Three Elves on the Shelf

Christmas is coming, but you don't stop to chat.

And you don't put no money in this old man's hat.

If you got none extra, well, that'll have to do, but

if you're sitting on gold,

I'm coming for you.

listening to this food,

stay tuned.

I have a bad dog.

I mean, Georgie's a good boy.

He's a sweet mud.

Somebody found him wandering around the side of the road and he's just a couple weeks old, missing a leg.

So

I don't know about his early life.

It seems like it was tough.

Really hard.

But whatever happened, it gave him something.

Some kind of magic power.

Because now, Georgie refuses to do tricks or anything, to come, fetch, heal.

He can't be bothered.

Instead, he's got a sixth sense.

If you feel in some kind of way, if you haven't even noticed it yourself, he notices it.

Puts his head in your lap, looks directly at you.

No screens, no filters.

Makes you feel better.

So then a little while ago, this dog suddenly starts bringing rocks in the house.

Rocks.

And I don't want him to hurt himself.

So I take the rock from him.

I toss it as far as I can.

Bad dog.

Leave them rocks alone.

But then he's right back in the house with some rock.

Georgie,

for the love of God.

And it takes a while to notice that it isn't rocks that he's bringing in the house.

It's a rock.

One rock.

Doesn't look particularly special.

About the size of my palm.

Just a rock-colored rock.

And it's crazy.

I can throw this rock, bury it, hide it, whatever.

The dog is going to find the rock.

Finally, we just decide.

Let the baby have his bottle.

I, Georgie, the rock stays in the house.

And putting this rock in the living room, it seems to make this dog happy.

Happier, he's always happy as a clam.

And now, the dog that won't watch TV or anything will sit and look at this rock for hours.

And I don't care about any rock, at least I didn't.

But Georgie loves this rock,

and I love Georgie.

So now

I love the rock,

It's become kind of a totem and charm.

I rub this rock for luck.

Sometimes I sit right next to Georgie and I look at the rock too.

It's nice.

In fact, if a thief came in the dark of night and stole away this rock, my family would mourn the loss

of something special.

For real.

What is going on?

I do not know, but

George is getting older.

And I just asked the universe

to please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,

please leave this rock

exactly where it is.

Rocks, statues, ceramics.

Let's meet Lorena.

Lorena, she's on vacation down in Mexico with her mother and her sister, and they've been checking out some amazing landmarks.

With a little bit of time to kill, the tour guide suggests a detour to Huasca.

Now, Huasca is a charming town located deep in the forests of central Mexico.

Now it's beautiful, certainly.

Pretty.

That's only scratching the surface.

Vamos en el Coche por una recta muy muy larga

la carreteras de estapada.

We are in the car driving down a long, straight dirt road.

The sky is turning gray.

The trees are covered in moss, creating this archway over the road.

Our guide's name is Fernando.

He's been driving us around on this private tour.

At one point, he says, you should take out your cameras.

People often take photos of these trees, hoping to spot elves and fairies.

Okay, this is obviously not true.

My sister is just as skeptical, but my mom, she's totally on board.

Growing up, she heard a lot of stories about elves,

so she pulls out her phone and starts snapping pictures left and right.

We finally get to the museum.

We enter this little building that looks like a fairy tale cottage made out of bricks and wood.

We walk into this huge hall and it's filled with elf dolls.

They're on the walls, they're sitting on benches.

Some are a foot and a half tall, others just a few inches.

Some are plastic, others porcelain.

These elves aren't exactly cute.

They look like kids with grown-up faces.

They have big ears, wrinkled skin, huge noses.

Some wear pointy hats and baggy pants.

and their eyes.

their eyes are so expressive.

Each elf has a small sign with its story and its name.

One of them is linked to fertility and the guide tells us that people who want to have kids should leave some money in front of it.

There's another elf for those struggling with addictions.

It's surrounded by cigarettes and a liquor bottle.

There's even a guest book where people leave thank you notes for these elves.

People write things like, Thank you for allowing me to go on this vacation.

Thank you because we finally could have a child.

And I'm standing there like,

is this for real?

Cuando ya

So we finish the tour and come across this little gift shop.

There are keychains, magnets,

but also these tiny elves

about two inches tall.

These elves, they are so cute.

