***
"Ready?" a voice whispered in the darkness.
It was a Friday, and a dark one at that. The lights in The Room She Lived In were all off, and the blinds were closed, but it's not like either of those made much of a difference. It was noon, where the sun was supposed to be at its highest point, but stubborn winter stratus clouds made the day look like the night.
"Ready?" the voice repeated. It was Olaf's voice. And his stick-hand was nudging me lightly on the shoulder. But was nowhere near to "ready." As far as I was concerned, Fridays like this were made for taking a long winter's nap.
"No..." I groaned, turning over and forcing my eyes open. "Goway. Emtired."
"Oh, I see," Olaf replied. "I'll be quiet." The snowman hummed a few chords of unnamed music and stumbled away to who knows where. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, then pulled the sides of my cape around me as a makeshift blanket.
However, my short rest did not last long. My friends seemed intent on making my life miserable. The blinds were opened and the tiny amount of light the sky could manage poured in and fell across my face. I mumbled in annoyance.
"Morning, sleepyhead!" Loki's voice called. So it was he who opened the blinds. He was extra cheerful, so that was strange, but welcome in my book. "Or should I say 'afternoon?' You've been asleep all day. I woke up at six and Olaf soon after. Come on, let's go downstairs to the other tree Benny told us about yesterday."
"But-" I protested sleepily, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the minimal light.
"No buts, Elsa. We need to do something. Come on, the humans are gone."
I tried sitting up. "I know. Wait...where's Magneto?"
"He woke up at the crack of dawn to leave us. He's back in his town being an antisocial extrovert."
"I see."
"So...the other tree downstairs, then?" Loki asked.
I yawned and stretched my blue arms. "Okay."
Loki swung off the blinds chain and Olaf jumped down from the dresser and ran out the door, leaving me behind in my tired daze. I blinked some more, and stretched out my legs, then jumped down from the dresser. The feeling of solid floor beneath my Norwegian slippers was a shock to my feet.
Once again I made my way down the stairs. I stumbled in a not-very-queenlike way downwards, Olaf and Loki way ahead of me. They were already talking to Magneto, who was standing in the gazebo of his little ceramic town in the dining room. My ears were able to pick up minor snippets of conversation.
"Come with us!" said Olaf excitedly. "You promised that if we helped you down from the tree that you'd come with us to find the meaning of Christmas."
"I never promised anything." said Magneto. I guess he was still grumpy. I was starting to wonder if that was just what he was regularly like.
Loki narrowed his eyes at the key-chain. "You said you would, so I take it as a promise."
"Bah humbug." Magneto replied.
"Hey, guys," I whispered, entering the room and rubbing my eyes.
"Oh, there you are, Elsa! I thought you wouldn't be able to come." said Olaf.
I smiled sleepily. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. The other tree, I mean."
"Well, I'm not going." Magneto huffed.
"It's just in the other room, Magneto," I sighed. "Please. You promised."
I could tell that Magneto was not one for keeping his promises. Too bad for him, because the three of us were. And we were persistent and I was cranky from having my afternoon nap interrupted.
"Come on, we're going." I said, and without a warning to Magneto, I picked him up by his key-chain clasp and held it tightly.
"Let go of me, you imbecile!" he cried up, kicking his tiny feet. Olaf giggled and Loki smirked and we climbed off the table and down the hallway to the room where Benny had said that there was another Christmas tree. Of course, we didn't know where that was. And Magneto's stubborn yelling didn't help.
"Oh, quiet, you!" I shouting, holding him higher. "Or I'll drop you!" I was not one for threats, but the both of us were already having our patience tested. And I was bigger, so it made sense that I would win. For some reason I smiled.
"Go ahead, drop me! It's not like I'll break."
"You might if I throw you hard enough." I replied.
Loki turned around (he was the leader) and raised an eyebrow at me. The expression said, "You really wouldn't throw him, would you?"
"You really wouldn't throw me." said Magneto confidently, crossing his arms.
"Oh yes I would," I lied. "I will. Unless you stop fighting and tell me the way to the living room where the other tree is."
"How should I know where the tree is?" Magneto asked.
Hm, he had a point. "Because you've been here longer than any of us," I said slowly. I decided to throw in a few compliments. "And because you're older, you're wiser. So you certainly must know where it is. You know everything." I spoke through gritted teeth.
The compliments worked on Benny, so I just hoped they would do the trick for Magneto.
"No. I refuse." the key-chain spat.
I sighed. "Please? If you do, I'll let you go. And I don't mean I'll throw you. And then you can do whatever you like. If you really don't want to see the tree, you don't have to."
"Yeah, really." Olaf butted in, trying to reassure him.
Magneto remained quiet, frowning at me an glaring,
"Please?" I begged.
"Ugh, fine," he grumbled. "What would you dolls do without me? I'll tell you where the living room is. Now let me go."
