The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker (21 page)

“You said that the TFG took Noodles?” Johnny said, referring to a leaf. “That was the woodchuck, right?”

“I've had him for about five years,” said Cory. “I came home yesterday and he wasn't here. I thought he might have wandered off, so I looked all over the neighborhood for him. When I got home last night, this note was left
on the front porch.” Cory handed him the note and watched while he read it.

“It's escalating,” he said finally. “Whoever is behind this is going beyond damaging property. I'll talk to the captain and see what he says.”

“Do you think the person who kidnapped Noodles is going to hurt him?” Cory asked, her fear showing in her eyes.

“He'd better not,” said Johnny. “I like that little woodchuck.”

Cory left the house soon after Johnny did. She arrived at Suzy's only minutes before Santa's sleigh appeared in the sky. Santa and Mrs. Claus had seven elves crammed in with them when they landed. As soon as the reindeer touched down, Santa stepped out of the sleigh and turned to help his wife. Dressed in a flowered orange and yellow shirt and bright green shorts, he stood over six feet tall; the top of his wife's head came only to his chest. The elves were quarreling when they piled out of the sleigh, while Mr. and Mrs. Claus both looked tired and annoyed. It made Cory think of a large family going on vacation, especially when she saw that the elves ranged from two feet tall to nearly as tall as Mrs. Claus.

As Cory and Suzy hurried down the steps to greet the Clauses, the elves were rolling up the legs of their
pants and running down to the water's edge. Santa and Mrs. Claus laughed when they saw them and were still chuckling as they started toward the house.

“Which one of you lovely ladies is Cory?” Santa asked in his big, booming voice.

Cory took a step forward and extended her hand. “I am, and this is Suzy, the owner of the house.”

Santa enveloped Cory's hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. “If this works out, you are a lifesaver! Mama and I need to take a break now and then, and we can't seem to find any place quiet.”

“Well, it's quiet here!” said Suzy as Santa shook her hand. “Let me show you around.”

Santa's eyes lit up when he glanced back at the ocean, where the elves were chasing each other in and out of the water. “My elves seem to like it already.”

“Come on, Papa,” said Mrs. Claus. “I want to see inside.”

The porch had been cleared of all the tables and merchandise and filled with comfortable-looking wicker furniture lined with bright, colorful cushions. With all the shutters open, the ocean breeze kept the porch cool and Cory was tempted to sit and wait for Suzy to finish her tour. Instead, she trailed Suzy and the Clauses from room to room, smiling when the couple exclaimed about how lovely it looked. The sun was shining, so the
interior of the shell house was even brighter than it had been when Cory saw it on a rainy day. Mrs. Claus exclaimed how much she loved the translucent, pink-tinted walls and how it made everything seem so warm and cheerful. She liked the big kitchen, too, and even Santa declared that he liked the seashell decorations.

They were on the porch again, admiring the view of the ocean and watching the elves wading in the shallower water, when the one of the elves shouted at another, “Ouch! What did you do that for?”

“What are you talking about?” asked the second elf. “I didn't do anything.”

“That thing just stung me!” another elf cried, pointing at something in the water.

Cory gave Suzy a questioning look, and together they ran to the water's edge as the elves splashed to dry ground. “What are those things?” Cory asked, spotting clear, floating blobs.

“Jellyfish,” said Suzy. “But I've never seen so many at once.”

The water was filled with them, washing back and forth across the beach with the movement of the waves.

“Does this happen often?” Santa asked. He and Mrs. Claus had stopped where the sand was still dry.

“Jellyfish show up once in a while, but nothing like this,” said Suzy.

Cory sighed. “It's probably because I'm here.” Turning to the Clauses, she told them about quitting the Tooth Fairy Guild. “And ever since I refused to go back, they've been plaguing me with birds and crabs and worms and rain and all sorts of things.”

“That's outrageous!” declared Santa. “I've never heard of such a thing.”

“Do you still want to see the other cottages?” asked Suzy.

“Of course,” Mrs. Claus replied. “We'd love to.”

Cory glanced back at the elves. They were sitting on the sand now; some were building sand castles just past the water's edge while the rest were covering one of their friends in sand from his waist to his feet.

Suzy led the way to the first driftwood cottage, a small building with a cozy covered porch and colored sea glass in every window. Like the shell house, most of the decor was done in seashells with seashell-decorated headboards on the beds, lamps on tables, and waste-baskets in the corners. The other cottages were much the same, although no two were exactly alike. Some had one tiny bedroom, some had two, but they all had excellent views of the ocean.

When they'd toured the last cottage, they started back toward the shell house. The tide was coming in now, the waves washing farther up the shore.

“It's perfect for us!” said Santa. “Mama and I can stay in the house with a few of the elves and the rest can stay in the cottages.”

“I love it!” cried his wife. “I can already imagine our vacations here!”

Suddenly, the elf who was half buried in the sand started shouting and thrashing around. He erupted out of the sand, slapping at himself as he brushed the sand off. Hopping from one foot to the other, the elf began to scratch furiously at his legs where red welts were already forming.

“It looks like sand fleas bit him,” Suzy said even as the elves who had been building sand castles cried out. The waves that were advancing up the shore carried great ropes of seaweed, depositing them on the castles and wrapping them around the elves' feet.

Cory's hair blew into her eyes and sand stung her bare arms and legs. The wind had sprung up, carrying grains of sand with it.

“Ow!” cried an elf running past her. A moment later all the elves were running to the sled, where they pulled blankets from the back and hid under them.

Santa Claus stood with his back to the wind, sheltering Mrs. Claus. “We like the house and the cottages,” he said, “but the beach might be too much. We want a restful, quiet place.”

