The Mystery of the Missing Elf

by Janice

IMPORTANT NOTE: For those who have not been reading this universe, Honey and Brian have never dated in this universe at this time. You’ll need to remember this when reading. Not-so-important note: Trixie and Jim are dating. :)

Author’s notes: This is a CWP for Jixemitri. Details are at the end.

Also, for those of you who have been reading my other stories, you may have noticed that this one is numbered as 9 while the previous story was number 5. I moved this one up the posting schedule so that it would be out at an appropriate time. Numbers 6, 7 and 8 will be out sometime in the new year in their proper order.

As always, if you’re having trouble remembering what you’ve read previously in this universe, visit the Reminder Page first.

Thanks once again to Grey for editing and making such valuable suggestions. This story is so much less lame because of you!

Christmas Day 1992

The living room was warm as twenty-three year old Brian Belden piled a new supply of firewood into its basket. He had spent the previous afternoon replenishing the supply in the wood shed and his muscles were beginning to ache from it. Around him, there was the usual chaos that descended on the farm at this time every year.

“You’re doing it again,” his sister yelled, practically in his ear. “It’ll tip over if you don’t fix it soon.”

“It most certainly will not,” Mart replied pompously. “It’s perfectly stable.”

Brian sank into a comfortable chair and put his hands over his ears. “I’m not here,” he muttered, closing his eyes. “I’m not here at all.” There was a loud crash and he opened his eyes with a start.

“I told you it would tip,” Trixie pointed out.

Bobby yelled loudly, “Moms! Mart tipped over the Christmas tree!”

His eldest brother groaned. “Perhaps we should stand it back up,” he suggested. He rose stiffly and went to help. After a few minutes of wrestling with the tree it was back in an upright position. After appraising it, he realized that there was only minor damage. “And be a little more careful next time,” he added sharply.

Mart and Trixie exchanged a look as Brian sank back into the chair and closed his eyes again. Moments later, they resumed their argument.

“I still don’t think you can hang those heavy paperweights on the tree,” Trixie said. “You couldn’t ever get it even enough not to fall.”

“If you, dear Beatrix, had not disturbed it, it would undoubtedly have remained upright,” Mart replied. “Nevertheless, in the infinite generosity appropriate to this auspicious occasion, I acquiesce to your assertion.”

“Thanks so much,” she replied with heavy sarcasm. “Now, you’d better clean up this mess before Moms finds it or there’ll be trouble.”

Mart surveyed the scene with a look of dismay. The floor was littered with fallen needles and dislodged decorations. His younger brother and sister began to laugh.

“You’re just lucky that Moms doesn’t use glass ornaments anymore,” Bobby told his brother. “They’d be smashed to smithereens.”

“Lucky that Moms decided to put the presents on that table, too,” Trixie added, pointing. “Or you’d be buying a whole lot of new ones.” After a similar mishap in a previous year, Mrs. Belden had ruled that nothing breakable was to come within eight feet of the tree.

With a groan very much like the one that Brian had uttered minutes earlier, Mart began to restore order to the room. Trixie and Bobby watched him work for a few moments.

“Do you think we should help?” Bobby asked his sister.

Trixie pretended to consider. “Only if we can have a change of music,” she decided. With a smile, she turned off the traditional music and inserted a new cassette. “I think this would be more suitable.”

The music started right in the middle of a song and all three of her brothers jumped.

“Love in an elevator,” she sang, rather off-key. “Livin’ it up when I’m goin’ down.”

“Trixie!” Brian and Mart said together. Brian continued, “Turn that off!”

She ignored them and kept on singing, getting more off-key as she went. Eventually, Brian changed the cassette back to the original one and relative peace was restored. Soon the decorations were re-hung and the mess was cleaned up.

“There,” said Trixie, looking at the effect. “Almost as if that had never happened. You’re lucky that Moms didn’t see it.”

“Where is Moms, anyway?” Mart asked. “I would have thought that-”

“Hey!” they heard Bobby yell from another room. “What are you doing?”

