My Dear Rob, Paula, and Sandy,
I’ve gone to find Sam. He is the love of my life and he is ill. I haven’t seen him for so very long. If I don’t go now, I may never see him. I must take care of him. My hope is that he and I will come back to you all soon, so that you, Sandy, will have your grandfather again, and that you, Rob, will have your dad. All of my love to all of you.
Mom
The sheriff opened the cruiser door, stepped out and looked up into the clear night sky, the note in his hand. Sandy got out and came around to join him. He put his arm around her.
Sandy said softly to the stars, “It’s just like you, Grandma. You always did do what you thought was right, not what’s easiest.” She put her head on her dad’s shoulder. “We understand. Please come back safe, soon, with Grandpa.”
The two stood for a minute more, then hugged and got back into the car. Sandy took out her mobile and called her mom.
When done with the call, Sandy began to cry. Between sobs she said, “It’s such a long way, Dad. And it’s so dangerous. I wonder if she’ll ever...I’ll, I miss her.”
“Me too,” said her dad, his voice cracking.
That night, Sparky’s father, expecting the government people to show up early, called Red, the head of the ski patrol and asked him to go up at dawn with Goober to make sure the cave was empty, hide the entrance, cover the path down to it and groom out the track leading to it.
“Good thing it’s starting to snow,” said Sparky, listening to his dad. “It’ll cover everything.”
Early next morning, while Red and Goober were at the cave, Sandy, Neff and Notch arrived with their parents for a meeting in Sparky’s father’s office. They brought themselves up to date and reaffirmed their agreement not to say anything about the cave and the Snoflians.
The parents excused themselves and left.
Sparky, Sandy, Neff and Notch waited with Sparky’s dad for Red to come back down from the cave.
CHAPTER 72
Gone
“THE CAVE’S ALL BUTTONED UP,” said Red, bursting through the office door. “Besides, it’s snowing so hard, no one will be able to find it.”
“Thanks for taking care of it, Red,” said Sparky’s father.
“Glad to help, Fred,” said the patroller. “But there’s something else. We found this.” He handed Sparky’s dad a Priority Mail envelope. “It must have come through before the wormhole took off.”
“Took off?” asked Sandy, “You mean the wormhole’s gone again?”
“Yes, Sandy,” the patroller said gently. “We threw in some envelopes, like we’ve been doing. They hit the wall and fell. I even tossed in some rocks to make sure. They clattered to the floor. There’s nothing there. If someone tries to come through from the other end now, who knows where they’ll end up?”
Sandy imagined the horrible cave they’d been dropped into. Oh Grandma!
Sparky’s dad pulled a note from the envelope. “It’s for you, Sandy,” he said, handing it to her. “I’ll leave you with it,” he said. “If you want to talk about it, I’ll be back shortly.”
He excused himself and left the office with Red, saying as he left, “We need to talk about this new part-time patroller. Seems she’s ruffled a few feath....” They closed the door behind them.
Notch smirked, “You told your dad about the patroller?” Sparky smiled, then looked at Sandy.
She was slowly reading the note.
Neff watched Sandy’s expression change. Bad news?
Sandy looked up and said, “It’s from Snowy.” She read the note aloud.
SANDY
MANY LOWCONZ WARRIORS COMING OVER MOVING MOUNTAINS TOWARD POD OUTPOST. LOWCONZ AND PIRATE WARSHIPS GATHERING OFF TRADING POINT. WE BELIEVE VYLDUNG INTENDS TO SEIZE OUTPOST, TRADING POINT, ALL OF LOWCONZIA. WE PREPARING FOR BATTLE. YOUR GRANDMOTHER IS ON SNOFLIAN WARSHIP TO TRADING POINT. SHE WOULD NOT WAIT IN SNOFLIANA, WHERE IT IS SAFE. SHE SAID SHE MUST GO TO SAM.
SMYLZZ
Sandy whispered, “Grandma, Grandpa!” She glanced at her friends. “This is awful. What will happen to them? And to Jung and the altivaulters?”
“Well, on the bright side,” said Notch, “even if the feds do find the cave, they won’t find a wormhole.”
Sandy gave him an angry look.
Neff said, “Notch, for gosh sake.”
Sparky looked away and said, “Sheeez.”