"Directions first." I insisted, giving his clasp a little shake to prove that I had the upper hand.
Reluctantly, Magneto became our guide around the house. He told us where to turn and what rooms were NOT the ones we were looking for. Even without him we probably would have found it. It was close to the stairs from where we had came.
And inside the living room was the most beautiful tree! Behind it, white curtains gave contrast to it's dark green branches and fluorescent blue lights. The ornaments on this one were bigger than the tree upstairs or the one in the Room She Lived In, all made of fine glass or painted gold.
I mindlessly dropped Magneto and began walking towards the tree, mouth wide open. I touched one of the branches- prickly yet soft. I caught the scent of pine when I rubbed it, so it must have been a real tree. How rare and exiting! I breathed in deeply. We had accomplished one of the things we were searching for. Surely the meaning of Christmas would be found here!
Olaf hopped up next to me and felt one of the branches as well. "Ooh! Nice!" he said, surprised at it's texture.
"It's a real tree, Olaf," I added, turning to my snowman friend. "It's that cool?"
"He's gone." said Loki, who I hadn't noticed was behind me.
"Who's gone?" I asked.
"Magneto, of course! He ran away as soon as you dropped him."
I sighed. "Typical Magneto. Well, it's not my fault that he didn't want to see the tree. Let him be a party pooper, we can enjoy this all by ourselves."
Loki looked a bit confused when I had used the term "party pooper" but I had only heard the term used once at the store where I was found, Wandering Oaken's Trading Post. I think someone, a woman, had said, "Are you enjoying Leah's birthday party?"
And then someone else said back to them,
"No, I hate Frozen."
The first person looked shocked and replied,
"Don't be such a party pooper!"
I had smiled a bit to myself at their conversation and later the other Elsas asked me what the words were about. I guessed they had been eavesdropping as well, but I couldn't give them a straight answer. But now I kind of understood what the woman had meant.
At first I thought Olaf was laughing at my joke. But when I looked over at him, his mouth was closed. It sounded like a girlish laugh anyway, but I still wanted to ask. "Olaf, was that you?" I asked him, turning around.
"Nope. You?"
"No," I replied with a confused frown. "Who could it be?"
"Up there." said Loki suddenly, and he pointed to the highest bow on the tree. Up there, a Tinker Bell ornament (I recognized her from a person's gift bag at the trading post) swayed back and forth in a fit of giggles that sounded like the jiggling of tiny bells. So she was the one that had laughed.
"Um, hello!" I called out, trying to be friendly.
"Oh, hi!" The ornament called and waved at us with the hand that was holding a small gold wand. "I didn't know you were so far down there."
The Tinker Bell ornament had a short, glittery green dress, and her blonde hair in a bun, just as all Tinker Bells do. At least, the ones I've seen. She had a wand, and tiny white pom-poms on the tips of her shoes. A very traditional style.
"Yeah," I replied awkwardly. "So...how did you get up there?
"Why, I flew, of course!"
"You can fly?" Olaf asked.
The Tinker Bell ornament shrugged. "Only very little," she began to show off her wings. "Dolls like me are like chickens. I can fly if we try hard enough, but then it gets exhausting after ten seconds or more. Because I decided to fly up here, She just thinks someone else put me up here, so it's not like I got caught or anything. She says I'm one of her favorite ornaments." The Tinker Bell ornament looked very proud.
"What's your name?" Olaf wanted to know.
"Well, I suppose it's Tinker Bell, but that's not very original, is it? The Disney Store where I came from had all sorts of other dolls like me, all with the same name. It gets boring after a while. And She never really gave me a name, so I guess I'll just by my nickname, which is Bell." The ornament said with a shrug. "Oh, I know you! You're Queen Elsa, aren't you?"
"The one and only." Olaf said proudly.
Bell gave him a confused look but I pleaded her with my eyes to not say anything. Olaf didn't know he was a doll yet. Luckily, Bell got the message. "Yeah. I hear you're pretty popular. What's your movie called, is it, "Chilly" or "Snowy" or something?" Bell asked.
I giggled softly. "It's Frozen, actually."
"Oh, right," said Bell with a nod. "Well, it's very nice to meet you. And your friends, though I don't know who they are."
"Oh. Well, this is Loki and Olaf." I replied, giving them a late introduction.
"Nice to meet you, too," said Bell. "Anything you need, I'll be happy to help."
"Okay, Bell," I began. "We actually need your help right now. We came from the Room She Lives In upstairs. The humans are gone, and a nutcracker named Benny told us to come down and see if we could find out the true meaning of Christmas by visiting your tree."
