Lilly stared wistfully up at her ceiling. Snowboarding lessons had ended weeks ago, but ever since she fell that one time she'd been too afraid to try it again without another lesson. There had to be something she was doing wrong.
Anne knocked on the door, and Lilly sat up, getting off her lovely bed. She yawned, as if she had just woken up, and opened the door.
"Breakfeast is ready," Anne said. They switched off making meals, and today Anne had breakfeast and dinner while Lilly had lunch.
"What is it?"
"Scrambled eggs with cheese, lemon sausage, cold cereal, honeydew and orange juice."
"Yum," Lilly said. Anne always made good breakfasts. She sat down at the table and helped herself.
"I was out this morning," Anne told Lilly, "and I found out Marie's putting up this web page linked to Save Our Canyons. She's gotten really involved with that stuff."
"Yeah, it figures," Lilly said. "She's always doing petitions about how Snowbird is bad to the environment. Save Our Canyons is doing almost the same thing, but they have evidence. They graded Snowbird a D, it's on the list of 10 worst ski areas/resorts to the environment."
"I think Save Our Canyons is neat," Anne said. "Well, I'm going to snowshoe down to that frozen creek. I'll be back in twenty minutes."
"Okay."
Anne left, snowshoes strapped securely to her boots. She arrived at the frozen creek, pulled her skates out of her bag, stowed her shoes, and took off down to a shed she had built with Lilly some time ago.
Inside the shed was all of the wiring connecting the solar panel and waterwheel, which lay stopped just down the creek.
During days the water is frozen, she gets a pick and frees the wheel of the ice before it stops the electricity flow and stops their heat.
She works hard at the ice, standing on the bank. Today's ice is pretty thick. Raising the pick far above her head, she silently counted to three and then brought it down with a clang!, connecting to the ice with such force it cracked open. She soon had the wheel spinning again, and took off down the creek towards home.
Lilly was on the porch, snapping on her snowboard.
"Do you want to come?" She asked Anne. "I'm going to the Lodge. Daisy said to meet me there."
Anne shook her head. "You know I never go to the Lodge."
"It wouldn't hurt," Lilly told her.
"Nobody there really likes me. I hang out at the Hangout."
Lilly shrugged. "Do what you want. I want to shoot some pictures for some poems. I'll let you borrow one if you want. You've been wanting to make that sculpture of a tree for a long time."
"No, it's okay," Anne said. She sighed and walked inside.
Shrugging, Lilly took off down the trail, attempting to turn. Deciding a turn would be impossible, she did falling leaves all the way to Gad Valley. She took Mid Gad to the top and then slid tentatively down to the Lodge.
Daisy was just inside, sipping hot cocoa and checking her watch.
"Swiss miss?" Lilly said, wrinkling her nose. She preferred the real thing -- ground up cocoa bean with hot water.
"Yeah," Daisy said. "Ready to go work on the site?"
"Go? Isn't the computer room down the hall?"
"Yeah, it is. But I'm still waiting for Marie to show -- and it was her idea to come in the first place."
"I'll go boot up the computer," Lilly offered, starting down the hall. She wasn't a big fan of Marie's.
Marie sat in the chair in front of the computer. "There you are! Where'd Daisy go? She's late."
"Daisy's out there, waiting for you," Lilly said, sounding startled. "How'd you know I was Lilly?" Marie often got the twins mixed up, even though she was a twin herself. A twin of Anne's, actually. But this did not oblige Lilly to like her.
"I know Daisy well enough to know her from you anywhere."
"That's an improvement from yesterday," Lilly remarked rudely.
"Hey, don't be so harsh."
Just then, Daisy rounded the corner, saying, "Fine, we'll have to do this without her, if she's a `no show'. Hi, Marie!"
"Where've you been?"
"Waiting for you for the last fifty minutes!"
"Well, me too."
"Let's get to work on the site, guys," Lilly said. They were starting a website against Snowbird. Lilly was only in on it beacause she was bored.
They wrote about Snowbird ruining the environment and made a link to Save Our Canyons site.
After hours of work, Lilly went home. Anne sat at the table, munching on a sandwitch. "Hi," Lilly said briefly, mind on the site.
