Blizzard

Ella

It was a particularly cold day in January. I had decided to walk to Mr. Anley’s house. I was taking care of his dog Bruno. I had my own dogsitting service. I would be staying there overnight for the next couple of nights. Anyway, walking there, was the big mistake. When I first walked out of the house, it was just flurrying. A snowflake here, a snowflake there. Nothing much to worry about, really. I almost slipped on a patch of ice about twenty feet from the house, but I had incredible balance, so I did not fall over.

“Hey Ella!” Mrs. Smith greeted me, as I passed by her home. She was getting some groceries out of her car.

“You want help?” I asked. I did not have to be over to Mr. Anley’s instantly, so I figured I could help her out.

“Oh, dear.” Mrs. Smith said. “That would be wonderful. Thank you so much.” I grabbed the overly bulging paper bag from her and then followed her into her house. I placed the bag down on the island in her kitchen. “Thank you dear.” She smiled. “I am glad you are here.” She walked over to her calendar. “Would you be able to watch my Otto the first three days of February, my daughter got me plane tickets to go see her and my grandchildren in Arizona.”

“Yes.” I smiled at her. “I would love too.”

“Oh wonderful!” she clapped her hands with delight. “I will call you with more details as we get closer to the day.”

“Sounds good Mrs. Smith.” I walked towards the door. “I need to get to Mr. Anley’s. I am watching Bruno for the next couple of days.”

“Lovely, dear, just lovely.” Mrs. Smith walked me out. “Just be safe in the snow. It’s supposed to get heavier as the day goes on.”

“I will be careful. Thanks, Mrs. Smith.” I walked out the door. “A new customer.” I said to myself when the door had closed behind me. “Awesome.”

I resumed my walk. The snow was starting to come down, a bit more than just your little flurries, that I had started with. I zipped my coat up further, and started to move faster. It seemed however that the faster I walked the harder the snow came down. I was starting to get nervous. It was actually starting to become hard to see. The snow, I am pretty sure was coming down in sheets. Infinite, huge, scary, sheets. I really had no idea what to do except keep walking. Mr. Anley had left his house an hour ago, and was not coming back for another couple of days, so I could not just turn around and go home. I could not just leave Bruno to himself for that amount of time. So, with that in mind, I just kept on trucking. Was I crazy? Well, probably. Did I care at that moment? Not really. When I was that age, I was a little bit reckless. I am pretty sure that nobody would disagree with me on that one.

Jake

I totally had a crush on Ella Reinstein, when I was sixteen. We were in the same Sunday School class and often hung out. We were both unschooled, and were interested in the same things, so we often did school, if you will, together. The only reason why I did not live at her house, was because I went home to my mom at night when it was dinner time and then to sleep, or because she was over at my house. We had good times. Although, I have to say, she was a little too independent for a boyfriend. She definitely went off on her own a lot. She was a bit crazy. Well, a bit is an under statement. That was one of the things that kept me from asking her out. Plus there was Eric, who had asked her out, just a few days before this story’s beginning. Anyway, Ella was self sufficient. That was a sure thing. She relied on her parents, of course, but in a lot of ways, she was utterly independent. That dog sitting business, was an idea she came up with on her own. I was there when she proposed it. She said, “Mom, a lot of people have dogs around here, and I know a couple of them, won’t travel, because they can’t take their dog. I should start a business.” That’s exactly what she said. Her mom looked at her and said, “You should.”

I think that just attracted me to her all the more. Self-sufficient at our age. I only wished I was half as much on that wave as she was. She was beautiful on top of that. Her eyes sparkled whether the light hit them or not. Anyway. I was walking one January day to the store, in a little flurry of snow, whistling Jingle Bells. Yes, I know, I just said it was January, but it was still really early January, and my mom, was still playing her Christmas music. I was enjoying my walk, when it started snowing a little more, and a little more, and a little…. Well, you probably get the gist. I couldn’t see anymore. I really had no idea what to do. I was squinting, and soon my eyes were tearing up. This was not good.

Ella

I kept walking in the general direction of the Mr. Anley’s. I had a pretty decent sense of direction, so I basically knew where I was in spite of my inability to see much of anything. Yeah, pretty much could see absolutely nothing, but white. Lots and lots of white. Then I saw what looked like a blob coming my way. It didn’t look like any angel, or demon, that I had seen before, so I had to assume this blob was human. Did I mention, I could see angels and demons? That is not important to the story just yet. Anyway, as I squinted, I realized the blob looked to be about the same shape and height of my good friend Jacob. Jacob David Sanders.

“Els, is that you?” I heard the blob yell. Yes, I decided it had to be Jacob. He is the only person in my life that calls me Els. It is just a thing for him. I thought it was kind of, I guess cute was the closest word to what I thought of it. Cute wasn’t quite the word, but the closest word I can think of.

“Hey Jake!” I yelled. We had to yell over the wind. It was howling at this point, quite loudly.

“Where are you headed in this weather?” he asked me.

“I’m headed over the Mr. Anley’s.” I told Jake. “I am taking care of Bruno for the next couple of days.”

“Well, you should not be walking.” Jake said. “This weather is insane!”

“I could tell you the same thing!” I shouted back to him. “What are you doing out here?”