"Oh, don't be silly," said Bell. "This isn't really my tree. I've met Benny before. You could put him by a piece of trash and he'd guard it with his life because he thinks that everything he's put beside is automatically his. I never really understood that. This is the human's tree, not mine. But that's okay, you didn't know. Now, on this meaning of Christmas thing," Bell tapped her chin with the tip of her gold wand. "Goodness, I don't know. I guess I've never really thought of that before. Perhaps Christmas doesn't really have a clear meaning at all. I think it's really just a time of relaxation before you get put in a box and back up into the attic until next year."
"Hm," Loki murmured. "What a strange idea."
"Why don't you ask Dorothy? She found her when She was just a little girl. Dorothy has been nearly every place in the house from being carried around so much."
"Okay, then. Where is Dorothy?" I asked.
"You don't know where Dorothy is? I thought everyone did. Well, I guess you guys are still new to this place. Dorothy's the little girl in the blue gingham dress with the basket and the dog, probably sitting over there on the coffee table." Bell squinted over in the direction she thought that Dorothy was. "Hm, I can't tell. You see, I have pretty bad eyesight. That's why I didn't recognize you at first, Elsa."
"I'm sorry to hear that," I said politely. "And thanks for trying to help. We'll go visit Dorothy to see if she knows anything about Christmas."
"Okay, have fun. Tell her I said, hi!" said Bell with a wave, and she froze into position once again.
"Okay then." said Loki, and he followed him over to the coffee table.
Once there, I called out for Dorothy. "Um, hello? Are you up there, Dorothy? Bell sent us over. She wanted to say hi but she's kind of stuck on the tree right now."
A second later, the face of a little girl peered over the ledge of the coffee table. It was a simple, pretty face, with porcelain skin and shiny black eyes with a little red mouth and painted cheeks. It must have been Dorothy for her to appear at her name. She looked familiar, but I wasn't sure why.
"Oh, hello. Bell sent you over, I hear. Well, I'm welcome to visitors. Come on up." said Dorothy. She had a deep, somber voice for a doll that looked like a small child. It was a pretty voice, but a little surprising. The three of us climbed up onto the coffee table.
Now I had a better look at Dorothy. Her curly brown hair was tied off in pigtails by two red ribbons, and she was wearing a white and blue checkered dress and bright red shoes. Under one arm with wicker basket, and the other one held a tiny brown dog, whose tail wagged when he saw us.
"Good morning," Dorothy said cheerfully. "Welcome to my home. It's a little small, but I like it. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dorothy Gale, and this is Toto," she lifted her happy little dog up for us to see. "We're from the movie The Wizard of Oz."
Now I knew where she was from. I had only seen the cover of book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but I had never read it, and I had no idea there was a movie. "Well, I don't think any of us have ever seen your movie, I'm afraid. We've only been here about a month."
"What are your names?" Dorothy asked. "And what are you from?"
I wasn't sure if this was a sensitive subject for Olaf, but I had to respond anyway. "Well, I'm Queen Elsa and this is Olaf. We're from Frozen. It's a Disney movie. And this is Loki from..." I turned to Loki, but he just shrugged at me in return. I guess he didn't know his origin movie. "He's from a movie as well."
"Good to meet you all. Now Bell sent you over here, so that must mean you had something to ask me. We never get any visitors. In fact, I think you're the only three dolls in this house who are alive besides us. It's quite a relief to know that."
"Well, that's good to know for us, too," I said. "We're trying to find the meaning of Christmas. Bell said She's had you since She was a little girl, so you must know something about Christmas."
Dorothy titled her head as if she could see something that we couldn't. The little doll was deep in thought. A minute had passed before Dorothy could finally answer. "Well, the meaning of Christmas is really only a matter of opinion. But if I've learned anything from my own movie, there's no place like home." Toto yipped in agreement.
Dorothy's advice was a little more helpful than Bell's. There's no place like home.
"In my movie, I tap my heels together and I go back to my home in Kansas. Only I'm already home. And I'm not really sure this is Kansas, but I don't really think so. Christmas in Kansas was always gray and cold. Christmas here is white...but also very cold. I think it's always that way. So that's my answer. There's no place like home."
I thought about that for a bit. I think we were getting closer to the real meaning of Christmas, but I wasn't quite sure if that was the right answer. Maybe there wasn't even a right answer.
"Thank you, Dorothy, that was very helpful." I replied out of politeness.
Dorothy nodded and Toto barked. "You're welcome. But if you didn't find the answer you were looking for, I recommend that you go and find Napoleon. He's Sir Benedict's cousin, I think, but much taller. He's over there, by the fireplace and under the window."
"Okay. Thanks, Dorothy." Olaf replied, and we said our goodbyes and climbed down the coffee table just as Dorothy stopped in her place, a tiny red smile on her mouth, Toto's tail stopped wagging. it was an interesting thought, that even doll animals could come to life just as doll people, or doll snow-people, can do.
We found Napoleon, who I assumed was another nutcracker since Dorothy had said that he was a relative of Benny's, by the empty fireplace and under a window, just as Dorothy had said. He was certainly tall, but not as tall as me. I don't think I'll ever find someone my height, anyway.
