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Entire Inventory of Teddy Bears Disappear
Cuddly Cuties Warehouse Cleaned Out
By
Ursala Taurus, Cub Reporter
Dec. 19, North Pole 8 AM This reporter has discovered
evidence of a nefarious plot to rid the world of the fuzzy little cuddly creatures everyone loves. Evil doers entered a secure warehouse last evening and somehow made off with an entire production of this years crops of teddy bears.
Authorities are reticent to disclose information and say that there are few clues to the identity of perpetrators of this evil crime. This reporter will keep her ears tuned to the nuances of the crime and will continue to keep the readers updated as new information comes forward. Something dastardly is afoot.
“Mommy,” Eric called as he leaned away from the computer screen where he’d been reading the morning news. “Someone took all of Santa Claus’s teddy bears. Why would someone do that?”
“Well, Eric,” Mrs. Bipple leaned over her 10 year old son’s shoulder, ruffled his sandy-brown hair and looked down at the computer screen. “I wish I knew. It’s hard to understand the strange things people do in this confused world where we live.”
“But who would want a whole warehouse full of teddy bears?” Eric asked.
“Maybe they plan to give them to underprivileged children,” Mrs. Bipple suggested. She backed away from Eric and returned to changing the NASCAR logo sheets on Eric’s bed.
“I think I’ll send an email to Santa and ask if I can help him solve the mystery of the missing teddy bears.”
Eric typed in Santa’s email address; KrisKringle@NorthPole.org, inserted Missing Teddy Bears in the subject line and then typed his message.
Dear Mr. Claus,
My name is Eric and I have just read that some evil person
or persons have broken into your Teddy Bear warehouse and
taken all of this year’s production of bears. I am very sad that
this has happened and would like to offer my help in solving this
awful crime. Justice must be served so that all the little children
of the world will wake up on Christmas morning and find a loving Teddy Bear under their tree.
Yours truly
Eric Bipple
Age 10
Within seconds a little bell rang and a You’ve Got Mail message popped onto the screen.
Dear Eric,
My name is Dwight and I am one of Santa’s elves. My job is
Communications specialist. I answer his email and respond to
complaints. I forwarded your email to the Boss and he was excited about your offer. You will be receiving a package with
a ticket… in fact I believe it has just arrived…”
A sudden commotion outside Eric’s bedroom window turned him away from the screen. He jumped up and pushed open the window. A large bald eagle flew in the window and dropped a business size envelop onto the bed. Fortunately Eric’s mother had finished changing the sheets and moved on to the master bathroom where she sang…
Scrub, scrub, scrub that dirt away…
as she leaned over the bathtub. So only Eric knew of the appearance of the eagle and the envelope. The eagle circled the room once then exited through the open window.
Puzzled, bewildered, and totally confused, Eric stood frozen until the eagle returned and landed on top of his head. The sharp eagle talons awakened him from his stupor and he reached out for the envelope. As he ripped open the flap, the eagle once again circled the room and disappeared out the window.
A thin disc about the size of a CD slipped from the envelope and fell onto the bed. Eric looked down, afraid to touch it, but too curious to let it just lie there. He studied it and found it to be nothing more than a CD like he could buy at Office Depot. He carefully picked up the CD and turned back to his computer.
The CRT screen had not changed, except more of Dwight’s message had appeared.
By now you have met Edwina… that is our messenger Eagle for
your area. And you’ve probably opened and found the CD. Would you please insert the disc in the disc drive? Thank you.
Once the disc has booted up, please grip your mouse firmly.
Some strange things will happen, but do not be afraid. It is just
a little Christmas magic… and we have a lot of that up here.
I’ll see you soon. We appreciate your offer to help us solve
the mystery of the missing TEDDY BEARS.
Your friend
Elf Dwight
The disc drive began to whirl and strange icons began to scroll across the screen. Then in large bold print the worlds:
Please grip the mouse FIRMLY
appeared in the center of the screen.
Thinking of nothing better to do, Eric gripped the mouse and squeezed it until his fingers began to ache. But nothing seemed to happen. When he felt his fingers beginning to cramp, and wanted to release his grip on the mouse, his body began to tingle and he felt himself shrinking. Smaller and smaller he shrank until he stood no larger than the mouse. Scared but curious, he looked up at the computer screen.
