3: Twists and Trains

                  

C H A P T E R    T H R E E

Twists and Trains

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                  GEMMA OPENED THE door to a disgruntled Harry about twenty minutes after he'd left Ed.  She was in her nightgown already, hair damp from a shower and looking longer than usual.  Harry could feel the heat from his family's fireplace begin to warm his face already through the open doorway, and it's only been a few seconds.

                  "Hi, Harry.  Is everything alright?" his sister asked, stepping aside to let him in.

                  Gemma was his half-sister, really.  They shared a mum, but Gemma's father wasn't Harry's.  Therefore, Gemma was full elf, just like their mother was.  Harry was a bit of an oddball in that sense, the one that stuck out.  Gemma's father was a Worker Elf who died long ago; as far as Harry knew, his sister never even knew her dad.  Harry's father was human, and he never knew his either.  But he did know that he was half human, half elf because of it.

                  He wasn't the only one.  There were many elves around the North Pole like Harry, with rounded ears instead of pointed, just a little bit taller than everyone else.  Longer fingers, a little bit more sensitive to the cold.  Half-elves like Harry always needed their shoes to be custom made because their feet were just a little bit larger.

                  Harry didn't mind.  Maybe if he was the only half-elf around he would, but he's not.  It's more common than anyone realizes.  He isn't treated as less of an elf, he doesn't have to hide his human ears (although his hair had grown quite long recently and tends to cover them anyway), and he doesn't feel the need to only hang around other half-elves like himself.  If anything, he was considered more valuable to the North Pole. 

                  Half-elves generally go into one of two professions: they become Worker Elves due to their larger hands and height – perfect for factory-working – or they head to the Hit-Maker House. 

                  His mother used to work at the Hit-Maker house when she was younger.  She had a knack for songwriting and singing, which is what Ed specialized in now.  Harry used to love listening to her sing familiar Christmas carols every morning while he got dressed and ready for training.  He loved even more the times she'd sing him something she came up with herself.  Once an elf is promoted from elf-in-training to their job title, they normally stay there.  And when that happens in the Hit-Maker House, an elf has access to the whole world.  Literally.

                  An elf's job in the Hit-Maker House entailed not only the creation of art and music, but the ability to integrate it into the lives of humans everywhere to increase the interest and belief in both Santa Claus and Christmas.  Hit-Maker Elves are meant to bring the spirit of Christmas back to a world desensitized by war, natural disasters, and a media-based society.  Half-elves make great Hit-Maker Elves because they can blend in with humans easily.  Pointed ears tend to stand out, especially if the humans aren't celebrating the winter season or Halloween.  Harry's mum blended in alright because her hair is thick and long and can hide her ears well.  Harry knew he'd blend in perfectly too.

                  He had already been planning his future as a Hit-Maker Elf since he was a young boy.  Originally, he wanted to do what his mother did.  He wanted to write music and lyrics and sing the songs he'd created all around the world.  He wanted to hear his songs on the radios in America, on the streets the United Kingdom, being covered by musical acts in Australia and New Zealand and in other languages.  He'd wanted that so badly that it led him to befriending Ed, who had been quite the troublemaker back in the day.  But Ed could sure make music.

                  Harry's dreams have changed since then.  He writes poetry now, obsessed with words and the different ways he can string them together to create a sentence more beautiful than the last one he wrote.  He loves to write in general – poems, lyrics, stories, all of it – but he could feel it in his bones as he grew older that poetry is what he was truly meant to write.  And he couldn't wait to share some of his creations with the world.

                  But that wouldn't be able to happen if the Elder Elves cancel Christmas.

                  "I actually just have to talk to Mum.  Is she still awake?" Harry told Gemma, breathing heavily from his power-walk.

                  "Harry?" their mother asked, appearing in the doorway of her bedroom.  "Are you okay?  What's going on, love?"

                  Harry removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair, wincing at the tangled mess it had become throughout the day.  "I actually came here to ask you the same thing."


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                  "HOW ON EARTH did you find out about that?"

                  Harry blew over the cup of hot chocolate Gemma had made him before she'd gone off to bed.  "Ed received a message.  I'm assuming I'll be next to get one as we're the only two trainees that are supposed to be promoted this year."

                  His mother looked distraught, wrapping herself up even tighter with the blanket she'd carried out from her bedroom.  She was deep in thought for a long time before Harry couldn't take the silence anymore.

                  "How is this even possible?  How can they just cancel it?"

                  "They've been discussing it for a while, honestly.  Years.  They've been insisting that humans have fallen too far, that they're all way past the point of fixing.  They've been saying those things since I still worked at the House, and that's...well, that was a long time ago."