They heard their father’s voice respond, “Why don’t you go back to the living room, Bobby?”

Moments later, Bobby emerged from the kitchen, a puzzled look on his face. He was muttering to himself and his brothers and sister heard him say, “They are so not supposed to do that.” He slumped down next to Brian, frowning darkly.

“Is something the matter, Bobby?” Trixie asked.

He turned his frown on her and said, “I think I’ve been traumatised for life.”

Puzzled, his sister looked towards the kitchen, then snapped her fingers as she realized what had happened. “Poison ivy,” she said to Brian and Mart. At once they both laughed.

“I still find it funny,” Trixie added, “that after all these years they still use poison ivy instead of mistletoe.” She looked at Bobby, whose face showed his complete confusion. “Do you remember when Mart put plastic poison ivy in the vegetable garden?” Bobby nodded slowly. “Well, ever since then, Moms and Dad have hung it up at Christmas instead of mistletoe. Didn’t you know?”

Bobby’s scowl returned full force. “Parents are not supposed to do that sort of thing,” he repeated, to the amusement of his older siblings. “They’re really not.”

Bobby was still scowling when his parents entered the room several minutes later. The scowl wavered slightly when he saw what his father was carrying. He quickly forgot about his “trauma.”

“Oh, it is time for Dinky?” Trixie cried, bouncing up and down like a small child.

The Beldens’ oldest Christmas tradition involved a handmade elf, which Mr. Belden’s generation had named ‘Dinky.’ Every year, the little elf supervised the distribution of gifts and it was almost unthinkable that there would be a Christmas at Crabapple Farm without him.

Mr. Belden set down the old wooden box on the coffee table and opened the lid. There was a collective gasp as they all realized that the elf was missing. Moments later, everyone was talking at once.

“Calm down, everyone,” Mr. Belden said. “He can’t have gone far. I checked on him half an hour ago and he was there then.”

“It seems clear who the culprit is,” said Mart, glaring at Trixie. “Someone here has been responsible for elf-napping before.”

“When I was six,” Trixie said, defending herself. “It’s more likely that someone younger than me did it. Someone, perhaps, who is eager to get their hands on some new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pyjamas, for example.”

“I do not wear Ninja Turtle pyjamas,” Bobby replied hotly. “I’m way too old for that sort of thing. It was probably Reddy ’cause Brian forgot to feed him.”

“Enough!” their father interrupted. “Why don’t you all look for him rather than argue about who did it?”

The next few minutes were filled with utter confusion. Soon, the house was filled with cries of “Is that him?” and “I think I found him!” each followed by a loud groan.

Trixie was sure that Dinky had fallen into the pile of presents, but what she pulled out was an angel which must have flown off the tree. Mart thought that Dinky must be in the kitchen, since that’s where his box had been. His discovery was a walnut which was about the same size as the little elf’s head.

Brian, logical as always, carefully checked around the side table where Dinky had spent the last few days. He thought that he saw the elf’s red felt shoes, but it turned out to be a scrap of red wrapping paper. Bobby, sticking to his stated theory, went off in search of his dog. A lump under the blanket in Reddy’s bed was about the right size and shape, but turned out to be part of an old shoe.

In the midst of the confusion, the telephone began to ring and Bobby, who had quickly tired of the hunt, decided to answer it. His mother, who had returned to the kitchen to check on the food, overheard his end of the conversation.

“Hello,” he said. There was a long pause, then, “There’s only one of me.” A shorter pause, then Bobby said, “Oh, I get it. Yeah, I guess so.” There was another long pause. “I don’t think Moms would let me do that. Goodbye.”

“Who was that, dear?” his mother asked casually.

“Dunno,” he replied, “but they wanted me to go on a date with them.”

As his mother stared after him, dumbfounded, Bobby casually walked away.

While this was happening, Brian was sitting in the living room. He had also given up on searching and had settled next to a platter of food. Right now, his mother’s homemade cheese ball was infinitely more attractive than hunting for an old toy. He used the knife to spread a generous amount on a cracker and sat back to watch proceedings.