Sorry, I hope I haven’t frightened you, but it was necessary
to make you smaller so you can travel safely. It is very difficult
to travel normal size. Of course you will be returned to your normal size once you’ve arrived at the North Pole. Now you must climb into your computer through the port on the front of the CPU. Once inside, I want you to look for a program titled Digital Travel. It’s a little side business we use for special occasions. You should find it easily. I’ve installed it in your My Documents file. Now hurry up before the self-destruct program
that comes with the disc activates and you are returned to your
normal size.
See you soon.
Elf Dwight
Worried about the self-destruct program, Eric found the small port on the front of the CPU and tried to reach it. Too short, he looked around for something to stand on. He found a red eraser and struggled to push it beneath the port. It surprised him how heavy the eraser had become. He’d never thought of it as being heavy, but weight had a lot to do with size and being just a couple inches tall and barely as big as the eraser it seemed almost the same as him trying to move a refrigerator while back at his normal size.
By the time he had the eraser in place, he had nearly panicked at the amount of time he’d used. Was the self-destruct program about to activate? How much time did he have?
Without trying to answer the questions, he scrambled up on top of the eraser and muscled himself into the port. Although a bit snug, he fit. Once he’d pulled his entire body inside the port he waited. Then something happened. He felt a warm surge and a sucking sensation and the next thing he knew he had been pulled through the small port into the CPU.
Eric had once seen the insides of the CPU when his father had installed their new CD-RW drive. It had been a bit of a disappointment when he saw how little was housed inside the CPU. He had expected big processors and magical chips but he really couldn’t see anything more than a few chips with numbers stenciled on them. But now that he was inside the CPU and had grown even smaller, everything looked large and strange as his atoms raced along the tiny little paths that connected all the connections in the microprocessors.
Eric moved rapidly through the processors until he found himself inside the My Documents folder. After a quick search of the menu he found the Digital Travel folder and entered. As the folder closed around him he felt a surge and a sudden jump to what seemed like light-speed. He bounced and twisted, twirled and tumbled, spun and rolled, as he sped along the wireless digital airways.
Up to satellites circling the globe he raced and then back to earth to be bounce from one relay station to the next until he felt his speed slowly ebbing. Suddenly he stopped and had a warm sensation of being turned into tiny little specks of light. As his atom rejoined in this strange environment he looked out into a small cluttered room. Staring back at him, with a large friendly grin lighting his face, was Elf Dwight. He knew this because Dwight wore a badge on his red and green uniform that identified him as Dwight, Manager of Communication, Krinkle Media Network.
“Welcome to the North Pole … Eric”
Bear Facts Reveal Little In Investigation
By
Ursala Taurus, Cub Reporter
Dec. 19 North Pole 10:30 AM Recent developments in the case
of the Disappearing Teddy Bears has been scant. Word
has come to this reporter of the arrival of a special investigator
who has been brought on board to intensify the investigation.
This reporter has been unable to identity this mysterious
investigator. Continue watching this space for updates as
they occur.
Eric looked out at Elf Dwight from the screen of a computer monitor and wondered if he would have to remain trapped inside the computer. Dwight has said something about his being returned to his normal size once he’d arrived… but when?
“Patience Eric,” Elf Dwight mumbled. “I’ve almost got it.”
Dwight fiddled with a mouse that had a strange resemblance to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, minus the antlers. He pushed on the big red nose as his other hand flew across the keyboard. Suddenly he lifted his head, stared at Eric as he gave the big red mouse nose one final jab.
Eric felt a surge of electricity as his pixels raced along a wireless beam to a large dot matrix printer. He felt himself being pulled through the printer and experienced a wet feeling as the inks and toners combined to recreate his body. Unfortunately as he was spewed from the printer he found himself two dimensional. Dwight collected Eric’s depth-less body and placed a little plastic mask over his nose and mouth. Dwight turned to a panel of dials and gauges and pulled down a lever. Gas began to flow along a tube that ran from a large tank to the mask. As the mixture of gases passed through the mask into Eric’s body, he began to slowly expand. His skin popped and snapped as the gas filled out the spaces between his atoms. Surprisingly he felt no pain. As he filled with gas he found that along with becoming three-dimensional once again, he’d also regained his original height. Finally, when Dwight removed the mask, Eric had returned to his normal ninety-five pounds buff figure.
“We’re always excited when that works,” Dwight laughed.