They look like cereal box toys.

They are all holding quartz crystals, with each crystal representing a unique elf power.

So we get a red one for my mom, for her health.

She had an accident a few years back and she suffers from anterograde amnesia.

She tends to forget things that happened throughout the day.

but holds on to her older memories.

For my sister, who just graduated and is job hunting, we pick a green one for prosperity.

As for me, I'm doing well at work.

Things are good with my partner.

So I just choose one for luck.

Four days later, we are back home in Pasto, Colombia.

We start unpacking and we take out the elves.

I put my elf on a shelf that's in my room.

My mom puts hers next to the TV and my sister takes hers to her room.

Then my sister says, Les vamos aponer dulces, les vamos aponero monedas.

Let's try giving them some candy and some coins.

So we rummage around for whatever candy we have at home.

I find a supercoco.

It's a very cheap coconut candy with cream filling, super sweet.

And I just put it under the elves and take a picture.

I send the picture to my friend, Tatiana, just to rag about my trip.

She replies back,

why didn't you bring one for me?

Of course, weeks go by and nothing happens.

I don't feel any luckier.

My sister, she gets a job, but we don't think it's because of the elves.

And my mom, well,

she eventually walks around the house and grabs the elves' candy and the coins.

She just forgot.

One day, I'm at work and my sister texts me.

Asking if I had taken her purse.

I'm like, no.

Apparently, it had a lot of money inside, and she had put it on a tall shelf at home.

So when I get home, I help her look for it.

Las dosbos camosa y, y no estaba.

We look on the shelf, nothing there.

We look all around the apartment, nothing.

So I tell her, Caro, y sil ponemos una moneda, que ta la parisca.

What if we give your elf a coin?

Maybe that will help us find it.

I'm just joking.

But she puts a coin in front of her elf and says, Les dijo, por favor do ndes que paresca mi cartera.

Elf, please let me find my purse.

Ten minutes later, we are back searching through the same spots.

And ah esta, there it was,

right where she had left it, on the top of the shelf.

I let out a nervous laugh, but we are like, maybe we didn't see it before.

It's now the Christmas season.

Our tree is up, and a cute snowman tablecloth covers our dining table.

I'm at home doing arts and crafts for a work contest to see who could make the best nativity scene using only recyclables.

My task is the three wise men.

So I make one of the wise men figurines with styrofoam and old fabric.

Once I finish, I leave it on my bedroom table and go take a shower.

Cuando salí, a la habitación, no estaba.

When I get out of the shower, the wise man figurin is not there anymore.

My first thought is, I'm home alone, so maybe one of my dogs took it.

But that's impossible.

We got a fence in the hallway to keep them out of the bathrooms.

So I searched the rest of the house.

but this wise man is nowhere to be found.

Hmm.

This has already happened to my sister and her purse.

So I start to toy with the idea of talking to my elf.

My elf already had a couple of coins in front of it, about 50 pesos.

So I stand in front of the elf and say,

Mr.

Elf, please bring back my figurine and I will give you more money.

I feel so silly talking to the elf.

I go back to the living room and start searching everywhere again.

But then I turn and

the wise man is sitting on my Christmas tree

on one of the branches.

Me a suste.

I'm scared.

Yo, digeno es impossible, yo, Joe Fuy.

This is impossible.

It it wasn't me.

But I go to my room and I put a two thousand peso bill under my elf.

About half a dollar.

When my sister and my mom get to the apartment, I tell them what happened.

But I try to keep the details light so I don't scare my mom.

She just laughs and says, well,

looks like we did bring some magical elves with us.

She wasn't scared at all.

But I'm a little spooked because

I was alone when it all happened.

That's when I start to believe in the elves.

I start to feel like they're alive, living in my home.

So I just keep giving them treats just in case.

Las Vientes emanas impesabul perme más generos a conitos.

Over the next few weeks, I become more generous.

I give them nicer candy, not super cocos, and larger bills.

But I'm the only one doing it.

My sister never gives them anything.

As for my mom, she starts taking the money and the candy again.

One dias despés del episode

A few days after the Christmas tree incident, there's a Marco Antonio Soliz concert.

I'm in line with my boyfriend and my uncle.

It's almost 7 p.m.

Suddenly, I receive a phone call from one of my aunts.

