ELF Word count: 612

ELF Word Count 612

Kate and Allie,backpacks in place, were headed for the train station in Munich on the late morning of that day. They were bundled in scarves and hats, battling the November gray cold. Suddenly, church bells all over the city began to peal. They stopped in their tracks, startled and bewildered.

“ It’s not Sunday,” Kate said, “Maybe it’s an emergency.”

“Nobody is panicking, “ Allie noticed.

An older man, wearing a garish mask and waving a cane in the air came toward them on the sidewalk. Kate stepped toward him and asked, “What’s the matter? Was ist los?”

He answered in a German accent that she found hard to understand. “Elfte,Elften,Elf Uhr Elf!”he shouted and walked on. Then, he stopped and turned to them. “ Und, Zwei Tausend Elf!” He smiled and walked on.

Allie looked at Kate strangely. “He said something about elves, didn’t he? Does he think he’s an elf in that mask?”

“Don’t be such an American. Elf is German for eleven. He said, “Eleventh of Eleven, Eleven o’clock, Eleven. Then he said Two Thousand Eleven. I guess he meant the time and date – Eleventh day, Eleventh month, Eleven minutes after Eleven in the year Two Thousand Eleven. That’s today. Must be something special.”

When they reached the station, they found a few people walking around in masks and tasseled hats greeting each other cheerfully. One man had jingle bells on his shoes, which came to a curly point in the front. The people in costume were acting a little silly – skipping and dancing and singing.

“Maybe it’s an early Halloween,” ventured Allie, “Or some kind of pre-Christmas thing.”
Allie was getting a little homesick. At least in the US you knew when the holidays were. And at least nobody ran around with Joker outfits on. Well, maybe in the Santa Claus parade.

“You have to admit it’s a bit odd to see Germans behaving like this.” Another backpacker near them observed. He sounded like a Brit. “The Germans are merely starting Karneval or Fasching as it’s known here in Munich. You call it Mardi Gras and we call it Shrove Tuesday in the U.K.”
“ I thought that was in February or March,” said Kate.

“Well, it is, but they just start early in Germany. You know eleven, eleven, eleven, eleven. The Germans need a few extra months to loosen up. They start working on floats and costumes and getting silly so they’ll be ready for the big day. They just finished Oktoberfest and now they need something else to celebrate.” He was silent for a second or two, then said, “ It’s an odd coincidence that the World War 1 Armistice went into effect on ‘the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.’ I’ve always wondered if the Germans were thumbing their noses at the Allies with such an agreement. Well, Cherrio!” And he walked off toward the trains.

“ Hmm,” said Kate, “ Kind of snarkey, I’d say.” With that, she dragged Allie off toward the train to France.

“Yeah, but smart. And kind of cute”

Allie almost ran into the tiny man before her. He was dressed in jingle bells from head to foot. He had a little gray beard and stood about two feet tall. He had a can in his right hand and a sign in his left. It read: “Fuer die Arme. For the Poor.”

Allie was so astounded, she pulled out Five Euro and put it in the can.

“Thank you, Madam,” he said in unaccented English. “You will have good luck now. The Elfin people salute you.”

He hurried off into the crowd.