It was another cold, dark evening in the city. Mornington had just finished sending off the order for the Christmas Buffet, this time around his normal Parisian Chef flatly refused, apparently he had a breakdown the last time he cooked.
Charlie…Vic’s “Go To” man appread seemingly out of nowhere…
“Hey Boss!”
Vic jumped…
“You REALLY need to show me how the hell you do that?!”
Charlie chuckled, and then pointed at the calendar that was laying on Vic’s table.
“It’s tomorrow Boss…”
Vic’s smile turned into a face full of rage as he stormed off out the front door of the hotel. A tall blonde woman popped her head around the corner and asked Charlie what got over vic. Chalie simply replied ‘The list’ and wandered off.
“10 years” vic muttered to himself and he took the back roads and side alleys to the entrance of City Hall.
“10 years of THAT Elf…” Vic rounded the corner behind Aether Salon into the side alleys surrounding Loner Lane.
“10 years of listening to a list full of lies!” At that point Vic stopped, straightened his tie and continued “I am afterall…an honest Hotelier…”
He rounded the corner into the back of the Tome book building and headed into the tunnel. At the main road of Babbage Square he waited for a thick snow flurry to fall and then ran up the stairs of city hall and headed into the entrance.
It was 1am on Sunday Morning. City Hall was practically empty save for a few clerks working upstairs getting the tallys done for the forthcoming week’s trade at the Port’s. Just as Vic was rounding the corner into the front office rooms, a hand grabbed him from behind and pulled him into one of the store closets.
The door closed behind him and a candle was lit. Standing infront of him was Charlie, Lia and the tall blonde woman.
Lia glared at Vic…”Just what the hell do you think you are doing? Do you honestly think Boiler Elf or one of his minions wont know whats happened to that list sitting in the room 3 doors down?”
“No, Lia…they wont.”
“…but Boss…you know just how deep the Boiler Elf’s contacts go…”
Vic turned to Charlie…
“Charlie…10 years…10 long years and i finally have this….”
Vic pulled out a parchment paper. An exact replica of the same parchment used for the Boiler Elf’s list.
“Wait…how did you get your hands on that? It even has the old city seal on the back?!”
Vic grinned “Its the only one i could get my hands on, fell into my ownership during one of the office moves upstairs”.
Lia turned to face Vic “So im guessing, knowing you, that you have managed to copy the entries in the current list sitting on that table?”
Vic nodded
“…and im also guessing that you have altered your own listing to give yourself a glowing report, full of you saving urchins and helping the needy and blah blah, you know NO ONE will believe it and before you say innocent Hotelier just remember…i know your history!”
Vic grinned an even wider grin, held up the parchment and chuckled…
The tall blonde was the first to let out a giggle “ohhhh, that is genius”
Vic nodded, and walked out of the room, into the corridor whilst making sure Junie wasnt around, and quietley replaced the official Christmas List with his own.
The names of all the adults on the list was left blank after their name, every single one of them with no instructions for the Boiler Elf. However, every single urchins name had a checkmark next to it and a spidery scrawl next to their names letting the boiler elf know that the Urchins…all of them…had a good year.
As Vic turned the corner from Port into Academy he mused to himself…
“Let’s see Mr Organising Boiler Elf deal with THAT…”
Meanwhile, in the archives…
Junie bounced through the stacks, humming a merry holiday tune and brushing dust from each leather-bound volume. Brother Sevus buried his head in his hands over the document he had been attempting to read for the last 10 minutes.
“MUST you do that?”
Junie leapt out from behind a shelf and brushed the top of his head with a feather duster.
“I’M GOING TO GET COAL THIS YEAR, I JUST KNOW IT! I CAN’T WAIT!”
Brother Sevus groaned. The List was a source of conversation and consternation every single year, and he blinked at her. “Has there been a year when you *haven’t* gotten coal? I don’t think so.”
Junie looked at him and wondered for a split second how he could have guessed. She put her hands on her hips for a moment before shrugging and disappearing behind the next set of shelves. Sevus went back to studying the document before him until she interrupted again, shouting from deep within the archives, “WHAT KIND OF COOKIES DOES THE BOILER ELF LIKE?”