She tells me that my mom's not answering her calls.

So

I call my mom,

no answer.

It's getting late and my mom usually doesn't go out alone.

I start worrying that something might have happened to her

or maybe she had some kind of breakdown.

Even though she's been living with amnesia for eight years,

something like this has never happened.

I step out of the line and I leave my boyfriend and uncle behind.

When I get home, I start walking around the block, but I don't see her anywhere.

Estaba en panico totar.

I'm starting to panic because it's almost nine.

She's been missing for three hours.

Estoy desperada.

E al punto de casi yorar.

I'm so desperate that I wanna cry.

I'm thinking the worst.

Maybe she was kidnapped.

Maybe she had an accident.

Then an idea pops up in my head.

I mean, this is like my last resort.

Serre los sorjos y les hable a los duendes.

I close my eyes and I talk to the Alps, just like how you would pray to God.

I say, por favor que pere escami mama, y y yo les voya aponer un vieta de 5uantamil.

Please bring my mom back home.

I'll give you a 50,000 peso bill, about $12.

That was the biggest denomination in Colombia back then.

After praying, I turn around and I head back home.

And as I'm turning the corner,

I see my mom standing in front of our building.

It happens so immediately.

My mom is so calm, as if nothing had happened.

I tell her I've been looking for her all night, and she says she wanted to go for a walk and she didn't hear her phone ringing.

But she was okay.

We go back to the apartment and I'm thinking

elves

I take a 50,000 peso bill, wrap a rubber band around it and place it gently next to my elf.

That's the incident that made me respect the elves more.

I'm starting to get a little obsessed.

I start leaving more money.

5,000 peso bills, 500 pesos in coins.

I'm starting to talk to them.

When I'm alone, I say out loud: No te vallas a ye var mis cosas.

Please don't hide my stuff.

No vallas a las dimardos.

Please don't hurt us.

Then one day, I'm heading out for drinks with a friend, but I realize I'm out of cash.

So my only option is to take the 50,000 peso bill from the elf.

I go up to the elf, look in its eyes, and say,

I'm gonna take the money, but I'll make sure to return it later.

One night, my boyfriend is staying over at my place.

We're sleeping, and suddenly, sentimos ungolpe fuerte

en la sala, we hear a loud bang in the living room.

Like someone dropped a chair.

I get out of bed to check, but everything looks just as it was.

So I just brush it off and go back to bed.

The next morning, I'm still kinda half asleep, lying next to my boyfriend.

He stretches out his arm and says, Mira, look.

His arm is covered in these really tiny scratches.

These scratches are small and short,

like

baby fingernails.

It looks like someone did it on purpose.

I text my sister about the loud bang and the scratches,

and she replies with a photo of her arm.

Sus brasos, llenos de moritones.

Her arm is covered in these tiny bruises, the size of pennies.

She says, I don't remember hurting myself.

They just showed up this morning.

Ahí nos empezamos a sus utar.

We We start to freak out.

Sabía mosquera los duentes.

It's the elves.

We are sure it's them.

My sister says we should throw them away.

But something inside me is telling me that it can't be that easy.

So we call this family friend who's helped us with this type of thing before.

He comes over and I show him the elves.

He just stares at them for a moment.

And then he asks me to put them back in my room.

He says, they can't be here with us

because they will hear us talking.

I'm gonna tell you how to get rid of them.

The first thing he says is, Estos duentees a muy poderosos, le esanda a muy or regardlos.

These elves are very powerful.

You've been giving them a lot of treats.

And then he looks at me and says, Actually,

your elf is the most powerful because of all the money and candy you've given him.

That's the one to blame for everything that's been going on.

He says, you bought these elves for a reason, but if you continue to keep them in your house, they will turn against you.

Your mom's health will suffer.

Your sister will struggle at work.

And you will run out of luck.

Estaba asustad, muya asustad.

I'm freaking out.

I'm wondering, what if we can get rid of them?

What should we do?

He says, El secreto para desacernos de ellos, the secret to get rid of them.

And don't ever repeat this aloud, okay?

Vasa vuscarona iglesia que tenga dos puertas?

You're gonna look for a church.

And this church must have two doors:

one door to enter,

another to exit.

Los vasas llevar.

