I went home that night and had trouble sleeping as my mind combed through every male employee I’d met since beginning at Winters Inc. It was a huge corporation and our offices alone had eighteen different divisions. We worked in a ten story building in Manhattan and so far, I hadn’t had a need to go above the sixth floor. That meant even if I had met everyone on the first six floors which I strongly doubted, there were four more floors of mystery. Well, actually only three. The top floor was reserved for the offices of Mr. Winters himself, so I don’t think that one counted. I doubted the man himself showed up for silly things like that. Besides, he already employed us all, he didn’t have to pay for one of us to work for him for a day.
I finally took a long, hot bubble bath and drank some tea and by one or two a.m. I at last fell asleep. It seemed like only minutes later I was awakened by an annoying ringing sound. I couldn’t open my eyes at first; I just lay there and wished it would stop. When I realized it was the phone, my thoughts jumped to discovering the identity of my mystery man. I was suddenly awake and alert. I picked up the phone and said hello. I wasn’t disappointed.
“Hello, is this Robin?” It was the same silky, masculine voice that I’d heard bidding for me last night.
“Yes it is. Who is this?”
“I’m the one who bought you for the day.”
“Don’t I get to know your name?”
“Not just yet,” he said. I wondered what all the mystery was about. “I have my chauffeur on his way to your apartment. He’ll be dropping off a costume for you soon.”
Oh great, a kinky one, I thought. But then he went on to say, ‘He will also have a car full of presents which you will drop off, in costume at the local orphanages and elder care homes. The driver will know where to take you and the presents are wrapped, but marked with the appropriate place to drop them off.”
“That sounds like fun!” I said, “I love Christmas!”
He didn’t respond to that. Instead, he said, “When you finish that task, you’ll be contacted again with further instructions.”
“Sounds like a plan!” I told him, excitedly. I was looking forward to the day, and hopefully to finally meeting him later on. He must be a really generous man to hand out presents all over town, and I just couldn’t get that voice out of my head. As I was pondering it all, my doorbell rang. I opened the door to an older man in a chauffer’s uniform, holding a box.
“Miss Hurst?”
“Yes,” I told him. “But please call me Robyn.”
He smiled slightly and said, “I’m Jeffrey. This box has the costume for you to wear and I’ll be downstairs waiting with the car when you’re ready.”
“Okay… hey Jeffrey, who sent the costume?”
This time he smiled outright and said, “That’s not for me to say, Miss.” He tipped his hat at me and turned and left. I shook my head and carried the box inside. I sat it down on the couch and pulled off the ribbon that held it together. When I slipped off the lid I was surprised to find a green and red elf costume inside. It was a green, sparkly dress that came to about mid-thigh with red fur trim around the neckline and sleeves. There were slippers with pointed toes and silver bells attached to them and even a hat to match the dress with pointed ears sewn on. I was ecstatic! I loved stuff like this. This was what Christmas was about.
I got ready as quickly as I could; knowing Jeffrey was waiting for me. When I finished dressing I looked in the mirror to see the perfect reflection of an elf. I was tickled and looking forward to this a lot. I grabbed my bag and keys and headed down to meet Jeffrey. He was standing next to the car and when he saw me, an amused expression lit up his face. He opened the back door of the giant limousine for me and as I slid in on the supple leather seat he said, “You look fabulous, Miss.”
“Why thank you, Jeffrey. I feel fabulous.”
He closed the door and went around to his side. There was a partition between us that I assumed was for privacy, but I didn’t need any and the car was so big, I felt lonely in the back all alone. I tapped on the window and Jeffrey lowered it a few inches.
“Did you need something, Miss?”
“It’s just lonely back here, Jeffrey. Can we leave the partition down?” He smiled and lowered it the rest of the way. That felt better to me, I could breathe, and Jeffrey and I could talk.
The first place we stopped was a home ran by social services where kids who came into the system were sent while they awaited a spot at a foster home, or court with mom and dad, or adoption. It was a large, three story Victorian home that had been converted. Jeffrey told me they knew we were coming and should be ready for us. I knocked and was let in by a plump middle aged woman whose red dress and dark red cheeks reminded me of Mrs. Claus. She introduced herself as the “headmistress” of the house, Mrs. Grover. She led me and Jeffrey who was carrying a large sack and an armload of packages behind me into a big open room with a Christmas tree in the center and about twenty small children gathered around it in a circle.
“Hi! I’m Robbie the elf!” I had made up the “Robbie” at the last minute. I thought it sounded more elf-like than Robyn.
