The Worst Noel

by Amy M. Reade

  She had only gone a few steps when the house was plunged into darkness. The sound coming from the television set stopped and she could hear gasps of surprise from the living room.

  Chapter 49

  “Mom, the power went out,” Laurel called.

  “I see that,” Lilly said. “Hold on a minute while I get a flashlight and the candles. I have a feeling the power may not come back on for a while.” She kept all the emergency supplies in a narrow cupboard in the pantry and she made her way toward it, feeling for the table and chairs so she wouldn’t trip.

  She hadn’t gotten to the pantry when there was a loud crash accompanied by the sound of breaking glass from the living room. Laurel and her grandmother let out screams.

  “What happened?” Lilly called, turning toward the living room and feeling her way in the dark.

  “I don’t know!” Laurel shrieked. “It’s freezing in here!”

  Indeed, snow was flying sideways into the living room from a broken window. “Tighe, help me cover this window with something,” Lilly ordered.

  “With what?” he asked, his voice tense. Laurel was crying and her grandmother was trying to comfort her. Lilly knew her mother must be afraid, too. She had always hated storms.

  “Let me grab a tablecloth from the closet,” Lilly said. “We can put that over the window and at least keep out the snow until we find some plastic in the garage. The wind must have cracked the window.”

  “Hurry, Mom,” Laurel urged.

  “I am, honey. Just give me a second.” Lilly made her way through the darkness to the closet and reached up to the top shelf, feeling for the stack of tablecloths she kept in there. The noise from the rushing wind outside made it hard to hear anything except the sound of Laurel’s cries.

  “Here,” Lilly said, grabbing two tablecloths. She stumbled back toward Tighe and handed him one of the cloths.

  “What am I supposed to do with it?” he asked, the frustration in his voice obvious.

  “Tuck it around the curtain rod,” Lilly directed. “It’s only for a few minutes, until we can find the plastic sheets.” She climbed onto the couch under the window and held up her tablecloth, working clumsily with hands that were growing more cold and numb by the second. She hung it up on the curtain rod and stepped down.

  “Let me get the flashlight and candles,” she said. “Then I’ll go out and get Barney.”

  She went back out to the kitchen and found the emergency supplies in the pantry in short order. She turned on the flashlight and returned to the living room, shining it around to make sure everyone was okay.

  She was shining the beam of light toward the fireplace and she didn’t see the thing on the floor that made her trip.

  “Ouch!” she exclaimed. “What the heck was that?” She shined the beam toward the floor where she had stubbed her toe.

  Laurel let out a scream. A large brick lay on the floor.

  Lilly’s blood ran cold.

  “How did that get there?” Beverly asked in a shaky voice.

  “I don’t know. Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll take care of it.” Lilly’s heart was pounding double-time.

  “Don’t touch it!” Tighe told her. “I’ll call Uncle Bill and have him come over. He needs to see that.”

  Laurel was sobbing; her grandmother was stroking her hair, but it wasn’t working. “Mom, why would someone do that?” she cried through her tears.

  “I don’t know, Laurel. But I’ll call Bill and we’ll get it cleared up right away.” Lilly fumbled through her purse, holding the flashlight between her chin and neck, until she found her cell phone. She dialed Bill, her hands shaking. But not from the cold.

  When he answered she launched into a babbling account of what had just taken place.

  “Wait a minute! Slow down,” he said. “What are you trying to say?”

  “Someone just threw a brick through the front window. The kids and Mom are terrified. Can you come over?”

  “I’ll be over as soon as I can get there.” He hung up.

  Lilly went back to the living room. “Kids, take Gran upstairs. It’ll be warmer up there. Bill will be here soon.”

  Tighe and Laurel helped Beverly up the stairs and the sounds of their footsteps disappeared into the howling wind that was barreling into the living room. Lilly shivered. She wanted to take the brick and hurl it back outside, but she dared not touch it until Bill could see it. Instead, she took a picture of it with the camera on her cell phone and emailed a copy of it to herself. She didn’t plan to open the email as long as she lived, but she wanted to have it just in case.

