The weekend before Christmas. Parking lot packed. Baby strollers, parents with boxes and shopping bags. Some cars followed people leaving the stores, hoping to grab their space.
A ’72 Chevelle rolled down a long line of vehicles. It was not looking for a space.
“If we’re not looking for a space, then what are we doing here?” asked Coleman.
“Working.” Serge leaned over the wheel, carefully making a U-turn at the end of the row and heading back up another.
“But we usually only steal from other crooks or rich assholes.” Coleman took a slug from a pint flask. “We don’t mess with regular folk.”
“And we’re not about to start.”
“But you said work-”
“Hold it,” said Serge. “Up ahead at eleven o’clock. That pair of police cars. Our cue to leave.”
“Good thinking,” said Coleman. “Don’t want them to catch us.”
“That’s not why we’re leaving.” Serge left the parking lot and headed for I-275. “Those police cars mean they’re doing our work for us.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Starting the day after Thanksgiving, at malls all across Florida, thieves descend in droves on the parking lots. The reasons are many: more targets, more expensive gift items, shoppers distracted by the holiday hubbub, and added chaos in which to escape. Next time you’re hitting the shopping centers around Christmas, count all the police cars, and the bad guys.”
“How do you spot the bad guys?”
“The smart ones are on foot, camouflaged among the shoppers, and can usually only be spotted when they’re entering the lot from the street. The dumb ones ride bicycles. I mean, who rides bicycles up and down rows of cars at the mall? And it only happens around Christmas. It’s like they get some kind of newsletter.”
They headed northeast to one of the older malls in the suburbs. “But the scariest ones are in cars,” said Serge. “Some of them also take the customer. One woman was snatched in broad daylight on a Saturday, and they found her body in an orange grove outside Wauchula. That’s the thing about Christmas: all the memories.”
“I remember getting G.I. Joes when they were at their peak,” said Coleman.
“Me, too!” said Serge. “I spotted them under the tree at two A.M. and woke my parents. They told me it was too early and to go back to sleep, but I stomped my feet and flapped my arms: ‘There are G.I. Joes out there!’ That was the pattern: I’d always wake up early and sneak out to see if Santa had come yet. But you had to be careful, because if he was there and still working, you just never knew. There were stories floating around about coal in stockings. Little kids wait a whole year for Christmas, which is like ten adult years, and then coal. So you knew he could also be an asshole.”
“And you knew he really existed because he ate the cookies and drank the milk.”
“Once when I was little, I did something bad. My mom made a fake phone call to Santa, and I lost my fucking mind.” Serge turned into the parking lot of another mall. “She thought it would just worry me a little and I’d behave, but Santa is the religion of children. You don’t go there. She’s telling Santa not to bring me any presents, and I flipped out as if you threw a cat in a shower, screaming and jumping all over the place, and I finally scooted a chair over. The phone was one of those old wall units. Or at least until I ripped it down, and my mom went speechless, just staring at me lying on the floor with the wall unit clutched to my chest, going, ‘Don’t you ever call Santa on me!’ I was only four, but she didn’t call again.”
Coleman rolled down his window to flick a joint ash.
“Coleman!” said Serge. “Be more careful! Your elf hat could blow off.”
“It’s on tight,” said Coleman. “Ever stick your tongue on a flagpole?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because it’s supposed to freeze.” Coleman unscrewed his flask. “I even tried it once, but we were living in Florida. It just tasted bad.”
“I came down with the mumps one Christmas.” Serge veered around the movie-plex. “And you never hear about them anymore. You hear about measles and chicken pox, but it’s hush-hush about mumps.”
“Some shit’s going down somewhere.”
“That’s my guess. Another memory was being the first kid in the neighborhood who figured out there wasn’t a Santa, and the other kids tried to suppress my message. I didn’t fit in for a couple years, like if you’re an atheist today, or in the ACLU. Remember Advent calendars?”
“Can’t place it.”
“That means you weren’t Catholic,” said Serge. “We’d get these cool cardboard calendars that marked off the days to Christmas, and each day you’d open a little perforated window and get a piece of chocolate. There was a lot of bribery in the Catholic Church.”
“I’m not seeing any police cars,” said Coleman.
“Me neither,” said Serge. “But lots of people on bicycles. Looks like we have a gig.”
“The people on bikes are riding between cars.”
“To look in backseats for presents people bought elsewhere before coming here.” Serge leaned on the horn.
“Look at the bicycles scatter,” said Coleman.
“They’ll just regroup a few rows over like pigeons.”
“Over there,” said Coleman. “I think I see a real elf.”
“Where?”
“Next row. We just passed him.”
Serge reached the edge of the parking lot and doubled back. “I see him. He’s fiddling with something in the trunk of his car. Except I don’t think that’s a real elf.”
“But he’s got the bright green elf suit and jingle-bell shoes and everything,” said Coleman. “Why else would he be dressed like that?”
“To do what we’re doing,” said Serge. “Blend in.”
“He’s looking awfully suspicious. Head jerking around, constantly looking behind him.”
“He’s just pretending to fiddle in his trunk.” Serge applied the brake and pulled out binoculars. “He’s really waiting for prey to walk by… Which brings up an ethical dilemma for me.”
“What’s that?”
Serge patted the chest of his own green costume. “Should I give him a pass out of professional courtesy?”
“I’d say it depends on what he does.”
“Reasonable call.” Serge tightened the view on his binoculars. “And here comes a young woman now, loaded down with packages.”
“He’s glancing at her.”
“I don’t like this,” said Serge. “He’s a big strong guy, and if he wasn’t dressed that way, she’d be on the Women’s Parking Lot Alert Status. But now her guard’s down. He’s taking advantage of her favorable view of elves.”
Serge took his foot off the brake and idled forward.
“She’s closer,” said Coleman. “Looks like he’s getting ready. You’ll need to speed up.”
“No,” said Serge. “I have to make sure we’re right about his intentions. If I’m wrong and we strike too soon, we could needlessly freak her out by having her witness an elf fight. It’s an ugly thing to see.”
“Serge, he’s making his move! He’s going for the packages!”
“He’s not going for the packages. He’s just knocking them out of her arms.” Serge hit the gas. “He’s going for her! He’s got her around the waist. It’s an abduction!”
“She’s kicking her legs like crazy,” said Coleman. “He’s throwing her in the trunk. He slammed the hood shut!”
The kidnapping elf ran for his driver’s door and jumped in. Before he could back out, a Chevelle screeched up and boxed him in. Serge and Coleman leaped out and ran to the driver’s side. A punch through the open window.
Coleman opened the door, and Serge dragged the would-be abductor out of the car by his hair and threw him to the ground. The assailant crawled toward the back of the car as Serge kicked him in the ribs. The man finally got to his feet and took a swing at Coleman, missing wildly. Serge grabbed him and threw him over the hood of the Chevelle. The man jumped back up and pulled a knife, but Serge kicked it out of his hand. Then he delivered a nasty head butt, dropping the man to the pavement. Serge began stomping the daylights out of him.
In the distance, people coming out of the mall began to point.
“Elf fight! Elf fight!”
“Looks like the fat one’s peeing on him.”
“It’s an ugly thing to see.”
Back at the Chevelle, Serge had the trunk open. They threw the man in and slammed the hood.
Then they ran over to the kidnapper’s car. Serge had the man’s keys and popped the trunk.
A terrified woman shielded her eyes against the bright Florida sun, looking up at two men in green felt hats. “Don’t hurt me!”
“We’re not going to hurt you. We’re rescuing you.” Serge extended a hand to help her out of the car. “Please don’t judge all elves by this one incident.”
They hopped back in the Chevelle and sped off.