Saving Mel

“I’m heading out,” Evan said, as he made his way to the front door. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

I pulled Hadley’s playpen over to the couch as Liam scrambled up beside me. The little girl was playing with one of her toys as I heard the front door open and close and Evan’s heavy boots on the porch. I felt awful that he was going out in the snow to look for my car, but he’d insisted and I knew there was no use arguing. Besides, even if I had found it, it wasn’t like I could dig it out myself.

“Read! Read! Read!” Liam chanted.

“Okay, okay. Just settle down. Here, you wanna flip the pages?” I asked.

I didn’t have to read the pages to know the words of the book. I’d practically memorized this thing as a child. The familiar pictures jumped out at me as Liam’s fingertips ran along them. I snuggled him close against my body while Hadley continued to play. She was jingling one of her toys as it lit up and played music, and I could tell Liam was getting agitated at the noise.

“Hawy loud,” he said.

“It’s okay. She’s just having fun, too,” I said.

“But book,” Liam said. “Book is quiet.”

“Well, we don’t have to be quiet if we don’t want to,” I said.

The look on Liam’s face pulled laughter from my throat. Anyone would’ve thought I just handed this kid the biggest gummy bear of his entire life. He jumped up onto the couch and tossed the book away, his body lunging toward mine while he giggled. I started tickling the small boy just as Hadley’s laughter rose from her playpen, and soon the three of us were rolling around on the floor. Hadley was on a blanket, chewing on a toy. I was crawling around with Liam as he danced his bare feet hard on the wooden floors. I chased him around the house with Hadley in my arms and the three of us simply couldn’t stop laughing.

I took them into the room I was sleeping in and we jumped on the bed. I brought Hadley’s playpen into the room so she could roam without getting hurt, then I started wrestling with Liam on the bed. Hadley clapped her hands and grabbed her toes, falling back onto her back as her giggles filled the air of my bedroom.

My stomach hurt from all our laughter.

Then, I heard the front door open. Liam and I paused what we were doing before we scrambled off the bed, and I scooped Hadley out from her playpen. We ran down the hallway, our chests heaving for air as we went to greet Evan, but I could tell by the look on his face that things weren’t good.

“There seems to be a commotion going on,” Evan said.

“Sorry,” I said. “We sort of got—caught up.”

“No need to apologize,” he said. “Got good news and bad news.”

“I take it the bad news has something to do with the fact that I’m not getting out of here,” I said.

“Yep. But, I was did free your car from the embankment and get it up here. It’s parked outside.”

I went to the window and looked out at my car. The fender was bent and the headlight broken, but everything else seemed to be intact. The snow was deep enough to almost cover the tires and I wondered how in the hell Evan had driven it up here.

“Very slowly,” he said, as if reading my mind. “I was able to clear a bit of a path with the plow on my snowmobile, but it was still a bitch to get it even this little way. That car is not made for mountain driving in Montana.”

I nodded. “I know, but it’s what I can afford right now.”

“It still starts and runs just fine. Just a bit of superficial damage,” Evan said.

“That’s good. When do you think I could head out?” I asked.

“Well, that’s the bad news. The clouds are pretty heavy and it looks to be about to snow again. And even though I cleared a small path, there’s no way you’re getting that little car two miles up the hill to your place. Sorry to say, but you’re stuck here for the time being.”

I sat down as his words sunk in. I needed to get home and make sure my dad was okay. Though he’d sounded okay on the phone and had assured me that he was eating and taking his meds, I was still worried about him being alone.

“I need to call my father,” I said, handing Hadley to Evan as I made my way back to my bedroom.

I picked up my phone and dialed.

“Sweetheart, I’m fine,” my father assured me when he answered the phone. “In fact, I’m feeling better by the day. I think not having you here to do every little thing for me is making me stronger.”