If Maevis didn’t know Serendipity as well as she did, she might’ve allowed herself to become offended at the dismissive statement. But she knew better than to let Serendipity’s poor manners insult her. The possibility of pressing on anyway crossed her mind, and Maevis opened her mouth to ask another question, but then he closed it abruptly when she realized that Serendipity was done with the conversation before it even began. Giving up, she wrapped her shawl around her shoulders, picked up the basket she had brought with her off of the table, and turned to the door. As she pulled it open, she said, “You should have told me.” There was no answer. “Be careful,” she added as she stepped out, pulling the door to behind her.
As she made her way down off of the rickety front steps, she noticed the same footprints in the mud outside. How had she missed them before? There were two matching sets. One that distinctly led up to t
Serendipity sat the letter down on the table and gave Gypsim her full attention.“What is it, little friend?” she asked.Gypsim scampered over to the letter and began to point at it, as if her information had something to do with the letter. Serendipity didn’t understand. “The letter?” she asked.Gypsim’s head waggled up and down furiously. Serendipity continued. “You want me to know something about the letter?”Again, the mouse agreed.“Can you read the letter?” Serendipity asked, wondering if too many late nights had caused her to become delusional.However, Gypsim signaled that this was not the case. No, a mouse could not read human handwriting. Serendipity was puzzled again. “All right. But it does have something to do with the letter?”This was confirmed, so Serendipity made another guess. “Does it have to do with Mr. Cane?”Gypsim jumped up
By the time she reached the front door, Serendipity was crying. Pozzletot was one of the few beings in the world she could count as a friend, and the thought of him all alone up in the North Pole, in hiding somewhere, afraid for his life, brought a feeling of overwhelming despair. As her feet pounded up the steps, caked in mud by now, she did not even pause to think about what she was doing, where she was going, or what had happened there; she simply needed help--help that only Maevis could provide.As she threw the heavy front door open, calling her friend’s name, rushing in as she did so, she nearly ran into Ms. Crotlybloom who had come to see what all the racket was. The older woman reached out a thin arm to steady her, but then gasped in horror at the sight. “Serendipity?” she asked, her eyes wide behind her wire spectacles. “Is that you, child?”“Oh, Ms. Crotlybloom!” Serendipity exclaimed, bending over to catch her breath
“Well?” Mr. Waddlebug asked, impatiently tapping his foot as he stared at the mail shoot. Corey stood beside him, quill pen still in hand, his expression much more subdued. “What is taking so long? Shouldn’t we have heard back from her by now?”“She’ll respond soon enough,” Corey assured him, finally sticking the pen back in the magic ink he had used to write the correspondence to Ms. Fizzlestitch. The mailroom was really something else. This is where all of the letters to Santa--whether through regular post-dispatch or the preferred, up the chimney, method came to be read, considered, and recommended for fulfillment or denial. It is also where Corey came to write his own letters whenever he needed to communicate with a potential recruit. There was a smorgasbord of inks to choose from in every color, as well as every thickness of writing apparatus imaginable. The paper was smooth, the envelopes regal, and Corey always felt impor
Serendipity had every intention of returning to her cottage and sending another letter to Mr. Cane as quickly as possible. However, once Maevis and Ms. Crotlybloom decided to take on the project of scrubbing years of filth and grime from her--her skin, her hair, her fingernails, between her toes, everywhere--her return had been quite delayed. It had taken both of the older women with brushes, combs, and eventually scissors, to work her hair into what could potentially be called “suitable” again. Her flesh was red and sore, not only from the warm water (which had been switched out three times) but also from the intense scrubbing.Once the torturous bath had been completed, she needed a few moments to collect herself before pulling her abused body out of the tub. Even the promise that Maevis would help her dress in a gown she had laid aside (it had been Serendipity’s mother’s at one time) and a new pair of boots, did not result in a hasty exit from the c
While Serendipity understood what Maevis was trying to tell her, she shook her head. Damp, white ringlets flipped water out of the tub as she did so, further wetting the wooden floor. How many times had she tried to explain herself to Maevis before? More than she could count. “I don’t have a choice, Maevis. It must be done.”“You do have a choice, love,” Maevis corrected her, placing her calloused hand on Serendipity’s arm just above her boney elbow where it rested on the side of the tub and giving it a squeeze.“You have a choice every day. Do you keep trying to do the impossible or give up and sell the lot of the parts and maybe the house, too? You could take the money and start all over again, someplace far away, if you truly wanted to.”“It’s not that simple,” Serendipity replied, resting her forehead on her arm near Maevis’s chilly hand and drawing in a deep breath. “I promised my f
Mr. Waddlebug had found a comfy chair in the corner of the room near the fireplace and was dozing, the honking sound of his snoring what one might expect from an old man with a bulbous nose, as Corey sat idly at the desk, absently twirling the feather of a quill in his fingers, waiting on a response from Ms. Fizzlestitch and pondering his own existence.It wasn’t a pleasant experience.He tended to push away the ideas that often popped into his head--why did he work so hard? What was he trying to prove? What did it matter if one new recruit didn’t show up? All of those questions often dwelling just below the surface until one finds himself in a quiet room, all alone save a snoring elf in the corner, and then it is difficult to push the contemplations aside.But Corey was very talented when it came to the ability to dodge the deeper questions, and he refused now to entertain any of the truly important thoughts that dare rise to the surface of his cons
“Well, hello there, Corey,” a jolly voice cried out, causing Corey to look up and meet two sparkling blue eyes.“How are you this fine day, my boy?”“Sir, it’s nice to see you,” Corey replied, offering his hand, unsure as to whether or not St. Nicholas had heard his mutterings. “I’m doing well, thank you. And yourself?”“Couldn’t be better,” he chuckled as he released Corey’s hand, thin and small in comparison to his own. “I’m very excited to hear that you were able to procure a replacement for the recently deceased Mrs. Meriwether. She served me well for over two hundred years, God rest her sweet soul.”“Yes, sir, we were all very sad to see her go,” Corey replied, a distraught look plastered on his face, his voice ringing with lamentation.St. Nicholas shook his head slowly from side to side, his great white beard rippling as he did so.
The Snow Queen’s fortress was high atop Mt. Menzelfrap, still within the protective dome put in place centuries ago when St. Nicholas first moved his operations to this secret location, but what could be several days walk through treacherous territory in inclement weather if one chose to travel by foot. Luckily, Corey had the ability to teleport himself magically and found himself standing outside her castle door only a few moments after ending his discussion with the man in charge.While he could have easily positioned himself within the fortress itself had he chosen to do so, he rarely made the decision to disturb others so abruptly, particularly in a situation where he was in need of some assistance, so with the bitterly cold wind whipping around, blowing the snow into his face and wreaking havoc on his carefully knotted scarf, Corey knocked on the nine-foot high silver encased ice door and waited for someone to let him inside.In reality only a few moments ha