Episode Forty Eight

As February gradually faded into March, Danville was buried by a late winter blizzard. The storm dumped a foot of snow in two days, grinding everything to a halt. Zack was awakened earlier than usual by the ringing of his phone, which sat on its charging stand on his nightstand. Zack groaned blearily and rolled over. He clicked on his bedside lamp and immediately wished he hadn't. His eyes screwed up painfully against the sudden flood of light. After a second or two he was able to pry open his eyelids. The alarm clock on his nightstand read 5:30. Who could possibly be calling me at 5:30 AM on a Wednesday, he wondered. Zack pushed back the covers and retrieved his phone from his nightstand. The caller ID on his screen read, "Chase, Melissa." What does Melissa want? Zack wondered. He cast a glance around his darkened bedroom, wondering if Melissa had forgotten a school book again. They had been working on their history project for until 10:00 last night. As far as he could tell he didn't see one. Wondering what she could possibly want this early in the morning on a Wednesday, he tapped his screen and put his phone to his ear. "Melissa?" he asked sleepily, "it's 5:30 in the morning, its Wednesday, and I'm pretty sure you didn't forget anything at my house last night, why are you-,"

Melissa's voice spoke excitedly in Zack's ear, interrupting him before he could finish his sentence. "Zack?" she asked, "are you awake?"

Zack sat up in bed."I'm awake," he groaned. His voice was edged with annoyance. "Why are you calling me so early in the morning?" He paused. Melissa usually didn't call him this early in the morning, even on the weekend. "Is everything alright, Melissa?" he asked, "has something happened with-."

"-what with Milo?" she asked, "In the last five minutes? I don't think so."

Zack had gone from half asleep to annoyed to confused. What could she possibly want? he wondered. "So, why-," he began again.

Melissa interrupted him again. "Go to the window," she said.

Zack sighed, pushed back the covers and got out of bed. He was dressed in his boxers and nothing else. He stepped carefully around discarded clothes and books, stumbling and almost tripping over a wayward pair of running shoes. OK, thought Zack, what am I supposed to look at? Awkwardly cradling his phone between his ear and his shoulder, Zack pulled back the curtains. He squinted again as his eyes were assaulted by a sudden burst of dazzling white light. At the same moment, he heard something fall to the floor with a clatter and Zack realized that he had dropped his phone. He could hear Melissa distantly saying, "Zack? Zack? Are you still there?"

He bent over and picked up his phone. By the time he straightened up, Zack's eyes had adjusted to the change in light levels and he surveyed the scene outside his bedroom window. The dull, slushy grey of Danville in midwinter had given way to a thick, fluffy white blanket. Zack estimated that there was at least a foot of snow on the ground. He put his phone to his ear. "So, snow day?" he asked. With this much snow on the ground, the school busses would be canceled at the bare minimum.

Melissa laughed in his ear. "Oh, this is definitely a snow day," she said.

"So what were you planning on doing today?" asked Zack. They were supposed to have had a math test today, but with the unexpected snowfall, Zack figured that it had been put off until next week at the earliest.

"Well, Milo's driveway probably needs shovelling," replied Melissa, with the suggestion of a shrug in her voice.

"So, Milo's house today?" asked Zack.

"Yeah," said Melissa, "Milo's house."

Zack was showered and dressed an hour later. He bolted down a quick breakfast and paused on his way out the door only call out a hurried, "bye Dad," after tugging on his snow suit, hat, boots and gloves. He opened the front door and felt a blast of chilly winter air. He stepped out on to the front porch, closing the door behind him. Zack felt the cold on his cheeks. His breath misted in front of him and a stray gust of wind spun the loosely packed snow into a snow devil. It skittered across the unplowed road to collapse before reaching the opposite curb. Zack picked his way down his unplowed driveway and turned toward where Oakmont Street ran into Watertown Road. He crossed to the other side of the road at the intersection and kept walking. It took him twice as long as usual to walk from his house to Milo's. The thick layer of powdery snow came up to the middle of his shins in places. Here and there it had been sculpted by the freezing winter wind into larger drifts. The few cars that had been left out overnight by careless owners had once again been turned into oddly shaped snow covered hummocks. On a couple of occasions, Zack skidded, slipped and nearly fell on unseen patches of ice. I knew I should have worn my spikes, he thought. He considered going back to get them, but he was halfway to down the block and turning around would take too much time, so he kept walking.