  Then she remembered that Barney was still outside. If he was barking to get in, she wouldn’t be able to hear the sound over the wind. She felt terrible. How many minutes had he been outside, freezing, while she dealt with the situation inside?

  She ran through the kitchen and opened the door to wind that screamed in her ear and snow that swept into the kitchen like a dervish. She reached for the hook next to the door so she could pull Barney in using the rope.

  But the rope hung in her hand limply—Barney wasn’t on the other end.

  Chapter 50

  Lilly’s heart began to hammer a staccato beat. “Barney!” she yelled into the wind. “Barney! Come here, boy!”

  There was no answer—at least, not one she could hear. She wasn’t sure if Barney would be able to hear her voice above the keening wind. She closed the door just long enough to call for Tighe to come downstairs and to grab a coat and hat and mittens.

  “What do you need, Mom?” he asked, hurrying into the kitchen.

  “Barney isn’t attached to the blizzard rope. I clipped it to his collar when I let him out to go to the bathroom, but it’s come off somehow. I need to go out and look for him.”

  “I’ll help you,” he offered, already taking long strides toward the closet to get his outdoor things.

  “Don’t tell your sister or Gran what’s going on,” Lilly said in a low voice. “There’s no sense in worrying them.”

  “Do you think the same person who threw the brick unhooked the rope from Barney’s collar?”

  “I don’t know. All I care about right now is getting Barney back inside.” They shut the door behind them. Lilly handed the blizzard rope to Tighe and told him to use it while he was trying to find Barney.

  ”What are you going to use?” he yelled over the wind.

  “My sense of direction.”

  He gave her a look of disbelief, rolled his eyes, handed her the rope, then started down the steps. Lilly could hear him yelling for Barney, so she hoped Barney could hear him, too. Grasping the rope and twisting it around her wrist so she wouldn’t drop it, she imagined the backyard as a grid and stepped off the steps and to the left, where she knew Barney usually headed as soon as he went outside. The flying snow made it impossible to see more than a few inches from her face, but she peered ahead as best she could.

  “Barney!” she yelled.

  She strained her ears to hear a bark, a whimper, anything, but there was nothing but the wind rushing around her ears. She walked slowly, trying to keep her balance, feeling in front of her for any object.

  It wasn’t long before her foot hit something. Reaching out her hand, she felt it to see if she could identify it—it was one of the patio chairs. It had evidently been knocked over and blown around by the wind. Stepping carefully over it, she continued her slow walk forward. Eventually her hand whacked something and she knew she had found the table. She placed both hands on the edge of the table and felt her way around it to the other side.

  The fence separating her property from Mrs. Laforge’s property wasn’t far. Between Lilly and the fence were several feet of mulched beds containing Lilly’s hosta garden. She stood next to the table, breathless from the wind and cold, wondering what to do next. Should she head back to the house or make her way to the right and try the same search again?

  She opted to go to the right and search again using the grid layout in her mind’s e
ye. She felt in front of her and moved, she thought, in a straight line to the mulched beds. Then she moved farther to the right and did it again.

  She could hear Tighe yelling Barney’s name as he made his way toward her in the snow. Her breath caught in her throat—he obviously hadn’t found Barney and she was having no luck.

  “Mom, I think he’s gone!” Tighe shouted above the wind.

  “Let’s go inside,” she yelled.

  They held hands and made their way slowly across the yard to the back steps. Tighe started to go up and Lilly turned around. “What are you doing?” he shouted.

  “I’m going to make sure the gate is closed! Stay here!”

  With her hands outstretched in front of her, Lilly moved slowly in the direction of the gate. She stumbled as she made her way through the snow drifts, but eventually reached the gate. Feeling her way along the wooden slats, she came to the latch.

  It was open. Her reaction was swift and visceral. Her vision began to swim and she bent down to catch her breath. Reaching out to grab the nearest slat, she held onto it so she wouldn’t faint.

  Barney was gone. He was somewhere out in the snowstorm and she had no way of finding him.

