The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (16 page)

             
“Actually, I
can’t
tell,” Flea said.

             
“I guess you’ll just have to trust me then,” Minko said.

             
Had there been enough light to see, Minko might’ve noticed the doubtful expression on Flea’s face: brow creased, one raised eyebrow, lips curled downward. But the pudgy elf took off down the ramp and Flea followed closely behind against his better judgement. Thankfully, Flea soon discovered the identities of the glowing lights and loud music, neither of which were quite as bad as his overactive imagination made them out to be. Dozens of strings of Christmas lights hung everywhere inside the garage and at the bottom of the ramp. The lights blinked in perfect unison with the rock ‘n’ roll tune – “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – that blared so loudly Flea couldn’t hear himself think. He even saw that the nearby walls were plastered with posters of pretty elf girls wearing Santa-suit bikinis. Flea was so busy staring at the posters that he didn’t notice Minko step over yet another laser beam near the ground. As Flea stepped from the ramp and entered the actual garage part of the building, his foot passed directly through the beam.

             
The sudden change couldn’t have been more dramatic. The crazy blinking lights were instantly replaced by soft white spotlights overhead, the loud rock ‘n’ roll by a relaxing orchestral version of “White Christmas.” Even the walls completely changed, as rolls of Christmas-themed wrapping paper unrolled from the ceiling and covered all of the posters.

             
“How did you do that?” Flea asked.

             
“
I
didn’t,” Minko said. “I’m sorry, I should have told you to watch out for the second security beam. You must’ve set it off.”

             
Before Flea could become upset about causing more trouble, he noticed what took up most of the space inside the garage. Minko was right about one thing: this was
way
more impressive than any simple car. Flea stared at the back of a huge sleigh, which was nearly ten feet high and just as wide. He slowly began to circle around the ornately designed sleigh, gawking at the sheer majesty of its beauty. Like nearly everything else Flea had experienced so far at the North Pole, the sleigh was far more amazing than any Christmas tale had ever described. He was so focused on it that he almost didn’t hear the whistling and singing of an elf on the other side of the sleigh.

             
“La la la, working on the sleigh,” the voice sang nervously. Flea and Minko came face-to-face with a masked elf holding some sort of fire-breathing tool that Flea had never seen before. When the elf saw who was in his garage, he sighed in relief and yelled up toward the sleigh. “Don’t worry, Grinder, it’s not the big man.”

             
The elf turned off the modified blowtorch and removed his mask. While he had the same sharp facial features as other elves, two things about this new elf immediately stood out to Flea. First, he wore clothing nearly as strange as Minko’s, minus the blinking lights.  His tracksuit was a shiny metallic silver that seemed to make him shine. But even more distinct was his hair, bright red with huge spikes (which must’ve required more hair gel than Flea could’ve imagined). The red-spiked elf tossed the tool over his shoulder and it exploded in a fiery burst near the back wall, which nobody seemed too concerned about.

             
“Sorry to frighten you, Wrench, but I saw the garage door open so I thought it would be okay to come down and say hi,” Minko said.

             
The elf named Wrench stared at Flea as if deep in thought, unable to make up his mind about something.

             
“We needed to get some cool air circulating in here because
someone
has been playing with fire for the last few hours,” another voice said from well above them.

             
Flea looked up just in time to see a second elf inside the front part of the sleigh. Even though there was a ladder leading up the ten feet, he jumped off the sleigh and landed just inches next to Wrench.

             
“I wasn’t
playing,
I was
testing
,” Wrench bickered. “There’s a difference between the two, even an idiot would know
that
.”

             
The second elf was clearly Wrench’s brother and with the exception of a few details, Flea could tell they were twins. While Wrench’s spiky hair was bright red, his brother’s was an equally bright green. He also wore a tracksuit, though its velvety black color was far less flashy than Wrench’s metallic silver. Flea wasn’t normally one to judge people (or elves) based upon their appearance – after all,
he’d
been judged so many times in life himself – but the twins reminded him of surfers. Wrench walked over to the wall and opened a hidden box.

             
“Since you aren’t Santa, we may as well get this place back to how we like it,” the red-spiked elf said. He flipped a switch and the blinking lights and rock music returned in full force. “We don’t think the big man would appreciate our style too much, we’re not into the typical elf stuff. So Minko, who’s your friend?”

             
“I guess the rumors of a newcomer are true,” the green-haired twin said.

             
“Wrench and Grinder, I’d like to introduce you to Flea.”

             
“Wrench and Grinder?” Flea asked as he shook hands with them. “Are those your
real
names?”

             
“Is Flea
yours
?” Grinder wondered.

             
Wrench explained that he and his brother preferred their nicknames to their real ones, Russ and Guss.

             
“Besides, our nicknames and hair colors make it easier for the other elves to tell us apart,” Wrench said. “Grinder and green both start with the letter ‘g.’ Red and Wrench both start with ‘r’ so that’s easy to remember, too.”

             
“Uh, but doesn’t Wrench really start with a ‘w’?” Flea asked.

             
The twins – and Minko, for that matter – looked confused as their minds tried to figure out what Flea had said. Finally, Grinder winked at Flea and the other two began to laugh.

             
“See? Isn’t he funny?” Minko asked.

             
“Funny and Flea, both start with ‘f’,” Wrench said. “I’ll never forget that now.”