“Works!” Eric exclaimed. “Does it sometimes not work?”
“Rarely,” Dwight replied. “I remember one time we tried to transfer a hippopotamus and when we inflated it we had a rhinoceros.”
“I don’t believe that,” Eric stated.
Dwight broke out in a big belly laugh and Eric had trouble keeping a serious face.
“Now we must hurry,” Dwight grabbed Eric’s hand and began to tug him toward a door. “The Boss is awaiting and at this time of year, you don’t keep the Boss waiting.”
Eric had had little time to study the room where he had materialized before Dwight had pulled him through the door. What he did see excited him. Being a total technology NERD , his eyes nearly popped out of his head as he surveyed all the up-to-date stuff. He saw things that he’d only seen in catalogs. Things speculated about on the Internet and others that he’d heard about in CHAT ROOMS. As Dwight pulled him away, he hoped that maybe if he could help solve the Teddy Bear Mystery, he’d be able to play with all the stuff in the lab before heading home.
And what about Dwight? Dressed in a Red and Green, red pants and a green jacket, Eric had expected him to have pointed shoes, big ears, and all the other stereotypical stuff that he’d always imagined elves wore, but Dwight’s seemed more normal that elfish. He’d shaved his head and had a small Christmas tree tattooed up the back. He had a beard, more like a goatee, that had been braided into two strands. Eric could not guess Dwight’s age but he figured him to be a middle-aged elf, whatever age that figured out to be. Eric could look him eye to eye and being just under five feet, that meant Dwight stood about that tall. He had to be left handed because he carried a large key in his left hand.
They entered a long hall that seemed to have no end. Elves scurried both ways, and several large hand trucks loaded to nearly disastrous limits barreled their way through the traffic. Voices yelled and screamed but in amongst the chaos seemed an order that allowed things to move smoothly and without accident. Most of the elves that hurried along the passageway were dressed in red or green overalls. They seemed mostly men but an occasional female passed dressed in a red or a green frock.
Dwight reached a door and inserted the key that he’d carried in his left hand. The door swung open and Dwight stepped aside to let Eric pass through. Eric turned as the door swung shut behind him. Dwight had not entered. Eric spun around and nearly fainted when he saw Santa Claus comfortably seated in front of a large wooden desk.
“Come in Eric, “ Santa said. “I’m happy you agreed to help us solve this little problem. Teddy bears are one of our most favorite items and to loose the entire production has put us in a very awkward position. I hope that once you’ve seen the warehouse you might have a few thoughts about the crime that you would be willing to share.”
“I’m not sure…” Eric began but Santa continued.
“I’ve read about some of your successes. I especially liked The Case of the Elephant Who Lost His Trunks. It was one of our most requested books last year and is still near the top of this year’s list. I nearly busted my belt when I tried to imagine a pair of swim trunks on an elephant. Anyway…” Santa giggled and his big belly jiggled like a cranberry sauce carried by a nervous nanny.
“But what can I do?” Eric asked. “I’m just a little kid.”
“You’re a famous detective. But perhaps modesty prevents you from admitting it. You come highly recommended. I’ve spoken to Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Peirot as well as Jessica Fletcher of that wonderful television show. They all speak quite highly of your talents. Have you met any of them?” Santa asked.
“No sir, in fact they are all fictional characters,” Eric explained.
“Well, aren’t you… in your books? And you might say the same thing about me…” Santa smiled.
Santa rose and motioned for Eric to follow him. He led Eric across the room, which seemed to be Santa’s office, to a wall of glass. The windows looked down on a production factory with elves working frantically beside a long conveyor belt, assembling toys. One line produced replicas of The Star Ship Enterprise, while along another women assembled Samantha, the All American Girl dolls. In other parts of the factory Eric could see tricycles, wagons, scooters, and skateboards being shrink-wrapped, boxed and readied for delivery.
“Quite an operation,” Santa stated. “We use the most modern technology to manufacture our goods because the world is becoming more populated and the children of the world deserve the very best. Sometimes a cuddly doll can make life just a little bit easier to survive for a poor little girl in a cardboard shanty.”
Eric could see Santa rubbing a tear from the corner of his eye.
“But now I think it’s time you met Bruno, My Chief of Security.
Well Known Investigator Identified
by
Ursala Taurus, Cub Reporter
North Pole Dec.19th 1:30 P.M. This reporter
has uncovered the identity of the mysterious
investigator who has suddenly arrived at the
industrial complex known as the Santa’s Workshop.
