Chapter 26 Snow Day
Snow Day
The bright light filtered through the drapes, and Heidi scrunched her eyes.
It was quiet, eerily so. She glanced at her cell phone.
Almost eight in the morning. Normally, there would be the sound of cars on Clearmont Street as people headed toward the freeway and on to work.
But the world was muffled. Unnaturally quiet.
She got out of bed and opened the drapes. Whoa! The world outside was blanketed in white. Cars in the street were humps of snow; only a few tire tracks marred the white road, and the boughs of the fir trees drooped under the cloak of white. And still the snow kept falling.
Heidi retreated back to bed and opened the weather app. More snowfall expected, up to another eighteen inches, and temperatures were well below freezing. This would stick around. Maybe she’d get her snow day after all.
Her mind fizzed into overdrive. Yesterday, alone with Morgan, had been a good day. A great day. A day when their friendship seemed stronger…and more than friendship.
Morgan had kissed her the first time in Oscar’s Tavern. The second time too.
She had kissed Morgan the third time last night.
Who would initiate the fourth? Because there would be a fourth time, Heidi was sure of it.
Despite all the reasons they shouldn’t do this, despite Morgan’s secretive nature, Heidi was sure there would be more kisses.
Whether there would be anything past that, she didn’t know.
Because roommates to romance was still not a good idea.
But all the same…
An hour later, showered and dressed, she went downstairs, following the smell of coffee to the kitchen.
Morgan wasn’t to be seen, but the door to the basement was open and the whir of the exercise bike sounded.
A couple of minutes later, Morgan, dressed in leggings and a loose T-shirt appeared. Her face was pink and sheened in sweat.
Heidi grabbed two mugs and poured coffee.
“Thanks.” Morgan picked the damp T-shirt away from her skin and flapped it.
Heidi’s gaze snapped to the glimpse of flat belly. Nice. “Sleep well?”
“I never sleep well,” Morgan said. “My mind obsesses on the most ridiculous things, and that’s sleep gone for the rest of the night. I was awake at three again. Had a cup of herbal tea, doomscrolled. The usual.”
“Why do we always think of the apocalypse in the middle of the night? That’s a rhetorical question, but it’s a statement of fact. The world that’s rosy in midmorning is about to be annihilated at three a.m.”
“Facts.” Morgan nodded. “And thank you for not suggesting one hundred ways to get to sleep. So far, I’ve been told to count backward in threes, try mindfulness, do meditation, count sheep jumping over a fence, take melatonin, and regulate breathing patterns.
Nothing works except sleeping pills, and I don’t want to be reliant on those. ”
“I was going to suggest counting kangaroos leaping across a road, but now I won’t,” Heidi said, straight-faced.
“Good move.” Morgan sipped her coffee. She nodded toward the window. “Looks like you’ve got your snow day. The news is suggesting essential travel only. Already there’s reports of people stuck on I-70, and motels are full. Good thing this wasn’t when you planned to confront Serena.”
“I’ll call Robert later, confirm I won’t be in.” She tilted her head. “Would you have been working today? Or do you take the long weekend?”
“Oh.” For a second Morgan hesitated. “I wasn’t working today anyway. But there’s no snow days when you work from home.”
“So, what will we do?” Heidi asked. “We’ve done the extreme cooking, aced the Jenga challenge. What else do you do on snow days?”
“I’m usually by myself. So I clean the house, read, work out, shovel the path if it looks like it’s stopping.”
“Let’s go for a walk later.” Heidi’s eyes sparkled.
“I’ve never seen this much snow in my life.
I want to go to the park, fall into a drift, and see if the snow is wet enough for a snowball fight.
I wonder if it’s deep enough to need snowshoes?
I’ve always wanted to go snowshoeing. Not that I have any. ”
“I have some. I think I still have an old pair you can use. But I’m guessing if we stick to the sidewalks, there’ll be enough of a path we can follow.”
“Let’s have breakfast first.” Heidi opened the cupboard and pulled out a fry pan. “How about homemade baked beans on toast? With a poached egg?”
“Breakfast burritos with a hash brown?”
“Omelet with leftover veggies and cheese?”
“I think there’s some bacon.”
Heidi laughed. “We’re not going to starve. No doubt there’s a turkey dinner in the fridge too.”
“There is. We’ll be sick of turkey before it runs out.”
~ ~ ~
Heidi set down her book and went to look out the window. “It’s stopped snowing.”
Morgan grunted and turned a page.
“The sun’s breaking through. And the neighbors over the road are having a snowball fight.” She whirled away and over to the door. “I’m so into that. Coming?”
