This… you… me. It’s fine with me.”

  “And it’s not weird.”

  “It’s not weird. I’ve got you, Brynne.” He kissed her hair. “I’ve got you. We’ll figure it out.”

  Tears streamed freshly down her cheeks, tears of incredulous joy rather than despair. She wasn’t alone. Carter Holly would be with her.

  “Stay,” she nuzzled into his coat, hugging him tight as she could. “Please don’t leave yet.”

  He shook his head. “No, no, I’m not going to leave. I’ve got you.” He trailed off as he remembered his promise to his uncle. He had to be back at the bakery soon. And though his uncle would be somewhat understanding given the circumstances, he didn’t want to test his patience. And so, he desperately searched his mind as he tried to figure out what he could do with the elf in his arms. How to keep her safe, and yet, keep her close.

  “I’m not going anywhere without you,” he said. “You’re freezing and I don’t want you to be here alone. Why don’t you...” He pulled her away from his body so he could look at her. “Why don’t you get dressed in something warm – in fact, pack a bag – and I’ll take you back to Sweet Mix until we figure this all out?”

  “Won’t your uncle—”

  “My uncle will have to get over it,” Carter said. Carefully, he brought the girl up to his face and kissed her on the cheek. “And if he doesn’t, I’ll have to put him in a headlock. Somehow.” He grimaced. “Either way, get dressed, we’re getting you warmed up.”