Page 11 of Naughty Elf: Shimmersnap

“I can do both,” Shimmersnap said. He turned and walked away.

I looked at the floor where he had been standing. Glitter covered the area where his feet had been.

Chapter 7

Shimmersnap

Appearing at work was easy. Walter would leave the house, and I’d pop into my human body and go wherever I needed to be. I didn’t have to worry about him missing the figurine on the shelf. I never got sick, and Walter wouldn’t take a day off if his life depended on it, so all was well! Things were working out great. There was no way Walter was going to notice that his assistant was also his elf figurine.

But today was going to be tricky.

Today, we needed to go shopping for our holiday family. The two of us would be shopping for a mom and a dad with four children, ages ranging from eight to eight months. I was already oh so excited about the things we could get for the amazing family that deserved the most sparktaculous Christmas.

Walter, on the other hand, had been grumbling about it all morning. If I understood him correctly—it was hard to hear him when he was mumbling to himself—he was more nervous than grumpy, but still, we were going to have a great time. I was going to show him just how amazing Christmas spirit could be.

When the time came for me to show up so we could go shopping, Walter was sitting in a chair facing the mantle. If I disappeared, he would notice. So what was an elf to do?

I used what little magic I could muster in this form to make the kitchen timer go off, taking Walter’s attention from me to that.

As soon as he was up and out of the room, I popped into my human form, fully dressed and ready to shop. Since we weren’t working, I could be more casual. I wore a pair of black leggings with silver-sparkle boots and a red t-shirt with gold-glittered snowflakes. I rang the doorbell. From outside, I could hear his muttered curses.

He opened the door, and I smiled brightly. “Hi, Walter! Are you ready to go shopping?”

He looked me up and down. The sun shined down on me, making all my sparkles glow. He blinked but didn’t say a word.

He gestured toward his car in the driveway, and we made our way to it. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground, though the air was warm. By the end of the day the snow would probably be melted.

“So, where should we go?” I asked, as I sat in the passenger seat of Walter’s car.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t even look at the details about what the family needs.”

“A mom, dad, and four kids, ages eight to eight months. The eight-year-old is really into Legos these days, but also princesses. And the eight-month-old obviously doesn’t have a strong preference toward any toys, but I have a sneaking suspicion they’re going to be into noise-making things, like musical instruments.”

Walter looked at me like I’d grown two heads. “You just know all of this?”

“Yes,” I said. I probably shouldn’t have shared so much, but this was my mate. He could be trusted with my secret. Eventually. If it didn’t scare him too much. “We’ll have fun today, I promise.” I patted his knee.

Walter grimaced but nodded. “We’ll see.”

He started the car and backed out the driveway.

Once we were parked at the mall, I looped my arm through his and dragged him inside. Despite his grumpy attitude, he seemed to be having fun. He didn’t bat an eye when I started handing him purchases.

“Oh, I bet she’s really wanted this set. It’s her favorite,” I said.

Walter chuckled. “Shimmersnap, you talk like you know these people.”

“Well, you know, it pays to get to know the people we’re helping out, right?”

“But we don’t even know their names.”

“Of course.” I knew it was the policy not to give out the names of the families we were supporting, and I wasn’t supposed to know any more details than what had been provided. But I couldn’t help my elf abilities. It wasn’t like I could turn them off. I knew Crystal, Steve, Laura, AJ, Megan, and Ben and what they all wanted—even if they didn’t admit it to themselves. Crystal and Steve desperately wanted financial security for their kids, it had been a tough year since Steve had an accident at work and lost his job and the school Crystal worked at had cutbacks. I wanted to make sure they had the best Christmas we could give them.

I knew we didn’t need to buy them certain things because Santa would be providing those.

“Okay, we also need to get clothes,” I said.

Walter wrinkled his nose. “Clothes for Christmas? Just what every kid loves.”

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