Noted criminal mind Eric Bipple has answered
Kris Kringle’s call for help. As of now, no further
information as to the disappearance of the Teddy
Bears have been released. More to come.
Santa returned to his desk as Eric wandered around the office. Decorated in warm browns with a comfy fire in an old stone fireplace, the room gave off a strong masculine ambiance. Eric studied the many pictures that hung on the wood paneled walls. Most of them were of Santa sitting in malls with children resting on his knee. Other pictures showed his family: Mrs. Claus and two children Kristopher and Kristine. The children seemed about Eric’s age and he was puzzled at them being so young.
“They’re my grandchildren,” Santa said coming up behind Eric. My two kids are grown and live down south. Kristin is in charge of my visits to malls, schools, churches, and wherever I’m needed during the holiday season. Krissy handles PR and is my liaison with the major manufactures of toys and clothing. She keeps us supplied with all the technology updates. Krin runs a chain of weight loss clinic to help combat all the overeating done during the season. I’m proud of my kids and especially excited about my grandkids.”
A rap on the door turned Santa away from the pictures. “That must be
Bruno.” Santa walked to the door and pulled it open.
A large elf, almost six feet tall entered the room. He looked strong enough to take on most bad guys and the way he had buffed up his muscles I’d doubt whether Arnold Schwarzenegger could take him in a fair fight. By the looks of Bruno, Santa’s security department was formative and powerful.
“Eric, this is Bruno. Bruno I’d like you to meet Eric.” Santa made the introductions and motioned for them to take seats on a big overstuffed leather sofa. He offered them Red and Green M & Ms from a Christmas tree shaped bowl.
Eric continued to study Bruno and Bruno continued to stare at Eric. “I told you we don’t need any outside help,” Bruno said. “And this kid doesn’t look like he could find his way back from a trip to the bathroom.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way Bruno,” Santa said. “But I think your attitude needs a little of the Christmas spirit. Eric comes well recommended and he’s not here to usurp your authority, just to observe and make comments and suggestions.”
“Observe, fine… but stay out of my way,” Bruno started to rise but Santa waved him down.
“Let me make this very clear to you Bruno. Eric is here on my invitation. You’re to work with him and if you feel that will be impossible, then I will find someone else to be my Chief of Security. Now, do you have any problems with that?”
Eric was surprised to see this side of Santa. To be so forceful didn’t seem to fit the image he’d always had of Santa Claus. He’d imagined him to always be the jovial and jolly good fellow of legends. But perhaps running what has grown to resembled a major corporation has required Santa to develop a more authoritarian managerial style.
Bruno acquiesced and became quiet. He grabbed a handful of M & Ms separated the reds from the greens and tossed the reds into his mouth. He dropped the greens back into the bowl and crunched loudly on the little candies.
“I don’t want to cause any problems up here, Santa,” Eric stated. “I would be happy to return home and allow Bruno to do his job.”
“That won’t be necessary, Eric. I’m sure Bruno will be happy to have your input. Isn’t that right Bruno?” Bruno nodded his head but Eric heard some rumbling as Bruno silently mouthed his displeasure.
“I think now would be a good time to take a look at the Teddy Bear warehouse,” Santa said. Without waiting for a reply, Santa rose and started for the door. Not the door that Eric had used to enter the office, but a second door that exited onto a raised catwalk that looked down on the massive production area.
Santa handed Eric a set of earphones and grabbed a pair for himself. It only took a moment without the earphone for Eric to realize why they were needed. Loud noises from the many machines blended with the voices of the workers to create a cacophony of sounds loud enough to cause his sensitive eardrums to ache. Eric donned the earphones and followed Santa along the catwalk.
They left one warehouse to enter a second where video games, movie video, and other kinds of electronic entertainment were being copied, packaged and prepared for delivery. Loud music, beeps and bongs, pings and pongs and all the sound of the electronic world filled the air as each unit went through intensive quality testing.
Finally Santa motioned for Eric to remove the earphones and after hanging them on pegs pushed open a thick metal door. They stepped out into a world of white. Snow lay everywhere. Eric could hardly believe his eyes. He’d been to the mountains a couple times during winter to spend a few days in the snow. But he’d never seen anything so vast and so endless as the snowy tundra of the North Pole. But the white emptiness teemed with the frenetic darting and dashing of snowcats and snowmobiles racing pell-mell from building to building, hauling people and packages in a frantic effort to fulfill the needs of Christmas. Santa pointed to a building nearly obscured by snow and led the way out along a snow covered path.
