Mischief Makers: Shoes, Slippers, Sneakers

Last night had been full of danger, stress and then…relief.

Nim and Lil almost didn’t make it back to homebase before the kids woke up. They’d had to think quickly and so spent a rather chilly day stuck outside peeking in at their charges.

Their fate was better than some of their fellow scouts. Everyone was buzzing about the missing elves: Cheeky and Filbert. A search party was out scouring the streets, but it was looking grim.

“I hope they find them,” Lil said, breaking the silence.

Nim (of course) agreed with her, but he couldn’t help thinking that it was only a matter of time before Filbert and Cheeky would find an excuse to go AWOL from their scout elf duties.

The two friends had met at Scout School. They’d both been sent to Pixie Prison for causing trouble beyond the usual elfin pranks.

Cheeky had set off a glitter bomb in the bathroom…knowing full well that Mr. Zart, the principal, was in there.

Filbert had replaced Mrs. Tiddlywinks morning cup of chocolate with…well, let’s just say that student elves were banned from the stables after that.

“Maybe it’s just another one of their pranks. After all, their houses are a lot closer to the North Pole than ours, and we made it back.”

Neither Nim nor Lil were feeling very impish, so it took some time for them to determine what to do.

Nim suddenly darted down to the shoe pile next to the breakfast bar and started to place the pairs in a line.

“What are you doing?” asked Lil.

“Helping!” said Nim.

“Helping?” Lil said, puzzled.

“Yes, helping. We’ll pair up all the shoes and put them in a line around the living room. Everyone is always trying to find their shoes.”

“That’s right!” Lil agreed. “The other day I saw Jake go out with a different shoe on each foot. I let a giggle escape. I think his mom heard it, because she looked up at me for a few seconds.”

They spent a long time pairing up all the shoes and snaking them around the living room.

After they were done, they had time to play. They got a little carried away making train noises.

“Chug-a-chug-a Chug-a-chug-a.”

“Choo Choo!”

So carried away, that Charlie the dog, barked and growled threatening to wake the whole house.

“We’d better get in place,” Nim whispered.

Nim and Lil hung upside down in the wine rack and watched, thinking how pleased the moms would be with their latest trick.