“Hi Robbie!” came the resounding reply from twenty small voices.
“Santa Claus is extra busy this year. He asked that I come by and deliver some gifts to you because you’ve all been so good.” One of the little girls in the front row raised her hand. She was about four years old. Her hair was blonde and had two pigtails. The dress she wore was worn, but her face was scrubbed clean and she looked healthy. “Yes?” I said, looking at her.
“Brady hasn’t been good. He pulls my hair.”
I tried to keep a straight face as I said, “Well, Santa Claus must have seen him doing something nice to make up for it, because he was on the nice list.”
“He did give me his extra pancake at breakfast,” she said.
I smiled then and said, “That must have been it.”
Jeffrey helped me and we handed out presents marked “Male” to the boys and “Female” to the girls. When all the gifts had been handed out, we also gave them little bags of Christmas cookies that looked homemade. When we left, they all had smiles on their faces and my heart felt full and happy. We traveled the city for the next few hours spreading the same kind of joy. After the first couple of stops, the formerly stoic chauffeur was smiling from ear to ear and laughing at all my jokes.
Carrying the packages in and passing them out was no small task and I began to wonder if my mystery boss was afflicted somehow and that’s why he’d hired me to do this. He was definitely a wealthy, generous man. The kids were getting toys and clothing that kids in two-parent homes may not have been able to get because of the expense and the elderly were receiving robes and slippers and for some of the men, boxes of cigars that I know didn’t come cheap. I’d tried to prod information out of Jeffrey along the way, but he wasn’t forthcoming with any.
On the way to one of our stops, I said, “I know you can’t tell me who this man is, but can you answer just a question or two about him?”
“Hmm, that would depend on the question, I believe,” he said with a grin.
“Is he always so generous, or only at Christmas time?”
“He’s a very generous employer throughout the year,” Jeffrey said. “He does always give quite a bit to the community during the holidays.”
“Why doesn’t he take the presents out himself?” I asked. Jeffrey looked sad.
“Christmas is a time of year that our boss doesn’t care for. He avoids Christmas and everything he can that goes along with it. He wants to give back to the community however and this is a way he can do that. He usually just hires people to deliver them. I like this idea better.”
I had a hard time imagining anyone who didn’t like Christmas. Christmas was literally my favorite time. I enjoyed it when I was a child even more than my birthday.
“Why doesn’t he like Christmas?” I asked him.
Jeffrey chuckled and said, “You’ll have to ask him that yourself when you meet him.”
“What should I call him when we meet?”
He laughed outright again and said, “Tricky Miss Robyn, but I’m not falling for it.”
We took care of our last stop, a residential care facility for the elderly. More than one of the old ladies and even one old man got tears in their eyes when they received their gifts. I was touched to see that my secret employer had also thought about the elderly who weren’t able to intake sugar because of a medical condition. He’d sent sugarless snacks that looked as appetizing as the sugared ones.
I realized after we left the care home how tired I was. I also realized that it was after one o’clock and neither Jeffrey nor I had lunch yet. I was about to ask him about it when the car phone rang. Jeffrey put it on speaker and I heard my mystery man’s beautiful voice float out.
“Hello Robyn, how is the day going?”
“It’s been so much fun,” I told him, sincerely.
“Good,” he said, sounding amused. “And how did you like the costume?”
“Loved it!” I said.
“Really? That’s great,” he said, sounding surprised. I could tell that he found it strange and amusing that I hadn’t been embarrassed to dress like an elf. “How would you like to go to the offices and hand out the presents to each department in full costume?”
“I’d love to,” I told him, “You must be one of the executives…” He didn’t answer that. I was fishing, I hadn’t expected him to. But then I said, “Just as long as I can have lunch first.”
“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry,” he said, actually sounding remorseful. “I should have thought about lunch. I suppose you could have Jeffrey go in and get it.”
“Why couldn’t I go get it?” I asked.
“I was just thinking of you. You’re still in costume, correct?”
“Yeah, but I don’t see the problem. I like the costume and it fits very nicely.” He was obviously not one of my friends or close acquaintances or he would know that I loved to have fun and very little embarrassed me.
He chuckled, but I could tell he found it odd. “Okay then, have Jeffrey take you out to lunch. On me, anywhere you’d like to go. Then he’ll take you to the offices.”
“That sounds perfect,” I told him. “And when do I get to see you?”
“Have fun Robyn,” he said, and then he hung up.
I could see Jeffrey’s face in the mirror, he was smirking. “What’s so funny?” I asked him.
“Nothing, Miss.”
***