Trembling with cold the life of the forest retreated. As evening rose on the frozen wonderland, a northern wind descended from the tops of the trees. It whooshed over a cozy house, bringing icicles and snowflakes down with it. The snow fell and fell, piling up on the roof in clumps of white. Christmas lights hung beneath it, illuminating a window that was already yellow from the warmth within.
Inside the window, two children were doing a puzzle on a hearth made of brick. The fireplace was crowned by an oversized wreath, with two towering candles flanking it on the mantle below. As the logs on the fire crackled and splintered, its flames made the wall surrounding it glow with an amber hue. Beside the fireplace an ornamented Douglas fir rose as high as the ceiling, cheery with trinkets the children had dressed it with.
It had been snowing all day, forcing the school to close. Lucinda and Peter played in it all afternoon, making angel wings and snowmen, sledding on the hill down the road with all the other kids. Being the older sibling, Lucinda was appointed by her mother to watch over Peter. She was successful at it, if only because she said no every time he wanted to do something silly. For instance, after she taught him how to make a snowman, he threw a harmless snowball at its bottom, wanting to crash into it with his sled. Push me, push me!, he begged, clearly set on destroying it. She scolded her little brother, inviting him to make another snowman, a bigger one that would overshadow the smaller one she'd made. The diversion worked; Peter didn't want to crash his sled into the snowman anymore, he wanted to make as many of them as he possibly could. By the time the afternoon was over, the children had made a whole family of snow people- a father, mother, two children, and even a pet snow cat. Their mother was so impressed that she called their father, who told her he was coming home early just to see what amazing things they'd made with the snow.
On this short day of the winter solstice, darkness had already come, forcing the children inside at an early hour. The darkness reigned strongly over the pride of day, casting it into the shadows of the world. Clutching the forest with an invisible grip, it seemed to amplify the storm's intensity just by getting rid of the sun. The winds picked up as night came on. A blizzard began once the last rays of sunlight vanished from the tree tops.
Their mother was reading to them from her recliner in the corner. Lucinda thought she looked more tired and older than usual, curled up in her blanket away from the heat. Something about the winter reshaped people into things they wouldn't really become in years. The girl found it interesting how a season could so intrusively try to predict the future.
"When will father be home?", she asked her mother.
"Any time now, child."
"But I want to show him the snow people we made", said Peter. "Before it gets really dark."
"I'll call him, Peter. Just finish your puzzle first."
Peter threw a puzzle piece on the floor, pouting in disbelief. He'd grown tired of puzzles, Lucinda knew. There were few things he enjoyed doing with her lately, mainly because he'd grown into boyhood while she strayed into adolescence. Or was it the other way around? Sometimes it didn't make sense to her, but the main thing was that she missed him sometimes. They used to play with each other every day after school. Now he seemed to want to wait until his father got home before being happy with anything.
Lucinda still enjoyed doing puzzles; it had always been one of her favorite hobbies. She even liked doing ones she didn't find interesting, like the ones Peter had picked over the years. The one they were doing now had an aquarium full of neon tetras, clownfish, guppies, mollies and bettas, swimming amidst a background of opalescent coral. Lucinda didn't really care for fish, but it didn't matter. For her it was the science of puzzle solving that intrigued her most. The texture of the pieces, the way they fit with each other, the process of creating order out of chaos; everything about it seduced her mind into solving them.
"Did you know fish are the most common household pet?", her brother remarked.
"Really?" Lucinda didn't think it made any sense. "Peter, that simply can't be true. Why, think of all the people we know who own dogs and cats-"
"There are more fish in homes than dogs and cats. If each little aquarium has 10-50 fish in it, and at least a quarter of pet owners who own fish compared to dogs and cats, then the number of fish has to be much higher."
"Oh, I see. Well, when you put it that way I suppose it's true. But while the population of fish may be higher, the number of people owning them isn't."
"I said fish are the most common pet, not that more people own them," said Peter, sticking his tongue out at her. Rather than argue about something meaningless, Lucinda decided to return to the puzzle. Just as she picked up a piece with a fin on it, their mother came back in the room, saying their father was stuck in the snow and wouldn't be home for some time.
"Is father ok? Will he be warm enough?", said the worried girl.
"Now he won't get to see our snow family!", said the angry boy.
"I'm sure he'll be just fine. Your father's gotten out of many snow accidents in the past. I bet he'll be home sooner than you can finish your puzzle."
"No, he won't," said Peter, who promptly returned to the scattered pieces in front of him, excited about the new challenge.
Their father wasn't home before they finished. The puzzle was complete and dinner was served, yet there was still no sign of him. Snow continued to fall outside, the flakes getting bigger and falling faster than they had before. The wind started howling, which frightened Lucinda so much that she asked her mother to call him again. It wasn't like him to take this long, especially before a long holiday. He'd been so excited to take time off from building houses to spend it with his family, saying he'd come home early on the last day to beat the traffic. The irony of his being late made her shiver more than the cold outside did.
After dinner their mother grew desperate. Father hadn't answered his phone the last time she'd called, and it was snowing even harder. She decided to go looking for him, which Lucinda thought was a bad idea. Peter on the other hand welcomed it, wanting to go with her.
"Please can I come? You need a second pair of eyes to look for him while you watch the road."