I waved it away. "Yeah, well, he doesn't count. He's just a grump."
"Yeah. He really is." Olaf agreed with a nod towards the ceramic town in which he lived. We couldn't see him, so that must have meant he was in one of the tiny houses.
Loki and Olaf made their way back up the stairs at their normal pace. I stayed behind, unsure if we had accepted defeat today. Bell had said that Christmas was a time for relaxing, Dorothy said "there's no place and home" and quite honestly, who really knew what Napoleon was saying? It was like he was speaking some different language. And I was almost certain that we had already found all of the dolls in the house that could come to life. So was that it? We hadn't yet found our answer, and it seemed that all of our resources were exhausted. Not even our three new friends knew.
Once we got back to the bedroom, it suddenly hit us that there was nothing else to do.
"So, what now?" Olaf asked, as we all stood and stared blankly at the room in front of us.
"Well, I'm going back to bed." I decided in a huff, and lifted my dress and began to climb up the knobs of the dresser.
"We can't give up, Elsa." I heard Loki say.
"Yeah, well, I am. You can do whatever you want." I pulled myself up onto the dresser and tried to push around a few objects to clear a space for me to sleep.
"Come on Elsa, please?!" Olaf begged.
"There's no one left in the house. And it's not like we can talk to the humans and ask them." Maybe if I could just go back to sleep, then tomorrow would be a better day.
"I'm sure we can find the meaning of Christmas somewhere." said Loki, trying to be positive. Well, it wasn't working for me.
"I'm going back to sleep. If you really think that the meaning of Christmas is out there somewhere, then you and Olaf can go out and find it yourself."
But they didn't get the chance to, because from upstairs we heard a door open and close again.
"They're home." I whispered, lips parted, eyes wide.
Loki was the first to react, springing up and using each handle to expertly swing himself up onto the dresser. Olaf, panicked, whimpered slightly, tried to hop up onto the dresser instead of just climbing. "Olaf! Give me your hands!" I cried, leaning forward and holding out my icy-blue hands so Olaf could pull himself up.
Well, he did, and just in the nick of time. Just as soon as I had helped him up and went back to our usual spots on the dresser, She came into her room, back from the craft store with a plastic bag in her hand. She took out the items and laid them on her bed. I saw three kinds of colored paint, a plain white sketchbook, and a roll of paisley-print duck tape. Not much that would interest us dolls. She talked to us little, but that was okay, because as soon as She was finished putting her extra money away, She went back downstairs. I smelled food and realized that they had been gone longer than I thought. I looked over at the clock briefly. Six oh three. I guess I really hadn't lied to Napoleon at all.
My grudge long forgotten, the three of us chatted comfortably until it was time for bed. Another day gone- but perhaps not wasted. Time you enjoy wasting isn't really wasting time at all. And another day would come. We still had a while to discover the meaning of Christmas. But today I suppose we had found out one thing, as dorky and as small of a thing it may seem. There is no place like home for the holidays.
It was a Friday, and a dark one at that. The lights in The Room She Lived In were all off, and the blinds were closed, but it's not like either of those made much of a difference. It was noon, where the sun was supposed to be at its highest point, but stubborn winter stratus clouds made the day look like the night.
"Ready?" the voice repeated. It was Olaf's voice. And his stick-hand was nudging me lightly on the shoulder. But was nowhere near to "ready." As far as I was concerned, Fridays like this were made for taking a long winter's nap.
"No..." I groaned, turning over and forcing my eyes open. "Goway. Emtired."
"Oh, I see," Olaf replied. "I'll be quiet." The snowman hummed a few chords of unnamed music and stumbled away to who knows where. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, then pulled the sides of my cape around me as a makeshift blanket.
However, my short rest did not last long. My friends seemed intent on making my life miserable. The blinds were opened and the tiny amount of light the sky could manage poured in and fell across my face. I mumbled in annoyance.
"Morning, sleepyhead!" Loki's voice called. So it was he who opened the blinds. He was extra cheerful, so that was strange, but welcome in my book. "Or should I say 'afternoon?' You've been asleep all day. I woke up at six and Olaf soon after. Come on, let's go downstairs to the other tree Benny told us about yesterday."
"But-" I protested sleepily, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the minimal light.
"No buts, Elsa. We need to do something. Come on, the humans are gone."
I tried sitting up. "I know. Wait...where's Magneto?"
"He woke up at the crack of dawn to leave us. He's back in his town being an antisocial extrovert."
"I see."
"So...the other tree downstairs, then?" Loki asked.
I yawned and stretched my blue arms. "Okay."
Loki swung off the blinds chain and Olaf jumped down from the dresser and ran out the door, leaving me behind in my tired daze. I blinked some more, and stretched out my legs, then jumped down from the dresser. The feeling of solid floor beneath my Norwegian slippers was a shock to my feet.
