Author's Note: Sorry about the wait on this everyone – I just can't seem to shake this cold, and can only drag myself out of bed for a while at a time – which doesn't make for good writing.
OOOOOOOOOOO
After the dishes were done (they shared the task) Ian and Andrew went into the living room. The lodge was well situated for visitors – except for the whole no can opener in sight thing – and there was an entire closet filled with games of all sorts. Chess, checkers, backgammon, cards, board games of every sort – and obviously some of them belonged to Micah because there was a large assortment of games for younger children, such as Candyland, and Cootie.
Predictably, Andrew grabbed the Trivial Pursuit game and pulled it out, while Ian pulled a coffee table over to put it in between two easy chairs.
"You don't want to play that," Ian told Andrew, seeing what game he'd chosen.
Andrew smiled.
"I know; you're a genius and you'll probably beat me… but a lot of it's luck, too… you have to get the questions about things you know about, after all…"
"Except that I've played it enough that I probably have 90 percent of the answers memorized," Ian said as he flopped down in one of the chairs. The room was warm, now, and it was quite comfortable to be in only jeans and a t-shirt, so they'd both removed their jackets long before.
"Bullshit."
Shawn had told Andrew that Ian had an incredible memory, but no one was that good, Andrew knew it.
Ian shrugged.
"Try me."
Without setting up the board, Andrew pulled one of the boxes of cards out, pulling a stack of the questions out and sitting down in the other chair. He looked at the first card.
"This Russian novel-"
"War and Peace."
Andrew looked up.
"Lucky guess."
Ian just smirked.
"Give me another one."
For the next twenty minutes, Ian put on a performance that absolutely stunned Andrew. Not only did the cadet not miss a single question Andrew gave him, most of the time he didn't even need him to finish the question. Amazed, Andrew finally set the cards back in the box.
"That's incredible."
Ian shrugged. It wasn't something he normally showed off; it wasn't like he had all that much to do with just how good his memory was, after all – that was purely a genetics issue, he supposed. But he was young enough to enjoy showing off a little bit – when the situation warranted it – and Andrew was an appreciative audience.
"How long have you been able to do stuff like that?"
"All my life," Ian answered. "I see or hear something, I remember it."
"Wow."
"Yeah, well, it's not that great," Ian told him. "It makes for good grades, but most of the time it's a regular pain in the ass."
And sometimes it was worse than that, because sometimes not being able to forget was worse than anything – like Shawn had surmised earlier that year.
"You must have gotten great grades in school."
"Probably as good as yours."
"Without trying…"
"Nah… I still had to read the work – and remembering the information doesn't do me any good at all if I don't understand what I'm reading, so I actually had to learn – I just don't need to use reference books as often as everyone else."
"It's still cool."
Ian shrugged again, ready to turn the subject away from his memory.
"Get the cards, Andrew," he said. "We'll play-"
The phone rang, interrupting, and Andrew and Ian both looked at each other. Andrew shrugged, standing up and heading to end table.
"It must be my mom…"
"She probably wants to remind you not to ski," Ian said, smiling.
Andrew grinned and picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
There was a pause, and Ian could faintly hear a man's voice speaking – although he wasn't sure what was being said. He could only hear Andrew's side – and the conversation was short.
"Yeah."
Another pause, this one longer.
"Two of us."
Pause.
"Yeah, they know."
Pause, again, another long one.
"A convertible."
Andrew looked over at Ian as he said it, and Ian wondered who it was.
"That'll work, thanks."
The teenager hung up the phone and looked over at Ian, smiling.
"That was Fred Simms of the DOT, just confirming that their avalanche crews managed to strand a couple of people up at the lodge and making sure that we were okay – and would remain in good health until such time as they were able to clear the road. Although I think he was hoping that you were driving a truck…"
"I would have," Ian said. "If I'd have known this was going to happen."
Andrew smiled again.
"He says they'll start clearing the road as soon as it's light out – and it should only take a couple hours."
"Good."
"Still want to play cards?"
"Unless you have a better idea?"
Andrew looked towards the kitchen.
"How about dessert?"
Ian shrugged, although he hadn't seen anything in there worth eating as far as sweets went. As far as he could tell, Andrew's family were all far too health conscious for his tastes.
"If you can find something…"
"I know just the thing. Let's go."
Standing up, Ian followed Andrew into the kitchen.