"It's three-thirty."
"Mmmm."
Anne sighed, got up, and was about to leave the room. But she changed her mind and turned. "What about lunch?"
"What about it?" Lilly asked blankly.
"It was your turn."
Lilly looked at her blankly for a few seconds longer, then her face filled with recognition, then regret. "Ooops! I guess I forgot. Hey, I think the water's probably re-froze -- it's a bit chilly in here." She got up, heading for the mudroom to get her snowshoes.
"It's probably just your concience," Anne muttered under her breath. She turned and went down the hall to her room. Lilly could take care of dinner this evening.
Lilly was at the frozen creek, changing into her skates, when she saw something move. A tail flicked, and two big, brown eyes stared at her. A deer!
She put on her boots again and re-strapped her snowshoes. Packing her skates, she neared the deer. It took off. She took off to follow it, snapping pictures the entire way.
An hour or so later, she returned to the creek and crossed the bank home. She followed the trail Anne had made that morning and went inside. Through the mudroom, through the hallway, and then Anne burst out of the kitchen, with an angry expression on her face. "Gone for one and a half hours! Must've been thick ice!" Then she shivered, looked away.
"Ice?"
"Lilly, you're an empty skull today. You said you were going to clear up the waterwheel! It's freezing in here!"
"Oh! Right! I'll go do that now," Lilly said.
"No, I'll do it," Anne said. "It's my week, anyway. You make dinner."
"You get dinner today."
"You wimped out on lunch."
Lilly turned pink. "I didn't mean to. I'll make dinner, then." She turned to the stove and opened some cupboards, getting out cans of organic tuna and cheese. She fished out a bag of noodles as she heard the door slam behind Anne.
Outside, Anne could see her breath in a cloud in front of her face. The trees were capped in snow and the branches spangled with frost. She got a picture to paint as she headed out.
The ice was thick, but not enough for it to take her one and a half hours to break up. She had it cleared in half an hour, and headed back right away.
At least Lilly had done something right, Anne found herself thinking as she entered the kitchen. Her favorite dinner was hot, steaming, and waiting.
"Thanks," she said, before she could stop herself. She was so used to being nice to Lilly, she almost forgot she had decided to be mad at her and call her an empty skull earlier.
"You'r welcome," Lilly said. "Look, I'm sorry. I really was an empty skull today. I was so wrapped up in the new web site this morning, I completely forgot it was my day to do lunch. And it really was a great breakfast, too. Then, when I was putting on my skates, I found this deer. It ran off, so I followed it. I forgot, I was so wrapped up in trying to find it again. I'm really sorry."
"An apology," Anne said. "I'm shocked."
"Huh?"
"You avoided it all day." Anne helped herself to some pasta and then gobbled it up.
"Look, I understand why you're mad," Lilly pleaded. "But please, don't be."
"Why not? You blew me off twice. I feel like I'm the one doing all the work around here. What we need is some time apart."
"Anne, what are you talking about? You're not moving out?"
"Moving? No. I just need some time on my own. I'll be back."
"You sound like my parents before a divorce. My dad, actually. He left us, and soon after Daisy and I ran away."
"I mean it, Lilly. I need some time to myself -- I can't go on like this forever."
"How long will you be gone?"
"Two or three days," Anne promised.
Privately, Lilly was relieved. She had been secretly fearing a span of four weeks -- or months? Instead she replied, "Well, I can't stop you."
Anne nodded approvingly and went to her room. "I'll be gone tomorrow morning, when you wake up."
Lilly didn't say anything. She just pushed her plate into the middle of the table, stood up, and went into her room.
The next morning, Anne was gone.
Anne shivered, shifting her pack on her shoulders and pushing off with her poles down Thunder Alley. She had left the evening before, setting up camp. All she had done was hung a tarp between some trees, shoveled away the snow underneath, laid out a sleeping bag, and stashed some food in upper branches. Today, she hung sheets on all four sides of the tarp, so that they served as walls. She was lonely in half an hour, and cold before then.
Just because she was sleeping there didn't mean she had to spend all her time there, she decided. She took off for the Lodge, surprised at herself for actually wanting to go.
