Nick's Naughty Elf. Georgia St. Claire

stop teasing the new boy on your baseball team when you saw that he was about to cry. You have love and patience, generosity and kindness in you. Find them and you will shine with goodness again.”

      Jason had dropped his head and covered his face with his hand as he listened to the answer. When Santa finished speaking, he raised his head, tears glinting in his eyes. “That new boy became the best friend I ever had. When he was killed last year in a car accident, my world became a dark place.”

      “You have mourned a long time and used that loss as an excuse for doing the wrong thing. Now it is time to use that loss as a reason to do the right thing. Do it to honor Sam. You know what he would want you to do.” Santa’s eyes drifted over to Peter and he nodded as they exchanged silent communication. Then he sat up straighter clapping and rubbing his hands together briskly. “All right, Edith. I want you to know that your general behavior has not been so naughty that you should have been last; it was that temper tantrum that put you there. What is the final question for this press conference?”

      She looked around at all the other members of the press as they prepared to pack up their equipment, but were hesitating, waiting to see if some unexpected information was about to be uncovered with her astute question. It was her big opportunity, perhaps her career changing opportunity. She puffed up with her importance, squaring her shoulders and giving Santa a steely look. She opened her mouth, prepared to nail the interview with the single most important question of the night. And closed it again as her mind went blank and no words came to her. Some of the others chuckled as she flushed with annoyance.

      But Santa applauded her; his gloves thudding together to make a sound eerily like the one that had been heard coming from the gingerbread house earlier that evening and had started all the speculation. Several people noticed the similarity and made sure to record the sounds. “Very good, Edith! I am proud of you. You weren’t sure of the right thing to say and you wisely chose to say nothing. You also should come to see me tomorrow when I finish working; and I will help you by answering the question you couldn’t come up with here tonight.”

      Her eyes met his and she nodded slowly as she read his reassurance. “Thank you, Santa. I would like that very much. But you have asked three of us to come see you tomorrow after you finish work. Will that get too late for you? Would you prefer for me to come the next night instead?”

      He smiled at her. “Yes, Edith, thank you. That is a very good idea and a generous offer to wait an extra day. I appreciate that. Please come see me on Sunday night.” He made his gaze general to include everyone still in the area. “Travel safely everyone and think carefully about what you heard and what you learned tonight.” He nodded to the nearby store employees. “Make sure everyone gets to their cars without incident.” He waved, turned and strode towards the nearby door in the wall that led to the back corridors of the store.

      Chapter 2

      Nick quietly closed the door to the guest room after checking to ensure that Marcie was still sleeping soundly. He had tried to drive her home; but when they got to her street, the whole block was a media circus with broadcast vans carrying their oversized satellite dishes and glaring bright lights illuminating everything. He had swung the car down a side street and taken her to the condo he was renting while substituting for Mr. Nickson. Marcie had remained asleep the whole time.

      Back at the store, when he had finished changing and had made sure that the reporters were all gone, Nick had gone into the gingerbread house to talk to Marcie. But he had found her curled up and sleeping in a corner, one of the canvas equipment bags pulled over her like a blanket. He had carried her to his car and, when she still hadn’t awakened, carried her from the car into his condo, down the hall and into the guest room where he settled her on the bed and covered her with a quilt. He shook his head in wonder, he thought only young children slept so soundly that transfers didn’t wake them.

      Nick moved into the study, settling into a dark brown leather club chair; he kicked off his loafers and put his feet up on the matching leather ottoman. He took out his cell phone and called his cousin. “Hey, Niccolo! How are you doing?”

      “Hey back at you, Dominic! You being naughty or nice?” There was a pause after the routine question. “Slush, you’re off center and not in a good way! What the bells have you been up to?”

      Nick sighed. “I was afraid of that. But I wanted to see what you picked up. I’m not even sure which problem is causing it. Have you seen the news lately?”

      “The Spanking Santa is you?” Niccolo asked incredulously. “What happened, coz?”

      “I lost my temper and spanked a swearing elf.”

      “But, you were Santa. How’d that happen?”

      Nick sighed tiredly. “Yeah, I know. The suit should have prevented me from being anything more than mildly irritated, at the very extreme. But I actually bellowed at her before I spanked her.”

      “Wow man, that should not have happened.”

      “I know. Listen, have you ever had, um, stirrings, when wearing the suit?”

      “Stirrings? What do you… the only kind of stirrings I can imagine you must mean, aren’t possible. Do you mean,” he dropped his voice, “sexual stirrings?”

      “Um, yeah. Twice, while wearing the suit.”

      “What are you, some kind of pervert?” Niccolo was outraged.

      “No, no! Not a kid, bells that would be horrible! My naughty little elf, an adult.”

      “While you were wearing the suit and spanking her?”

      “No, not while spanking. I was too angry then to do anything except spank her and get back to the children. But later, when I went to talk to her. She really got to me.”

      “And you were still suited up?”

      “Yup.”

      “Can’t be. The suit prevents everything except nice behavior.”

      “Sex is nice.”

      “That’s your human maleness talking. For Santas, sex is only nice if you’re married, and last time I checked, you aren’t, unless you forgot to invite me.”

      “When the time comes, you’ll be the first to know, I want you to be my best man.”

      “Thanks, coz, I’m honored. So, do you think the suit is malfunctioning somehow?”

      Nick screwed up his face as he considered the possibility. “I wouldn’t have thought so; because except for my behavior towards the elf, everything else is just as it should be. I really tested it to the limits during the press conference I had to give. I wanted to send the ‘I’m Santa, don’t mess with me and what I tell you’ message. It worked right up to expectations.”

      Niccolo laughed. “Yeah, you did a great job. Here, the spanking issue kind of got buried in the whole discussion about the things you told the reporters. And the clapping at the end was genius! They played the tapes made by the witnesses and compared them to what the press recorded and they are extremely similar. People don’t know what to make of the whole thing. There was some concern that Santa may have been applauding the elf that was swearing. There are always people who are out in right field.”

      “Left field, Niccolo. But good try; you’re doing well with your American idioms. Next time you serve here you should be spot on perfect.”

      “Santa is international. I don’t know why he can’t be Italian,” Niccolo complained, sulking.

      Nick laughed. “I agree with you, coz, but when in the US, Santa speaks American English, that’s how it’s always been and that means it will always be. Continuity is everything in our business.”

      “Yeah, I know. So now, what are you going to do?”

      “Well, I’ve obviously got to file a report about everything. But I expect I’ll just have to play it out. There have been Santas in the news before, and unfortunately,