....later
Glyn woke up when she thought she heard a mouse scurrying across the floor. It was still dark so she decided not to get up. She'd had quite enough running around blindly for one day, and besides, she wasn't able to walk normally. So instead of hobbling blindly around in a dark room she wasn't very familiar with, Glyn sat on the couch and listened. She heard a faint rustling noise again. 'Maybe Brian or Marian or AJ moved or something.' She listened for another few minutes, unable to go to sleep once she started thinking about a particular box of pictures upstairs. 'The box.... what if someone's upstairs? What if that's the noise I heard? Oh no. Oh no. Oh no....' The room was pitch black. Maybe if it hadn't been snowing there would have been a little light from the windows. She sat still in the dark for a little while longer, then flinched when she heard something on the stairs. She tried to look relaxed and semi-asleep, and sighed with relief when Marian tiptoed down the staircase, holding a match between two fingers for light. Marian smiled at her and blew the match out.
Glyn heard Marian get back on her respective couch and the cabin was silent again. She stretched her legs out absent-mindedly, forgetting about AJ and flinching when she accidentally nudged him with her feet. Glyn hoped he wouldn't wake up and pulled her knees up to her chin quickly.
"Glyn?" AJ whispered. He was already awake when she accidentally kicked him. He'd woken up when he heard Marian creep upstairs, then back down again. "Glyn? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sorry. I forgot you were there." Glyn whispered nervously.
"It's okay. Why did Marian--"
"I don't know." Glyn murmured quickly. "Don't ask me."
"Sorry." AJ wondered what was upstairs that was so important and secret.
"Sorry.." Glyn echoed. "I'm going back to sleep.."
"Good night, Glyn" AJ tried to find her hand in the dark but couldn't He sighed and went back to sleep.
THE NEXT DAY
"Don't throw snow at me!" Marian commanded. Brian had thrown yet another snowball at her, and this one had also barely missed. "I KNOW you're missing on purpose."
"Maybe he just has REALLY bad aim." Glyn suggested. She was building a snow thing, and had decided to name it Chester. It was holding an axe and had antlers made of sticks, and horns/ears made from some ice cream cones she'd found inside.
"That thing is scary Glyn." Brian informed her.
"His name is CHESTER." Glyn stated. "Be nice to Chester. He's a lot cuter than you are."
"Chester, Petrie, God, and us...." Marian mused. Glyn and Marian glanced at AJ, who was 'playing God,' building little snow people and knocking them over when he wasn't harrassing Glyn by putting handfuls of snow on her hair.
"You're in pretty good company, Chester..." Glyn said approvingly, packing a little more snow around one of Chester's antlers. "Not the best..." She looked at 'God' and 'Petrie' pointedly. "...but pretty good." Two well-aimed snowballs suddenly hit Chester's widely-grinning face.
"GOD says watch your attitude!" AJ declared.
"Ha!! I KNEW you could aim well when you want to." Marian looked at Brian triumphantly. "You just want to scare me by making me think you're trying to hit me with snowballs."
"Hmm... Don't make me prove that!" Brian smiled forgivingly. No, he wouldn't pelt Marian with snow right now.
"Let's go inside. It's cold," AJ whined.
"You think you're cold," Glyn scowled. "You, at least, have a change of clothing. Don't worry Chester, I won't leave you. You and I are staying right here." She smiled charmingly at the snow face.
"Stop it!" AJ pleaded, sitting in the snow beside Chester and Glyn. "Come inside!!! Chester doesn't care about you."
"Hmm..." Glyn looked from Chester to AJ and back to Chester. "What if I think none of you care about me either? Chester is a very warm, loving ... person. Yeah. Person." She tried unsuccessfully not to laugh at herself.
"Ooh, Glynnie. I think God is displeased." Marian watched as AJ held a handful of snow above Glyn's head. "He just wants you to know he cares." AJ laughed evilly and dumped the snow on Glyn's hair.
"No!!!!!!! Now my hair's all damn wet. See?? Look at this." Glyn held up some of her hair. "The snow from the LAST time he put snow on me had melted and some of it was freezing."
"Ha. That's nothing compared to what happened that time you went outside when your hair was long and you had it braided, and it was wet..." Marian reminisced, looking blankly at the sky.
"Care to explain?" AJ asked, holding another handful of snow threateningly over Glyn's head.
