“Well, she’s learning from the best. Your pastries are the finest in the country. Trust me. I’ve tried them all.” Holly bit into the warm one Lia had provided.
Lia flushed happily at the compliment then steadied her gaze on Holly, a question behind her eyes. Holly tensed. Lia worried about her, her lack of family, and what Lia viewed as a normal life. As far as Lia knew, Holly was an ambitious corporate woman in her mid-to-late twenties who traveled around the world doing market research. Holly was a bit older than that, but Clauses aged differently than humans. In Lia’s view, Holly’s life didn’t look very rich, at least not in the ways that counted to Lia.
Holly couldn’t tell her about her friendship with the elves, the billions of people she delivered Dreams to every December, or the fact that Holly’s Cheer numbers were always solid, and she was successfully gathering data during each Cheer cycle that helped her refine her practices. But any worry Lia felt didn’t register on Holly’s Cheer meter. The woman’s emotions always remained remarkably stable. Lia was easy to be around, and Finland certainly had its perks.
In recent years, Finland had gotten a lot of hype as one of the happiest countries on Earth, and not without reason, Holly had found. While it didn’t have as many large, drastic peaks of Cheer as Holly had experienced in places like Disneyland, there was a steady drumbeat of contentedness, which scored fairly well in the Cheer metrics. There were also fewer negative emotions to crash her numbers.
Finland was a good place to go after Holly had collected a large cache of Cheer and wanted a little vacation. She didn’t have to constantly chase the Cheer, and her Cheer meter would hold steady for at least a few minutes or sometimes hours, if she was lucky. Holly wondered if it wasn’t a coincidence that the Finnish claimed one of their villages was Santa’s original home.
“I’m not sure where you’re off to next, but make sure to check on the bulletin board for events. There are some big ones coming up that might be good for your research.” Lia took a sip of her cappuccino. The air was still pleasant in late summer, though it was starting to cool, and she was wearing an apron over her short-sleeve shirt. Holly wore a long-sleeve shirt with a plaid skirt and leggings.
As a function of Holly’s magic, she always dressed appropriately for the weather of the time of year in the city she was visiting. The temperature didn’t affect her like it did most people. She could get a slight chill or feel a little warm, but she was never really threatened with being too hot or cold like humans were.
She nodded. “Thanks. I will.”
“You sure do have an exciting life. Most people will never see half the things and places you do.” A soft smile played on Lia’s lips.
“Well, I enjoy my job, and I take it very seriously. So it all works out.” Holly was suddenly distracted by the vibration coming from her watch. It was picking up some nearby negative emotions. Holly sighed reluctantly. She would have to end the pleasant afternoon fika.
“I’m sorry, Lia. I’m going to have to get going.” She tried to savor the last few sips of her drink.
“I thought you might. One notification on that watch of yours, and you’re on your way.” Lia sighed, focusing on Holly again.
Holly tensed at Lia’s words. Lia never pried—not outright—and Holly appreciated it. It was another reason to maintain their acquaintance.Is that going to change today?
“I’ll come see you again as soon as I can,” Holly said, knowing that could be months away. The thought saddened her, but the quality of her research depended on getting as many different samples and experiences as possible.
“Don’t worry about me, dear. I’ve got plenty of people to keep me company.” Lia placed her hand gently on top of Holly’s. “I just wonder, well, don’t you ever get lonely?”
Holly pulled her hand away, surprised at her reaction to the words. By most human standards, Holly did live a somewhat lonely life, traveling around on her own for most of each cycle. But Holly wasn’t human. She was a Claus, and her priorities were different.
“I have plenty of friends back home, Lia. Remember? I see them every time I go back to headquarters.” Holly tried to keep a defensive tone out of her voice.
“So your friends… They are coworkers?” Lia asked.
Holly frowned again at the expression on her face. Her watch was vibrating rapidly, but she ignored it.
“No, not exactly. It’s hard to explain. But they’re friends I grew up with, and we all care for one another. It’s kind of like…” Holly racked her brain, trying to think of some of the human history books she had read as part of her childhood education. “Kind of like a company town. We live and work in a tight-knit community. We look out for one another. So don’t worry, Lia. I’m not lonely. Not at all.”
The sincerity in her voice seemed to placate Lia.“All right then, dear. I’ll take your word for it. And you come back whenever is right for you.”
Holly’s watch was vibrating coldly. She looked up and saw a young couple arguing across the street. She needed to go.
“Thank you, Lia. I’ll see you in a while.” Holly put on a bright smile.
“Please do. You know how I love all the stories of my favorite nomad. It gives me something to tell all the other grandmothers at our luncheons. They think I’m most interesting.”
Lia winked, and Holly laughed. It might be months or longer before she returned to Finland, but Holly knew Lia would open the doors for her when she did, a perfect pastry in hand.
They said their goodbyes, and Holly remembered at the last moment to pop into the café and look at the bulletin board. She mostly did it to satisfy Lia, since the woman knew events were part of Holly’s travel and research, and attending something nearby gave Holly an excuse to come back.
The board was situated in a narrow hallway just inside the door that led to the café’s counter. The rectangular piece of cork was fairly full, cluttered with flyers advertising events in Helsinki and other areas of Finland. Some of the flyers were for annual events that Holly had attended in previous years.
Holly quickly scrolled through her mental calendar of holidays and events around the world that would be coming up soon. One good festival could sometimes max out her Cheer quota for a whole cycle, but that was rare.
Suddenly, a poster in English caught her eye. It advertised a fall festival in Oregon, in the United States, at the end of October. Curious, Holly studied it.What is a flyer for a small-town festival taking place across the world doing here, in a little café in Finland?
She thought she heard the tinkle of the bell that signaled the door opening behind her, but when she looked back, no one was there. Holly gently tugged off one of the little strips with the details of the festival, folded it, and tucked it into her pocket.
