Elle is Sympathetic
Elle had been left in the dark, figuratively and literally. She was thinking about what the three Christmas ghosts were trying to tell her when she blinked and was suddenly outside her house. It was still night time, just half an hour after she had last checked the time before falling asleep. Elle was coming to terms with the sudden change when a voice confirmed she was not alone.
"Hello! Beautiful house isn't it, that you currently own!" Elle looked to her left and there was a large man wearing a sporty headband and sporting a big beard. "I am the ghost of Christmas Present, it is lovely to meet you, Santa." The ghost shook Elle's hand.
"No other names?" asked Elle, expecting she would also give this ghost a shorter nickname.
"None at the moment."
"I'm going to call you Presley." Elle decided.
"You are calling me Presley!" confirmed Presley. He seemed okay with the nickname, more so than Bart was with their's. "Now, we are wasting time with these pleasantries, we're going to take a look in your house." demanded Presley as he walked Elle to her door.
"Excuse me, this is my house! You can't just waltz in like you live here!"
"Well you've got to make a decision." Presley insisted, almost hastily. "You're staying out here or coming inside, it's very important that you make that decision now!" Presley then walked through the door, without opening it as ghosts do.
"He actually went inside!" Elle huffed as she followed. She was able to walk though the door to her surprise!
"You are having a dream and I am doing my job; it's perfectly fine." Presley assured as he walked through the door, without opening it as ghosts do. Elle was able to follow through, to her surprise.
In the lounge, Eldon was on the phone, looking weary and worrisome.
"Wait," Elle thought. "How can this be the present if I'm dreaming it?" she turned to Presley suspiciously.
"Because it's happening now!" Presley replied honestly. Then they listened in on Eldon's conversation.
"Yeah she's still at that blumin' office. I know she's got the busiest job in the world, but she's never had no time for us before. Ever since that break-in she's never been the same. You've seen her around the workshops, Elton, work is all that's ever on her mind. I shouldn't be telling you this so keep it dark, but she's even thinking of cancelling this year's Christmas Cracker!" Elle snorted in disbelief.
"I'm not that bad, am I?" Presley didn't respond, he felt it wasn't his place to. "Nothing? Look Eldon's just a bit sour because I'm taking my job more seriously. I'm doing this for the children of our world, I care very deeply about them."
"Nic?" Eldon asked. "I wish I knew how he was coping. I can't figure out why but he's been closed off lately. I want to say it's puberty but he's been acting in ways that suggest otherwise." Elle started to listen to the conversation with greater concern. "Well he doesn't like us calling him by his name, I tried some father-son activities and he's not interested. We've had letters from the teacher voicing their concerns, they think he might be suffering with depression!"
"This can't be right, can it?" Elle asked doubtfully. Presley made his way towards the staircase. "Not my little Nic?"
"We're going to check up on him." Presley answered gently. "Or are we not? It's your decision but you need to make it now." Elle didn't hesitate to follow.
"Let's go then. But Nic wouldn't like it if he knew!" They went up the stairs, strangely without any ghostly floating and then literally through little Nic's bedroom door.
"Nic doesn't know." Presley began. "But there's something you don't know either, so pay attention."
Nic was not really a little Nic anymore. He was in his teenage years and like Eldon had said, became a lot more quiet. Nic was laid on his bead, facing the wall, staring at his phone. If not for the phone's activity, you would have thought Nic was lifeless.
"This isn't like Nic, not at all!" Elle stammered; she was confused and pitiful for her son. A feeling quite similar to that of when she thought lots of children would not be able to get presents this year. Elle began to realize that by trying to make it up to the thousands of children whose Christmases could be ruined, she had been forgetting about her own child!
Elle looked at Presley with concern.
"So what do we do?"
"We watch." Elle glared hotly at Presley. "You are dreaming, remember?"
"Okay then, when I wake up what do I do?" Elle asked hastily. "I can't let the children of the world down because it's my job to give them a merry Christmas, but I also want to know what's going on in little Nic's mind! So what do I do?"
"You're asking the wrong person. You need to decide what to do, and now."
"Why now? What's the hurry if I'm dreaming?"
"Because we're in the present. The only thing we can do in the present is make decisions."
"Or maybe I'll just think about it instead?" Elle said as she crossed her arms, trying to look smart.
"By your decision." retorted Presley. Elle's smug expressions turned into a frown.
"So I definitely have to make a decision now, yeah?"
"No time like the present."
"Okay well I'll try and get Eldon to talk to Nic and I'll get all the stuff at work sorted out even faster. Then I can talk to Nic and catch up. Does that sound good?" Elle turned to face Presley, but he was headed for the door!
"You're asking the wrong person, again. It's time for me to leave." Without another word, Presley was leaving the building. Elle was left in confusion, she was afraid.
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