“I was just taking a walk to the store to pick up some bread and milk and vinegar for my mom, it was not snowing like this when I started.” He answered.

“Yeah, same here.” I said.

“Well, why don’t I walk with you to Mr. Anley’s.” Jake offered. “I would feel better if you were not walking in this alone.”

“Jake, you should go home.” I said. “I will be fine.”

“Nope.” Jake said. “We are going together.”

Jake

I had never put my foot down on Ella like that before. She may have been self-sufficient and independent and all the other words that are synonyms to that effect, but this was too dangerous. I was not going to let her get away with it. Not this time. I connected her elbow with mine and we started walking. She tried very hard to get me to go home.

“Jake, your house is closer, than Mr. Anley’s, you should go where it’s safe!” she yelled, trying to separate from me. Of course I would have none of that.

“Nope.” I answered. “Nope, nope, nope, nope.” I said it. “I am not leaving you till you are safe, so unless you are coming to my house, I am not going there, until you are in a house. Or we could go to the store, that is where I was headed anyway. I really should get that stuff for my mom.”

“Well, I guess you can hang out at Mr. Anley’s with me until the snow stops.” Ella said.

“No, I will go home right away, but I just want to know you are safe first.” I said.

“Oy!” Ella stamped her foot. “Sometimes you drive me crazy Jacob Sanders.” She drove me crazy sometimes too, but obviously not for the same reason that I drove her crazy. I just drove her crazy. She had me falling hard. There is a huge difference. We kept walking. We were walking into the falling, stinging cold snow. It was crazy. She was crazy. I thought she was beautiful and crazy. Actually the funny thing is, that’s what her father thought of her mother. He saw her as utterly crazy, but that made him love her all the more. I had to remember that. She thought her parents were the perfect model of marriage. So, if I ever got the courage to ask her to court me, and she said no, I would tell her, I thought she was as crazy as her father thought her mother was. I would top it off with how much I thought her eyes sparkled. Apparently her father saw that in her mother too. He would tell the story of how the first time he met her he saw the sparkle in her eyes. He could not stop thinking about her after that moment. Although, he also could not stop thinking about her at that time, because he was afraid his father might try and kill her, and so he wanted to protect her.

“We need to be pretty close, don’t we?” I asked her, still yelling over the insanely loud wind. “Mr. Anley’s is not that much farther, is it?”

“Yes, it is about another two blocks or so.” I am pretty sure that girl had a map in her head. She had a better sense of direction than anybody I had ever met.

“Alright.” I answered. “That is good. I am afraid we will freeze if we have to wait much longer.” I started to pray silently that we would actually make it there without freezing into popsicles. Mr. Anley did not live where there was a store or something on the way, that we could stop in and warm up. I almost slipped on a patch of ice. Ella, kept me up, without losing her balance at all. That girl was just amazing.

“Come on Jake.” She said. “We can not be sliding around”

“Ha, ha, very funny.” I muttered. “I am coming,” I answered. “Not everybody has the balance of a tight rope walker like you do.” She just seemed to be able to do everything.

“Ok, ok.” She said. I think she was smiling too. She usually smiled when she used the tone of voice she was using at that point. She all of a sudden stopped.

“Why are we stopping?” I asked a little confused. I practically could not see anything. She moved forward again.

“We are here.” Ella’s muffled yelling voice said about ten minutes later. She scrambled to find her right key, then she opened up the door and we both practically fell in. She shoved the door closed behind her.

“Why did we stop earlier?” I asked.

“Because I had to think about where we were for just a moment.” She answered me. That shocked me, since she knew the town like the back of her hand. Speaking of that figure of speech, who actually studies the back of their hand?

“Well, now I know you are safe, so I will now go to the store, get the bread, mile, and vinegar for my mom and go home.” I said and started walking towards Mr. Anley’s door.

“Not so fast, Mr.” she said and pulled on my coat to keep me from moving any closer to the door. “You are not going back out there.” She put her free hand on her hip. She always meant business when she did that. “We barely made it here without freezing to death, I am not having you going out there by yourself.”

I guess it was fair. I would not leave her until she got to Mr. Anley’s safely, so she would not let me go, until it was actually safe to go. Although, it would be a little awkward. “Alright.” I conceded with every plan of heading out as soon as the weather calmed down. “So, what are we going to do now?”

*************************************************************************************

Ella

I decided to make hot chocolate. It was the perfect weather for it, and we seriously needed to warm up. Something I should say about Mr. Anley, he was rich, and he told me to use whatever I wanted. I could turn the heat up to a million if that were possible not that it was, and I could eat whatever I wanted that was in his house, in fact, he left a note begging me to drink the milk, so that it wouldn’t go bad. So, instead of water, I used the milk. Hot chocolate is better with milk anyway. The hot chocolate was mine to begin with. I found a couple of mugs in the cupboard and a pan to heat up the milk in and started making the hot chocolate. Bruno showed up, coming out of the master bedroom yawning. He was a pretty lazy dog. If he was not eating or doing his business, he was sleeping.