Once again I made my way down the stairs. I stumbled in a not-very-queenlike way downwards, Olaf and Loki way ahead of me. They were already talking to Magneto, who was standing in the gazebo of his little ceramic town in the dining room. My ears were able to pick up minor snippets of conversation.
"Come with us!" said Olaf excitedly. "You promised that if we helped you down from the tree that you'd come with us to find the meaning of Christmas."
"I never promised anything." said Magneto. I guess he was still grumpy. I was starting to wonder if that was just what he was regularly like.
Loki narrowed his eyes at the key-chain. "You said you would, so I take it as a promise."
"Bah humbug." Magneto replied.
"Hey, guys," I whispered, entering the room and rubbing my eyes.
"Oh, there you are, Elsa! I thought you wouldn't be able to come." said Olaf.
I smiled sleepily. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. The other tree, I mean."
"Well, I'm not going." Magneto huffed.
"It's just in the other room, Magneto," I sighed. "Please. You promised."
I could tell that Magneto was not one for keeping his promises. Too bad for him, because the three of us were. And we were persistent and I was cranky from having my afternoon nap interrupted.
"Come on, we're going." I said, and without a warning to Magneto, I picked him up by his key-chain clasp and held it tightly.
"Let go of me, you imbecile!" he cried up, kicking his tiny feet. Olaf giggled and Loki smirked and we climbed off the table and down the hallway to the room where Benny had said that there was another Christmas tree. Of course, we didn't know where that was. And Magneto's stubborn yelling didn't help.
"Oh, quiet, you!" I shouting, holding him higher. "Or I'll drop you!" I was not one for threats, but the both of us were already having our patience tested. And I was bigger, so it made sense that I would win. For some reason I smiled.
"Go ahead, drop me! It's not like I'll break."
"You might if I throw you hard enough." I replied.
Loki turned around (he was the leader) and raised an eyebrow at me. The expression said, "You really wouldn't throw him, would you?"
"You really wouldn't throw me." said Magneto confidently, crossing his arms.
"Oh yes I would," I lied. "I will. Unless you stop fighting and tell me the way to the living room where the other tree is."
"How should I know where the tree is?" Magneto asked.
Hm, he had a point. "Because you've been here longer than any of us," I said slowly. I decided to throw in a few compliments. "And because you're older, you're wiser. So you certainly must know where it is. You know everything." I spoke through gritted teeth.
The compliments worked on Benny, so I just hoped they would do the trick for Magneto.
"No. I refuse." the key-chain spat.
I sighed. "Please? If you do, I'll let you go. And I don't mean I'll throw you. And then you can do whatever you like. If you really don't want to see the tree, you don't have to."
"Yeah, really." Olaf butted in, trying to reassure him.
Magneto remained quiet, frowning at me an glaring,
"Please?" I begged.
"Ugh, fine," he grumbled. "What would you dolls do without me? I'll tell you where the living room is. Now let me go."
"Directions first." I insisted, giving his clasp a little shake to prove that I had the upper hand.
Reluctantly, Magneto became our guide around the house. He told us where to turn and what rooms were NOT the ones we were looking for. Even without him we probably would have found it. It was close to the stairs from where we had came.
I mindlessly dropped Magneto and began walking towards the tree, mouth wide open. I touched one of the branches- prickly yet soft. I caught the scent of pine when I rubbed it, so it must have been a real tree. How rare and exiting! I breathed in deeply. We had accomplished one of the things we were searching for. Surely the meaning of Christmas would be found here!
Olaf hopped up next to me and felt one of the branches as well. "Ooh! Nice!" he said, surprised at it's texture.
"It's a real tree, Olaf," I added, turning to my snowman friend. "It's that cool?"
"He's gone." said Loki, who I hadn't noticed was behind me.
"Who's gone?" I asked.
"Magneto, of course! He ran away as soon as you dropped him."
I sighed. "Typical Magneto. Well, it's not my fault that he didn't want to see the tree. Let him be a party pooper, we can enjoy this all by ourselves."
Loki looked a bit confused when I had used the term "party pooper" but I had only heard the term used once at the store where I was found, Wandering Oaken's Trading Post. I think someone, a woman, had said, "Are you enjoying Leah's birthday party?"
And then someone else said back to them,
"No, I hate Frozen."
The first person looked shocked and replied,
"Don't be such a party pooper!"
I had smiled a bit to myself at their conversation and later the other Elsas asked me what the words were about. I guessed they had been eavesdropping as well, but I couldn't give them a straight answer. But now I kind of understood what the woman had meant.
At first I thought Olaf was laughing at my joke. But when I looked over at him, his mouth was closed. It sounded like a girlish laugh anyway, but I still wanted to ask. "Olaf, was that you?" I asked him, turning around.
"Nope. You?"