“That’s the Teddy Bear Factory.”
Clues Lift Their Ugly Head
By
Ursala Taurus, Cub Reporter
Dec. 19 North Pole 3.30 P.M. Something is amiss up
here at Santa’s Workshop. Bruno, Chief of Security
has been replaced as head of the Kringle Security Department
by none other than Eric Bipple, the brains behind so many famous criminal cases. In our interview with Bruno, he would only say that Bipple has been brought in to consult. But this reporter sense there is more to this than meets the eye.
Eric immediately felt the sense of glum when he stepped into the Teddy Bear Factory. The machines had been shut down and the wind that followed them inside rustled the soft silky stuffing creating little whirlwinds. The elves had moved on to other parts of the complex to help in the mad dash to complete the toys before Christmas Eve.
Along with the piles of stuffing, Eric saw stacks of cut fabric, partially sewn bears, as well as little button noses and trays of whiskers. It seemed that even though all the completed bears had disappeared, it surprised him that Santa had not ordered the elves to continue making bears. At least there would be a few finished in time for distribution.
“Why aren’t you making more bears?” he asked, picking up a bear that had been nearly completed and slowly pushed in more stuffing.
“No one wanted to work in here. Elves are very superstitious and word has gotten around that an evil spirit or supernatural being is responsible for the missing bears.”
“But is that possible? Are there such things up here?” Eric asked.
“Of course!” Bruno barked. He had come up beside Eric and jerked the bear out of his hands. “And you are not to touch anything. Only elves and the designated owner of each bear can touch a bear while it is being made. If you touch it you take away the essence of the bear. Without an essence it holds no special powers for its owner. Haven’t you ever picked up a stuffed animal and not bonded with it? Well that’s because the essence had been erased.”
“I didn’t know.” Eric replied.
“That’s why he’s no good for this job. He doesn’t understand.” Bruno glared at Santa, hoping that Santa would send the little kid back home.
“Bruno, it saddens me to see you so jealous. I didn’t ask Eric to come up to take away your job. I just thought perhaps an outsider who isn’t so close to all that is happening would have a new and interesting perspective and might be able to see the situation with a unique set of eyes.”
“Well….” Bruno considered. “I guess we could give the kid a try. What do you think kid? Any clues?”
“I don’t know Mr. Bruno. I’ve never been lucky enough to visit the North Pole so everything is so very new and different. Perhaps if you could show me around the warehouse?”
“Good,” Santa said. “Then I will leave it to you two. My desk is covered with faxes. So many last minute requests that I’m about ready to disconnect the fax machine. It seems that every time a new toy is advertised on television, that’s the toy every child watching needs to have. And the only way a parent can calm the needy child is to send me a fax. Snail mail just isn’t fast enough anymore. I’m almost afraid to check my email.”
Santa departed and Bruno led Eric on a tour of the warehouse. Eric had many questions but he sensed that Bruno would be reluctant to provide answers. They passed the stuffing section; the stitching section; the storage section and the stacking section; the pleating section; the puffing section; the pinning section and the packing section. Eric had not realized how much work went into creating all the cute little bears. Large photos of the many styles of bears hung on the walls. It reminded him of the hallway of family photos his grandmother Bipple had in her house.
As Bruno concluded the tour and the two returned to the warehouse entrance, Eric asked his first questions. “I see everything that would be needed to create a teddy bear except…”
Bruno started at him as if daring him to continue.
“…everything except eyes. What has happened to the eyes,” Eric asked.
“What do you mean?” Bruno growled. “There are eyes. We have lots of eyes. Why wouldn’t there be eyes?” He turned to the assembly line and jerked his head up and down the line searching for eyes.
“There has to be eyes.” He roared, taking off down the line. “ I saw them yesterday. Big jars of beady little eyes.” He continued to mumble as he frantically searched. Finally after a period of darting from one part of the warehouse to another, Bruno returned to where Eric waited. “It’s impossible. Why would someone steal teddy bear eyes?”
“Perhaps the same evil people who took the teddy bears also took the eyes,” Eric suggested.