“How you doing there, Bruno?” I asked the beautiful golden lab. He responded enthusiastically with a wag of the tail. It was not quite time to feed him yet, so I found the bacon treats on the counter and gave him one. I figured that would fill his stomach well enough until it was time to feed him, his regular food. He started spinning around in circles quite excitedly the moment my hand touched the bag. He was so adorable.

As the pan of milk was heating up, I took off my gloves and hat and jacket, and boots, and, well, you get the picture. Jake just stood there. “So, you want to play some kind of card game?” I asked Jake.

“I really should go.” Jake said. I understood his reasons, but it was not safe at all. “Not in that.” I said.

“Yeah.” Jake sighed. “You brought card games?” Jake asked turning his attention. “Were you planning on playing a game of cards with Bruno?”

“No, you goof.” I lightly punched his shoulder. “I was going to play solitaire and other types of games along those lines.” I rolled my eyes at him. “Play with Bruno! Seriously!” I shook my head

“Ok, ok. You never know.” Jake said. “Yeah, we might as well.”

“Well, we could play war, or go fish, or old maid, or something like that.” I suggested.

“Old maid was always my favorite game when we were little, I do not know why.” Jake said.

“Yes, I remember.” I chuckled. He and I had played many a game of old maid when we were younger. In fact we usually played it on days like this, when the weather was not good for going outside to play. “Well, you set it up, and I will get the hot chocolate all set up.” The pot was whistling, I needed to take care of that.

“So, Eric asked you out the other day.” Jake said.

“Yes, he did.” I answered. I really was not sure where he was going with this. I knew Jake was protective of me, and I had been under the impression that Jake had a crush on me, so I knew it bothered him that Eric had asked me out, but I still was not sure what he thought this conversation was going to do for him. Oh, by the way, he did not know, that I knew, that he had a crush on me.

“So, when is the date?” he asked.

“Uh, what date?” I asked.

“Your date with Eric.” Jake answered matter of factly. I wonder why he thought it was a done deal. I had never had feelings for Eric.

“I am not going on a date with Eric.” I did not have feelings for Eric. It was quite simple.

“Really?” Jake’s voice got perky.

“Really.” I said, walking over to him with the two cups of hot chocolate. I handed him one and sat down on the floor across from him. I really did not think this conversation had anywhere else to go, so I changed the subject. We needed to do this anyway. “You want to thank God for the hot chocolate?” I asked him.

“Absolutely.” He said. Then we both folded our hands and he said a prayer of thanks.

We both took a sip of our hot chocolate and placed the cups on the coffee table that was next to us. “Now, let’s get to this game.” I said.

Jake

“Oh man.” I said, as she picked the card out of my hand that was not the old maid again. “What are you doing, that you can still not have it in your hand?”

“Oh, you know, I am just good like that.” She said with a smile. Her beautiful, warm, smile. Yes, I had it quite bad. We finally got down to the last two cards in my hand, and I got stuck with the old maid for the third time.

“Does x-ray vision come with your ability to see angels and demons?” I shook my head at her. “Because right now, I would believe it if you said it did.

“Not last I checked it did not.” She gave me that smile again.

“I do not know, I think it does.” A thought came to my head. I had really been here too long. “I am going to go check on the weather.” I walked over to the door and opened it. The howl of the wind came through, and I still could not see a thing. “This is crazy.” I said. “You have a ruler?”

“Um.” She said, then she went into the kitchen. I could hear drawers opening and closing. After the third one closed, she walked back into the living room. “Here you go.” She handed the ruler to me.

“Ok.” I said as I opened the door again. Then I shoved the ruler into the snow at the door until it hit the ground. The snow was four inches deep. “Four inches.” I said. “and it is still coming down in sheets so that you can not see anything.”

“Well, I guess you are not going anywhere.” Ella said. She was very firm about it too.

“I guess not.” I agreed, oh the dilemma, but there was no disagreeing with her on this one. It was just too dangerous. I realized that I needed to let my mom know where I was. I had left so long ago and a walk to the store would not have taken this long. I dialed her number. “Yeah mom. I headed to the store to get the bread for you, when all there was, was flurries, and it got so bad so fast. I bumped into Ella, walking over to Mr. Anley’s and I could not leave her out in the snow like this, so I walked her the rest of the way there. So, I’m at Mr. Anley’s until the snow lets up.” I explained.

“That’s fine sweetie.” My mom said on the other end of the phone. “Be safe. I prefer that you helped her out.”

“Don’t worry mom, we will.” With that we both hung up.

“Woof.” Bruno barked.

“Hey boy.” Ella walked over to him and started scratching him behind the ears. She was so sweet with animals and children. She pushed a button on her phone. “Oh, it is time for supper for you, that is why you are barking.” She got up and headed back into the kitchen. I followed her into the kitchen. As she measured out three quarters of a cup of the black and white food and another quarter of a cup of the brown food, or maybe it was the other way around, and then threw a piece of the bacon treat in, I pet Bruno.

“How are you going to get him out?” I asked.

“Well, Mr. Anley has a fake patch of grass, one of those things they advertise on tv for nineteen ninety five plus shipping and handling,” her voice got all excited, like they do on tv when they sell stuff like that, “ So, until it is safe, Bruno will just have to use that.” She sighed.

“Mr. Anley has everything covered it seems.” I commented.

