As it was, Lacey ran into Mathilda a little way outside of the Healing Hall, heading towards the village. The nurse’s hands were pressed into her coat pockets against the cold and dark circles were forming under her eyes. Still, her face brightened into a smile when she spotted Lacey.

  ‘Hiya! I was hoping I’d run into you on the way. Did little Elyi find you?’

  ‘That he did, and I owe him two cookies now.’ Lacey filed the name away for repayment.

  Mathilda burst out laughing. ‘That little rascal! I gave him a sweet upfront for your message.’

  ‘I think we’re looking at a future magnate,’ Lacey said drily. ‘Anyway, did you need me?’

  ‘Oh yes. Would you mind sitting with Cynthie for a while? I need a little break, but she can still use the company.’

  Lacey hesitated. ‘Are you sure? After this morning?’

  Mathilda gave her a little shoulder bump. ‘Oh, I know that wasn’t you. But Cynthie needed the quiet so everybody had to go.’

  Still Lacey paused. ‘Cynthie doesn’t like me that much. And she kinda has a mean streak, doesn’t she?’

  Mathilda gave her a mysterious look. ‘You haven’t figured it out yet, have you.’

  ‘Figured what out?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, that’s not for me to say. But just know that everything is not always as it seems.’

  ??

  And that’s how, a short while later, Lacey found herself again in Cynthie’s room. This time the chair was right beside the bed, where the elf lay staring at the ceiling. Lacey found herself watching the snow-enchantment teams at work, since that room faced the northern snowfields.

  In contrast to Earthly excavators, the buckets of the ones used in the snowfields were actually at the back of the vehicles. In the front they were hitched to two reindeer who slowly pulled them back and forth across the enchanted snow. It had wheels instead of tracks, and the bucket hung the other way around, slowly scraping along the snowfield surface, harvesting the enchanted snow.

  There were three excavators rolling across the fields that afternoon, treading over the ground in a kind of zig-zag formation. They had just inverted their routes again, when Cynthie spoke.

  ‘You must think I’m an awful elf,’ she sighed. She’d turned her head, and was gazing at Lacey.

  It took Lacey just a moment too long to respond, as she tried to formulate a good answer. Cynthie flinched at the pause, shrinking back into the bed. ‘I think I want Mathilda,’ she said with a small voice.

  ‘No, don’t take it like that,’ Lacey said. ‘I was just trying to think of the best way to answer you. Of course I don’t think you’re awful. It’s just that you had quite an argument with Bethy and Danji this morning.’

  ‘I suppose that’s true.’ Cynthie blinked a few times. ‘You know, it’s funny. I miss Jinxy so much, and I’m very worried about her. I should be crying, but I just don’t have any tears. That’s why…’ she left the thought unfinished, briefly looking away, before speaking again. ‘Jinxy’s been gone so long now. I hope she’s okay.’

  Lacey didn’t know how to respond. Here was yet another side to this contradictory elf, making it very hard to sustain a dislike of her. She didn’t know if she and Cynthie would ever be comfortable friends. Their edges just kept rubbing each other wrong. And yet, that didn’t mean the other was a bad person.

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  Still, this afternoon they were both together in one place, alone with each other. It was as good a time as any to try and get some answers, since Cynthie had brought Jinxy up by herself.

  ‘Some of the elves seemed a bit surprised that you attempted the masterwork-toy challenge with Jinxy gone,’ she said.

  ‘I suppose it would seem odd,’ Cynthie agreed and fell silent again. Lacey almost thought she wasn’t going to answer, when she slowly started talking again.

  ‘At first I wasn’t going to. You have to understand, Jinxy and I do compete with our toys, but we do it side by side.’ She absentmindedly twirled the edge of her blanket as she spoke. ‘We were both ready for the challenge. In fact, we had agreed that we were going to do it this past Sleighday.

  ‘But she disappeared. And now more than five days have passed and she hasn’t returned.’

  She let her head fall back onto the pillows with a sigh. ‘Where is she, Lacey? Where did that silly elf go?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Lacey responded. ‘But I promise you, I’m trying my hardest to find out.’

  ‘Why?’ Cynthie asked, turning her head back to face her. ‘Why are you so dedicated to someone you barely knew?’

  Because she is a number out of place, a part of Lacey wanted to answer.

  And I was a number once too. Even numbers need someone to care for them.

  But she knew that wouldn’t make a lot of sense to Cynthie. And there was still more to it, so she answered truthfully.

  ‘Because I was new and confused, and my toys weren’t very good. And she took the time to chat with me, and introduce me to all of you. She showed me where the lunchroom was and included me in the group. For all those reasons I want to find her and make sure she gets home safely.’

  Cynthie’s features had softened as Lacey spoke. ‘That’s so Jinxy, isn’t it? A mother hen taking care of all the stray chicks.’

  Lacey wasn’t sure how she felt about being called a stray chick. But since she and Cynthie were actually having a reasonable conversation for once, she decided she could let it go. It turned out to be the right choice as Cynthie continued, seemingly satisfied by what she’d heard.

  ‘That’s why I had to do the challenge. It seemed impossible that Jinxy could stay gone if I started on it – we were so set on completing it together. So, I thought that if I attempted it, Jinxy would have no choice but to show up. But, she didn’t.’

  Cynthie gave a half laugh. ‘I’m as hopeless as the other two, aren’t I?’ Not waiting for an answer, or maybe afraid to, she continued.

  ‘As I got closer to the end I kept telling myself “with this wire, Jinxy will come running in”, and “now, when I tie this knot, I’ll hear her voice”. But it didn’t happen and I just kept getting closer and closer to the end.’

  Her fingers curled around the blanket again, pulling it up closer to her chin as if to shield her from the reality of what occurred.

  ‘Can I tell you a secret?’ she whispered.

  Lacey nodded.

  ‘I didn’t care about Danji’s hiccups. I was expecting it, even. I had seen her slipping into the supply closet throughout the afternoon.

  ‘She has a little flat bottle she keeps in her pocket, and she’ll sneak away to sip from it.

  ‘I knew I couldn’t complete the masterwork without Jinxy competing by my side. But I also couldn’t stop because with every thread she could’ve shown up. And then I got to the very last one.’

  She took a deep breath, an expectant hush falling over the room, like it was holding its breath too. And then Cynthie exhaled, rushing out the words.

  ‘I let my hand slip on purpose, and I blamed it on poor Danji.’

  She began softly crying again, but this time it sounded different. More wholesome, somehow. Like, with the boil lanced, there was a kind of healing. Lacey sat there quietly, absorbing Cynthie’s secret, as she watched the grief spill out.

  Mathilda was right. All was not as it seemed.

  And as she opened her mouth to soothe Cynthie, a faint vibration brushed the windowpane so soft she almost missed it. It was followed by a very distant whoot, whoot. Lacey snapped her mouth closed, jumping up to run to the window.

  In the distance, black objects were falling from the sky, snapping together on the ground to form train tracks.

  The tracks ran over the snowfields, past the little excavators, following the curve of the landscape through the northern part of the village and disappearing into the distance past the edge of the candy-cane fields.

  A soft chugging noise became audible, ever-increasing in volume as a locomotive finally came into view. Majestically, it rolled down the track, white clouds puffing out of its chimney.

  ‘What is that?’ Lacey cried in astonishment.

  ‘What? You’ve never seen the Polar Express before?’ Cynthie gaped at her, equally astonished, only her astonishment was at Lacey, not the train.

  ‘The Polar Express?’ Lacey gasped.

  ‘Was it here last Starday, when Jinxy disappeared?!’

  ??????