Free Frost and the Mailman by Cecil Castellucci Page B

strange situation.”

    “Yes, I agree,” Frost said.

    They both sat on the sleigh and thought about the strange situation.

    “Oh!” Daniel said. “I think I know what happened.”

    He then explained to Frost all about Ivan F. Mann and the new computer sorting system and how the bags that he’d found accidentally and was returning to her had been set to be sent to the South Pole. To the Science Station.

    “I understand,” Frost said. “What you are saying is that Christmas is ruined.”

    “What?” Daniel said. “No. We can fix this.”

    “How?” Frost asked. She was about to cry.

    “We’ll call up the South Pole Science Station and have them forward it here,” Daniel said, pulling out his cell phone. “Easy, peasy.”

    Only they spent the entire day trying to call the South Pole. They were transferred from place to place to place. No one knew where the bags were. Until they finally reached Big Jim, the owner of the only warehouse space in Antarctica.

    “You’ll have to come and get it,” he said. “And also there’s rent due on the warehouse space.”

    “We don’t have any money in the North Pole,” Frost said.

    “What do you have?” Daniel asked.

    “Toys,” she said.

    “We’ll think of something,” Daniel said.

    Then he eyeballed the reindeer.

    “Do those fly?” Daniel asked.

    “Of course,” Frost said.

    “Well, let’s go to the South Pole and find the mail,” he said, his teeth chattering.

    “Daniel, it’s pretty cold flying around in that thing. We’ll need to stop and get you a proper coat.”

    They got in the sleigh and traveled to the North Pole to pick up the thickest, warmest, coolest looking parka Daniel had ever worn. Then they headed to the South Pole. Daniel thought that flying south by reindeer was pretty awesome.

    When they got there, Big Jim showed them the warehouse and the bill. There were so many zeros that Frost and Daniel didn’t even know what kind of number that was. It looked like more than a trillion billion dollars.

    “Can’t let those bags go unless the rent’s paid,” Big Jim said.

    “We don’t have that kind of money,” Frost said.

    “I don’t know what to tell you,” Big Jim said. “Rent’s gotta get paid.”

    “Don’t you want to help save Christmas?” Frost said. In her experience, that usually did the trick.

    “Don’t care much for Christmas,” Big Jim said.

    Daniel noticed that Big Jim was eyeing his gold and white parka.

    “Do you want to try it on?” Daniel asked.

    “What?” Big Jim asked.

    “My parka?” Daniel said. “It’s very warm.”

    “Warm is good down here in the South,” Big Jim said. “Seems like no matter how many layers you wear, you’re still chilled to the bone.”

    Big Jim slipped the coat on and began to smile.

    “Now that is one warm coat,” Big Jim said. “I must say, this is the best coat I have ever worn.”

    “Would you trade?” Frost piped up.

    “All this mail and the rent for one coat?” Big Jim laughed. “No.”

    Daniel and Frost were beat.

    “But if I had a warehouse full of coats like this, I’d make a fortune,” Big Jim said. ‘If you could maybe supply me with some so I could become the coat king of Antarctica, we might have a deal.”

    Frost drew up a contract where the North Pole would supply Big Jim with coats and in exchange all the mail would be released and any future mail would be forwarded to Santa.

    Then Big Jim, Daniel and Frost loaded up the mail in the sleigh. But when the sleigh was full, there were still hundreds of bags leftover. Time was getting short.

    “I don’t know what to do!” Frost said.

    “How about penguins?” Daniel said. “Can’t we recruit them to help?”

    “Penguins don’t fly!” Frost said.

    “Neither do reindeer,” Daniel said.

    Frost snapped her fingers!

    “Of course! I’ll just put some of the reindeer dust on the penguins.”

    They headed over to Penguin Island and found a willing group