“Yes.” She agreed as she closed the bins that the food was in. “He does.” She put the bowl of food down. Bruno was on the bowl in seconds and gobbling away. “Taking care of Bruno is one of the simplest dog sitting jobs I have.”

“I have to imagine it is.” I said.

Ella

We played Kings in the Corner, Crazy Eights, Go Fish War, and more Old Maid. Jake checked every so often to see if the weather was getting any better. I knew he was uncomfortable, but it was not safe, I could not Every time he checked however, it was only worse. We got to the point where the ruler wasn’t tall enough to check how deep the snow had gotten. I gave Bruno another treat and pet him for a while. Jake and I just sat and talked after we got tired of the card games. It was a weird picture. We were both sitting on the floor on opposite sides of the dog, petting him, and talking about whatever came to our heads. I had a feeling Jake would be stuck here overnight. Just as that thought crossed my mind, the storm let up. “I am going to head out now.” Jake said as he stared out the window. Just as he was finishing putting on his gloves, some crazy stuff happened.

I think the door basically exploded. A few seconds after the explosion, came three men all dressed in black holding guns, and their pants were covered in snow up to their knees. Bruno started barking.

Jake

“Shut the dog up.” Scary man number one started yelling I decided to think of these guys as scary man number one, two, and three, until I actually knew names for them.

“Shh. Bruno, it is ok, Bruno.” Ella did all she could to sweet talk the dog. It wasn’t working to well. She was so calm. One of the reasons Christina a girl I had liked last year, disappeared from my mind, was how calm Ella could be in a crisis.

“You go over there.” Scary man number two pointed the gun at me and waved me towards the couch. Ella finally got the dog to stop barking. “You and the dog can join him.” Ella walked slowly over towards the kitchen.

“I said, over with him.” Scary man number two said again, pointing his gun at Ella.

“I need to get the dog a couple of treats to munch on, it will keep him quiet. You told me to keep him quiet, I am only trying to follow your orders.” She stated simply.

“D, go with her and make sure she doesn’t do anything funny!” Scary man number two said.

“Yes, sir.” D, answered. Then he followed Ella and Bruno into the kitchen.

Ella

I walked slowly into the kitchen fully aware of the fact that a man with a gun was standing behind me, potentially ready to shoot if I did anything that made him think I was not going for the dog treats. What a ridiculous day this was, trapped in by snow, and now three crazy guys with guns show up, and hold us at gunpoint. This was just great. My only consolation was that it appeared God had called for some angels to protect Jake, Bruno, and myself. They were lining the walls. This was one of the reasons why I was able to stay so calm.

Bruno started walking into the master bedroom. I knew that was not a good thing. These men would want all three of us where they could see us. “No boy.” I put my hand on his back and slowly guided him towards the counter with the treats. It was a good thing that he liked those trees so much. I grabbed the bag and then gently guided Bruno back towards the living room where Jake and the other two men were, all the time being followed by, D. I took a little before I found out what that stood for.

“Now stay over there.” The man who had first spoken said. I sat down on the couch next to Jake. Bruno got on the couch too, completely immersed in the idea of getting another bacon treat. Yep, those things put Bruno in a trance I think. I opened up the bag and gave him one. I felt like it was teasing him otherwise. After gobbling it up, he put his head in my lap.

“Now,” the second man to have spoken began, “where is all the money?” he was pointing his gun at us the whole time of course. That was really, really annoying.

“Uh, what money?” Jake asked.

“You kids got a pretty sweet deal going on here.” He said. “Your parents must be loaded, so where do they hide it?”

“We do not live here.” I said.

“So, why are you here?” D. asked.

“Taking care of the dog.” I answered as I scratched behind Bruno’s ears.

“I am waiting for the snow storm to let up.” Jake said. “It is not exactly safe out there.”

“I see.” The first guy said. “Well, if you are taking care of the dog, maybe you know where the money is, so you can buy stuff in case you run out.”

“Nope.” I was frustrated, I really didn’t know about any special stash of money in the house. I didn’t even have the money from Mr. Anley for taking care of Bruno. I did not like taking the money before hand. It was just a thing for me. If I got sick and couldn’t do it, or some other weird thing happened, then I got paid without having done my job. Of course I could give it back, and I would if I took money before the fact, but I’d rather they just keep it till the job was done.

“How about the money you got paid to take care of the dog?” the man asked me. “Surely a person as loaded as this guy is, would have paid you a pretty penny.”

“I do not get paid till the dog’s daddy comes back.” I answered.

“I see.” He said. “Well, D. here is going to babysit you guys until we’ve found all the money in this house, then we’ll decide what to do with you. “

“Ok.” I said. I really thought this guy was whacked out. I was not sure how to respond to him.

“You being a wise guy?” the second guy spoke again.

“Uh, no.” I kept my cool.

“D. you be sure these kids don’t give us any trouble.” The second guy said.

“I’ll make sure of it G.” D. answered.

“Let’s go.” G. said. He and the first guy who we still had no name or initial rather for, started heading for the kitchen. We heard drawers opening, cupboard doors creaking and I think they even opened the oven. Why anyone would stash money in the oven, I have no idea, but these guys were determined to find something, so they actually tried that idea.

