The Adventures of Eddie Elf

For five years, Eddie has been in my head, and he's almost here. My illustrator, Cyndi Harvell, did a fantastic job on the cover. The official cover reveal will be in October, but just to give you a peak, hear is a partial reveal, plus a snippet from the story.

Before he convinced himself not to, Eddie stopped the belt. The last toy on the belt seemed to say, “C’mon, do it!” 

Eddie pulled the toy from its box and tossed it in the garbage. He hesitated.“It’s now or never!”

After tying a string to the power switch, Eddie wiggled into the empty box. He bent his knees and tilted his head to fit. Then he pulled the string to turn on the machine. As the conveyer belt moved him towards the wrapper section, he closed his eyes and sent a quick prayer to the North Pole angels. “Please don’t let me get stuck!”

A robotic arm grabbed the box. Eddie gripped the sides of the cardboard walls. Mechanical fingers grabbed the box and lifted it onto the plastic wrapping spool. It spun like the spin cycle in a washing machine, but faster. It made Eddie dizzy.

“Wowowowowowowow!” Eddie’s voice bounced.

After several revolutions, Eddie heard the zip of the plastic being cut.

He felt the metal robot fingers pick him up.

Thwump! Eddie landed back onto the conveyor belt.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!  The belt took him to the edge.

Thud! The box, with Eddie inside, dropped into the bin full of toy elves ready to go to market.

Each year, because there were so many kids in the world, Santa sent a certain number of toys to the stores, just to make sure every child could get a toy for Christmas. Eddie, and three thousand toy elves, were ready for the train ride that took them there. 

With a whoosh, crinkle, and plop, a forklift grabbed the box of toys. Eddie felt the bumps as it carried them to the train car. Each bump was like a piece of ice being chipped off his heart.

Bump. “Yeah! I’m getting out of here!”

Bump. “Yeah, no more teasing.”

Bump. “I can go anywhere I want!”

By the time the pallet was placed in the train car, Eddie felt his heart bloom.

The train took forever to move. Eddie waited and waited.

Finally, he felt the pull of the engine and the shake of the train car moving. Eddie waited a long time before he pulled out his pocket knife, cut a small slit in the plastic, then carefully stepped out of the box.

Toy elves surrounded him. Their smiling faces behind the shiny wrapping saw nothing. He climbed to the top of the pile, and pulled out one of his cookies.

Frost framed the window glass. Sunrays became crystal rainbows when they entered the train car. He saw marshmallow hills and green trees covered with powdered snow. A little white rabbit hopped around making holes everywhere. 

Eddie turned back to the piles of toys. Each one had a label. He sat on a pile going to New York. The labels on the other piles read Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Eddie noticed more train cars, all filled with similar boxes. “Oh, boy!” Eddie said, “Where will I go?”

He climbed off the New York pile, opened the train door, and stepped onto a small metal platform with a black, curly railing. The cold air swirled around him. About five feet away, an identical platform and railing bounced with the train’s movement. He looked down at the metal couplings that connected the two cars. Like a tango they danced, dipping and swaying. The rails under the train sped by.  

Therwumpity, wumpity, wumpity, wumpity. They hummed.

 “I guess I’ll have to jump for it.” Eddie said.

But he hesitated. Memories of being teased assaulted him. He grabbed tightly onto the rail, half expecting someone to jump out and throw hurtful words at him. Words saying that he couldn’t do it. But nothing came.

His energy pulsed.

Therwumpity, wumpity, wumity, wumpity. I can do it, yes, I can, yes, I can, yes, I can.

The rhythmic courage seeped into his heart. He climbed onto the railing, bent his knees, and pushed off as hard as he could. “Whoopie!” 

His cry of delight turned to terror. “Aaaah!”

He fell towards the moving tracks. He waved his arms around, trying to find something to grab onto. He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to watch himself go splat.