“Whoa, the brilliant detective has solved the crime,” Bruno barked.
“No need to be sarcastic, Mr. Bruno. It won’t help us find the teddy bears.” Eric turned away from Bruno and started toward the exit door.
“Sorry about that kid,” Bruno stated apologetically. “It’s just that this crime has a strange feel to it. I’m responsible for security and all this falls on my shoulders. And with Santa bringing you in, and you being just a kid, it kind of feels like a big slap in the face.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way Mr. Bruno, but I hope you will accept my help. Perhaps just having someone to bounce your ideas off of will help you find the culprits.”
“Yeah kid, you’re probably right, plus there’s no one around here that listens to me. Did you know that once I had a position of the highest responsibility around her? Yeah, I had the job of preparing the reindeer for their big trip. And I’ll tell you something that few people know. It was my idea to stick Rudolph up at the front of the reindeer team so his bright red nose could guide the sleigh. But just because I messed up one time, now I’m in charge of guarding meaningless stuff. Yeah, the big guy demoted me for allowing Rudolph to get sick. Just because his nose wouldn’t glow, Santa had to install headlights and fog lights which caused him to depart later than normal that year… how could I have known that Rudolph would slip outside in the freezing weather, to try and play with all the other young reindeers and get a cold. He sneezed so hard that he blew out his light.”
Eric listened as Bruno rambled on. Eric sensed that Bruno needed to vent his anger and until he’d ridded himself of all the stored up anger, there’d be no way the big elf would accept him as a partner.
Bruno finally talked himself out and stared at Eric. “You didn’t need to hear all of that,” he said. “Thanks for listening and not saying anything. Now I think we need to find out who took the teddy bears…. And the eyes.” Bruno laughed and a smile teased his face.
Eyes Turn Up Missing
Things Are Looking Bad At The North Pole
By
Ursala Taurus, Cub Reporter
Dec 19:North Pole 7:30 P.M. It has come to this reporter’s
attention that information about the disappearance of this year’s supply of teddy bears has been less than complete.
It seems that all of those cute little beady teddy bear eyes that children love so much have also disappeared. Imagine a teddy bear without their lovable little eyes? This reporter will continue to update you on this most recent discovery as more information becomes available.
Eric and Bruno hurried through the cold dodging snow cats and snowmobiles, as they raced to report their recent discovery to Santa. They knocked and Santa’s booming voice roared through the door. “It better be important.”
Eric and Bruno entered and saw that Santa had done little to clean up the mess of work that had piled up on his desk, on a side table, and in stacks on the floor. “Okay, what’s so important that you’ve figured it would be all right to disturb me? Have you found the bears?”
“No sir,” Bruno cowered by Santa’s gruff tone. “But the kid…”
“His name is Eric,” Santa corrected.
“Sorry, well, Eric has discovered that along with the bears, all of those beady little glass teddy bear eyes are also missing.”
“And what do you think that means?”
“We’re not sure but we’ve got a few ideas… don’t we kid, I mean Eric?”
“Yes sir,” Eric replied. “I thought perhaps if you have a computer available I would check on Ebay to see if anyone has posted teddy bear eyes for sale. We could also search several of the other online trading sites. Unless they plan to use them to make their own bears, whoever took the eyes will have to find a way to get rid of them and selling them online would be the quickest and easiest way.”
“Good thinking, and while you’re online check for the bears. A sudden jump in available teddy bears might be a hint that the culprits are trying to dump the bears. Bruno,” Santa turned to his Chief of Security and ordered, “Take Eric to the COMMUNICATIONS office and follow through on this. I want any information you find ASAP.”
Bruno and Eric rushed from Santa’s office, down several corridors until they came to an open door. Eric noticed the title COMMUNICATIONS neatly printed on the glass panel on the upper half of the door. Also on the door was the name of the head of the COMMUNICATIONS department, Elf Mac, Chief Technonerd.
Eric followed Bruno into a room filled with computers and other techno-wonders. Overwhelmed by the up-to-date hardware that he saw, Eric froze. Bruno grabbed him and pulled him toward a short chubby elf who sat in front of a large display screen. He was busily downloading into a small handheld GPS receptor, the maps of the routes that Santa would be following on Christmas Eve. Around the room Eric saw that other elves were diligently at work digitalizing addresses labels, gift lists, time-tables, and fuel consumption charts that would be needed on the flight.