Chapter Fifteen

Like every day, I woke at five AM. No one else in the house was up yet, so I started breakfast. The smell of bacon cooking permeated the house. My mind overflowed with the information I learned the previous day. One by one, the children started down the stairs and I served eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast.

Fran stumbled down the stairs and beelined to the coffee pot. She muttered to herself about how someone could wake up so early and have so much energy. Ari was the final arrival.

"I am dying in anticipation," the eight-year-old Ralph spoke up.

"Well, if everyone's done eating, go for it," Fran said.

The kids scrambled to their feet. Blake held the door open for everyone else. Katelyn stayed back and started picking up dishes.

I grabbed the dishes from her. "Katelyn, go open your gifts."

"But..." she protested.

"Really, go, I'll take care of the cleanup."

Her eyes gleamed as she zipped out of the room. Ari and I were alone. We picked up the remaining plates and washed them.

"You were not kidding when you said you wake up at five AM every day," he said sleepily.

I chuckled. "No, I was not kidding."

Shrieks of delight emanated from the front room.

"I, uh, have something for you." He walked over to the desk by the basement door. He pulled out a flat package from the top drawer.

I tilted my head as a pang of guilt hit me. "I did not get you anything."

"That is OK, it is not much."

I accepted the package anxiously. Under the plain brown paper revealed a small book. The cover had a child's handwriting, “Merry Christmas Lily.” Inside was filled with drawings and handwritten pages from every child. A couple of them also wrote short stories. No one had ever done anything like this for me before. For the first time in my life, I thought I was going to cry tears of joy.

"So?" he asked apprehensively.

"This is amazing." I flipped through the pages, choking back tears. "I love it. How... When did you have time to do this?"

He smiled. "I came over a couple of times when you were not here."

I put the book on the table and wrapped my left arm around his neck. I placed my right hand on his face, looking at him in the eyes. "Thank you," I whispered and kissed him.

The kitchen door burst open.  We stepped away from each other in a hurry.

Dean and Drew scrambled through the door with plastic swords clashing.

I sighed. "Well, that was inevitable. Let's go check on them."

"Yeah."

The front room was blissful chaos. Wrapping paper littered every inch of the floor. As soon as I walked in, Blake and Frankie almost tackled me.

"You're the best!" Frankie declared.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Blake exclaimed.

"You need to thank Ari too. If it weren't for him, you'd be sharing," I said.

"No, you don't need to..." Before he finished his sentence, both boys rushed to him, knocking him back into the wall.

Blake came back over to me. His eyes sparkled. "Let's go up the mountain and go snowboarding."

"There might not be enough snow yet. And we need the four-wheelers to go up the mountain." I put a hand on his head as if I would mess his hair up. Surprisingly, he didn't move.

"Alex told us we can use them today and that the conditions are perfect."

"Oh, so you already had this planned out."

He had the uh-oh face.  His eyes turned down.   "Um, well..."

"I wish you had told me so I could have brought my gear. If Fran says OK, then we can go."

"Oh, go ahead. He's right, you might not get another chance like this," Fran said.

Frankie headed out of the room. "I don't want to go. I am going to hook this up." He darted upstairs with his game system.

"Ari, Katelyn, you want to go?" Blake inquired.

Katelyn nodded. "Yeah, sounds like fun."

"Sure," Ari replied. "I haven't been snowboarding since last year."

We changed into warm clothes and disembarked. True to what Blake said, Alex had two four-wheelers gassed and ready to go. He told me it was only because he had gotten some of the stir-fry.

After two hours, we sat on the side of the mountain to take a break.

"This is so cool. You can see the whole city from here," Ari stated.

"It is no big deal. I've seen it," Blake said. "Hey, I got a joke for you. Why did the cookie go to the hospital?"

"I don't know, why?" Ari responded.

"Cause he was feeling crummy."

They both erupted in laughter.

"I have one for you," Ari said. "What do you call a parade of rabbits hopping backward?"

"I don't know."

"A receding hare-line."

They laughed hysterically. Katelyn looked at me with one of her eyebrows up. I shrugged. Boys. I did not understand them either.

"What's that?" Ari pointed to a column of smoke in the distance.

"That's the TOP SECRET factory," Blake answered.

Ari's head snapped toward me. Yep, that is the one. I didn't want to say in front of the kids.

"They're making a top secret weapon," Blake said. “It shoots lasers into the sky to create super storms.”

Katelyn threw a little snowball at him. "Shut up, they are not. Those are just stupid stories the boys at school tell you."

He knocked the snow away with ease. "You never know; it could be anything. You want to go investigate?"

"No. Guard dogs patrol that forest. If one of them catches you, you'll be in trouble," I explained.

"Yeah, yeah. Katelyn, look at this." Blake stood up on his board and glided away.

At the ledge 50 feet away, he stopped and raised the nose of his board.

"Blake, please don't stand there. The snow could break and..."

Before I finished, Blake lost his balance and tumbled down the mountain. Ari was on his feet in a flash and sped after him. By the time I reached the ledge, Ari had passed Blake and stopped. He leaned forward and caught him at the bottom. The force of the impact jarred him a little, but they slid to a halt.

My stomach turned. They fell too far and were on the factory property.

Katelyn shrieked and pointed. A dog heard the commotion and sprinted toward them. I told Katelyn to stay put and flew down the hill.

Ari shielded Blake with his body from the charging dog. As it leaped, I reached the bottom of the hill and clotheslined the dog. After a sharp yelp, the dog sprung back to its feet.

"Get him back up the hill! I'll hold it off," I shouted.

Ari and Blake scrambled off their boards and dashed up the hill. I turned my attention to the dog. The straggly brown mutt paced in front of me, barking and growling. I bent down slowly to free my boots from the board. As soon as I popped the latches, it lunged. I protected my face with my arm and the dog chomped down and pulled. I resisted the urge to call out as the dog's teeth broke through the jacket and into my skin. Then I reached down with my free hand and grabbed its back legs. In one motion, I lifted up the dog and slammed the body to the ground. The jaws let go of my arm. I freed one boot from the board and kicked the dog in the throat. It yapped and jumped a couple feet away. I released my other foot, hoisted my board, and swung, landing a clean hit on the dog's head. With a howl, it raced back towards the factory. I sprinted up the hill, back to where the others were. My arm ached from the bite. Blake bent over in an attempt to steady his trembling legs.

I reached out to examine him. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Blake snapped. "I am fine. You are not my mother, stop trying to act as if you are. I'll wait by the four wheelers." Then he boarded down the mountain.

His words stung like a slap in the face. "Blake," I called after him.

Ari laid a hand on my shoulder. "He's just embarrassed about what happened. Did the dog bite you?"

I elevated my arm, the sleeve dotted with a couple ragged holes. "Yeah, let's go so I can check it out."

On the way down, I realized my arm felt wet. My sleeve grew heavy. When I reached the four-wheelers, white spots danced in front of my eyes.

"You look pale, are you sure you're alright?" Ari asked.

I shook my head, then unzipped my coat and pulled my arm out. Blood soaked my shirtsleeve. I dropped to my knees and lost consciousness.