"You will NOT drop that on me! Put it down," she commanded. AJ obeyed. "I had taken a shower one night, and Mari braided my hair for me. This was when it was still long. I went outside to ... well, no reason really. But it was really cold and the braid just kinda froze. It was really cool!"
"Wait... Why again did you go outside in the freezing cold when your hair was wet?" Brian hadn't really been listening.
"Jee darnit Brian! If you would listen to what I was saying instead of staring at Mari all the time you'd hear more than half of what I say." Glyn smiled mischievously. "There wasn't really a reason."
"Glyndalyn! Stop harassing Brian. He was not staring at me," Marian insisted, hoping they'd assume the pink in her cheeks was from being outside in cold weather.
"Yes he was!" Glyn protested, confident that she was right. "He was! Weren't you Brian." "Ahhh..." Brian smiled and shrugged. "Maybe." There was silence for a few moments.
"Marian? Didn't you once say there was a lake here, somewhere? Or something to that extent?" Glyn asked, trying to remember. "Marian!" She hit Marian's shoulder lightly.
"What? Lake? Um. Yeah! There's a lake." Marian smiled absently.
"You two are sickening! Chester, let's go somewhere else. Oh wait, you can't walk. Haha, neither can I!" Glyn sighed and looked around. "I guess we're stuck here, Chester. I'm sorry darling." She leaned her head on Chester's arm.
"Let's go to the lake! Marian where is it?" AJ looked painedly at Glyn.
"Follow mee!" Marian started running off through the woods along a little path. Brian sprinted off after her.
"Oh, great." AJ grumbled.
"Oh good! They left. You can uncover your eyes, Chester. The sappy staring people are gone." Glyn scraped some snow off of Chester's face adoringly, freeing the rocks that served as his eyes.
"Glyn.." AJ took one of her hands. "Come on, let's go to the lake with Mari and Bri."
"I thought you were cold." Glyn looked up at him innocently.
"Um, I'm not anymore! Let's go. If you don't get up I'm going to have to carry you."
"Ooo, anything but that!" Glyn pulled herself up and started limping off toward the lake, following Marian and Brian's footprints. "Are you coming, Alexander?"
"Yes, Glyndalyn." He caught up with her (she wasn't very far ahead or anything) and walked beside her to the lake. When they got there, Marian and Brian were having a snow fight and running about happily.
"I could build a new snow dude!" Glyn realized ecstatically. "I could name this one Jason!" She knelt down in the snow and started building a new snow guy. He looked basically like Snow Chester, except he didn't have the axe or ice cream cones. When he was almost done, Glyn had an idea and took off her shoes, filling them with snow. She dangled them off of Jason's hands and smiled at her handiwork. "My socks are wet." Glyn muttered to herself.
"Glyn,where are your shoes?" Marian called. She was standing on the lake which was frozen over.
"Jason has them!" Glyn yelled happily. "My toes are turning blue!!!" She didn't know if that was true because she had socks on, but she thought it sounded nice. There was a cracking sound and a splashing. Brian was now sitting in shallow icy water. Glyn started laughing at him and Marian ran over to see if he was okay.
"You're all wet!" Marian exclaimed. "You're going to freeze! We should go back to the cabin."
"I'm not that wet." Brian protested. The water was reeaaalllly cold.
"Brian are you okay?!" AJ ran over to him and Marian. He saw Glyn over by one of her snow things and figured she was all right.
"I'm fine." Brian stood up and started trudging back to the path. AJ and Marian followed him, both sort of forgetting about Glyn. She sat there watching them interestedly, wondering when one of them would remember she was there.They walked out of sight and she sighed, deciding to look at Jason instead.
"The door's locked." Brian tried to turn the knob but it wouldn't move.
"Oh damn." Marian searched her pockets for the key. "Damn damn DAMN IT."
"Is there a spare key?" AJ asked.
"Yeah, somewhere. I don't really remember where it is though.." Marian clenched her fists in frustration and looked nervously at Brian. He looked really cold, and she hoped he wouldn't get sick or anything. "Sorry… I'm so stupid!"
"No you're not." Brian smiled. It started snowing again, luckily the porch was covered. He looked around confusedly for a moment. "Hey, you guys? Where's Glyn?"
"Umm..didn't she come back with us?" Marian's eyes widened.
"She wouldn't have just stayed at the lake, would she?" AJ wondered. "She's not that stupid."
"Yeah, she is." Marian contradicted. "I'll go back for her.."
"No, you have to look for the key." AJ commanded. He ran back into the woods toward the lake. Marian started looking for the spare key and Brian just sort of stood stiffly by the door.