Jake

D. was not the most entertaining babysitter. In fact he was the worst babysitter I had ever had. The babysitters I had when I was little did a much better job. Usually it was Ella’s mom, but occasionally there was some other person that babysat, but that is not important. The babysitters, whether Ella’s mom or somebody else, usually played games, and made crafts, and had us watch movies. D. he just stood there staring at us with the gun in his hand, tapping his foot nervously every once in a while. I looked at Ella.

“What are we going to do?” I whispered.

“There is not much we can do.” She shrugged her shoulders. “We just have to wait and hope and pray that they either find nothing or something, and once they have decided on which one it is, that they leave, without us in tow.”

“What are you kids talking about?” D. asked nervously. “You shouldn’t be talking.”

“Do you have a reason as to why we shouldn’t be talking?” Ella asked. She was bold and confident.

“Because, because, because,” D. sputtered, “I, you see, um…” then he pointed his gun at us, with a scared look in his eye.

“Well, that is more like an excuse, but I guess I will have to take it.” Ella said, then she closed her mouth. When Ella would not speak, there was something wrong, but I guess that is apparent that something was wrong in this situation. We were being held at gun point.

“You know, I didn’t even want to do this.” D. started talking, I really wasn’t sure if he was talking to us, or to himself, but maybe, just maybe, he would talk himself out of this and then maybe we would be able to get out too. “I just wanted to take the job at Wal-Mart and do that. But noooooooo, C. just couldn’t be demeaned to Wal-Mart cashier. Oh, if only he realized how demeaning becoming a criminal is, so much worse than Wal-Mart cashier. So, much, worse.”

“You could leave all this and go back to Wal-Mart.” Ella piped up.

“I don’t know what C. would do to me if I did.” D. lamented. “He is so angry about everything that has happened.

“Whatever he would do to you, can not be worse than for you to be a criminal by choice.” Ella tried to reason with him. “Just think about that for a minute.”

“Yeah, I guess you are right.” I thought Ella had gotten to him. “No.” he looked up and pointed his gun again. Again, not good babysitter material. C. really needed to think about finding a new babysitter. “I have to finish this job. I just have to.”

“Do you really have to finish this job?” Ella really felt she had something going here. I was nervous.

Ella

The whole time that D. was lamenting the woes of being a criminal instead of a Wal-Mart cashier, I noticed that angels were surrounding him, and so I started praying. I grabbed Jake’s hand and prayed. Then I waited with baited breath to see what he would answer about whether or not he had to finish the job.

“No.” he started to sob. “No, I don’t. I need to get out of here. Be done with this whole thing.”

“Well, why don’t you take us with you?” I suggested. “Fewer people to get hurt in this whole thing, if you take us with you.”

“Yes,” he nodded, “I can’t have you getting hurt if C. were to decide to do such a horrible thing, let’s go kids, before they finish what they are doing.”

“Let me get Bruno’s leash.” I said. I knew we would lose time as I did this, but I could not have Bruno getting lost in the snow. The leash was in the closet in the living room, which was the room that we were in. I walked over and quietly opened the door to the closet, grabbed the leash and connected it to Bruno’s collar. Bruno wagged his tail at the prospect of going for a walk, and so we started to walk out, the door was not really there anymore anyways. We had one unfortunate problem. The snow was still falling, the wind was still howling, and the snow was over a foot on the ground. We tried for a couple of minutes to actually get somewhere, but it was to no avail.

“By the time we walk five feet those guys will be back and we will be stuck answering to them for trying to get away.” Jake said.

“Oh no.” D. started sobbing again. “Oh no. Now this will only be worse than when we began.”

“It is ok D.” I soothed. “It is ok. We will think of something. Right Jake?”

“Um, sure.” He said. He really was not all that sure about that. We went back into the house, soaking the carpet.

“While we are coming up with a plan we should stay in here, so we do not freeze, although we might freeze anyway, if we do not figure out a way to get the door back up. All the cold air is coming in.” It was true the wind was going through the door way, and there was probably an inch or two of snow on the carpet immediately next to the door.

“I’ll try to take care of that.” D. said. He grabbed what was left of the door, which actually was a lot more than I would have thought considering what the explosion seemed to be at the time when it originally happened. He was able to make the door lean in the door way. This worked fairly well, there was still cold air, but it wasn’t quite as much and most of the snow was blocked so that we didn’t have to worry too much about that. There was more sound coming. It sounded like they were in the bathroom now. The toilet even flushed. I wondered if they had made use of it, or if they were making another stupid assumption and had actually looked in the toilet for money.

“So, now what?” Jake looked at me.

“I do not know.” I chewed my lower lip. “We can not go outside, because we can not walk in that, not to mention that we would freeze if we tried. We might just have to wait and see what these guys do. What do you think they will do?” I asked D.

“Well, I really couldn’t tell you what they are going to do.” D. said. “We’ve never done anything like this before. We all had white collar jobs until about two weeks ago. I went and started applying to places immediately. They started two days later. We all got accepted to work as cashiers at Wal-Mart. I was going to accept the job, and then G. insisted that working at Wal-Mart is demeaning. I asked him why he even applied if he felt that way. He said he was desperate, and then said we could do better. I was scared so I went along with it. I may not have changed my mind, about doing this, if you guys weren’t part of the equation.”

