Today I give you three drabbles from the world of my short story, The Reindeer Solution. Three quick shorts from Santa’s elves Fen and Jingles.
The Shiny Mishap
“What happened to Santa’s workshop? It looks like a glitter bomb exploded!” Fen stared at the shiny catastrophic mess, his mouth gaping open.
“Oh, it did,” Jiggles cheerfully replied.
Fen slowly looked at Jingles, who was trying to blow red glitter out of his peppermint mocha cappuccino.
“What do you mean, it did?”
“Rumple Hat created a glitter bomb as a prank. For Nutmeg’s birthday party. Then he tripped trying to take it to the party room, and poof, glitter everywhere.”
“Rumple Hat!” Fen’s shout shook the workshop rafters. More glitter rained down.
“No use. He fled five minutes ago.”
Cleanup
“Ginger Snaps! Five hours! Five hours at hazard pay,” Fen grumbled to himself while reviewing the invoice. “No room in the budget. This expense is coming out of Rumple Hat’s wages.” He shuddered remembering the cleanup. The heavy duty vacuums, the hazmat suits, and still the elves were finding glitter in the table cracks, in the folds of their hats.
At least none of it got into toy storage.
Another shudder imagining if the mishap had happened during peak toy production.
He sighed. “One more thing to do.”
In the workshop he changed the sign:
0 Days Since An Accident
A Sticky Situation
At his desk Fen reviewed the coffee budget, shaking his head. “With this consumption, I’m surprised they’re not bouncing off the ceiling.”
Jingles burst in. “Rudolph’s stuck on the roof!”
“So? He can fly off. Or is he drunk again?”
“No, I mean he’s stuck on the roof. With wacky glue.”
Fen sighed. “Who glued him to the roof? Rudolph probably deserved it, but Santa won’t like it.”
“That’s the best part. He did it himself. Mistook the glue for tanning oil.”
“Really? Leave him up there for another, oh, fifteen minutes, then get glue solvent and set him free.”
Be Afraid of the Dark 
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