             
Flea wasn’t sure if the twins were being serious but he decided not to push the subject of spelling any further.

             
“Wrench and Grinder are genius mechanics,” Minko said. “They make sure that Santa’s sleigh is running smoothly at all times.”

             
“That’s only one of our duties,” Wrench said. “Our other duty is much more interesting; it’s the one that makes the annual sleigh unveiling one of the highlights of the year.”

             
Over the sound of loud rock music, Flea heard the distant echo of a
bang
coming from the back of the sleigh. He looked up and for the first time realized that there was a large chute sticking out of the wall, its conveyor belt coming to an end directly above the sleigh’s massive cargo area. A seemingly endless supply of wrapped Christmas presents tumbled off the belt and into the sleigh. Each time a new present dropped, Flea saw a puff of tiny sparkles bloom above the cargo hold.

             
“How long does it take before the sleigh fills up?” Flea asked.

             
Wrench and Grinder looked at each other and started to laugh until they realized that Flea’s wasn’t joking.

             
“I think he’s being serious,” Grinder said.

             
“Funny Flea ain’t the smartest new guy they could’ve brought to the North Pole,” Wrench said. “You see, Santa stopped by a while ago with one of…
them
.”

             
“
Them
?” Flea asked.

             
“Yes,
them
,” Wrench answered, offering no further explanation of the vague term. “Anyway, Santa and the
other one
completed the yearly routine to make sure all the gifts fit. But like usual, they made me and my brother wait outside first. But I might be able to let you in on part of the secret that I
do
know. Can I trust you with this information, Funny Flea?”

             
“If it’s important for you to keep the secret then maybe you shouldn’t – ”

             
“Of course you can trust him,” Minko interrupted before Flea could talk Wrench out of telling him any secrets.

             
Flea was quickly learning that it might be better to know less around here, that knowing too much could get him into trouble. But Minko and the twins seemed like they wanted him to know. They all stepped in closer to Flea after suspiciously glancing around the rest of the garage.

             
“Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but Santa is able to make all of the presents fit in the sleigh by using…” Wrench started, before lowering his voice to nothing more than a whisper. “…by using
magic
.”

             
“Ahhh,” Minko said knowingly, nodding his head. Flea nodded his head as well, as if this revelation had proven very informative. “So, any idea on what the big change to the sleigh will be this year?”

             
“You’re just going to have to wait and find out like everyone else,” Grinder said.

             
“I don’t know why you would change a single thing about the sleigh,” Flea said, as he continued to stare in awe at the huge vehicle. “It really is amazing.”

             
When nobody said anything for several seconds, Flea looked back toward the twins, both of whom appeared offended. Flea didn’t know what he’d said to insult them but Minko immediately jumped in on his behalf.

             
“You don’t understand, Flea. This change is the interesting part of the job that Wrench mentioned earlier,” Minko explained. “The twins work non-stop on one big modification every year and it’s unveiled to all of the elves just before Santa takes off to deliver the presents. We all get super excited for it every time, it’s a perfect way to reward us elves for all of our hard work.”

             
Flea still didn’t think the sleigh should be altered in any way but he wasn’t about to say that now.

             
“That’s awesome, I really can’t wait to see what you guys do,” Flea said a bit too enthusiastically. Grinder seemed suspicious by Flea’s sudden change of heart but Wrench broke into a wide, satisfied grin.

             
“Okay, it’s time for you two to go,” Wrench said. “We have our plan ready so it’s time for us to get to work. Take one last look at the sleigh, Funny Flea, it’ll never look like this again.”

             
The twins donned their masks and each grabbed a blowtorch. Grinder told them to shut the garage door when they left and Minko gave him the thumbs-up as he led Flea back toward the ramp. Flea nearly slipped on the dusty floor and silently cursed the cloth elf shoes, which
jangled
all the way back to the surface. Flea asked Minko what change he thought the twins might make to the sleigh but Minko didn’t even want to venture a guess.

             
“The sleigh change really
is
an exciting part of Santa’s launch but I have to admit, it’s not quite as important as Wrench seems to think,” Minko said once they crawled back outside and lowered the garage door. “The twins are great guys but I’m sure you could tell that they were a little on the strange side. It might have to do with the fact that they’re separated from the rest of the elves for such a long period of time, stuck down in that tiny garage. But it might also be due to inhaling too much of the sleigh’s exhaust fumes, if you know what I mean.”

             
Flea didn’t know what Minko meant but it seemed awfully peculiar that an elf wearing a shirt with blinking lights would say that someone
else
was strange.

             
“I guess I’ve put off working long enough,” Minko said. “It’s time that I – or should I say
we
– contribute to Christmas.”

             
Minko brought Flea back to the hatch in the ground located precisely halfway between the garage and the toy factory. He opened the lid and climbed down a long ladder. Once again, Flea felt uncomfortable about going underground. As he descended, his mind filled with all kinds of strange ideas about where Minko was taking him, but what he found was nothing short of boring. The ladder led to a plain room. He heard the
whirring
of a motor long before he spotted a conveyor belt on the far side of the wall. The belt moved very quickly as presents streamed in through an opening on one end of the room and streamed out through an opening on the opposite side. The conveyor slowed only long enough for each present to hesitate a split second in front of a machine that shot out some sort of laser.