Morgan looked up from her book. “I’ve got eighteen pages to go. I need to find out if the main character leaves her husband and goes off with her female yoga instructor.”
Heidi squinted at the title. “Hm. Not a sapphic author—more mainstream. So there’s maybe a fifty-fifty chance she will. Come and tell me when you’ve finished.”
She pulled on her jacket, beanie, gloves, and snow boots, then left in a waft of cold air from the front door.
The sunlight bouncing off the snow hurt her eyes, but she didn’t want sunnies in a snowball fight. Over the road, two teams of adults and kids were dodging around the front yards, hiding behind trees and the humped shapes of parked cars.
“Can I join?” she yelled.
“Sure. Join our team. We’re losing,” a burly Black man in a fluorescent jacket shouted back.
She recognized him as living a couple of doors up. She ran over to their position behind a fence. “Any rules?”
“No aiming at windows. No standing in front of windows to pelt the opposition. All attack methods must involve snow.” He grinned. “Go for it.”
Heidi ducked down to gather snow. It was wet enough to hold together.
She popped up and took careful aim at a woman making a run across the front of the other side’s position on the porch.
Her snowball missed and fell harmlessly to the grass, but she received a wallop to the shoulder from the opposing team’s barrage. She dropped back behind the fence.
“We’re going to storm their blockade.” Her new friend waved an arm. “United front. Concentrated attack. It will be brutal. It could be bloody. It will be dangerous.”
One of the kids giggled.
He fixed Heidi with a stern look, but his eyes twinkled. “You in?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied with a salute.
“Good woman. I’m Aaron, by the way, and these are my minions.”
“Heidi.”
They filled their hands with snowballs, and keeping low, they crept to the edge of the fence. Aaron stayed in the middle.
“Count of three,” Aaron said. “One…two…three, go!”
With wild yells, the kids streamed out. Aaron vaulted over the fence and led the charge. Heidi followed, ducking and weaving in the opposition’s barrage. She managed a few direct hits of her own. Her team reached the opposite fence, covered in snow, and peeled off to one side.
“Hold fire,” someone yelled. “Neutral party approaching.”
Morgan walked up, hands held high. “I come in peace. For now, anyway.”
“She’s with me,” Heidi said.
“Then we get her,” the opposing team leader shouted.
Morgan waved to Heidi and joined the other team.
“Traitor,” Heidi yelled.
“It’s my Jenga revenge in the making,” Morgan shouted back.
For the next twenty minutes, the street was filled with shouts and screams, and snow flew in all directions.
Heidi’s nose was an icicle, and her feet were wet, despite the snow boots, but she didn’t care.
Her aim improved, and while she told herself she wasn’t actually targeting Morgan, it was simply too tempting, especially as Morgan proved to be a rotten shot.
Then, in a final coordinated run, Morgan’s team managed a two-pronged attack, trapping Heidi’s team behind the fence.
“Never give up! Never surrender!” Heidi shouted, but it was too late.
Aaron held his hands up. “Pax.”
“You give in? You declare us the winners?” the other leader asked.
A rogue snowball found its mark on the back of his head, and one of Aaron’s kids ran away shrieking.
“Apart from Teesha, who will be confined to barracks with bread and water, yes, we do.” Aaron mock-glared at his giggling daughter. “I’m done. We all are.”
Heidi found Morgan and slung an arm around her waist.
She turned to Heidi. “That was fun.”
Heidi couldn’t look away. Morgan’s cheeks glowed pink, and her nose was red.
In her bright-red jacket, tight leggings, and tasseled snow boots, her blond hair sticking out at all angles from under her hat, wet in places from melted snow, she looked like a particularly gorgeous elf.
A dusting of snow coated the hem of her jacket.
The others departed to get warm and dry, leaving Heidi and Morgan alone.
“My feet are freezing,” Heidi said. “And I’m thinking about lunch. Soup, maybe. It could be what those leftover brussels sprouts are made for.”
They returned home, shedding outdoor wear at the front door. The fire was going, and Heidi went back to the door to bring over the rubber tray over so their wet boots could dry.
“Did you finish your book?” she asked Morgan.
“Unfortunately,” Morgan said. “The main character stayed with her husband. The hot yoga instructor was brokenhearted. In the future, I’ll stick to authors known for sapphic romance.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
It turned out brussels sprouts were no better as soup than they were as a side dish. Morgan dumped hers and made a turkey sandwich, but Heidi persevered and managed half a bowl of soup before giving in and accepting half of Morgan’s sandwich.
After lunch, they sprawled on the couch, each browsing their phones.