"No," I replied with a confused frown. "Who could it be?"
"Up there." said Loki suddenly, and he pointed to the highest bow on the tree. Up there, a Tinker Bell ornament (I recognized her from a person's gift bag at the trading post) swayed back and forth in a fit of giggles that sounded like the jiggling of tiny bells. So she was the one that had laughed.
"Um, hello!" I called out, trying to be friendly.
"Oh, hi!" The ornament called and waved at us with the hand that was holding a small gold wand. "I didn't know you were so far down there."
The Tinker Bell ornament had a short, glittery green dress, and her blonde hair in a bun, just as all Tinker Bells do. At least, the ones I've seen. She had a wand, and tiny white pom-poms on the tips of her shoes. A very traditional style.
"Why, I flew, of course!"
"You can fly?" Olaf asked.
The Tinker Bell ornament shrugged. "Only very little," she began to show off her wings. "Dolls like me are like chickens. I can fly if we try hard enough, but then it gets exhausting after ten seconds or more. Because I decided to fly up here, She just thinks someone else put me up here, so it's not like I got caught or anything. She says I'm one of her favorite ornaments." The Tinker Bell ornament looked very proud.
"What's your name?" Olaf wanted to know.
"Well, I suppose it's Tinker Bell, but that's not very original, is it? The Disney Store where I came from had all sorts of other dolls like me, all with the same name. It gets boring after a while. And She never really gave me a name, so I guess I'll just by my nickname, which is Bell." The ornament said with a shrug. "Oh, I know you! You're Queen Elsa, aren't you?"
"The one and only." Olaf said proudly.
Bell gave him a confused look but I pleaded her with my eyes to not say anything. Olaf didn't know he was a doll yet. Luckily, Bell got the message. "Yeah. I hear you're pretty popular. What's your movie called, is it, "Chilly" or "Snowy" or something?" Bell asked.
I giggled softly. "It's Frozen, actually."
"Oh, right," said Bell with a nod. "Well, it's very nice to meet you. And your friends, though I don't know who they are."
"Oh. Well, this is Loki and Olaf." I replied, giving them a late introduction.
"Nice to meet you, too," said Bell. "Anything you need, I'll be happy to help."
"Okay, Bell," I began. "We actually need your help right now. We came from the Room She Lives In upstairs. The humans are gone, and a nutcracker named Benny told us to come down and see if we could find out the true meaning of Christmas by visiting your tree."
"Oh, don't be silly," said Bell. "This isn't really my tree. I've met Benny before. You could put him by a piece of trash and he'd guard it with his life because he thinks that everything he's put beside is automatically his. I never really understood that. This is the human's tree, not mine. But that's okay, you didn't know. Now, on this meaning of Christmas thing," Bell tapped her chin with the tip of her gold wand. "Goodness, I don't know. I guess I've never really thought of that before. Perhaps Christmas doesn't really have a clear meaning at all. I think it's really just a time of relaxation before you get put in a box and back up into the attic until next year."
"Hm," Loki murmured. "What a strange idea."
"Why don't you ask Dorothy? She found her when She was just a little girl. Dorothy has been nearly every place in the house from being carried around so much."
"Okay, then. Where is Dorothy?" I asked.
"You don't know where Dorothy is? I thought everyone did. Well, I guess you guys are still new to this place. Dorothy's the little girl in the blue gingham dress with the basket and the dog, probably sitting over there on the coffee table." Bell squinted over in the direction she thought that Dorothy was. "Hm, I can't tell. You see, I have pretty bad eyesight. That's why I didn't recognize you at first, Elsa."
"I'm sorry to hear that," I said politely. "And thanks for trying to help. We'll go visit Dorothy to see if she knows anything about Christmas."
"Okay, have fun. Tell her I said, hi!" said Bell with a wave, and she froze into position once again.
"Okay then." said Loki, and he followed him over to the coffee table.
Once there, I called out for Dorothy. "Um, hello? Are you up there, Dorothy? Bell sent us over. She wanted to say hi but she's kind of stuck on the tree right now."
A second later, the face of a little girl peered over the ledge of the coffee table. It was a simple, pretty face, with porcelain skin and shiny black eyes with a little red mouth and painted cheeks. It must have been Dorothy for her to appear at her name. She looked familiar, but I wasn't sure why.
"Oh, hello. Bell sent you over, I hear. Well, I'm welcome to visitors. Come on up." said Dorothy. She had a deep, somber voice for a doll that looked like a small child. It was a pretty voice, but a little surprising. The three of us climbed up onto the coffee table.
Now I had a better look at Dorothy. Her curly brown hair was tied off in pigtails by two red ribbons, and she was wearing a white and blue checkered dress and bright red shoes. Under one arm with wicker basket, and the other one held a tiny brown dog, whose tail wagged when he saw us.