                  "So what's changed?" Harry nearly exploded, his frustration and anger a very human emotion that he's normally able to suppress easily.  He never has a reason to feel this way here.  Annoyance occasionally is warranted when dealing with Ed, but other than that, Harry has become very good at turning off his human emotions.  "What could have possibly happened to suddenly make them do it?"

                  "Harry – "

                  "I've wanted this my whole life," he insisted.  "To see the world, to share my love for Christmas with as many people as I can reach, to, to...  To sit on a porch overlooking the ocean and to write about a sandy, warm Christmas.  To attend birthday parties in December and to – "

                  "Harry, listen to me."  His mother grabbed his hands to quiet him.  Her eyes were wide, authoritative but tender.  "You deserve those things.  We all know that you do.  And you belong in that world just as much as you belong in this one."

                  "But – "

                  "I know.  It's going to be a lot harder now.  I spend as much time as I can possibly spare over at Elf Council, but the chance of Christmas happening this year is a small one.  Maybe just a year off – "

                  "No."

                  " – will help to remind everyone what the spirit of Christmas is all about, and everyone will come back stronger and more willing than ever next season, and it'll be – "

                  Harry wasn't having this.  "No.  No way."

                  "It'll be the best Christmas ever.  You know?  I'm just one person, babe," she finally sighed, gazing sadly at her son.  "I can't change the minds of the entire council of Elder Elves alone.  At least not in time for Christmas this year." 

                  Harry refused to meet her gaze after that, knowing that she was right but wishing that she wasn't.  He thought maybe it was selfish of him to want Christmas this year solely to be able to be promoted (finally) and to see the world, to see his dreams come true.  He was sure that somewhere deep down inside of him he wanted Christmas for the happiness and benefit of the entire world, but at the forefront of his mind now, it was his dreams that he could see crashing down around him.  Not anyone else's.

                   What was he supposed to do, then?  Finish out the year as an elf-in-training and spend another year doing the exact same thing?  Continue spending time with the elflings whenever he could because they were the only elves in all of the North Pole who still loved Christmas as much as he did?  Wake up, go to work, go to dinner, and then go home to bed?  Every day of the week for another year?

                  He couldn't do that.  He already knew he wasn't going to be able to do that.

                  As he put his jacket, hat, scarf, and mittens back on to endure his trek back to his own place, Harry was pretty sure that his mother must have known what was on his mind, the idea that he couldn't seem to shake.  He figured this because she pulled him into a bone-crushing hug before he was able to leave, burying her face in the crook of his neck, and she held him like that for a long time. 

                  When he got home, he began to pack.  He wasn't sure what he'd all need where he was going...or where he was even going.  So he packed everything.  Though he'd never left the North Pole before, he wasn't stupid.  He knew humans didn't wear what he wore, what all of the elves wore on a normal day.  He'd have to get new shoes, new stockings, a new hat, probably some new gloves unless the little golden bells that jingle around his wrists were a common style elsewhere.  He wasn't sure what else he'd need to get or how he'd get it, but he'd figure it out.  It couldn't be that hard, right?

                  Harry left in the morning.  Ed was really great friends with an Elf Coordinator named Gustopher – or 'Just Gus' – who was able to get Harry a seat on the Polar Express, the train that took all of the Hit-Maker Elves to different parts of the world.

                  "This is a one-way ticket, boy.  It can't get you back," Gus was telling him as he helped load Harry's bags into a separate cart.

                  "That's okay."

                  "You sure about this?  The human world is a scary place.  Trust me.  I been there loads of times."

                  Harry smiled politely.  "I'm sure."

                  "Well, then climb aboard, boy," Gus said, handing Harry the golden ticket.  "Polar Express departs in fifteen minutes."

                  "Thank you, sir."

                   Once he was situated in his seat, he peered out the window.  This train loaded everybody from the fourth sector, so he didn't really see anyone he knew.  He'd have liked to maybe see his mum and Gemma and maybe even Ed wave him off, but they were elsewhere.  Ed had gone to work like he was supposed to, delivering a note to their boss from Harry announcing his departure.  Harry knew this was unheard of.  His boss wouldn't believe him, would likely get into contact with his mother to see what this was all about.  They'd get it all sorted eventually.

                  After ten long minutes, the train groaned to life and began moving.  Harry could feel a lump in his throat making it impossible to swallow, but he wasn't sad.  He was a mixture of angry and excited.  He couldn't wait to get to wherever he was going, but he couldn't believe this was how it was happening.  He always figured he'd take this train for the first time with Ed by his side and all of their hard work in a bag by his feet.

                   But Christmas was canceled this year in the North Pole, and there was no way Harry was going to let that stop him from making sure it still took place everywhere else.  The Elder Elves might have given up on the humans, but he hasn't.  Whether it was because he was one of them just as much as he was an elf, he didn't know.  It didn't matter.  Christmas was going to come this year whether the Elder Elves liked it or not.


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