by Hunter, Lara
She tore her eyes from her food and looked at Jason. Am I really going to say this?
Anna exhaled slowly. “Okay, so let me get this straight. You just happened to forget to sign the most important part of the document of one of our biggest deals this year. Which happens to lead to me driving all the way up here, instead of you driving back down—but you say you can’t do that, even though you can’t tell me why,” Anna said, frostily.
Jason stared back at her, unsure of where she was going with this.
“You insist that I stay for dinner, and when I decide to leave, I just happen to get stuck in the snow, and you just happen to turn up at the right place at the right time, and rescue me. It all just seems…a little too convenient,” Anna finished.
Jason looked at Anna, wide-eyed. “Are you suggesting that I…somehow manufactured this situation? That I got you stuck here on purpose?” Jason asked, confused.
Anna frowned, unsure what to make of Jason’s response. She sensed that what she was accusing Jason of was extreme, but at the same time, things weren’t adding up and she wanted to know why.
Jason shook his head. “Um,” he said, blinking, looking away and then back at Anna. “Look, I know it’s weird that I didn’t just drive down to the office and sign the contract,” he said. “It’s a difficult situation to explain, but just believe me when I say it wasn’t manufactured just to…trap you in here,” he said, an expression of distaste forming at the word “trap”. He looked at her earnestly. “I advised you to wait out the storm because I know the weather here. And I can recognize when it’s particularly dangerous because…” he seemed to struggle through his next words. “Because, years ago, during a bad bout of weather, I lost people who were close to me on this road here.”
The news stopped Anna’s suspicious thoughts in their tracks. She felt a pang of guilt for accusing him of trying to trap her in the cabin.
Jason continued, “I wasn’t sure if I was going to find you stuck there on the mountainside, but I had to double-check. I wouldn’t be able to bear it if something happened to you just because of my issues with Christmas; just because I shut myself away in such an isolated, dangerous place; just because I need to avoid people…”
Anna nodded, sympathetically. “If you don’t mind me asking,” she said softly, “who was it that you lost?”
Jason exhaled sharply. He turned and walked to the liquor cabinet, selecting a bottle of whiskey and two crystal tumblers. Sitting back down at the table, he poured himself a large shot. He downed the whole thing before pouring another round and passing a glass to Anna.
“The people who died in the car crash were my parents. I was with them when it happened… I was twelve years old.”
Anna shook her head as she tried to process what she was hearing. Oh my God. “I’m so sorry that you had to experience that,” she said, meeting his eyes.
They sat in silence for a few moments, then Jason tried to changed the subject. “You should try it,” he said, gesturing at Anna’s glass. “It’s pretty good whiskey.”
“I’m okay, thank you,” she said politely. She knew it was probably ridiculous after everything that had transpired, but she was still secretly hoping the snow would let up and that she could make the drive back. She wouldn’t be able to do that if she was drunk.
Jason looked at her sternly, his brow furrowed. “Are you still hoping to get back behind the wheel tonight? Are you going to ski back to your car in the middle of the night?”
“What? Of course not,” Anna said, embarrassed at being found out so easily.
A glance out the window revealed only a massive wall of white. Maybe it was time for her to accept that there was no way she was going to make it to her parents’ this evening. Anna shivered, crossing her arms, having still not fully warmed up from their trek through the snow.
Jason leapt up. “Here,” he said. “Have my jacket,” he said, taking it off and offering it to her.
“Oh no, that’s okay. Thank you, though,” she said, feeling embarrassed. She was beginning to realize that her default response was no whenever she was offered help. Owing a debt to Jason was really bothering Anna. She’d always prided herself on being a self-made woman, and the situation was hurting her ego.
“Ah, okay. Well, I’m feeling a little chilly myself anyway… I’ll get a fire going,” Jason said. He collected the dishes and took them over to the sink before proceeding to the fire pit. Anna watched from her chair as he started a fire, the crackling noises filling the silence.
Jason returned to the table and poured himself another drink. “Look at me, yapping on and on about myself,” he laughed nervously. He picked up his glass and the bottle and made his way back to the living room. Anna followed, and they settled on the floor, next to the fire.
Jason cleared his throat. “So, Anna, tell me something about yourself.”
His question caught Anna off guard. “Ah…well you know… I guess I had a pretty normal childhood, a sibling, a dog and the rest of it. I majored in business in college and now I’m working for you…but you knew that already…” she said, suddenly bashful. “But, I’m interested in hearing more about your backstory, Jason.” She hesitated on the cusp of veering into personal territory. “For example, why is it that you choose to spend the holidays here, alone?” Anna asked gently.
Jason sighed. “It’s kind of a long story, but if you want to know, Anna, I’ll tell you.” Anna nodded encouragingly, sensing she may be among a very small group of people to have heard this story—possibly the only one.
