Jup was a gnome.
And that piece of information, in our day and age, brings quite a lot to deal with indeed. But he was no mere gnome. On no siree! He held one of the most coveted job positions in the gnome labor world. He held the patent of First Assistance Auxiliar Officer in Santa Claus toy factory in what, we humans, like to call Lapland to avoid bigger and harder explanations. But yes, for the past few hundreds of years, Jup worked his way through several positions on the factory, thanks to his efficient work abilities, unbreakable faith on Santa's powers and a resilient will to get each year's Christmas preparations ready in time.
Santa liked to take a few days off in the Seyschelles Islands before the huge task of sleighing through the entire world distributing gifts. And when he did that, it was always Jup whom he trusted the factory. So, you can see how important he was. And Jup dealt very well with that responsability. He gladly took it upon his gnomish shoulders, and carry it as long as Santa asked him to. Plus, he accepted this apparently huge task for such a small person, always with a deep feeling of honour.
The other gnomes accepted well the fact that for a few days it was Jup who ran the place, and they accepted it well, because not only Jup's work abilities were proven, but, and maybe mainly, because Jup wasn't too cocky about it at all. He just wanted to get the job done as perfect and swiftlty as possible, and he always relied on the other gnomes' help to do that. The others really appreciated that, and worked extra hard for Jup, not that they preferred him over Santa, but maybe because he was one of them, and since Jup wasn't especially proud with the trust Santa had in him, the others took care of all the pride available. And they were proud of Jup indeed!
And this year preparatives and things in general were going down as usual. Santa was going to leave to the Seyschelles Islands tomorrow, and he and Jup will have their usual pre-Santa's Christmas Holydays briefing today. But something was wrong today. Something was different. Jup felt it as soon as he woke up that morning.
It wasn't one of those 'spur of the moment' events. No...he kinda had been feeling it lurking in the the back of his mind, in the deepest corners of his spirit. Something. He couldn't quite pin point it, and for sure he couldn't explain what was wrong, what was the nature of that weird feeling. He couldn't. Until that morning. It struck him during that magical stage while we're half asleep and half awake. The Meaning of Life, the Purpose of Mankind and the Truth About Everyting You Can Possibly Think Of can usually be found in those small hours, or minutes. Unfortunately, humans work on a different level, and most of them can't use this ability.
But Jup suddenly found out. He was tired of Christmas. He suddenly opened wide his eyes hoping that he was half dreaming, but searching deep in his mind he knew that he found the answer to his weird feeling.
He felt tired of Christmas, he found himself bored with the prospect of having to do all the work and all the preparations now that Santa was bound to leave for his week off. He just felt he had lost the faith in it. He couldn't find the point of it. Having all this work when, apparently, no one cared for it. Sure people liked the gifts, but do they really care or appreciate all the effort? Probably not. People want things done and ready on time, each and every year, and they don't care how, or who, as long as it's all nice and good, as they want.
Heck! Even Santa ceased to have a nice and thankful word after all the work is done. He'll probably arrive in the nick of time, jump into his huge red costume and into the sleigh, and off he'll go. Jup will have the final task of tidying up after him, and getting things ready for next year. Again. All the other gnomes will be off as well, for a few days rest, but Jup always stayed behind.
But this year, this morning, then and now, Jup was feeling extremely jaded and almost afraid to get up. But on the other hand he felt distressed and sad, because a part of him didn't want to feel like that. He was truly fighting to shake off that odd feeling, and make things come up to normal again. "Jeepers creepers! It would be better to wake up transformed in a giant cockroach, like that character in that weird book" Jup thought.
"What the heck!? I've always liked Christmas. Why am i feeling like that now? This is not useful at all!" He kinda felt that the seed of it all was planted the year before, on account of all the complaints, returned gifts and general lack of good faith and will everywhere. He sighed and sighed again. He always loved all the Christmas related stuff, the decorations, lights, etc etc. But this year he was feeling rather indifferent to everything. It was turning into just another period of the year. It came and went so quickly and with so much work, that he felt he almost misses the moment each and every year.
He sighed and thought that if he probably got up his brain would reassume its normal position and everything would be alright.
He smiled with that thought in mind. And he smiled again when he heard Mott, his best friend, already up, singing a christmas carol along the corridor outside, heading off to work. He got up, smiled and opened the window to breathe a bit of fresh air. "Maybe it's not that bad. Maybe it's just a silly phase" he thought while dressing quickly.
"Ok. Let's see how the day goes! Merry Christmas everyone!"
Gunther Dünn
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