"Good morning," Dorothy said cheerfully. "Welcome to my home. It's a little small, but I like it. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dorothy Gale, and this is Toto," she lifted her happy little dog up for us to see. "We're from the movie The Wizard of Oz."
Now I knew where she was from. I had only seen the cover of book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but I had never read it, and I had no idea there was a movie. "Well, I don't think any of us have ever seen your movie, I'm afraid. We've only been here about a month."
"What are your names?" Dorothy asked. "And what are you from?"
I wasn't sure if this was a sensitive subject for Olaf, but I had to respond anyway. "Well, I'm Queen Elsa and this is Olaf. We're from Frozen. It's a Disney movie. And this is Loki from..." I turned to Loki, but he just shrugged at me in return. I guess he didn't know his origin movie. "He's from a movie as well."
"Good to meet you all. Now Bell sent you over here, so that must mean you had something to ask me. We never get any visitors. In fact, I think you're the only three dolls in this house who are alive besides us. It's quite a relief to know that."
"Well, that's good to know for us, too," I said. "We're trying to find the meaning of Christmas. Bell said She's had you since She was a little girl, so you must know something about Christmas."
Dorothy titled her head as if she could see something that we couldn't. The little doll was deep in thought. A minute had passed before Dorothy could finally answer. "Well, the meaning of Christmas is really only a matter of opinion. But if I've learned anything from my own movie, there's no place like home." Toto yipped in agreement.
Dorothy's advice was a little more helpful than Bell's. There's no place like home.
"In my movie, I tap my heels together and I go back to my home in Kansas. Only I'm already home. And I'm not really sure this is Kansas, but I don't really think so. Christmas in Kansas was always gray and cold. Christmas here is white...but also very cold. I think it's always that way. So that's my answer. There's no place like home."
I thought about that for a bit. I think we were getting closer to the real meaning of Christmas, but I wasn't quite sure if that was the right answer. Maybe there wasn't even a right answer.
"Thank you, Dorothy, that was very helpful." I replied out of politeness.
Dorothy nodded and Toto barked. "You're welcome. But if you didn't find the answer you were looking for, I recommend that you go and find Napoleon. He's Sir Benedict's cousin, I think, but much taller. He's over there, by the fireplace and under the window."
"Okay. Thanks, Dorothy." Olaf replied, and we said our goodbyes and climbed down the coffee table just as Dorothy stopped in her place, a tiny red smile on her mouth, Toto's tail stopped wagging. it was an interesting thought, that even doll animals could come to life just as doll people, or doll snow-people, can do.
We found Napoleon, who I assumed was another nutcracker since Dorothy had said that he was a relative of Benny's, by the empty fireplace and under a window, just as Dorothy had said. He was certainly tall, but not as tall as me. I don't think I'll ever find someone my height, anyway.
He wasn't very hard to find, being so tall. Napoleon was dressed in a handsome red soldier's uniform with navy-colored pants and a black hat and boots. His mustache was black, which was odd, because the rest of his hair was white. His skin was chestnut-colored and showed different wood patterns. He was holding a flag with red and white stripes, and in one corner the flag had a dark blue square dotted with white stars. It didn't look like any flag I had ever seen. Then again, what flags did I have the chance to see?
"Good day, my fellow citizens!" Napoleon greeted us happily, which made us all jump a little, startled by how fast the nutcracker was able to come to life. "Have you come to ask me of the history of this great country? I can tell you everything you need to know."
"Actually, we weren't really looking to find that out. Yet, I mean. Dorothy sent us, and Bell before that. What we're trying to do is to find the meaning of Christmas."
"Oh, that?" Napoleon said, puffing out his chest in pride. "I know a lot about that subject, a do."
"Could you possibly tell us?" Loki asked.
"Yes, but allow me to introduce myself. I am Napoleon, or Leon, whichever you prefer. Do not mistake me for my French name. I came from the great country of America. You probably have already met my younger brother, Benedict. He gives himself a fancy title and all of that, but really, it's just Benedict. Now who are you?"
I was getting a little tired of saying our names so often, so Loki stepped forward and did that for me. I was very thankful for that.
"I am Loki, and this is Elsa and Olaf. We have come from the Room She Lives In up the stairs to seek information about the meaning of Christmas." he finished with a bow.
"I can see you are new here, but clearly you have great abilities and manners, so I will help you. Christmas in America happened in Florida in 1539, according to this historians that live there. Since Florida is closer to the Equator, it was not a snowy Christmas like the ones we have here," Napoleon pointed out the window. Indeed, the ground was covered in whiteness. "It was no festive celebration, either, very, very religious. The Spanish explorer Hernan De Soto established his winter encampment site in 1539 in which is now today, the great city of Tallahassee. He was the first one to..."
My mind was spinning. We were't really looking for a lecture on American history, and I think that Napoleon only mentioned the word Christmas once or twice. "Excuse me, Napoleon." I butted in.