“Well, then, I am glad we were here.” I said.

Jake

She was such a confident fifteen year old girl. It was crazy. I’m not so sure I was glad we were there at that moment. I would have rather been, well, almost anywhere else. I mean let’s look over the situation here. In the other rooms of the house we were in, there were two men with guns who were tearing things apart looking for money. We didn’t know what they were going to do after they found it, or didn’t find it as the case could become. Would they kill us? Leave us alone? Kidnap us to go somewhere else? And even if kidnapping us and taking us with them was their plan, when would they do that? We were trapped, because of the snow. It was not just a little flurry, or enough snow to make those picturesque paintings that people like at Christmastime, no this was a full out blizzard and it was not stopping.

“You know, I am really glad that we helped you decide not to be a thief, but can we rejoice over that later? We are in a pretty bad situation here.” I said. God was using Ella and I to make a difference in somebody’s life, and we were doing it together. We had to be meant for each other. I just had to have to courage, to get us together.

“I can’t believe we didn’t find anything.” G.’s voice drifted as he and C. showed back up. Oh crud, is what I was thinking, we were out of time.

“You would think this guy was loaded. He definitely has the biggest and most amazing house I have ever seen.” C. agreed. They were both back in the living room. It was true, Mr. Anley’s house was humungous. He had bought it when he was married and had six children. His children were all grown up now, and his wife had died a couple of years ago.

“So, this is fruitless.” D. said. “We should go back to Wal-Mart and see if they will still take us.”

“No, I will not be demeaned to that!” G. said.

“Isn’t being a criminal much more demeaning?” D. tried to persuade him. “We defaced property and threatened a couple of kids and a dog. That would not look good on our record if we were to be caught doing this.”

“Are you chickening out?” G. asked.

“You can put it that way if you’d like. But I think you were the one who was chickening out when you decided you couldn’t be a Wal-Mart employee.” D. had all of a sudden found some confidence. Ella, was just like that in what she could do in people’s lives, including mine. God had really given her some wonderful gifts.

“Well, you can get on the couch with the kids. C. what are we going to do with these people, we can’t leave witnesses.” G. said. “Obviously, we now have three to deal with.”

“We will take them with us.” C. said.

“Where are you going to go, with us or without us?” Ella piped up. “It is a horrible blizzard out there!”

“That is too bad missy.” C. said. “Because we are all going out in it. You certainly have no choice. Now get going.” He lifted his gun and motioned for us to go out the door.

“To where?” Ella insisted on asking.

“To wherever we take you.” C. said, then raised his gun and pointed it at her. “Now, no more questions. Just get up and start moving.”

I really wanted to get up and kick this guy. He threatened Ella. That was just stepping out of line as far as I was concerned. But I knew I would not be helping her or anybody else for that matter if I did kick him. I would be shot before my foot hit him and that was just not to be any good. Ella would probably kill me if I survived the gun shot.

Ella

C. and G. were whacked out. I made that decision. I got up anyway. I was trying to decide how to deal with Bruno. I did not want him to be going out in that snow, but I did not want to leave him, not knowing if I would be able to get back to him and make sure he got fed. I made a quick decision, I would figure out a way to lock Bruno in the room with the fake grass patch and dump the entire bag of the bacon treats on the floor in there. I knew he would probably become bloated, but at least he would not starve and he would have a place to do his business. Plus, he would not freeze in the snowstorm, or get lost in it. Mr. Anley would prefer a bloated dog, then a dead or lost one. I was pretty sure about that.

“You do not want to take the dog do you?” I asked. “He would just slow us down, and get in the way. It is not like he can tell anybody you were here. He would be more of a nuisance to you coming with us, then staying here.”

“She’s got a point C.” G. said.

“Fine. But I also do not want it following us.” C. said. “Lock him up somewhere.” C. commanded me.

That worked well with my plan as to how to take care of him. “Perfect.” I said. “Come on Bruno.” Bruno wagged his tail as I grabbed another treat from the bag and calmly led him into the room with the grass patch. I threw the treat into the far side of the room where he jumped for it. Then I dumped the rest of them out I said a prayer that he would not eat them all at once. “Good bye boy. Stay warm.” Then I shut the door. G. was standing in behind me with the gun raised. “I am coming.” I said, almost nonchalantly.

“You better be.” He said. “Or you will be in a lot of trouble.”

“What else is new since you showed up?” I muttered under my breath.

Jake

C. and G. pulled the door down, from how D. had put it back up earlier and then raising their guns, pushed us outside. I was glad I had shoved my gloves into my pocket when I had taken them off earlier. The wind and snow were still stinging.

“Now, let’s go single file.” C. started barking his orders. “I will go in front, and G. in the back. D., you can still be on our side of this.”

“No.” D. said. “I’d rather do the right thing.”

