“Presents” from Above

If you missed my post from Saturday, here is the link, To Surf or Not to Surf …

The following story is Part 2. For my recent followers who haven’t seen any of my stories about Santa’s elves before, they are recurring characters. Santa’s elves started out as a Christmas story post a few years back,  but they were too fun for just a one time post, so they will pop up every so often. Enjoy! 

 

The waves were rising higher, they were perfect for surfing but Mason was having a hard time today. He had wiped out a couple times already. Instead of the song “Surfing Safari” going through his head, it was the “Wipe Out” tune that kept playing. After a few more spills, Mason decided that he may as well give it up for today and try again tomorrow. While swimming back to shore, he looked around, hoping the elves  hadn’t been watching him today. He still found it hard to believe that he had talked to Santa’s elves. He really didn’t know what to think. If he went back to the coffee shop and told Cara that he and Tippner had talked to Santa’s elves, she would lose it! Once she stopped laughing, she would tell him that he was “off his rocker!” and maybe she would be right! 

Thinking about the coffee shop made him start to worry a little. With Cara in charge, who knew what he would come back too! Telling himself to not think about the coffee shop right now he wondered about Tippner, hopefully he was having a good morning. 

What a beautiful day, there wasn’t a cloud to be seen in the bright blue sky. Tippner was feeling happy and carefree. He hadn’t gone surfing with Mason this morning, for he had wanted to do some sightseeing. He had decided to rent a bicycle for the day and ride by the water. It was turning out to be a great decision, as he rode along with a gentle breeze at his back. 

SQUAWK! SQUAWK! A swarm of seagulls came out of nowhere and were diving for his head.  SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! Tippner felt the goo running down his head, onto his neck. He was biking as fast as he could but the seagulls followed him. What was wrong with them! CRASH! He ran into a bush, and fell over the handlebars right into the middle of it. At least it was a soft landing and the seagulls flew away. 

Tippner climbed out of the bush and heard laughter from nearby. He looked around and spotted the elves he had seen earlier in the week. They were sitting on the park bench with their friends and all of them had amusement on their faces. 

“If I had known I was going to see such a great show, I would have brought popcorn along.” said Alabaster with a grin. 

Tippner shook his head, feeling the “presents” that the birds had left on it. He felt self conscious, but said HI, and Snowball introduced him to Jinx and Tink. 

“Where is your friend that you were with the other day?” Snowball asked. 

“He wanted to surf some more, I thought I would do some sightseeing.” 

“Well you got a close up view of that bush and those birds sure seemed to have it in for you!” Snowball said. 

“I would stay and talk, but yes the seagulls did have it in for me.  Now I need to go clean off their “presents!” so, if you will excuse me.” 

They couldn’t hold back their laughter as they said goodbye and watched him ride away. 

“So are you all ready to go tour the Everglades and maybe see some alligators?” asked Snowball. 

“Yes!” said Jinx, with the rest echoing in agreement. 

They started walking to catch a bus to take them to the Everglades. Tink was so glad that his stomach was feeling a lot better, he had been sure to steer clear of the bacon on the breakfast buffet at their hotel. 

Mason was all showered and cleaned up when Tippner walked into the hotel room. Mason looked at him and opened his mouth to speak, but Tippner said, “Don’t say a word! Don’t ask me about my morning, and I don’t ever want to see a flying seagull again!” He walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Mason stared at the door thinking that perhaps his morning hadn’t been as bad as he thought. He may have kept getting swept off of his surfboard, but at least no birds flew over his head, leaving presents behind. 

Later in the day Mason and Tippner decided to take their beach chairs and go out and sit on the beach for awhile. Sitting in the sun and hearing the sound of the waves made both of them fall asleep for a little. They woke up when they felt the cool water on their feet. 

“Whoa! I think we better move our chairs!” Tippner said. 

Mason quickly jumped up, and bent down to grab his sandals. “Where are my shoes. I had put them right…” Tippner and him watched as a big wave came right to the spot where he was pointing at. 

“This is only a guess, but I have a strong feeling that you have lost your shoes. I think they are swimming in the ocean right now.” Tippner said. 

The rest of the day was fortunately uneventful. They were able to enjoy relaxing on the beach, and even did a little more surfing in the evening. This time Mason stayed on his surfboard. 

As they were walking back to the hotel they saw the elves walking just a little ahead of them. Should they call out to them they wondered. Then Jangle turned around and saw them. “Hey everyone, look who is behind us!” The other elves turned around and greeted them. 

The elves were so friendly and cheerful, but what else would you expect from Santa’s elves?  He wouldn’t hire grumpy elves would he, thought Mason, as they were chatting away to Tippner. 

After chatting awhile they said their goodbyes and parted for the night. When they got to their room Alabaster started combing his hair. 

“What are you doing?” asked Jinx. 

“I want to see if I can style my hair the way Mason has his. It looked pretty cool.” 

The other elves looked at him and rolled their eyes. Alabaster always did care about his hair. After a snack of sour cream and onion potato chips and some leftover sausage pizza they all went to bed. Tomorrow would be a fun day of exploring the Flamingo Gardens. They were all sleepy, except for Tink and Jangle. Tink pulled out a folder and was going through papers. 

“What papers did you bring along?” asked Jangle. 

“Santa’s financial statements from the past couple months.” 

Jangle shook his head, “I used to think I wanted to work with numbers, but nope, not for me! I would much rather tinker with toys, and listen to my music.” He put his earbuds in as he laid back down. It didn’t take long before the numbers started blurring in front of Tink’s eyes and he put them back in the folder and closed his eyes to enter dreamland. 

Mason couldn’t sleep. Tippner was snoring, but that wasn’t all that was keeping him awake. He was thinking about the dreams that he had been having ever since they came to Florida. Betsy, the cow, kept appearing in them! He hadn’t seen her since their fast trip to Switzerland, why was she in his dreams now? It was probably due to him eating tacos before bed. He threw another pillow at Tippner and rolled over, hoping for a peaceful night.