The Gnome Knickknack

My mom always loved to collect knickknacks. They littered the fireplace and bookshelves and anywhere else Mom deemed fit. One of those knickknacks was a little gnome with a tall red hat and a basket of apples. The gnome held out the basket of apples as if offering one to us. It sat in the living room on a nightstand. My little sister, Susan, always played pretend with it and would say the gnome would always give her apples.

“Then how come his basket is still full?” I asked.

Susan rolled her eyes. “Because he’s magic. Duh.”

Mom and I thought it was cute.

One day, Mom went to the store to get apples and other things while I stayed and babysat Susan. When I walked through the living room, I noticed the gnome wasn’t on the nightstand. I went into the dining room and found the gnome there. Susan must’ve moved him. There was a white bowl on the table, and, to my surprise, it was filled with apples.

I shook my head. Mom was so forgetful sometimes. She must’ve forgotten she already got apples last time she shopped. I called her to let her know we still had some.

“We do?” she asked.

“Yeah, they’re right in the white bowl on the dining room table.”

“But…there weren’t any in the bowl this morning.”

“Maybe you missed them?”

“Taylor, I’m not blind. I would’ve seen them.”

“Okay, okay. Maybe the gnome put ‘em there.”

“Very funny. I’ll be back home soon.”

I hung up, looked back at the gnome, and smirked at it. “So, are you behind all this?” I chuckled. The gnome sat there with his silly smile, and, for a second at least, I thought I saw his eyes move. Weird. My eyes must be playing tricks on me. I put the gnome back on the nightstand and went upstairs to my room.

A few weeks later, we ran out of apples again. Mom said she’d get more the next time she went to the store. The next day, we both found the fruit bowl was full of apples.

Mom stared at the apples. “How…when…?”

“Maybe we missed them?”

She gave me a look.

“Or maybe not.”

Susan came running down the stairs and came over to where we were standing. “Oh, Herbert did it again.”

Mom and I turned to her.

“Who is Herbert?” Mom asked.

Susan pointed to the gnome knickknack, who was cheerfully sitting on the nightstand.

Mom looked at me and then at Susan. She laughed and patted Susan on the head, but she glanced at the gnome with a hint of worry.

***

I was worried the weird apple incidents would happen again. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. When we ran out of apples, no apples appeared out of nowhere and Mom got them from the store. Mom and I probably had overlooked the apples the first and second time.

Still, I was always looking over my shoulder, worried about the stupid gnome. Every time I looked at him, his smile seemed to become less jolly and more smug. It was as if he knew something I didn’t and thought he was so clever and sneaky. I wanted to wipe that stupid smile from his stupid face and smash him onto the hardwood floor. The only thing holding me back from doing so was watching Susan having tea parties with him.

What was wrong with me?

After a few more weeks, I relaxed. Nothing else strange was happening, and things were going well. I had gotten good grades on my school assignments, and I had earned a place in the National Honors Society. Susan had gotten into a ballet class and Dad would be coming back from out of town tomorrow.

Mom had to go to the store to get more groceries, so I stayed to babysit again. Just in case, I double and triple-checked the fruit bowl. There were only five apples in there, which was fine. I just had to be sure in case…well, something happened. It was ridiculous, I knew that, but it was the only way to make sure I wasn’t going insane.

I said bye to Mom and watched as she backed her jeep out of the garage and down the driveway. I closed the garage door and headed to the living room. I stopped in my tracks. I backed up and stared at the dining room table. The fruit bowl was filled over the brim with apples that formed a pyramid. “How in the world…?” I lowered my gaze and froze.

Standing in front of the fruit bowl was the gnome.

I gulped. No way. It’s all in my head. I just missed them, that’s all. But…how could I miss them? I had counted the apples three times! There was no way I or Mom or Susan could have missed a whole apple pyramid!

I walked over to the table and stared at the gnome. He didn’t appear to be alive. He was standing perfectly still. What was his game? Was he really alive? After staring at him for a few moments, I laughed. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was out of necessity. “Yeah right!” I smiled at the goofy knickknack. “Thanks for the apples, Herbert.” I picked the gnome up.

“Anytime!” The gnome said. He held out his basket. “Want any more?”

Thud!

Next thing I know, I’m on the ground feeling faint and wondering if I would be sent to an asylum in Milledgeville. I heard Susan run down the stairs and right over to me. “Are you okay, are you okay, what happened?!”

I tried to explain what had happened, but my words were slurred.

“Was it something I said?” the gnome asked.

Susan turned to the gnome. “Herbert, what have you done?!”

The last thing I heard was the gnome saying, “It was an accident! I was only trying to help. It was all in good humor!”