Zack ran into Melissa, who lived a block in the other direction from Milo, as he was about to turn on to Druid Drive and off of the main road. Melissa was bundled up agains the cold in a hat, scarf and light blue winter coat. Zack's eye was immediately drawn to her. Melissa's red hair and blue coat were the only spots of colour in the pristine white blanket that lay over everything. The steady crunch-crunch-crunch of her spikes on hidden patches of ice and frozen concrete seemed to echo overly loudly in the early morning stillness.

"Morning Zack," she said.

"Oh, hi Melissa," replied Zack. Her cheeks were flushed a deep pink from the cold. That shade of pink brings out her- Zack suddenly thought. He felt his cheeks grow hot, despite the very cold weather. Stop it! he told himself. Having a crush on Milo's best friend is-shut up! Zack thought to himself. He had to actively work at making small talk with Melissa to silence the little voice in his head.

When Zack and Melissa arrived at Milo's house ten minutes later, they found Martin in the garage with the snowblower in pieces. Milo was sitting on a stool with his right leg hooked casually behind the crossbar. His left was stuck out awkwardly in front of him. The left leg of his snow pants was rolled up to above his knee . The heel of his cast was propped up on the edge of Martin's open tool box. Milo's crutches lay on the floor next to his stool.

"Oh, hi kids," said Martin brightly.

"Hi guys," said Milo, with a wave.

"So what happened to the snowblower?" asked Zack.

Martin cast an annoyed look at the snowblower, as if it had offended him.

"Doof," replied Milo simply.

"Milo was supposed to see Dr. Gardener, today," interjected Martin.

"Was your cast finally supposed to come off?" asked Zack.

Milo shook his head. "No," he said. "It's not supposed to come off for a couple of more weeks. This was just supposed to be a routine X-ray." He shrugged. "But then again, X-rays and Murphy's Law don't really mix very well. So maybe this was a blessing in disguise."

"What did Doof do anyway?" asked Melissa. She pressed a gloved hand to her mouth, stifling a snigger.

"He took my snowblower apart," said Martin. His voice wore a clear edge of annoyance.

"Why did he do that?"asked Zack. His face twitched. Zack was struggling not to laugh.

Milo shrugged. "He said he was going build us a snowblowinator," he said.

"Do I want to know what a snowblowinator is?" asked Melissa.

"A snowblower," replied Milo.

Zack and Melissa looked at each other. "Wait, OK," said Zack, "he basically tried to build you a snowblower-."

"-by taking apart a snowblower," finished Milo. He sighed. "Yeah."

It was Melissa's turn to shrug. "Well, it looks like you're in luck," she said. "School's canceled, and we thought Milo might need help with the driveway, so we thought we stop by."

Martin cast another dark look his partially disassembled snowblower. "Thanks, kids," he said. He hadn't really been looking forward to shovelling the driveway by himself. "That'd be a big help. I'll have to get Perry or Cavenpuss to help me put this back together later."

It took twenty five minutes for Zack, Melissa and Martin to completely clear the would have finished in less than twenty, except Martin broke three snow shovels and had to have his ankle wrapped by Melissa, after he sprained it slipping on a patch of ice. Amanda arrived just as Zack and Melissa were finishing the bottom third of the driveway.

"Oh, hi guys," she said.

"Hi, Amanda," said Milo brightly.

"Hi, Milo," she said. "I heard that school was cancelled, and with all this snow, I was worried about Milo, so I thought I'd come by and just make sure he's OK."

"I guess we all had the same thought," replied Zack. He gestured to the mostly shovelled driveway. "We thought we'd come by and see if Milo needed help with his driveway-."

"-we're most finished," continued Melissa, "but there are a couple of unbroken shovels in the garage. What don't you grab one? You could help us finish."

Amanda retrieved a spare shovel from the garage, and together with Zack and Melissa, they quickly finished off the bottom third of the driveway. By the time they were finished , the sun had risen well above the surrounding houses, and the cloudless sky was a clear, translucent blue.

"Come on inside," said Martin, "and I'll make the three of you breakfast."

They trooped in behind him, with Milo bringing up the rear on his crutches. They stopped only take off their boots and winter clothing, before traipsing as a group into the kitchen. They found Brigitte sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of hot coffee and a half eaten bagel with butter at her elbow. A set of architectural drawings were scattered across the table in front of her. She immediately gathered up the collection of plans and drawings as Milo hobbled into the room.

"Morning, Mrs. Murphy," said Melissa.

She surveyed Milo's friends. "What a nice surprise," she said with a smile. "I it take school was cancelled?"

They all nodded.

Martin gestured to Zack, Melissa and Amanda. "They all showed up with half an hour of each other worried about Milo in the snow and offered to help me shovel the driveway," he said.

She got up and moved toward the kitchen counter, "why don't you all sit down and I'll get breakfast going."