“My parents were driven businesspeople, but their success came at the expense of their free time. They were always working, and my childhood Christmases were always spent with my nanny, Lucy. That changed the year I was twelve…”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The tutor tried to disguise her boredom as she quizzed an adolescent blond boy on his Latin conjugations. The two sat at a mahogany table imported from Asia, their feet grazing an intricately-woven Persian rug.
“Can you tell me the second person of the present tense of amā́re?”
Jason chewed on his pencil. “Is it…amat?”
“No. It’s amō,” the tutor said, unimpressed.
After Latin, the piano teacher stopped by for an hour. By then, it was six o’clock, and Jason had an hour of recreational time before dinner at seven.
“I don’t think you should be using your free time to play Drag Racerz 3,” Lucy, his nanny since birth, said. She had warm, brown eyes and straight, black hair. “Annalise says you didn't know all of your Latin words. Your parents would not be happy to hear that. Perhaps you should use this time to revise?” Lucy suggested.
Jason groaned. “Oh, c’mon, Lucy. Please? I can catch up on my conjugations some other time,” he protested.
Lucy sighed, relenting. “Okay, okay. This one time only.”
Jason grinned, and hurried to the family’s entertainment center. He stopped and turned, saying “You can play if you want, too.”
“Oh, no, that is okay,” Lucy waved. “You have fun.”
“C’mon, you’ll like it,” Jason insisted.
Sure enough, Lucy got as into the game as Jason. “That banana peel got me!” she exclaimed. Jason giggled.
“Okay, it is time to eat,” she announced, after an hour had passed.
Jason reluctantly got up and trudged to the dining room. He resented his strict schedule, and dreamed of being free of it one day.
Mabel and Jackson Hawthorne were rarely home for dinner, so Lucy would normally eat with Jason. The family had a personal chef that would cook them whatever they wanted, and make it nutritionally balanced to boot. That morning, Jason had put in a request for paella and steak.
“You got it, little man,” the chef had winked.
They would normally spend their dinners discussing tales from Lucy’s home country. On the rare occasion his parents were home for dinner, Jason stayed quiet as his parents discussed business.
“T
he Florida real estate market is in a slump right now, but I think that’s a false valuation, and that it’ll pick up in no time,” his father mused.
“Well we should jump in there before anyone else realizes that, and then ride that bull run,” his mother said. She immediately got up to make a phone call. “Hi Helen, can you send me a report on the Tampa market, and put in some preliminary stocks in there ASAP?”
Occasionally, Jason’s parents would stop their business talk to address him.
“Jason. Your piano teacher informed me that you’ve been slacking on your scales. You need to devote more time to practicing,” his mother said.
Jason groaned. “I have been practicing.”
“Clearly, not enough,” she replied.
Jason’s father cut him off from further protests, saying, “Listen to your mother,” before going back to discussing fluctuating property values.
Jason never enjoyed the business-talk dinners, but they were still preferable to the no-talk ones—when his parents were so angry at each other that their hateful silence permeated the room.
In short, Jason was glad he only had to eat with his parents about once a month. He had a good enough rapport with the chef, driver and, of course, his nanny that he figured he was about covered on the adult influence front.
“Hey, I heard Jessica and Ryan snuck into her dad’s yacht and drank and made out.”
It was lunchtime, and Jason was sitting with his friends outside of their school, Easton Prep (the most expensive private school in the city). Snow was on the ground, but the weather was still mild.
“Whatever,” Jason replied.
“Hey, so what are you doing for Christmas? My family’s going to Bali,” his friend said smugly.
Jason shrugged. “Nothing.”
“That’s lame.”
“You’re lame,” Jason laughed.
The truth was that Jason’s Christmases were like any other day, except that the chef would throw in a pumpkin pie or the like on top of the regular dinner—all prepared beforehand, because he went home for the holidays. Sometimes Lucy and Jason would play cards. He never saw his parents at Christmas; they always said that “Christmas is crunch time.”
A regular day of school and study over, Jason clambered off to his king-sized bed. He closed his eyes, thinking about his upcoming history test, and a girl he had a crush on in his math class. I wonder if she likes me back… he thought, as he drifted off.
He woke with a jolt to the sound of yelling coming from his parents’ room.
The worst thing about having a big house was that everything echoed. Jason put a pillow over his head, trying to shut it out, but it was no use. Their anger cut through the pillow down with no problem.
They’re yelling louder than they usually do, Jason thought, worried. After a few moments, he decided to investigate.
He made the long trek down the hall to his parents’ bedroom. With each step, the incoherent yelling became closer to resembling words, but Jason still couldn’t make out what the fuss was about.