His sister entered the room, carefully studying the floor. Brian loaded another cracker as she shifted her attention to the mantelpiece.

“Aha!” she cried, reaching behind a decorative swathe of branches for the tip of a green felt hat. “Oh, it’s just one of Bobby’s socks.”

Brian loaded another cracker. “What is a sock doing on the mantelpiece?”

Trixie sniffed it cautiously. “It’s clean,” she said, looking relieved. “Maybe he didn’t want to put it away.

Brian shrugged and ate another cracker.

Trixie sat down to think about the problem. She was sure that the clues were there if she could only work out what they were.

First of all, she thought, we know that he’s only gone missing in the last half hour. Secondly, the only people here have been us Beldens. She paused, wondering what else she could determine. I’ll have to examine the box, she decided.

A few minutes later she had made another deduction. That’s one suspect off the list, she thought with satisfaction. No one without opposable thumbs could open this box, which rules out Reddy. Besides, there’s no slobber in here.

As soon as she had figured that out, Trixie was left with some more serious questions. Does this mean that someone’s playing a joke? she wondered. Or did someone accidentally move Dinky? I think it’s time to start watching people.

Returning to her earlier theory, she went off in search of Bobby and found him sitting in the living room with Brian. Between the two of them, they had apparently eaten an enormous quantity of cheese ball and all of the crackers.

“Thanks for leaving some for me,” she said sarcastically, dropping down next to her brothers.

“You’re welcome,” Bobby told her. “It’s the least we could do.”

Trixie sighed. “Have both of you given up on finding Dinky?”

“I’m sure he’ll turn up,” Brian said, apparently uninterested. “Why don’t you do something else?”

“I can’t see why we don’t just open the presents,” Bobby added grumpily. “It’s just a stupid elf.”

“But it’s tradition,” Trixie protested. “Don’t you even care that our family has done it this way for years and years?”

Both of her brothers shrugged and Trixie left them in disgust. Neither of them seems to care, she thought angrily. They don’t even want me to look. A moment later another thought occurred to her. I guess it wasn’t either of them, then. Unless one of them damaged him and they don’t want anyone to know. But Trixie could not imagine either Brian or Bobby doing something like that.

The next person on her list was Mart. She found him carefully examining Dinky’s box.

“What are you doing?” Trixie asked, intrigued.

Mart looked up with a start. “Oh, hi Trix. I was just wondering if he could’ve fallen out somehow.” He opened the box and tipped it sideways. “But so far my experiments have come to naught.”

“Show me.”

He took the box and placed a rolled up pair of socks inside. “This represents Dinky,” he explained. “Now, watch.” For the next several minutes Mart held the box in every conceivable position but the socks never fell. “The only way I can make it fall out,” he concluded with a sigh, “is to deliberately hold it open.”

Trixie looked thoughtful but did not comment.

“So, you agree?” he asked. “He didn’t fall out.”

“But what did happen to him?” Trixie asked, perplexed. “And how can we find him?”

“I don’t know,” Mart conceded. “I’m just about out of ideas.”

He’s just as worried as I am, Trixie thought with a start. Which means that he’s not responsible either. But then who is? She wandered into the kitchen to talk to her mother.

“Oh, Moms,” she said sadly. “I can’t find him anywhere. What are we going to do?”

Her mother stood up from checking the food in the oven and smiled gently. “I’m afraid we’ll just have to go on without Dinky this year,” she said. “There’s not much else that we can do.”

Trixie sighed deeply. “I thought you’d say something like that.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” she replied, putting an arm around her daughter. “I’m sure he’ll turn up sometime.”

“I know, but it’s just not the same without him.” Trixie looked around herself suddenly. “Where’s Dad?”

“He’s upstairs in the attic, making sure that Dinky’s not there,” Moms replied with a smile. “Why don’t you go and join him? It might make both of you feel better.”

“Thanks Moms,” she said on her way out the door. “That’s a great idea.”