The nutcracker stopped chattering almost immediately.
"Sorry to interrupt. It's all very interesting," I lied. "But do you have anything just about Christmas?"
Napoleon frowned. "Even though we are both quite different, my brother and I have very similar ideas about Christmas. It is old, traditional, and probably the most popular holiday in all of the world. Including the United States of America. I would have to say that Christmas is a piece of history, a way to connect to other parts of the world as a country."
Even Napoleon's speech about Christmas was a little confusing. I had to pick apart all of his strings of words in order to get a few helpful sentences out of the bunch. So Christmas is an important piece of history that connects us to other parts of the world. I tried to wrap my mind around that idea.
"Interesting," I said, sticking out my jaw, feigning deep thought. "Well, thank you very much, Napoleon, that was quite...helpful. But I believe that She said that the humans would be coming home at six o'clock, at it is almost around that time," I had no idea what time it was, but I knew if we stayed any longer, Olaf would probably fall asleep listening to Napoleon jabber on about American history. "So we must bid you good-bye." I finished. Olaf and Loki were already backing away slowly towards the direction of the staircase.
"Oh, must you leave so soon?" said Napoleon with a sigh. "Alright, I suppose you must. But come back to visit me another time. I can tell you all about the first Spanish explorers to visit America."
"Okay, that sounds like fun!" I said a bit too cheerfully, and as soon as Napoleon waved good-bye, we turned around and ran away.
It was a long time before any of us were able to say a thing. We were all probably stunned because one nutcracker was able to hold so much information. And none of us really had any real brains to do so. Or maybe very little time had passed, because we were only halfway to the stairs. I decided to speak up.
"Goodness," I said as the staircase came into view. "Everyone down here has been awfully friendly."
"Except Magneto." said Loki.I waved it away. "Yeah, well, he doesn't count. He's just a grump."
"Yeah. He really is." Olaf agreed with a nod towards the ceramic town in which he lived. We couldn't see him, so that must have meant he was in one of the tiny houses.
Loki and Olaf made their way back up the stairs at their normal pace. I stayed behind, unsure if we had accepted defeat today. Bell had said that Christmas was a time for relaxing, Dorothy said "there's no place and home" and quite honestly, who really knew what Napoleon was saying? It was like he was speaking some different language. And I was almost certain that we had already found all of the dolls in the house that could come to life. So was that it? We hadn't yet found our answer, and it seemed that all of our resources were exhausted. Not even our three new friends knew.
Once we got back to the bedroom, it suddenly hit us that there was nothing else to do.
"So, what now?" Olaf asked, as we all stood and stared blankly at the room in front of us.
"Well, I'm going back to bed." I decided in a huff, and lifted my dress and began to climb up the knobs of the dresser.
"We can't give up, Elsa." I heard Loki say.
"Yeah, well, I am. You can do whatever you want." I pulled myself up onto the dresser and tried to push around a few objects to clear a space for me to sleep.
"Come on Elsa, please?!" Olaf begged.
"There's no one left in the house. And it's not like we can talk to the humans and ask them." Maybe if I could just go back to sleep, then tomorrow would be a better day.
"I'm sure we can find the meaning of Christmas somewhere." said Loki, trying to be positive. Well, it wasn't working for me.
"I'm going back to sleep. If you really think that the meaning of Christmas is out there somewhere, then you and Olaf can go out and find it yourself."
But they didn't get the chance to, because from upstairs we heard a door open and close again.
"They're home." I whispered, lips parted, eyes wide.
Loki was the first to react, springing up and using each handle to expertly swing himself up onto the dresser. Olaf, panicked, whimpered slightly, tried to hop up onto the dresser instead of just climbing. "Olaf! Give me your hands!" I cried, leaning forward and holding out my icy-blue hands so Olaf could pull himself up.
Well, he did, and just in the nick of time. Just as soon as I had helped him up and went back to our usual spots on the dresser, She came into her room, back from the craft store with a plastic bag in her hand. She took out the items and laid them on her bed. I saw three kinds of colored paint, a plain white sketchbook, and a roll of paisley-print duck tape. Not much that would interest us dolls. She talked to us little, but that was okay, because as soon as She was finished putting her extra money away, She went back downstairs. I smelled food and realized that they had been gone longer than I thought. I looked over at the clock briefly. Six oh three. I guess I really hadn't lied to Napoleon at all.
My grudge long forgotten, the three of us chatted comfortably until it was time for bed. Another day gone- but perhaps not wasted. Time you enjoy wasting isn't really wasting time at all. And another day would come. We still had a while to discover the meaning of Christmas. But today I suppose we had found out one thing, as dorky and as small of a thing it may seem. There is no place like home for the holidays.
Having a Homey Christmas,
Queen Elsa
Good thoughts, Elsa! But... I think I might know what the true meaning of Christmas is...
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