"I do believe they forgot us, Jason." Glyn informed the snow person who was wearing her shoes. She looked at her feet thoughtfully and pulled off her socks. "My toes ARE blue!" She put her rather wet socks back on and lay back in the snow, staring up at the snowflakes swirling down from the sky. She saw AJ approaching. "Oh, look who's coming, Jason," she said loudly. "It's God! Hi God."
"Glyndalyn! What are you doing?! Where are your shoes?" AJ asked concernedly. "There they are." He took the shoes from Jason.
"JASON! Oh no. I'm sorry, honey." She patted Jason's head sorrowfully and looked up at AJ. "He wants his shoes."
"Glyn, don't you think we should go inside?" AJ pointed at her blue toes. "I do."
"Oh. Well I guess... I'll miss you, Jason," Glyn assured the snow creature. "Is Brian dead yet?"
"Dead? No! But we might die if Marian doesn't find the spare key..." AJ explained as he picked up Glyn.
"You implied that we were able to go inside," Glyn stated.
"Well... We might be. If Marian finds the key," AJ said hopefully.
"MARIAN!" Glyn yelled, trying not to shout directly into AJ's ear.
"What Glyn???" Marian was still walking around the porch so Glyn guessed she hadn't found the key yet.
"Have you found the key?" Glyn asked as she was carried onto the porch.
"No... I thought it was right here!!!! I'm sorry." Marian looked sadly at Brian and Glyn. "GLYN! Your feet!!!! Now you're BOTH going to die and it'll be my fault."
"We're not dying," Glyn protested. "At the worst, I'll have to get my feet amputated and Brian will get frostbite from the waist down-"
"DAMNIT!" Marian hit a window with her fist. "Damnit damnit!!!!!"
"What?" AJ and Brian asked.
"Marian's new favorite word..." Glyn mused.
"Just some car keys and a cell phone and a house key right there on the counter...." Marian groaned.
"A house key, which would be... " Glyn sighed. She knew already.
"A house key, which would be the spare key, which we used to let ourselves inside last night!!!" Marian started hitting the side of the house instead of the window, afraid she would break it.
"Hey! Are there any windows open?" AJ asked.
"What about the window the bat came in through?" Brian wondered.
"I shut that one," Glyn said regretfully.
"Well... there's that window on the second floor that doesn't lock. It's not hard to open, and we can-"
"Second story? How am I getting up?!" Glyn demanded.
"Listen Glynnie! I'll climb up onto the roof and then onto that tree there-" (she pointed at a large sycamore near the house) "-and onto that branch and then I'll open the window and climb in. And then I'll go downstairs and let everyone else in." She stood on a railing and put her hands on the edge of the roof.
"Careful, Mari..." Glyn watched her cautiously.
"Let me do it," AJ offered.
"Yeah. Let him..." Brian echoed. He was wet and cold and didn't feel like climbing but AJ seemed okay.
"Um. No, it's okay. You have to hold Glyn. Anyway, I've done this a million times!" Marian insisted cheerily. She very ungracefully managed to pull herself up onto the roof. If a Backstreet Boy died at her family's vacation cabin she'd never be able to forgive herself. Besides, there were other reasons he shouldn't be upstairs.
"Are you okay Mari??" Glyn called when she was out of sight.
"Yes!!!! Don't worry!!!" she replied. Marian walked across the roof and swung onto the tree, then opened the upstairs window and got in without killing herself. She ran downstairs and opened the front door. Marian, AJ, and Brian took their shoes off and left them by the door. AJ sat Glyn on a couch and looked around for his matches. He'd left them sitting on a coffee table last night. He found the matchbox under the table, slightly open, and guessed that they'd fallen off the table.
"If you're getting firewood, be careful," Glyn warned. "There are mice in it."
"Yeah, mice. Scary, huh." AJ looked at her knowingly. Glyn fidgeted and looked away, wishing all their stuff hadn't burned.
"AJ? Did we bring our stuff in last night?" Brian asked. Being inside was only slightly warmer than outside, which wasn't much warmer than sitting in the lake. He wanted to change clothes before he froze to death....
"No. It's in the car," AJ replied, hauling some logs across the room and putting them in the fireplace. Brian groaned.
"I'll get it!" Marian volunteered, feeling sorry for him.
"The car's unlocked, I think," AJ informed her.
"You don't have to! I'll get it."
Back to June and Fiona's Stories