The Break Room

“Where is Jolly — again!?” asked Starlight, the chief elf in the workshop.

Twinkle and Doodle looked at each other. Each mouthed the same words to the other — Tell him! Each vehemently shook his head at the other in disagreement.

Starlight looked back and forth at them as he spoke. “I’m going to find out,” he said, “but you can tell me now and any extenuating circumstances.”

“What does ex-ten-tu-tat-ing mean?” asked Doodle. When he heard things, his brain doodled around the words adding flourishes and confusion.

“Extenuating,” repeated Starlight. “It means sometimes there’s a reason for doing something that needs to be taken into account.”

Neither elf responded. Starlight wasn’t sure they understood.

“Twinkle,” Starlight said, “you’re heavy-handed with the glitter in the workshop, but that’s your nature and how you got your name.”

Twinkle looked down at the glitter that was on his hands, shirt front, elf pants, and shoes. Other elves would have scolded him, but Starlight never did. Twinkle knew he understood.

“Doodle, your curlicues and smiley faces in your signature?” Starlight asked.

Each elf signed their work and Doodle’s signatures were, well, doodle-y.

Doodle and Twinkle looked at each other. Finally, Doodle spoke, “You know how Jolly is so happy? This time of year, he taps a keg in the break room. It’s how he gets through. He sneaks down there and –“

“Sometimes he passes out,” said Twinkle.

Starlight bolted out the door. Jolly needed help with his extenuating circumstance before it killed him.

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Unicorn Challenge — base a 250 word (or less) fictional piece on the photo.

Forgive me if this piece sounds preachy. I have two new friends who are very active in AA and talk about their struggles quite openly. So when I looked at the photo, my first thought was, What if one of Santa’s elves had a drinking problem?

Don’t ask my why I thought of that! My elf name would be Questions. I’ve got loads of questions and few answers.