Elf Pink Slip

It is almost that time! The countdown for Christmas is around the corner! As Santa’s helpers are working their magic on the assembly lines making sure that every good little boy and girl gets what is on their Christmas list, something unusual happens.

All of a sudden the line stops! The belt on the toy drop came out a complete halt and everyone stopped moving. In comes Starmie from her break.

“Gather around everyone. I just heard some news that we are all going to want to hear,” Starmie said as she walked through the center of the floor yelling from right to left to make sure everyone heard her.

The assembly line completely stopped from the elf’s that were wrapping the presents and marking them off the list, to the elf’s putting the toys on the belts, all the way down to the elf’s that were taking the gifts off the belts and passing them from one to another until they reached the bag that was to go on the Santa’s slay.

Everyone starts whispering among themselves, “What is going on?” “Why is she stopping us?” “What is she talking about?”

When everyone had gathered around, she said, “Okay everyone, quiet it down so I can tell you what I just heard in the break room.”

Everyone got quiet.

“Okay, so I was sitting in the break room and outside in the hallway I heard Santa and Melo (the head elf) talking. They said that one of us is getting fired today,” Starmie said.

It was as if everyone was talking at the same time. There was just a loud echo that she was sure everyone in the building was going to come running in to see what was going on, especially Santa. Starmie didn’t want anyone in management to know that not only did she overhear them, but that she told everyone. Now all of the elf’s were on edge. Maybe she had done the wrong thing. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything, especially without knowing ‘who’ they were letting go.

Starmie’s friends, Joyful, Precious, and Muffin, all ran over to her asking did she hear anything else, did she know who it was, or did they give any hints. She told them no. She had no idea or even a guess as to who it was.

For the rest of the day, everyone was nervous. They did go back to work, but it took a while for everyone to calm down long enough to get back to work. Now they were all behind on their duties and wouldn’t make their production numbers. But they were all in overdrive to try and make them anyway.

At five minutes to 5 pm, Santa and Melo came in. Melo yells, “Everyone gather around. Santa has something he would like to say.”

Starmie thought to herself that this couldn’t be about who they were letting go. Santa would never fire someone in front of the whole crew. Would he?

“Hello my little elf’s!” Santa said. “As you all know it is about time for Christmas. We have four more days until we get to make all the dreams come true for the good little boys and girls this year. You have all worked so hard this year, just like every year. But this year I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to start picking one of you, who has done the best work all year long, to come join me on my slay on Christmas Eve!”

You could tell that everyone was in shock. All mouths dropped open. Starmie was shocked the most. She had misunderstood the conversation she overheard. Santa was firing someone, he was letting someone go with him.

“And this years winner is……….Decorata! Congratulations!” Santa yelled.