Notch, red-faced, said, “I guess that was stupid...I’m sorry, Sandy. Then he said quickly, “Look, maybe the wormhole will come back again. And maybe the Snoflians will stop Vyldung from getting your grand....”
“Enough, Notch,” said Neff.
Sandy glared at Notch. “You’re talking about my grandparents.” Then she turned to Neff and asked, “Do you think you can call the wormhole. Have it come to you, like before.”
“Call it?” asked Neff. “Maybe. But from where?”
“Probably from someplace it’s already been,” said Sparky, “like up in the cave, or in your barn.”
“With the government people coming,” said Notch, “I think going to the cave right now might be a bad idea.”
“How about Neff’s barn,” asked Sandy.
“I could try,” said Neff, “but your grandparents probably won’t be returning from Snoflia for a while. The Snoflians have to defend the trading point and get to the pod compound in the mountains to save your grandfather. All this will take time. Maybe the only thing we can do now is wait a bit, before I try to call the wormhole. Unless you want to go through right away!”
“I really want to go through, now,” said Sandy, “but, you’re right. There’s nothing I can do there. Grandma’s already gone to Lowconzia. And what if I went and couldn’t get back? I can’t leave my parents like that. Anyway, I can’t stop worrying.”
* * * *
That evening, Sparky’s mother returned from her visit to the city. She seemed especially upbeat. So did Sparky’s father.
Sparky said, “Good night,” went to his room, then snuck back out to listen. I hate doing this, but I have to know what’s going on.
His mom was talking. “The doctors called it a remarkable remission. They couldn’t detect anything. Nothing. They said they’ve never seen anything like this. Of course, they want me to go back again, just to make sure. I know it’s the Snoflian medicine that Grell gave me. She said it came from a rare plant in a place called Lowconzia.”
“Yes,” whispered Sparky, clenching his fist.
The next morning, Neff rode to school with her mother. “Dad said he’s coming up next weekend. Oooff,” exclaimed her mother, as they hit a pothole. “New crater,” she said. “Yes, he’s really eager to see you.”
Neff looked forward to being with her father. She could use a little break from her mother. Since Neff had come back, her mother had been spending an awful lot of time with her.
Hovering they call it. I wish Mom would get back to her writing. Neff knew her mother would eventually let off, but somehow it felt like that wouldn’t happen any time soon.
As they drove, they talked about the Snoflians and Slytherzz, the Snoflian sea otter.
“I’d love to have one,” fantasized Neff. “I could ski with it, go exploring with it, even curl up with it in front of the TV.” She drifted away in thought.
Her mom broke the silence. “That would be fun, hon. But, from what you say, the Snoflians feel strongly about protecting their planet from alien species. A lot of us here on Earth do too. Who knows what would happen, if we let different species come through willy-nilly.”
“I guess,” said Neff, “especially with something as big as Slytherzz.”
They pulled up in front of the school. “I think no matter what size an alien species is, big or small, if it shows up here, we should send it back.”
Neff looked pensive for a moment, then got out
of the car. She didn’t see Trevor Trumble duck away from the window in the school’s front door.
“She’s here,” Trevor whispered to Buff and Biff, their backs to the wall in wait. “When she comes in, you guys run into her like you’re in a hurry. I’ll grab her backpack.”
The twins leered at one another.
Neff opened the car’s back door and pulled out her backpack.
Her mother, watching, thought she saw a small nose and a pair of tiny eyes peep out from under the backpack cover, then dart back in. What was that? “Is there an animal in your backpack?”
“Uh huh,” replied Neff, “just a little...friend I found. Not to worry.” She quickly slung her backpack over one shoulder and headed up the walkway to the front door.
Halfway there, she looked back and waved, “Bye.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’m grateful to those who inspired this story—The boys and girls I’ve been privileged to coach over the years, including my sons, David, Drew and Todd.
And I thank those who generously contributed their time to the book’s development—Jesse and Zoe Schneider, and Josh Lerner, my grandkids, who gave me their young-readers’ feedback; My wife, Paula, advocate and superb story editor who, time after time, has nudged my writing back on track; Darrin Prescott who took the cover photo of Todd skiing in the Sierra backcountry; Nadine Lerner, BlueDogz Design, who gave her advice on the book cover and who created thesnowy.com website.
Dave Schneider
The Snowy Page 29