“Fine.” C. said. “Have it your way.” He pointed his gun at D. “Not really a good choice for you. So, here’s what you will do now. Get in behind the girl” D. did as he was told. “You get behind him.” His gun was pointed at me now. I gulped, nodded, and got in behind D. G. took up the rear and we started walking. Where too, I am not really sure C. or G. had any idea . I think they just wanted to get away from Mr. Anley’s place. I wondered if they had worn gloves the whole time they had been in the house. If not, even if they were far away, they would eventually be tracked down.

“March!” G. was in my face a few minutes later. I apparently had gotten so lost in my thoughts, that I was not walking anymore. I had just been standing there, staring at the humungous amount of snow on the ground. It was so exciting, white, white, and even more white.

“Ye, yes sir.” I said nervously, and started walking again, straight into the snow. The extremely freezing snow.

“Hey C!” G. yelled right next to my ear. The wind however was much louder then G, so C. did not hear him at all. He just kept on trudging through the snow, which was past my knees, and I am six feet tall now. I was back then too. My pants were soaking wet. It was so slow going. Very slow going. I think we had maybe gone five feet. I turned around to see how far we were from the house. The snow was letting up a little bit, because I could sort of see the house.

“Don’t turn around!” G.’s breath was horrible. “Move forward you idiot!”

“We have not even gone six feet.” I said to him. I really did not feel bold or confident, I was just so annoyed at how this whole thing was going, that I just sort of said it.

“Well, that’s because you are not moving!” he yelled.

“No, it is because this snow is so deep we can not even really walk in it. Not to mention, we can not see if we go in the direction we are trying to go.” I mumbled. But I had crawled back into nervousness, so I had not actually said this to G.’s face.

“C!” G, yelled again, I was grateful, he had not yelled so close to my ear this time.

“What!” C. had actually heard him this time.

“We should get back into the house until the storm is done!” G. yelled.

“What?” C. yelled back. At this point all I could think was, “oh no, we’re just going to keep saying, the same thing over and over followed by what.”

“We should wait till the storm is over!” G. tried again.

“They might come back before that!” C. yelled. “It’s not a good idea.”

“He is not coming back for a few days!” Ella said. I was grateful for that. This was ridiculous. We may be at gun point, but at least we would not completely freeze.

“Fine.”C. yelled. “Everybody back into the house!” We all just turned around, leaving D. at the rear and headed back into the house, traipsing snow all over the living room floor. I felt bad that we were messing up Mr. Anley’s carpet so badly, but these circumstances made it impossible not to.

“Now,” C. began. “You guys back on the couch.” Ella and I walked back over to the couch and sat down.

Ella

I was freezing at this point. My legs hurt from being in the snow for as long as they were. Jake and I had been out in it, with no snow pants or anything. My hands were in pain, because I did not have gloves when we were out, my ears felt like they were burning. I started rubbing my hands together, I wondered how Bruno was doing in the other room. I hoped that he had not eaten all the bacon treats yet. We had been gone for only twenty minutes or so. That is when I realized I had not given him any water.

“C.” C. turned around with his gun raised.

“What do you want?” he asked with an arched eyebrow. “You should be quiet.

“I need to go check on the dog.” I said. To be honest, I did not have a plan other than that.

“No, you don’t.” he said. He apparently had a higher view of my plotting abilities than was warranted at the time, because all I was plotting was to check on the dog, as I said I was hoping to do. “You’ll just run off through the window of the room that he’s in, or maybe there’s a gun in that room that G. and I didn’t find.”

“You can have somebody follow me if you want, but I should go check on him, and besides, I am not going out in that. ” I said. “It just nearly froze from being out in that just five minutes ago.

“G.” C. turned to G.

“I’m right behind her.” G. said, pointing his gun at me. There was a lot of gun pointing going on. It was rather annoying. G. followed me into the room where I found Bruno laying on the floor. He had not eaten all the bacon treats yet. I was surprised. There was a sink with a bowl next to it. I took the bowl and filled it as close to the brim as I possibly could and placed it on the floor. Bruno wagged his tail, stood up and went to the bowl and started lapping loudly. I am sure the bacon treats had made him quite thirsty. Then before he knew it I was out of the room with the door shut again.

“See, I am back.” I said as I sat back down next to Jake.

“That’s because I was watching closely, Missy.” G. said.

“You keep on thinking that.” I rolled my eyes.

Jake

While Ella was checking on the dog, I sat next to D. “So, what is this guy’s breaking point?” I asked him. I was really hoping that D. could help me figure this out. It could be of some good help.

“I have no idea.” D. answered. “He just went crazy after we lost our jobs. It’s been complicated trying to figure everything out.” D. sighed.

“Great.” I said. He knew nothing. I started to pray again. I did not know what I should pray for though. The storm to end, or for these guys to just let it go. Ella came back. “Do you have some sort of plan?” I whispered. “Because D. can not tell me anything useful. I really have no ideas whatsoever.”

“We really can not do anything until the storm ends.” She answered.

“ I was afraid you would say that.” I mumbled. “At the same time I knew that was the truth.”

“Sorry, that is just the way it is.” She patted my shoulder. “We will be fine.” She looked me in the eye. “It is all in God’s hands.”

“No whispering!” C. yelled. “There’s nothing you can do.”

“We were just saying that.” Ella said. I put my hand on my forehead.

“Why did you tell them that?” I asked out loud. She said it now.