You're gonna take them and you're gonna leave them at the church's entrance.

Then you're gonna tell them loud and clear so they can hear you.

Por favor es per el me aquí, wait for me here.

Y yo ya regreso por ustes.

I'll be right back.

After that, you're gonna enter the church, pray,

and when you're ready, you will exit through the other door.

That night, I text my friend Tatiana.

I tell her, Voyaser algué necesito que más com paññes.

I need to do something, and I need you to come with me.

She asks, what is this all about?

And I tell her, it's about the elves.

She's not taking me seriously.

She just replies, Well, make sure your elf is not reading your texts.

So the next morning I meet up with Tatiana and we head towards the church.

I'm carrying the elves in a black plastic bag.

We're walking in silence.

When we get to the church, there's no one around.

Camine Camine hacía lantrada, I walk to the front entrance.

Y los dejes en la primeras calera, and I place the bag on the doorstep.

I say, Esperan maquí,

que llar regreso.

Wait for me here.

I'll be right back.

My friend and I go inside.

We sit down and start to pray.

At the back of the church, next to the statue of the Virgin Mary, I see the exit door wide open to my right.

I'm praying for the elves to stay so they don't follow me.

After a few minutes, we slowly stand up and leave through the exit door.

We quickly turn the corner and start speed walking.

I feel agitated, nervous.

It's like we're escaping.

Once we are far from the church, I start telling Tatiana the whole story about losing money and losing my mom.

She freaking out.

She's like,

Why did you bring me here?

What if they come with me?

What if someone sees them and takes them?

I tell her, No, sé.

I don't know.

I just hope people think it's a trash bag and throw it away.

Once we get back to the apartment, I tell my sister and my mom what we had done.

My sister looks relieved, but my mom,

well,

she laughs at everything.

She chuckles and says, Ay podesitos, poor little things,

who's gonna take care of them now?

I have never ever gone back to that church.

I think that was the first and the last time I have ever been in that area.

I'm scared that if I walk by,

they're still waiting for me.

Porque yo les diges que m esperadan.

Because I told them

I'll be back.

Thank you, thank you, Lorena, for sharing your story with the spook.

And do not forget the next time you're in Mexico, be sure to pay a visit to a Moseo de los Duendes in Huasca.

But please be careful with any souvenirs you may purchase.

Lorena's English voice in that story was by Laura Bate.

The original score was by Nicholas Marks.

This piece was scouted and produced by Eric Yanez.

Oh, yes, tears and season, dear spookster.

The winter solstice holds a special place in the hearts of those who seek to understand the shadow.

And there are creatures, entities set to only make their presence known during this season and no other.

So,

if you have a story

about such a power,

about your relationship with such an entity, I would love.

Love, love to hear it.

i promise to tell only one million of my closest friends the magical mystical fellowship of spooksters let me know spooked at snapjudgment.org because there is nothing better

than a spook story from a spooked listener

spooked is brought to you by the team that doesn't give pennies to elves under any circumstances except for Mark Ristich.

He's out here, willy-nilly, on these streets, sticking coins into every scary-looking ceramic he can find.

Naturally, there's Davey Kim, Zoe Farigno, Eric Yanez, Teo DeCot, Marissa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Doug Stewart, Elliot Lightfoot, Paulina Creeky, Juan Diego Beltran, Sasha Wilson, Dan Yasinski, the spook theme song is by Pat Massini Miller.

My name is Lam Washington.

And we bow before the carved figure sitting on the lotus leaf, or the god hanging from a cross, or the deity standing at the temple gates.

We bow knowing full well this wooden pretense is not our God,

but a vessel that we pour into to remind ourselves of the mystery.

So why are we shocked when it happens?

It happens often

that the figure,

the statue we fervently beg for mercy, for hope, justice, healing, for revenge, why are we shocked

when that statue weeps

as if in acceptance of the vision we have poured into it.

We say the mystery has power over all things, but we recoil when it does the smallest thing.

Wooden statues, ceramic figurines, totems, if we put something into them,

isn't it natural that we also get something back?

I don't want to be surprised at how the powers manifest themselves.

No.

No.

I want to be careful.

And the best word I know,

the very best protection I have,

is to never,

ever,

never, ever, never,

ever,

never

turn out

the lights.