She found her father carefully looking through a box in the attic, his back to her. At the sound of her steps he turned and greeted her.

“Any clues, Dad?” Trixie asked.

“Not a single one,” he replied. “He’s vanished into thin air.”

“We’ve just got to find him,” she said, sitting down next to her father. “We just can’t have Christmas without Dinky.”

Mr. Belden sighed. “It looks as if we’ll have to,” he said. “Don’t be upset, Trixie. We’ll make a new elf for next year and you and your brothers can name him.”

“It’s not the same,” she replied with a sniff. “Why, Dinky was older than you are, wasn’t he?”

Her father laughed. “I’m not all that old,” he protested. “But, yes, he was older than me. He was around when my father was a boy.”

“Which means we’ve just got to find him. You can’t just replace things like that.”

“Maybe we’ll find him later,” her father said soothingly. “In the meantime, that food is smelling wonderful. Let’s get out of here.”

When Trixie and her father returned downstairs they found that Brian and Bobby were in the kitchen helping with the food. Mart was continuing to look for the heirloom, this time crawling around on the living room floor.

With a dejected sigh, Trixie dropped onto the sofa and watched him work. Where am I now? she wondered. I’ve run out of suspects, so it can’t be a joke, she decided. But it doesn’t seem to be an accident either.

Just as she was thinking this her mother announced that everything was ready. Her father called the family to the table, saying that the elf would have to wait until after they had eaten. Trixie and Mart were rather disappointed, but managed to do justice to the delicious meal anyway.

When everyone had eaten their fill, Mr. Belden announced that the presents would be opened regardless of whether Dinky was there to supervise. “We’ll just have to break with tradition,” he said sadly. “Next year we’ll do it the old way.”

Brian and Mart carefully moved the present table to the middle of the living room and the whole family gathered around. Mr. Belden picked up a gift at random.

“The person this gift is for,” he explained, “will be Dinky’s representative.” He turned over the tag and read, “Trixie.”

“What do I have to do, Dad?” she asked.

Normally, Mr. Belden placed Dinky so that he pointed at a particular chair. When everyone was seated, the elf was uncovered and whoever it pointed to was Dinky’s helper for that year.

“Well,” he said, thinking, “you’ll go everywhere that Dinky would go and do the things he would do. Kind of a cross between what you’d do as his helper and what he did.”

“I don’t have to sit on their laps, do I?” Trixie asked, looking at her brothers and giggling.

“You’d better not,” Bobby said, horrified. “I bet you weigh about as much as an elephant and I don’t want two broken legs.” At his mother’s glare he corrected, “Sorry, Trixie. I didn’t mean it, really.”

“She doesn’t have to be Dinky. She just represents him,” their father said. “Is everyone clear with that?”

There was a general murmur of agreement, so Trixie began.

“Here I go,” she said, tearing the wrapping from the gift. “You’ll just have to imagine that Dinky’s here to watch me.”

Tradition dictated that whoever had the elf had the family’s full attention and that no one could open a present without first receiving the elf. Whenever a person had finished opening their gift they would pass the elf to the next youngest person. The youngest would pass to the oldest.

As a small child, Trixie had envied other children who could just open whatever they liked and never have to wait. As an adult she had come to appreciate the way that the Beldens did this as being different and special.

“Oh, it’s lovely,” she exclaimed, pulling out a sweater. “Thanks, Moms. Thanks, Dad.” She hugged each of them and then quickly located a gift for Bobby.

Soon Bobby had pronounced that his present was ‘excellent.’ She found one for her father and the whole proceeding passed as smoothly as if Dinky had been there to oversee it. It was sad to see the tradition broken, but they would survive nonetheless.

When all of the gifts were opened and the wrapping paper cleared away the younger Beldens decided to go outside and expend some energy. The air was clean and crisp, instantly making them feel more alert. Soon, the four were running around chasing each other, as they had most Christmases for as far back as any of them could remember.

“I’ve had enough,” Brian said some time later, heading back towards the house.