She ran into a nice girl named Rachel there. Rachel was really understanding and Anne told her all about the fight and how she felt like she was doing all the work while Lilly stumbled around apologizing.
Rachel didn't tell her that people can get distracted and Anne would have done the same thing if she'd seen the deer or she'd been all caught up in the new web site. Instead she listened calmly and let Anne tell her side of the story.
Anne dumped and then Rachel offered that Anne could stay with her until she cooled down.
"Okay," Anne agreed. And Rachel took her to her home in Mineral Basin.
Anne plopped down on the couch and heard someone say, "Hellllllo. Peek-a-boo. Bye-bye! Babye! Hi! Babye!" She turned and saw a parrot, perching on top of her cage and whistling.
Rachel came in and said, "Hello, Lorie." She walked through the living room to the kitchen and left it through another door to the hall where there were two bedrooms and a bathroom. "Follow me, Anne." Anne followed.
Soon she was situated in the spare room. There was a nice bed with three flat pillows and blue and yellow covers. The carpet was stiff and golden colored and the walls were indigo.
"It's not the nicest room in the world," Rachel admitted, "but it'll do for a few days, won't it?"
"Better than my campsite," Anne said. "And I'm only staying another two days."
Rachel nodded and smiled and left her doorway. Anne collapsed on the bed. He heard a "Whooo Whooo!" From the living room and decided to go look at Lorie for a while.
Lorie cocked her head when Anne came in the room. "Hi!" She chirped.
Anne smiled and held out her hand. Lorie eyed it suspiciously and climbed down to her door. "Rachel!" she called.
"Anne," said Anne. Fascinated at the new word, Lorie turned around and cocked her head at Anne again.
"Aah," Lorie tried.
"Anne," Anne repeated.
"Aah."
Anne looked at her funny. "Nnnn," she said.
"Gng," Lorie tried.
"Nnnnn," Anne said again.
"Nin," Lorie said. "Nininin!"
"Nnnnn," Anne said again. Lorie fluffed.
Anne found she liked Lorie. By the next day, she said "Anne" (since the `e' doesn't say anything).
Anne left the morning of what she thought was probably the third day but was actually the fourth, took Mineral Basin to the top and then went down Chips. Cutting off to her secret trail and heading for the beautiful forest, the sun was low on the trees. She had taken Mineral Basin and the tram several times, and she had recognized that the crowd was thinning out and most of the chairlifts looked immobile, so I suppose she knew it was coming. But she was still surprised.
Lilly was sitting in the kitchen, stony-faced. A really cold breakfast sat on the counter -- scrambled eggs with fried potatoes and cheese, bacon, cold cereal, kiwi slices, 3 pancakes and a glass of orange juice. Anne felt a rush of guilt.
"Oh, you made my favorite breakfeast!"
Lilly turned to her, teary-eyed. "Yesterday," she said. "I made it yesterday, when you said you'd be home." A big, fat tear rolled down her cheek.
"Oh, Lilly!" Anne said. "I'm so sorry. I didn't realize you cared so much about when I came home!"
"I didn't realize you cared so much about a waterwheel or lunch," Lilly countered. Anne bit her lip.
"I did kind of over-react."
"I'll say. I'm really sorry I fluked out on you -- but at least I didn't come home days late."
"I can still heat it up," Anne said, turning to the breakfast. "All but the cereal, it's to soggy. And the orange juice I can put in the fridge."
"Do whatever you want," Lilly said, and disappeared down the hall. "You seem to anyway." Anne felt another wave of guilt. She started the microwave and walked to Lilly's closed door.
"Look, I'm really sorry. I was having fun with Lorie -- I lost track of the days. And when I was skiing, I didn't realize how late it got."
"Hmmm -- what was it you said -- `An apology! I'm shocked!'"
"Lilly, please. I know I overreacted, and I'm sorry. I would have done the same if I were you."
Silence. "You sure?" Lilly finally asked.
"Yes," Anne said.
"Well, I suppose I forgive you, too."
"Can we hug now?" Anne asked.
Lilly appeared in her doorway, and embraced her friend.
THE END