  By the time she got back to the house the tears were coursing down her cheeks and she couldn’t catch her breath. Tighe was making his way up the back steps.

  “I checked under the back deck—he’s not there, either!” Tighe shouted. He leaned forward toward Lilly so she could hear him better.

  “Mom! What’s wrong?” He was still yelling to be heard over the wind.

  She motioned for him to go inside. When he had shut the door behind them, she slid down to the floor and covered her face with her hands. Her chest heaved from the sobs which were wracking her body. Laurel came crashing down the stairs in the dark.

  “What’s wrong? Why is Mom crying?”

  “I don’t know,” Tighe said.

  “The gate is open,” Lilly croaked.

  “So what?” Laurel asked.

  “Barney’s out there. I’m afraid he got unhooked from the blizzard rope somehow,” Lilly said in clipped tones through her cries.

  “No!” Laurel cried. “How do you know? Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but Tighe and I have been out looking for him in the backyard. We’ve checked everywhere. I just have a terrible feeling about this.”

  Laurel’s sobs matched those of her mother. Lilly couldn’t see Tighe in the dark, but she suspected he was shedding tears, too. She wanted to be strong for her kids, but she couldn’t summon the courage right now. She missed her dog and she couldn’t stand the thought of him lost out in the snowstorm.

  “I’m going to go back out there,” Tighe said, his voice was nasally and clogged.

  “No, Tighe. You can’t do that. It’s not safe out there,” she said.

  “But how are we going to find Barney?” he asked, his voice rising in panic.

  “What’s going on down there?” Beverly called.

  “Nothing, Mom. I’ll be up in a sec,” Lilly answered.

  “If Tighe goes out, I’m going with him,” Laurel said. She started crying again. “I miss Barney already.” Her weeping made Lilly’s heart break.

  “At least wait until Uncle Bill gets here,” Lilly said. “If he’ll go out with you while I stay here and keep looking in the backyard, then it’s okay.”

  She dried her tears and went upstairs to check on her mother, who was lying down on Laurel’s bed.

  “Why don’t you rest for now, Mom, and I’ll come get you later when we’ve got the window fixed.”

  “All right.”

  Lilly went back downstairs to find both Laurel and Tighe peering out the windows, searching for any sign of the dog. Tighe was still wearing his coat but Laurel had on a flannel shirt and was shivering. She didn’t even seem to notice.

  A moment later all three of them jumped when there was a loud pounding on the front door, then the door handle started rattling. “Stay here,” Lilly ordered the kids. “I’ll see who it is.”

  It was Bill. He swept into the house on a gust of wind and slammed the door shut with an effort.

  “How did you get here?” Lilly asked.

  “Very slowly.”

  He had a flashlight; he walked over to the window and examined the makeshift curtain. “First things first. We need to get a sheet of plastic put up here so you guys don’t freeze. Where’s Mom?”

  “Upstairs resting,” Lilly replied.

  “Good. Tighe, will you come out to the garage with me to get plastic sheets to put up over this window?”

  “Wait a minute, Bill,” Lilly said. “Barney’s gone. We need to find him first.”

  “What do you mean, Barney’s gone?”

  “I let him out and he wasn’t attached to the blizzard rope when I went to bring him back in. The gate’s open. Tighe and I looked everywhere for him in the backyard. He’s not there.”

  “Oh my God. I’ll go out to look for him,” Bill asked.

  “I’ll go with you,” Tighe offered.

  “Me, too,” Laurel said.

  “Wait. Let’s get the window fixed. We can do that in just a few minutes. Then we’ll go out and look for Barney. I don’t want you guys and Mom to freeze.”

  “The kids and I can do that, Bill,” Lilly said. “It would be better if you could just go look for Barney.”

  “All right. I’ll take a look at that brick when I get back, too.”

  He pulled his gloves on and clicked his flashlight on, then stood at the back door waiting for Laurel to get her coat on. “Hurry up, Laur.”

  “I’m hurrying,” Laurel said, pulling a hat down over her ears.