Just as he was sinking down into the porch swing to rest his aching muscles, the back door opened and his mother called, “Telephone, Mart!” Mart turned, looking annoyed, and trudged into the house.

Picking up the receiver, he gave a curt greeting.

“Mart,” a desperate voice on the other end said. “You’ve got to help me.”

Mart sighed deeply. “What is it this time, JJ?” he asked. His college buddy was forever in some sort of trouble and wanting Mart to solve the problem for him.

“I was taking a look at this craft thing my mom got for Christmas, right,” he said, “when my hand slipped and the little knobby bit got caught in the gap at the side of the closet door and I can’t get it out and she’s gonna kill me, I just know it.”

Once again, Mart sighed. “Why don’t you just tell her what happened,” he suggested. “She’s going to find out sooner or later-”

In the background a voice yelled, “John Jacob Davidson, come here this instant!”

“Oh, no,” moaned JJ. “I’m busted. Got to go.” The line went dead and Mart hung up, shaking his head.

When Mart returned to the back yard he found his brothers and sister deep in some sort of serious discussion. The three had settled on the porch and Bobby had a deep scowl across his face while the others looked amused.

“What did I miss?” he asked, curious. “Have you been arguing?”

“I haven’t,” said Bobby, scowling even more deeply. “It was them.”

Brian and Trixie began to laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Bobby warned, his whole body tense. “You all treat me like I’m a little kid. Now that I’m a teenager I think you should treat me with more respect.”

“What are you talking about, Bobby?” Mart asked, thoroughly confused.

“Don’t call me ‘Bobby,’” he replied through grit teeth. “From now on it’s ‘Bob,’ okay?”

He turned and went back inside the house without waiting for an answer. Behind him, his siblings all laughed.

That evening the Beldens sat down to a meal of leftovers. Just as they were finishing, Honey and Jim arrived with a pile of presents.

“Sorry to barge in on you,” Jim said cheerfully, “but we didn’t get a chance to bring these around any earlier.”

“You’re both most welcome,” Mrs. Belden said warmly. “Would you like something to eat?”

Jim politely declined but Honey, seeing that Mrs. Belden’s cheesecake was on offer, accepted. The two newcomers sat down with the family and a friendly conversation started up. When everyone had eaten their fill the group gathered in the living room around the fire to give and receive gifts.

Shortly before Jim and Honey had to leave, Jim took Trixie outside to look at the stars and say their goodbyes privately. A few minutes later, Brian found himself being drawn aside by his youngest brother. He could tell that there was some sort of intrigue involved since Bobby kept looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening.

“Brian, can you explain something for me?” Bobby whispered.

His brother nodded.

“What does ‘sex on a plate’ mean?”

Brian turned several interesting shades of red. “Where did you hear that?” he demanded, trying to keep his voice quiet.

“It’s what Honey called Moms’ cheesecake,” Bobby replied. “Don’t go all weird on me, just tell me what it means.”

Why me? Brian thought. “You must have heard her wrong,” he decided. “Honey wouldn’t say something like that.”

“She did,” Bobby insisted. “I’m not a little kid anymore. Just tell me what it means.”

With a deep sigh, Brian set out to explain the expression to his brother.

Outside, Trixie and Jim were looking at the stars. It was a clear, cold night and it seemed like the sky was festively decorated with extra stars especially for them.

“This is just beautiful,” Trixie said, leaning up against Jim. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad to be here,” he replied, still gazing up at the sky. A shooting star streaked through his line of vision. “Oh! Did you see that?”

Trixie nodded. I wish I could find Dinky, she thought fervently. That would make today perfect. Behind them, the door opened and Honey joined them. “Ready to go?” she asked her brother.

“Almost,” he said. “Honey, I think I left my watch inside. Could you get it for me?”

His sister stepped back inside and Jim took the opportunity to kiss his girlfriend. All too soon Honey returned, watch in hand.

“It was on a little side table in the living room. You really should get the band fixed,” she commented. “Can we go now? It’s cold.”