"I'll be fine, Peter," she said, grabbing her keys and kissing them on their foreheads. "Lucinda, please don't worry. You're in charge while I'm gone. Peter, do everything your sister says."
"But mom!"
Deeper the darkness fell on the unsettled house. Cold air found its way through the vents, waging war against the heat of the hearth. The longer the evening drew on, the heavier the snow seemed to fall. It was snowing so much that Lucinda could see a drift that had started accumulating higher than the bottom of the window. It must have been a good two feet high at that moment. When she opened the front door, it got jammed in the snow that had blown onto the porch. Looking down the quiet street, she saw nothing that indicated human activity. No tire tracks, no footsteps. All was blanketed by the thickest snowpack she'd ever seen in the lowlands, swelling up by flakes as big as golf balls. Even the cars parked on the street were buried in it, barely recognizable under the mounds of white.
The scared girl talked her brother into cuddling with her by the fire while they waited for their parents. She could tell he was scared too, from the way he reluctantly agreed to do it. Normally he'd protest about something like that for a long time, but this time it only took him a moment to give in. When another gust of wind rattled the window, Peter shook in Lucinda's arms the same way he had when he was an infant.
"What's taking them so long?", he asked his sister, seeking reassurance.
"I don't know. They'll be back any minute."
"What if they never come back?"
"They will." Lucinda hoped Peter wouldn't detect the uncertainty in her assertion.
"Try calling mom again."
"Ok..."
"..."
"She didn't answer. Don't worry, she's probably too busy helping father."
"Lucy, I'm scared."
He only called her Lucy when there was a strong emotion running through his veins. Lucinda felt guilty at being pleased by this fear, for she always liked him better when he wasn't acting like a brat and calling her less endearing names. Even now, during one of the most terrifying nights of her life, she felt closer to her brother than she ever had, because for once they were sharing the same feelings.
Another hour went by without any sign from their parents. The snow level on the window had nearly reached the top. The flakes now looked supernatural, bigger than baseballs. She couldn't even open the door to get wood anymore. There was too much snow, everywhere. It seemed the house was being buried by it. How much could it snow?, she wondered. Could the whole planet be buried by it, like an ice world? When Lucinda tried calling her mother again, there wasn't even any service. Calling her father yielded the same results. Desperation set it. There was no power, no fire, and very little food left in the house. The longer the fire died, the more the cold won its battle with the heat.
Around 10 o'clock, Peter took action. He grabbed a shovel out of the garage and went to the well in their basement. He threw the shovel in and let himself down. At the bottom he started digging.
"Peter! Have you lost your senses? That won't do any good."
"I'm digging a hole to China. I read about it in a story."
"You can't dig that far. Even the strongest man in the world couldn't."
"I don't care. We have to get out of here. We could be trapped in this house for days. Do you want to freeze to death?"
Lucinda was awfully cold. She had on a wool coat, gloves, two pairs of socks, a scarf, and even a face mask, yet still she shivered where she stood. She had to admit the idea of digging their way to a warmer place was enticing enough to actually try it. However it swiftly appeared too ridiculous for her to take seriously. Digging a hole to China? That would never work. If people could dig clear across the Earth, there would be holes all over the place, she was sure of that.
"Peter, I refuse. You're going to waste a lot of time digging that far."
"Come on, lazy legs. Get down here and help me. If I have to do it by myself, it's going to take years!"
"Centuries", said Lucinda under her breath.
She waited for him to tire and come up, but he never did. The next time she checked on him, it was nearly midnight. He wasn't getting very far, by the look of it. She finally decided to help him after she realized the house might collapse with all the snow on top of it.
"Oh, alright," she told him, bringing down a shovel of her own. "I suppose there's nothing better to do to pass the time. I can't sleep worrying about mother and father and all our friends."
"And all the energy you use digging helps you stay warm," added Peter. "I'm sweating!"
"Yes, I see that. Well, to the other side of the world we go."
They dug and dug, all through the night. Meanwhile the snow fell for as long as they dug, another inch added for every five minutes they spent doing it. There was simply no telling when it would end. And the more they dug, the more they stopped caring. It was live or freeze to death, simple enough. They had to keep going or else they would die. Lucinda was mindful enough to bring down all the food and water from the house she could, lest they starve to death for their efforts.
It was during some ungodly hour of the night when Peter finally collapsed with fatigue. He fell on the dirt with a sweet release, sighing as he closed his baggy eyes. Lucinda egged him on by taunting him for being too tired to continue.
"Tired already? We still have 7,000 miles to go!", she said before plunging her shovel into the ground again.
"You started an hour after me, and I've been digging much harder than you."
"Tsk tsk. You're just making excuses because a girl's doing more work than you."
"No, I'm not!"
Before he could pick up his shovel to prove her wrong, Lucinda hit something metallic buried deep in the ground. She stood back in wonder, agape at what she'd found. At first, she thought it was a spaceship that had crashed into the Earth, right under their very house. When Peter pointed out a knob camouflaged by the dirt, she realized it was only a door. Slowly her brother opened it and peered inside. There was a stairway, leading further down into the ground. Once they got to the bottom, an immense cavern opened before their eyes, decorated by thousands of blue gems. They reflected off a path of obsidian that led to an abandoned mine cart on some rail tracks going straight down.
"Our ticket to China," gulped Peter.
To be continued...
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