“But it is, when I'm not here!” Cory shouted over the rising wind.

“We'll have to think about it,” Santa told her as he shuffled through the sand toward his sled. “Thanks for showing the house to us!”

Cory followed Suzy onto the porch to help her close the shutters. They were struggling against the wind when Santa's sleigh rose into the air. Bucking and swerving, the sleigh fought the buffeting wind. When it was finally out of sight, Suzy turned to Cory. “I might have been able to sell this place if you hadn't been here! I know these things aren't your fault, but even so … You know, if you hadn't called me, I would have gone to Greener Pastures to look at houses with my sister. I had a ride all set up, but I'm sure it's gone by now. I'd been so looking forward to it, too! You're a nice girl, Cory, but please don't bring anyone else by to see my house.”

“I'm so sorry, Suzy,” Cory began.

“I know it's not your fault,” Suzy interrupted, “but these things don't happen when you're not here.”

“Then I guess I'd better go,” said Cory. She sighed when Suzy nodded and went inside.

Cory felt terrible as she headed toward town. She still thought Suzy's house would be perfect for the Clauses, but there was no way they'd want it now. All she'd
really done that day was get the elves stung and bitten, and wasted everyone's time.

She was mentally kicking herself when she realized that she was flying over the brick house where the three pigs lived. Spotting movement by the back door, she flew closer to see who was there. It was Roger, the pig who had lived in the straw house.

Cory turned back to her human size, startling the little pig so much that he jumped and squealed.

“It's me, Cory!” she exclaimed when she saw how frightened he looked. “I just stopped by to see how you were doing.”

“We're doing rotten, and it's all your fault,” Bertie said from the doorway. “Get back inside, Roger. You don't know who else is out there.”

Roger scowled at Cory before hurrying into the house.

“Don't be rude, Bertie,” Alphonse said as he joined his brother. Turning to Cory, he added, “The house is crowded and certain pigs are getting a bit testy, but we're okay.”

“Any luck finding a new house?” asked Cory.

Alphonse shook his head. “Not so far. None of the houses we've seen have felt safe enough. They either have too many windows or too many doors.”

“If I can help in any way—” Cory began.

“You've already done enough!” cried Bertie. “Just leave us alone!”

Cory cringed when the pig slammed the door in her face. She had meant it when she said she wanted to help, but maybe the best thing she could do for the pigs was to leave them alone. A headache was forming behind her eyes, and the only thing she wanted to do now was take a nap until it went away.

Cory was unlocking the door, thinking that she'd have to take Noodles out before she could lie down, when she remembered that the woodchuck was missing. She felt the same empty ache in her stomach that she'd felt when she woke that morning and saw his empty bed. The woodchuck might be obnoxious at times, but he was hers and she loved him just the same.

The key was still in the lock when she turned to look behind her. She had the strongest feeling that someone was watching her, but the yard was empty and there was no one on the street. Even so, she couldn't shake the feeling, so she opened the door and hurried inside, locking it behind her. Although she knew she had locked all the doors before she left that morning, she went around the house, checking them once again. When she peeked out the front window for the third time, she
decided that she had to get busy or she would drive herself crazy. As nervous as she felt, taking a nap was no longer an option.

Cory hadn't cleaned her room since the last time Noodles chewed her shoes, so she straightened it and collected all her dirty clothes, dumping them in the basket her uncle kept beside the big stone basin where they washed the laundry. Her stomach rumbled while she collected the soiled towels from the bathing room, reminding her that she had left the house before breakfast. After dropping the laundry in the basin, she started the water and added the soapstone washing pebbles. The pebbles had their own magic, but it was slow and wouldn't be finished for nearly an hour, so she went to the kitchen to find something to eat.

Cory ate a lunch of bread slathered with nut butter. When she finished the sandwich, she was going to hand her crust to Noodles until she remembered that he was missing. It made her depressed all over again. She was thinking about the woodchuck when she carried her plate and cup to the sink. If only she could find out who had taken him.

Something blocked the sunlight streaming through the window above the sink. Cory glanced up and gasped. An enormous wolf was standing on its hind paws,
watching her through the window. When it saw that she was looking directly at it, the wolf growled, “Little girl, little girl, let me come in!”

“You have got to be kidding!” Cory exclaimed. “I wouldn't let you in for all the fairy dust in the world!”

“Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!”

“Go away!” Cory shouted. She set the bowl in the sink and reached into the closest drawer. Grabbing a long-handled pancake flipper, she held it in front of her, waving it in the air as if she was about to bop the wolf with it.

“Foolish girl, I warned you!” growled the wolf. “Now you're asking for it!” Taking a deep breath, he blew at the window, steaming up the glass and rattling it in its frame. The stems of the begonias in the window box snapped and petals fell off a daisy.

The wolf turned and dropped to all fours. It walked into the yard before facing the house again. Taking a very deep breath, it huffed and puffed until its eyes bugged out. A loose piece of trim banged against the wall and the red poppies planted next to the house bent flat.

“This is ridiculous,” Cory muttered. She hurried into the main room and scribbled a quick message to Johnny Blue.

The wolf was circling the house, blowing at it from different angles, when a return message arrived.

The more Cory worried about what the wolf was doing, the more her head ached, but that didn't stop her from running from room to room, peering out the windows. When she spotted the wolf again, it was still circling the house as if looking for its weakest point. Cory watched as the wolf found a half-filled watering can and stopped to drink from it. His muzzle was dripping as he turned to study the house. Licking his lips, he took three steps closer and opened his mouth.