Scotty's Gift

When her grandchildren arrived, Grandma O'Brien was preparing her annual snickerdoodles. She pushed down with the heels of her hands and worked the dough until she was sore. She clutched the underside of her left arm absently.

"Grandma, what are you doing so hard at work?" asked her granddaughter Maeve, bursting in from the cold. "I'm surprised you're feeling up to it this year."

"Well, I'm mighty tired. Scotty has been harder at work than me!"

"I can't believe you still have that thing," said Maeve. "I always thought he was bad luck."

"Yeah," said Dean, who was growing like a weed, "The first year you brought him home, he plugged ten strings of lights into each other in the outlet next to the tree. He almost caught it on fire!"

"Dean, don't be mean to Scotty. He's the spirit of Christmas cheer," said Grandma.

"More like Christmas fear. Ever since you've had him, something funny always seems to happen, like how glitter ended up in the washing machine and gunked up our church clothes. We all had to borrow from your closet!"

"At least you got to wear a pair of Grandma's pants," said Maeve. "She could have given you a skirt. Either way, I think you're just imagining things," said Maeve, heaving her heavy bag onto the island.

"Just what have you brought me this year?" Grandma laughed.

"Well, I decided that maybe this was a good year to enter the gingerbread house contest I've been talking about. I think I have a really great idea."

Maeve unfurled a blueprint from her bag that covered the table, depicting a glittering gingerbread palace with windows revealing an extravagant throne room, a closet fit for a queen, and a garden replete with evergreen trees. Maeve knew she could win with such an elaborate display, and ever since she found out about the surgery Grandma was putting off, the pressure was on. She wasn't supposed to know about the lump Grandma had found on the side of her chest, but she overheard her parents talking one night when she was supposed to be asleep, and she knew that if she won the $5,000 prize, Grandma could afford it.

"Maeve, that will be a lot of work. The contest is tomorrow. Are you sure you'll be able to pull it off?

"It'll be a breeze, Grandma. I've practiced each piece of the design and timed myself. I'm sure I can get it all baked and assembled before the two hour timeframe is up."

"If anyone can do it, you can, my dear," said Grandma O'Brien, adjusting her shirt to pull the seam away from her left underarm.

On the mantle, Scotty the elf eyed Maeve's ingredients. Christmas was only two days away, and he hadn't caused nearly enough mischief to scratch that holiday itch. After being locked away in a box for eleven months, Scotty was looking forward to participating in the holiday festivities in the only way he knew how- having a little fun with the O'Brien family.

The rumors about Scotty's mischief were true, but he wished he could be involved in Christmas activities like other elves were. When Grandma O'Brien brought Scotty home, the children were already too old to believe he could report their every move back to the North Pole, and he served as just a decoration. The elf was tired of being ignored, and he had decided he needed to do something big this year to convince everyone of just how real he was.

That night, Maeve enlisted Dean's help to organize all of her ingredients, arranging them for maximum speed of deployment on the day of competition.

Scotty, seeing their hard work, crafted a brilliant plan to be a big part of Christmas. When Grandma O'Brien went to sleep, he jumped from his perch, singing his bottom just a little before landing hearth. Then, he scampered over to Maeve's bag and cut open tubes of frosting, glomming it all over the fabric. Then, he put the whole bag of brown sugar in the microwave and turned it on high. He opened the gumdrops and let them pour out and opened the peppermints one by one, licking them to stick them together. Finally, he cut up the evergreen trees Maeve had prepared from pipe cleaners, turning them into sad, plucked branches. When Scotty was done, none of the ingredients could be saved.

While he worked his plan, Scotty lost track of time, and before he knew it, he heard the footsteps of Maeve and her siblings coming downstairs to get ready to leave for the big competition. He looked at the mantle, and then at the bag. He jumped up and over the lip of the fabric, laying flat just in time to escape detection.

Maeve reported to her station and donned her apron. She placed her bag of ingredients on her countertop, focused.

"Welcome, contestants! Please turn your attention to our contest countdown!" heard Maeve through a loudspeaker. She watched the numbers tick down from ten, and when the buzzer sounded, she pulled open her bag to find Scotty laying atop the drippy mess. She lifted up the only intact ingredient, only to find the bag of brown sugar burnt to a crisp. Then, she saw Scotty and had an idea.

She dumped out the bag's contents on her bench and spread the mess of sugar and flour out with her hands. She stacked the gumdrops in the shape of a sandcastle, and she used the broken evergreens to fashion a low-sitting Adirondack chair. In the sand, she wrote 'Merry Christmas' with her finger. Finally, she sat Scotty up in the chair with care and crossed his legs.

When two hours were up, the judges paced around to all the contestants, whispering. Finally, one judge strode up to Maeve with a smile and handed her a bright blue ribbon. She received the $5,000 check with disbelief. Maeve smiled at Scotty and whispered, "You aren't so bad, silly elf. You saved Christmas!"