All of a sudden, Trixie was struck by inspiration. She gave Jim one last kiss goodnight and went inside to wave from the kitchen window.

As soon as her best friend and boyfriend were out of sight, she rushed back into the living room. She went straight to the side table where her Great-Grandma Belden’s plain wooden jewelry box stood and lifted the lid.

“I’ve found him!” she cried excitedly. “I found Dinky!”

All at once, she was surrounded by her family and everyone was talking at once. When the noise died down slightly, her father made an observation.

“Your Great-Grandma Belden was the one who made Dinky,” he said. He laughed as he added, “It’s almost like he’d decided to go home.”

“Hey! Maybe it was her ghost,” Bobby said, his eyes wide. “Maybe she’s here now, watching us.”

“Let’s not go that far,” his mother said. “Someone must have put him there.”

“Yeah,” said Bobby. “The ghost.”

Trixie giggled. “Looks like maybe you’ve got another investigator on your hands, Moms!”

She ducked as Mart swatted at her in mock indignation. “Take that back, wench,” he demanded. “This establishment is at present endowed with an ample sufficiency of investigators. Further additions to this rank would be superfluous.”

“Well, if the ghost didn’t do it, who did?” demanded Bobby, ignoring his brother.

No one seemed to have an answer.

“You know,” Mr. Belden said as the group settled down around the fire, “today reminds me of the way we used Dinky when I was very small. I’d forgotten that part, actually.”

Trixie looked across at him, intrigued. “What do you mean, Dad?” she asked.

“Every year while we were all in the kitchen eating breakfast, my Grandpa Belden would hide Dinky somewhere in this room. The rule was, whoever found him first got to open the first present,” he said, staring into the fire. “Grandma Belden didn’t like a lot of noise, though, so she had a rule that anyone who yelled had to sit out.”

He laughed softly. “We all used to try to trick each other into yelling, so that we’d have a better chance of being first. Sometimes it got so that we were so busy hiding things that we almost forgot to look.”

“What happened?” Trixie asked. “Why did you stop doing that?”

Her father looked sad. “One year, Grandpa Belden didn’t feel very well on Christmas morning. He said to us that year that he was going to be the one to open the first present and that he’d hide Dinky for us next year.” He paused for a moment. “He died a few days later. Of course, the next year we decided not to hide Dinky out of respect for Grandpa. After that, we never did get back to that part of the tradition.”

“Next year,” Trixie asked softly, “will you show us how it goes?”

“That would be very nice,” her father said with a smile. “I’d love to, Trixie.”

She settled back, lost in her thoughts. How had Dinky gotten into the jewelry box? Had she misjudged one of her family, or was there another explanation? Maybe we’ll never know, she thought with a little sigh. A log dropped in the fire and as little sparks flew up into the chimney Trixie felt, rather than saw, someone standing by the hearth watching them.

Is that you, Great-Grandma Belden? she wondered. Did you hide Dinky so that Dad would remember? Deep inside, she hoped so.

The End

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Please note: Trixie Belden is a registered trademark of Random House Publishing. This site is in no way associated with Random House and no profit is being made from these pages.

CWP 4 Elements…	…and where they’re found.
Holiday between November 1 and New Years Day; general holiday theme or feel.	Set completely on Christmas Day.
A kiss by mistake.	I sort of fudged this one. The mistake was that they were walked in on by Bobby.
Love In An Elevator by Aerosmith.	Trixie sang it.
An “are you single” dating solicitation.	That’s what Bobby’s phone call was.
Cheesecake referred to as “sex on a plate”.	Honey apparently said this, quoted by Bobby. Of course, we don’t know that she said it. :)
Someone other than Dan chopping wood.	Brian.
A single sock, placement optional.	On the mantelpiece.
People putting up decorations.	After they fell off the Christmas tree.
A shooting star.	Trixie wishes on it.
Appearance of another author’s created character.	Grey’s character JJ from her story The Spring Break Mystery.
A carryforward item - dairy product from CWP 3.	Moms’ homemade cheeseball which Brian and Bobby ate huge quantities of.

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