Casper Gets His Wish Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    He drank their coffee and did their books himself until well past midnight. And while he was at it, he sent down some notes on how to make this process simpler for those idiotic artistic types who couldn’t remember to keep their receipts.
     
    It would make their lives easier, he told himself, and that made his life easier. That was all. It wasn’t as if he was picturing Dmitri dragging himself home every night, without anyone to see that he slept, or ate, or didn’t kill himself trying to ride his stupid skateboard while exhausted.
     
    Why did he ride that thing anyway? To show everyone how different he was? It was ridiculous, Casper thought as he straightened the knot on his tie and finally headed out the door to get some sleep.
     
    –
     
    He received a note through the interoffice mail a few days later, along with a gift-wrapped video game—sheets and sheets of sharp-edged, colorfully decorated perfection that had to have been specially wrapped in the Wrapping Department. The tag was one simple, silver bell, and inside had been the newest edition to the series of video games that Hollyberry knew Casper played because he’d seen the collectibles in his office.
     
    The game wasn’t even on the market yet. The tag read, “I see I finally made it off your naughty list.”
     
    Casper hadn’t hesitated before jotting off a note to send back, though he had, of course, kept the game, “Accounting elves aren’t only numbers and spreadsheets, Mr. Hollyberry.”
     
    He was hardly going to make someone work when they were dead on their feet. Even if that someone was an artist.
     
    But naturally, Hollyberry hadn’t been able to leave it there.
     
    His final note had read, “I’m beginning to see that. You’re as cranky as a polar bear and twice as fierce, but you’re all marshmallow on the inside.”
 
    Polar bears were in fact quite well-behaved and friendly with the right owners. Casper had two himself, and Patuqun and Qani were the sweetest creatures in the world, so he had had no idea what to say to that. As for the marshmallow comment… . It was best not to think about while in the office. It apparently surprised people to find Casper glassy-eyed and blushing. He’d finally decided to say nothing.
     
    It hadn’t mattered anyway, the next month’s paperwork had been sent up on time with no problems, and his suggestions had clearly been implemented, judging from the number of receipts that were not scrawled notes for inexact amounts or tallies that ended in “ish.”
     
    He should have felt satisfied. There would be no more hassles. No more tense waits at the end of each month. No more humiliating trips downstairs that left him furious and hot all over and itching to have Dmitri look at him with something other than amusement or that twinkle in his eyes.
     
    But with Gift Development finally cooperating, acknowledging him, even, possibly, respecting him, Casper finished his work early now, and walked home in the constant sunset, where he fed Patuqun and Qani and romped with them in the winter wonderland and came home again to defeat Dmitri’s newest game and go to bed.
     
    Despite how he should have been content, and even without an imagination, as he fell asleep every night one thought drifted through his mind like the snow outside; now he had nothing to look forward to either.
     
    –
     
    The invitation arrived in the middle of November, probably to mock Casper for wishing for something to look forward to. The Big Guy had a way of knowing everyone’s secret desires, and had decided to give Casper two weeks to dread something.
     
    Or he hadn’t, and the other elves had planned this nonsense as always, but the Big Guy would be there, and that was practically the same thing. Because even if he didn’t plan it, the Big Guy had a way of knowing things.
     
    The Employee Appreciation and Yuletide Dinner was not an event Casper was fond of. He enjoyed wearing his ridiculously