Christmastown, The North Pole
December 18, Present Day

Santa moved the snowglobe closer to Jingle. "Look in there and tell me what you see."

Jingle set the sherry glass aside. The glass ball, balanced on an ornate brass base, was large enough that he would have trouble holding it in both hands. A tiny blizzard spun dizzily within. Jingle looked but he saw nothing except the snow.

"Sorry, lad, I forgot," Santa said and passed his hand over the globe.

The swirling snow cleared in the center and a form took shape. As it sharpened, Jingle saw it was a human woman. She was beautiful, he decided, for a human. Her eyes were large, almost elven, except they were a dark color. Her long dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and one round ear was visible.

All humans had round ears, and he'd seen many of them on television, but he was still intrigued by the way the top curved instead of coming to a point like elven ears. Did fondling their ears arouse humans the same way it did elves? Ears were hardly ever mentioned or touched on television. He'd always thought maybe it was too intimate a gesture to show, but he wasn't sure. He'd seen most intimate gestures enacted on television--gestures he'd imagined trying with Tinsel if she'd ever noticed him.

This human woman was as beautiful as Tinsel, he surprised himself by thinking.

"Her name is Belinda Cooper," Santa said as he shuffled papers in the box, looked at one, discarded it, and picked up another. "She was a wonderful child, never asking for outrageous presents like most children. She began to unbelieve when she was eight years old."

Unbelieve. The word brought incredible sadness to them all. Every time a child started to unbelieve, a little of the magic of Christmas was lost.

"I haven't heard from her in a long time, of course," Santa continued. "Belinda grew up and started living her life. She's twenty-nine now."

Jingle frowned. Humans lived such short lives compared to elves. At the equivalent of twenty-nine human years, he had still been considered an immature elfling. Even now, he was quite young compared to most of the other elves in Christmastown.

"Belinda is all alone. Her father died when she was a child, and her mother five years ago, near Christmas, which brings sad memories during the holiday season. She has no husband, no children, no one to call her own. Belinda's Christmas spirit is nearly broken."

Jingle nodded. He understood that humans considered death as a devastating loss while elves regarded it as a cause for celebration. But elves did not die the same way as humans. Their fading was a return to the Elfland, the origin of their existence. Jingle missed his mother Twilight, but he wasn't sad. He knew she had returned to the Elfland and he was happy for her. All elves anticipated their eventual return to the Elfland.

His father? It was unheard of among elves not to know one's parents, yet he'd never known his father. It was the only thing Twilight ever denied him--information about his father. When asked why she'd given him a human name, she explained she liked the sound of it, but would say no more. Jingle suspected there was much more to it than that, but he had never persisted.

"I'm not supposed to have favorites among the children, you know," Santa said, breaking into Jingle's thoughts. "But Belinda was a special child. Don't tell the Missus, but she always left the best cookies I've ever eaten."

Jingle smiled at Santa's confession, but he was puzzled. He wasn't sure what his connection was to this human woman or what Santa thought he could do. As if reading his mind, Santa answered his questions.

"I want you to help Belinda regain her Christmas spirit. She's very sad and lonely and needs a friend right now. Christmas is only a week away, and she hasn't even begun to decorate. Now, it will be obvious from the moment you arrive, that you're not human. But she won't--or won't want to believe you're elven. You'll have to convince her that you're one of my elves and that there is so much to be thankful for, that her blessings outweigh the sadness. It will be a difficult task."

Jingle stared at the still picture of the human called Belinda Cooper. Moving among humans would not be easy, but his life with the elves had never been easy either. Most of all, Santa asked this of him and he would never say no to Santa.

"I'll do it," Jingle said in a quick rush of breath before he could change his mind.

"Good! I'm sure you'll do an excellent job, Alexander," Santa said proudly. "It's the middle of the night there now. We'll leave as soon as the team is hitched up."

Jingle watched as the picture of Belinda Cooper slowly faded, to be replaced by the snowstorm. He wasn't sure how to go about helping her regain her Christmas spirit, but with his pointed ears and short height, he would have no trouble convincing her he was an elf.