Lacey woke with a gasp, the words ‘you can’t make Christmas come’ still echoing in her ears. Her eyes felt grainy and her body uncomfortable. Nothing sat quite right on her skin, not her night shift, not the bedding, not the mattress. The sound of voices drifting up from below interrupted her tossing around in the bed.

  Peter and Mathilda were talking in hushed tones. Last night she hadn’t seen much of Mathilda, who had been tired out from watching over Cynthie the previous night.

  Peter also hadn’t stopped by for supper. Apparently, he was fully occupied with the leakage problem at the toy-parts storage. The way Mathilda had explained it to her, their currently slightly warmer weather had allowed the snow on the rooftop to melt a bit, and that melt had refrozen into a ridge during the cooler parts of the day. That meant that water was pooling on the roof as it got warmer again, leading it to drip into the facility.

  It had to be dealt with immediately, so the roof didn’t cave in under the weight building up on it, not to mention the danger of the moisture to the valuable supplies that were stored there.

  Lacey frowned. Had she overslept? But dawn had barely begun creeping in from outside, heavy shadows still lying over the cottage. She got up, and was struck by the sharp chill seeping in through the window. With a light shiver, she pulled a robe covered in embroidered robins on over her night shift.

  Stepping into the kitchen, she was just in time to see Peter heading out again. ‘Morning Lacey, good luck for today!’ He gave her a warm smile, but his eyes were already sliding past her as he walked away.

  ‘Okay, bye!’ she called after him, then realised she wanted to wish him good luck too. But, he had gone, the outside door thumping closed behind him.

  Mathilda stepped out of the pantry, fully dressed and stuffing things into her healer’s bag.

  ‘Morning Lacey,’ she said as well. ‘Sorry, but the leak at the storage is a bigger problem than we thought. I need to go check on the workers, and Peter is also still busy there.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, unsure of what to do. ‘Can I help?’

  ‘Unfortunately not. Since there might be structural damage, the storage is now off-limits to everyone but Peter and the work crew. Why don’t you grab some breakfast, and I’ll see you later.’

  She walked out, holding her bag with both hands. It seemed quite a bit larger than usual – Lacey hoped it wasn’t because of injuries at the worksite.

  Left by herself, she noticed dishes piling up and a used bread plank on the counter. She began collecting the used dishes, setting them inside the sink to wash.

  Outside, the day had brightened into early morning by the time she had put the kitchen in order. Looking through the living room window, she tried spotting the weather signals the other elves seemed so aware of. This morning, the sky had an almost milky look, the sun shining through as if behind a slightly dirty window.

  Restless, she turned back into the cottage, her eyes falling on the fireplace and couch where she and Peter had talked late into the night only two evenings ago. She frowned.

  This morning, Peter hadn’t stopped to ask her how she was. He hadn’t even asked whether she’d made any further progress on the mystery of Jinxy they were working on together. She felt inexplicably abandoned, left once again to fend for herself.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She shook those thoughts off with a toss of her head. There was a crisis in the village. Of course Peter didn’t have time for a heart to heart.

  Heading up, she slowly climbed the stairs, one hand sliding up the banner as she progressed.

  Everyone else slotted into the village so naturally. Mathilda was the self-assured healer, what she said went. Cynthie, Bethy, and Danji, each with their own flaws, yet the community still folded around them, gently supporting and caring. And Peter, the dependable guard.

  She sighed. Peter again. Had she misread their evening together? It had seemed so intimate, and yet he had barely spoken to her yesterday and this morning. Granted, he had an emergency on his hands. But surely, if he cared, he could’ve taken a spare moment to check in on her too?

  Rolling her eyes at herself, she firmly reached into the closet to pull out her clothes for the day. Lacey, the man was busy, she told herself. Let’s be an adult here. But she’d never dealt very well with feelings of abandonment. Being left at a group home at the age of two, never to see your parents again, would do that to a person.

  She looked at the striped stockings in her hand, and then exchanged them for a pair with a mistletoe motif. Wistfully, she remembered all the movie-kisses of couples under the mistletoe she’d seen on TV over the years. Would Peter notice the motif on her stockings? She leaned forward, softly bumping her head on the closet door. Really Lacey – kisses? Don’t you have anything better to think of?

  Actually, she did. There was still a missing elf out there.

  She deliberately pulled out another pair of wool stockings with a holly motif and finished dressing. Done, she took a brief moment to strike a power pose, feet planted slightly further than hip-width apart, hands on hips and shoulders squared. I’m the boss, she told herself, steadying her breath as she pushed back against the mental wobble she felt.

  Then, she walked over to the desk and pulled her notebook out. She hadn’t had time to update her notes from yesterday yet, and a lot had actually happened. She began adding entries: Cynthie, the Polar Express, Mr Nezer, the convenient kallikantzaros, Melo, Bethy, and Danji. She paused.

  Should she be adding Mathilda and Peter to the list? The thought felt disloyal, but still… It hadn’t occurred to her to suspect them yet, and maybe she should. Mysteries were full of examples of the least suspicious person turning out to be the criminal. Reality too – Cassie in point. Her pen hovered over the page and then she lowered it. A tear silently dropped on the paper, smudging the ink.

  Oh, Cassie… will I ever get rid of you? She shook her head and wiped the tears that had leaked out of her eyes. This was just her orphan-mind talking. One imperfect day didn’t mean she was being abandoned. Mathilda could be trusted, and Peter too, she was sure of it. No, there must be something else she’d missed.

  She paged back to the day her notes started, the past Dewday. It had been the day after Jinxy’s disappearance and exactly one week ago now. She smiled a little. On that day she still thought she might’ve been kidnapped. Those thoughts were completely gone now.

  Flipping back and forth, she revisited each clue, adding new context and notes at the back of the book. All it yielded was the single untied thread that was the torn piece of Jinxy’s coat they’d found next to the beginnings of the Wasteland. That, and Danji’s recent shiftiness, once, when Bethy said she had seen Albyrne at the workshop on the afternoon of Jinxy’s disappearance, and again, yesterday, when Lacey spoke of the Polar Express. But, that was coming from a troubled elf. It may not mean anything at all, just a flicker from Danji’s inner battles.

  However, there couldn’t just be nothing. What was the point of her investigation if all her clues came to zilch? She hoped she wasn’t wasting everybody’s time, playing at being detective.

  No. That can’t be it. There must be something here, a clue she misinterpreted, a link she missed. She picked up the notebook again, and something slid out from between its pages.

  It was the four-leaf clover Albyrne had gifted to her. She pulled the page open where it had lain, two words catching her eye. Abominable snowman. She frowned, considering it and then discarded the idea. They’d already covered that angle, and it had also been a flat, square nothing.

  Sighing, she became aware of a hole in her stomach. She’d missed breakfast this morning. It was time for a snack. If the abominable snowman hadn’t eaten all the food in the house. If she could blame it for Jinxy, she might as well blame it for everything else. It was as futile a lead as all the others.

  ??????

  you pin on it? ??