‘Oh dear,’ Mathilda said. ‘That sounds like one of the Earth houses.’

‘Earth houses? But isn’t this settlement at the North Pole?’

‘Ahh, it kinda is, and it kinda isn’t. It would be more accurate to call it the Cosmic North Pole Space. Meaning, we are located at the North Pole but occupy a different dimensional space than the rest of Earth.’

‘How does that work? And, are you saying I’m a dimensional traveller?’

Lacey hadn’t said anything about Mathilda’s claim of being in the North Pole settlement when she had originally mentioned it, but a different dimension? This story was becoming hard to swallow for a logical thinker like herself.

‘Oh no, Santa’s the only one who can freely transverse the dimensions. How do you think he manages to deliver a toy to every Earth child on Christmas Eve? The rest of us can only move between the spaces with his assistance. Oh.. Oh.. Oooh! If you come from Earth, he must’ve brought you here! You’re a Helper!’

Her awestruck appearance was at complete odds with her words, and Lacey didn’t understand what she meant.

‘You mean like all the other elves are Santa’s little helpers?’

‘No, not a “helper”, a “Helper”, with a capital H,’ Mathilda drew the different h’s in the air as she spoke. ‘There’s a difference. As a child of Earth, you must know of Santa Clause and our operation here at the North Pole, right?’

Lacey nodded in agreement, being willing to play along for now.

‘Well, what’s lesser known is that sometimes, when even Santa needs help, he will bring an Earthling over to assist.’

‘You mean that me falling, bashing my head against my front step, probably being dead on Earth already, and turning up here in a snowdrift was Santa’s way of giving me an opportunity?’

‘Of course,’ Mathilda replied with no hint of irony. ‘If you are here, then you are here for a reason. Wow, I wish Santa would pick me for a mission. I can just imagine the feeling!’

‘I don’t know. At the moment it feels like confusion with a side of headache.’

Mathilda laughed and said, ‘I guess it would! Despite your headache, I think we can safely rule out a concussion. So you are cleared for Santa’s work, whatever that may be. Has he given you an instruction yet?

Lacey shook her head.

‘Don’t worry about that. Most other Helpers in history also didn’t get an immediate instruction. It makes sense. He just transported you to a completely new place in a different dimension. You need a bit of time to get acquainted with it all before starting the mission. For now I suggest you fall in, figuratively speaking, at the workshop and help with the toys. Also, it’s probably better that you don’t tell the other elves you’re a Helper unless you want a gaggle of followers watching every step you make.’

‘And you won’t tell your brother?’

‘Of course not. I’m a medical professional! No, this will stay between you and me until you are ready to let others know.’

‘Any chance I can get an appointment with Santa to discuss this?’

‘Absolutely! Santa’s door is always open to us! But at the moment he and Mistress Clause are busy making the final calculations for Christmas Eve, so you’ll have to wait a few days.’

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

‘I see,’ Lacey drily replied. ‘And, in the meantime, you think I should make toys?’

‘Yes indeedy. You can meet some other elves and learn more about our cosy community before getting to your real work.’

Making toys. Was that the point of this elaborate scheme? Could Matty’s appointment from yesterday have been to scope her out as a mark before they trafficked her to the toy sweatshop? She’ll admit it was a novel approach. It played into your most profound childhood memories, gave you a sense of importance, and a compelling motivation to work. And if your mind was addled by a hard fall, a person might believe it. The only thing she didn’t know was how they had known she would fall and bump her head. Or maybe that was simply luck, and they would’ve nabbed her at the early appointment.

She did feel a bit let down that Peter, if that was his real name, was involved in this too. That’s one man I wouldn’t mind being abducted by. Ugh, what am I thinking? Like she had time for a relationship anyway. As for this scheme, she supposed she had to play along for now. Only until she found out where she really was and had an escape plan.

So she responded with, ‘Sounds good. There’s only one problem. I don’t know how to make toys.’

‘Oh, that’s no problem at all! Every workshop bench has a complete primer on all the different toys. Do you have any experience following instructions to the letter?’

‘Are you serious? I’m an accountant. My whole life is following instructions to the letter. If that’s all Santa needs, I’ll be ready to go home in no time.’

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‘Are you serious?’ Lacey grumbled to herself an hour later. Making toys was hard. To clarify, Lacey could make toys. It just happened not to be very good ones. Curious, the elf next to her peered over. Then her eyes and mouth formed three perfect ohs at Lacey’s attempt.

‘Yeah, I know,’ Lacey said. ‘Not quite perfect, is it.’

‘I, ah, it does look like you’ve got a teeny tiny bit of work left on it,’ the elf commented politely.

‘Yes, a little bit more work,’ Lacey replied bitterly. ‘That’s all it needs.’

She sighed, then said, ‘Hi, my name is Lacey. I’m new here.’

‘Greetings Lacey, my name is Jinxy.’

‘Nice to meet you, Jinxy.’

‘So where exactly do you come from?’ Jinxy asked. ‘I was born and raised here myself and have never wanted to live anywhere else.’

Lacey felt her fear spike. There were people who had never left? No wonder everyone went along so calmly with the scheme. They didn’t know any better. She felt more determined than ever to escape. These people needed help, and they didn’t even know it! But for now she had to keep cool, so she continued the conversation like normal.

‘Oh, I … Well, I guess I didn’t have the privilege to stay in one place,’ Lacey said. ‘And you? What does it feel like to have lived here all your life? Don’t you ever feel trapped?’

‘All the time!’ Jinxy replied, laughing. ‘You know how it gets always having the same people around. I try to escape whenever I can. You should come with me sometime; we’ve got some wonderful walking trails around the village.’

‘That sounds fun. I’ll absolutely take you up on it.’

And maybe she can show me a trail out of here… Now keep acting normal…

‘But, if I can go back to the toys for a moment, yours look fantastic! I love the sparkle!’

The sparkle was intriguing, as it appeared nowhere on any of the primer blueprints.

‘You think so? Not as good as Cynthi’s, though. If you want to see the prettiest toys in the world, you should look at hers. I’ll show you at the end of the day.’

‘Oh, I don’t believe it. Look how shiny this one is! In fact, where do you get the sparkle from? Did I miss something in the instructions?’

Jinxy looked around furtively and then leaned closer. Surprised, Lacey also looked around cautiously before leaning in. She was making progress in gaining Jinxy’s trust.

‘Can you keep a secret?’ Jinxy whispered.

‘Yes, yes, of course.’

‘I buy it myself. Please don’t tell anyone. I already got into trouble for using my pay on sequined trimmings rather than requisitioning it through the workshop.’

It wasn’t the type of secret Lacey expected, but now she knew there were other places to buy things from. Still, she was curious.

‘It is charming, but why don’t you just requisition it through the workshop then?’

‘If all I use are workshop materials, then the gifts are so impersonal, don’t you think? I also want to give something to the children. This way I get to add a flavour of my own on top of the workshop’s,’ Jinxy whispered, smiling happily at her little secret.

Okay, so maybe Jinxy wasn’t going to be her escape mate. But at least she had found a great coworker. She did feel a bit bad for Jinxy, though. What would it be like when she finally realised this outfit was only using her for cheap labour? Now that would be a tough transition back to the ‘Earth world’. Blissfully unaware, Jinxy returned to her work with a smile, furtively adding sparkling highlights to her toys every now and again.

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