Jack Frost Helps the Brownies Prepare for Christmas

Illustration by Declan Gatenby

 

Without a doubt, the whole catastrophe was Jack Frost’s fault.  The brownies were doing a perfectly fine job of cleaning up after the family’s night of Christmas decoration.  They were picking the tinsel out of the carpet, collecting the cookie crumbs, and setting the misplaced ornament hooks back in the storage boxes when Jack tapped on the window pane.

“Hey, friends!” he said in an exaggerated whisper.  The brownies stopped their chores and peered up at him anxiously.  The rules were clear on humans interrupting their work, but they weren’t certain if the rules applied to other fairies.  If humans interrupted their work, they had to leave the home and never return.

“Shhh!” said Big Tomkin as he dumped crumbs into his cookie sack. “You’ll wake up the little ones and they’ll see us!”  The other brownies nodded, relieved that Big Tomkin had taken control of the situation.  None of the brownies wanted to leave the Jenkins home, so his treatment of Jack as one of their own was met with nods and smiles.

“Okay.  I just thought you might want to know that there’s a big problem only someone on this side of the window can see,” Jack teased.

Big Tomkin turned a concerned face to the window. He knew that sometimes he and the other brownies missed things because it was hard for them to see everything in the room.  He also knew from the humans that Jack Frost was sometimes silly and annoying. However, he couldn’t recall any fellow fairies complaining about him, and humans did not have a good sense of humor.

“What problem?” he finally asked, deciding that he did have a duty to at least consider that there was a task that the brownies had not noticed.

Jack motioned Big Tomkin over to the window.

“Look at the tree from this side,” he called to the brownie.  Big Tomkin shimmied up the end table and slid onto the windowsill behind the tree.

“What’s wrong?” He asked after a moment of staring.

“Well, friend, the problem is that most people see the tree from this side, but all the nicest ornaments are on the other side.” Jack Frost pointed to the damaged and unattractive ornaments that hung on the window side of the tree.

“Not my job,” Big Tomkin huffed.  Jack frowned at him.

“Not your problem? Aren’t you supposed to make the house look nice?” Jack said in a shocked tone.

“No. We’re supposed to make the house clean.” Big Tomkin only had a brief moment to be proud of himself for outwitting Jack. Jack gave him a sad look and softly cleared his throat.

“Hmm. Isn’t the reason you make the house clean because you are making it look nice?” Jack urged. It was no secret that while brownies understood the difference between clean and dirty, they were not necessarily known for their wonderful fashion sense.  After all, they were still wearing the shabby knitted hats that went out of style not long after humans began watching television.

With Big Tomkin still staring at the tree, Jack smiled and said, “I’ll help you.  Just move things where I say, and you’ll save your humans the embarrassment of having the whole neighborhood see their messy, messy ornaments.” With a bold air of confidence, Jack patiently guided the rearrangement of the ornaments.  The brownies huffed and groaned as they moved the heaviest of the ugly ornaments to the side of the tree facing the room. Jack carefully directed them to bring only a few of the lighter, pretty ornaments to the window side of the tree.

“There!” he exclaimed. “See how much nicer it is with just a few of the lovely ornaments on this side, and all the other ornaments on the other side? The Jenkins family will love you for this, I guarantee it.” Jack giggled as the horizon began to grow rosy with coming sunrise. “Whoops! I have work to finish,” he called as he left the brownies to gaze at the results of the night’s labor.

Big Tomkin and the other brownies were still admiring their work when the morning alarm sounded to wake up the humans.  They were out of time and unprepared when the tree, weighted in the front from the shifted ornaments, suddenly fell forward with a loud crash.

Big Tomkin had a moment of paralyzed horror before he fixed the problem the best he could. Just as the light came on in the Jenkins’ bedroom, he pointed to the other brownies and hissed, “Go get the cat and shove it in the tree!”