When he reached their bedroom, Jason glimpsed through a small crack in the door. He could see his father’s back, and his mother’s angry, red, tear-streaked face. The only word he heard was an anguished uttering of “pregnant”, before his father crumpled to the floor, clutching his chest.
Jason ran into the room without thinking. “DAD!” he yelled, kneeling down beside him. His father was sweating profusely, his breath coming in erratic gulps.
Jason looked to his mother, desperate for guidance, for a sign of what to do. But his mother just stood there, frozen, staring in horror at her husband.
Jason stood up and gunned it towards his parents’ telephone where he frantically dialed 911. Just as he’d been told to do in school, he calmly answered the dispatcher’s questions. Based on his father’s symptoms, they concluded he was having a heart attack, and instructed Jason to give his father an aspirin while the ambulance was on its way.
“MOM!” he yelled. “Where’s the aspirin?!”
She snapped out of her catatonic state. “I’ll go get it. Stay with your father,” she said, sprinting towards the ensuite bathroom.
Jason sat beside his father, awkwardly holding his hand as he drew wheezing breaths. Jason knew, even as it was happening, that the image of his father red-faced and struggling for air, would stick in his mind forever. C’mon, paramedics, hurry up… he thought anxiously.
His mother returned with the aspirin and a glass of water, and helped her husband to take two.
“Do you think you can walk?” his mother said gently.
His father nodded. Jason and his mother slowly hoisted him up and helped him walk down the stairs and to the front door. The family waited only a few moments before they heard the telltale screech of sirens, breathing a sigh of relief when paramedics arrived on the front step.
Jason and his mother sat quietly in the ambulance as the paramedics worked on his father. His mother rubbed her eyes. She looked like the epitome of exhaustion.
“Mom?” Jason asked.
“Yes, honey?” his mother said quietly.
“Will Dad be okay?”
“I think so,” she said. She looked at Jason warily, and put an arm around his shoulder.
The next day, Jason went to visit his father after school, the driver dropping him off at the hospital.
“How are you, Dad?” he asked tentatively as he entered the room.
“I’m fine,” his father said gently. “How was school?”
Jason shrugged. He turned to his mother who was sitting by the bed. “Mom, you’re here? Who’s looking after the business?”
His mom waved away the question. “It’s okay, Jason. The business will survive without us for a few days.”
Jason raised his eyebrows. This was certainly news to him.
Seeing Jason’s expression, his mother sighed. “I know…I know that flies in the face of how we’ve acted, all these years…”
To Jason’s surprise, his father clasped his hand in his. “I’m so sorry, Son. Last night made me realize how much time I’ve been wasting… I know I should have spent more time with you and your mom…” he said, looking deep into Jason’s mother’s eyes. “I shouldn’t have chained myself to my desk all these years,” he lamented. “I shouldn’t have spent so much time on things…that ultimately don’t matter…”
“Don’t keep beating yourself up, Jackson,” Jason’s mom sighed, putting a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “I should have known better, too.”
Jason’s father looked at the two of them. “This year, we’re going to fix our priorities. We’re going to spend a proper Christmas together, as a family. We’ll get away from the city and spend some quiet time in the cabin that we never use.”
“That sounds wonderful, honey,” his mom said. She rose to her feet and gave Jason a hug.
Jason felt overwhelmed at this overnight shift in his parents. Feeling like a great weight had been lifted, he hugged his mom back.
The Hawthorne family’s first-ever road trip got off to an awkward start. None of them could recall the last time they had actually all spent time together, outside of their stilted dinners.
His mother asked, “So…how are your lessons going?”
Jason shrugged, before realizing that from her position in the front, his mother couldn’t actually see him. “Good,” he replied vaguely.
His mother nodded. “How is your friend…uh…Michael? I haven’t seen him in a while.”
Jason blinked, trying to think of who his mom could possibly be talking about. “Oh,” he said finally. “Mickey? I haven’t really been friends with him since fourth grade.”
“Oh. That’s too bad,” his mother murmured.
After a few minutes of silence, his father switched on the radio, and the rest of the ride was spent listening to sixties tunes. Jason peered through the window, observing the snow falling faster and faster with each passing mile.
After about an hour, Jason�
��s father announced, “We’re nearly there. We just have to cross this last mountain…” he said, hesitantly, trying to focus on the road through the constant torrent of snow.
His mom clutched at his dad’s arm suddenly. “Sorry,” she said. “Thought I saw a car coming…”
The anxiety levels in the car rose as it became harder and harder to see anything.
“Okay,” his dad said finally, “I’m going to pull over. We’ll have to wait till the storm calms down a bit.”
His mother nodded, exhaling with relief as her husband pulled over to the side of the road.