  “Let’s go,” said Tighe. Bill opened the door and the three of them pushed their way outside into the wind. Anything they may have said to Lilly as they left was whipped away into the sky.

  Lilly was beside herself with worry. She paced the downstairs, looking out every window as she passed, trying to catch a glimpse of the kids or Bill or Barney. She went down to the basement to bring wood up to the living room, even though there was plenty stacked next to the hearth. She went upstairs to check on her mother, resting peacefully and blessedly unaware of the missing dog. She went back downstairs and sat at the kitchen table, trying to scroll through messages on her phone, but her eyes wouldn’t focus and the tears started to fall again.

  Over an hour had passed before she heard a noise at the back door. Leaping up from her chair, she ran to open it.

  Mrs. Laforge stood there. And Barney was next to her, sitting on his haunches as if nothing was wrong.

  Chapter 51

  “Edna! Barney! Come in, come in,” she cried, drawing Mrs. Laforge into the kitchen. “What on earth is going on? How did you find Barney?”

  “I don’t know how he got loose, but somehow it happened and I heard him scratching out on my porch.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for bringing him back,” Lilly said. She dropped to her knees and examined Barney while he licked her face, seemingly no worse for wear after his bitterly cold and frightening experience.

  “Didn’t really have much choice, did I?” Mrs. Laforge asked. “He smells terrible and I couldn’t very well let him stay at my house.”

  Lilly wanted to laugh. On any other day a comment like that would have enraged her, but she was so happy to have Barney home that she was only capable of feeling joy for the time being.

  “Well, thank you for not letting him freeze. I hope you’ll stay here until the storm stops.”

  “And smell this dog all night? No, thank you. I’ll go back to my own house. He scratched my front door, by the way. I assume you’ll pay to have it repainted.”

  “Of course I will. As soon as this storm is over. Please let me make you some hot chocolate and when my brother comes back he’ll walk you home.”

  “Might as well,” Mrs. Laforge grumbled.

  Barney sat next to Lilly on the floor, wagging his tail and pan
ting. His coat was wet from the snow and Lilly was worried that he might be lame from being out in the cold.

  “Good Lord! It’s cold in here! What’s wrong with you, not keeping the heat on in a blizzard?” Mrs. Laforge asked with a scowl.

  It was a good thing Mrs. Laforge had saved Barney’s life. Lilly took a deep breath. “Our front window broke. I was waiting until Bill and the kids got home to put up plastic. I wanted to look for the dog first.”

  “It’s miserable in here.” It’s probably miserable wherever you go, Lilly thought with a grimace. But one look at Barney and she softened. She owed Edna Laforge a huge debt of gratitude.

  There was a rush of sound from the kitchen and Bill and the kids slammed the door shut behind them. Lilly could hear Laurel crying.

  “Barney’s home!” Lilly called out. Barney stayed by her side while Laurel and Tighe came rushing over, each of them holding a flashlight, tripping over each other in their happiness that Barney was home.

  “How did you find him?” Laurel cried.

  “I didn’t. Mrs. Laforge did,” Lilly said.

  “You’re darn right. That dog has caused no end of trouble for me today,” Mrs. Laforge said. Neither Tighe nor Laurel had seen her sitting at the table.

  “Mrs. Laforge! Thank you!” Laurel walked over to her and put her arms around the elderly woman’s neck.

  “That’s enough of that,” Mrs. Laforge said gruffly. “I’m just glad he’s all right.”

  Tighe and Laurel sat down next to Barney; he shifted so they could pet him. They stroked his fur, murmuring to him in low voices. Laurel went to the closet and returned just a moment later with an armful of blankets. She knelt on the floor next to Barney and folded a blanket into a pillow for him. Then she covered him with another thin blanket while she massaged his legs and paws. Tighe rubbed Barney’s side. Bill had moved closer to the group and he knelt down to pat Barney, too.

  “Someone unhooked that blizzard rope. Who would do that to an animal?” Tighe asked half-aloud. Lilly knew he didn’t expect an answer.