The Three Elves

Once upon a time there were three elves. One was named Boris, one was named Benjamin and the last one was called Yokuv. They were brothers except for the fact that Yokuv's dad was the mail-elf their mum had had a crush on for a few years when Boris' and Benjamin's dad started focusing more on his career than his family after he thought they'd had had their last child. Everybody knew Yukov had a different dad but they never talked about it and Yukov's dad had been assigned a different mail route since then. The three brothers were close as ever. Growing up they practised doing elf shenanigans together and Boris and Ben took extra good care of their little brother. They had in their short life time of more or less 137 years tricked many children and some adults too although the adults always tried to explain their tricks with logic. Mainly old ladies believed in them so they were always nice to them and didn't ruin the old ladies' treasured Christmas decorations. The brothers had finished their shenanigans for the day. Boris had been in charge of putting rice in shoes, Benjamin had put food colour in the milk and Yukov had left his tiny footprints in some flour he had poured over hallway floors. Everything was ready for the next day and Boris had gotten the short straw and had to eat less the day before Christmas Eve so he had room for the rice pudding the humans left out for them. This year was different though, because their dad had retired and was finally home for Christmas. Yukov was a bit nervous, because he has always felt like his dad treated him a bit differently and held him at a distance. They set the table with their mum, singing and dancing around the table when suddenly their dad dramatically entered. His presence filled the entire room and Yukov Christmas spirit evaporated. He got eye contact with his adoptive dad. He froze, anticipating his next move. Everybody was still. His dad opened his arms wide open and Yukov suddenly noticed the tears in his dad's eyes. "Come here my, sons. I'm so happy to be home for Christmas." A single tear rolled down Yukov's cheek as the three brothers approached their dad and they all embraced in a hug. His mum was sobbing and Yukov opened up the group hug and gestured for her to join. She ran to them and through her sobbing she said: "I'm sure if anybody read a story about our little elf family they'd think that my infidelity had brought great unhappiness to this family, but instead here we are, wholesome as hell."