“You know C., we really picked a lousy day to do this.” G. said. I had no idea that G. actually had any sense, but he apparently did. That was a possible helpful thing. We had D. on our side, maybe just maybe we could get G. Then C. would really have no choice but to stop this ridiculousness.

“We’ve been planning this for days, G.” C. began. “We had no idea that there would be a ridiculous blizzard outside.”

“It’s the beginning of January in the Midwestern United States.” D. piped up. “What did you expect? It’s been snowing on and off around here since October.”

“Shut up D.” C. snarled. “I thought you opted out of this operation.”

“Hey, I was just agreeing with G, who hasn’t opted out of this operation.” D. said.

“I’m starting to consider opting out.” G. said. Oh it was sounding better and better.

“Don’t you dare.” C. angrily growled.

“Why not?” G. continued his reasoning. “We didn’t find anything worth taking. We are stuck in this house until the snow stops, and even after it does, will we be able to get out? The snow was past our knees almost when we were trying to leave not that long ago.”

“G. you are making me very angry.” C. was seething. Maybe this would not be as helpful as I thought it was. C. was quite scary when he was seething.

“And I mean, were we just going to go through this one house? You didn’t even make any plans about any other houses. So, I mean with your plan we ended up with nothing because we just went to this one place with nothing.” G. was on a role now. “I mean how silly was this? Most people have their money in banks and most of their cash is in their pocket or wallet which is usually in their pocket. They usually don’t carry more than about twenty or forty dollars. Would we be able to really decently divide that between the three of us?”

“We would’ve moved on to other houses.” C. screamed. “I just thought we’d start with this one, since it was huge and looked like it should’ve been loaded.”

“Oh.” G. didn’t seem all that convinced, but he didn’t say another word after that. D. apparently scared him. C. was kind of scary when he was angry as I stated earlier.

“You.” C.’s gun was pointed at me. “Go see how the storm is doing.” I got up and walked over to the door. I didn’t know why he needed me to check. We could all hear the wind howling.

“Um, it is still going pretty badly sir.” I said, and quickly walked back over to Ella and D. who were still sitting on the couch.

Ella

I could not help, but think about my mother. She had been getting into these type of scrapes from the time she was about twelve or thirteen. This was the first time anything like this had ever happened to me. I was already fifteen. My aunt, was twelve the first time she had stuff happen to her. Now, I was a completely different situation. See, my mom got in trouble because she would let people know if their house, business, etc.. was infested with demons. Somebody who had invited the demons would find out about mom’s revelation, and then would proceed to try and kill her. My aunt, was chased by a guy who wanted revenge for something that did not even happen to him and that my Aunt did not even do. Me, I get put to gun point by a group of men trying to rob the house, that I happened to be dog sitting at, in the middle of a blizzard.

My parents met because of a revenge thing. My grandma had testified in court against this man, who she saw murder a woman. Well, the guy’s son came for revenge, and here’s a twist, my father was his son. So, my father is the grandson, of the guy that my mother testified against. Yeah, my family’s life is complicated. My parent’s got engaged when they were running from my grandfather who was shooting at both of them. Dad just out of the blue asked her to marry him as the bullets were flying. My mother got shot a couple of seconds later. I just love the stories that my parents tell. My father fought with his father’s best friend to keep him from shooting my mother. Things have calmed down a lot for them though. In spite of all the action in my parent’s life that they tell me about, my favorite story will always be of the wedding. My uncle Michael was dad’s best man, and during the rehearsal, dad was so nervous. So, Uncle Michael said, “You’re marrying my sister. You should be shaking in your boots.” Well, they made it through the rehearsal, and at the rehearsal dinner Uncle Michael made his “first move” if you will on my Aunt Anya. Then the best part was the actual wedding. Dad was shaking so bad he dropped the ring, twice.

Anyway, as all of this was going on inside my head, G. and C. were talking. “We could be stuck here for days D.” G. started it.

“No, we won’t be stuck here for that long.” C. insisted. “This storm will let up.”

“And if it doesn’t before the guy that owns this place comes back?” G. was nervously playing with his zipper. I think he was trying to play Mary Had a Little Lamb with it. That was quite amusing to be honest. I almost laughed, but I was able to control it, no matter how hard it was.

“We won’t have to worry about it.” C. said, “because it won’t happen that way.” He was right because at that moment we heard nothing coming from outside.

“It’s so quiet.” G. said.

“Like I said.” C. said with a know it all attitude. “Ok, everybody up.” D., Jake, and I did as we were told. What else could we really do at that point. C. did not need to point his gun this time, he had made his point to many times before that. I stopped counting at ten times. We started trudging through the snow again. It was faster than before, but only because we were not walking into hard falling snow and wind. We could actually see this time. We were still trying to trudge through knee deep snow. I figured we were heading over to the local grocery store where Jake had originally meant to go before the blizzard had started. This probably made Jake happy, because that meant if we all made it alive, he could still buy the stuff for his mother. “Groceries for Less” was the name of the store. I know, that is such a creative name for a grocery store. Although, I have never encountered any other grocery store with that name, so maybe that is a more creative name than I think it is. If the snow was not knee deep, we would have gotten there in about five minutes. Instead, it took us half an hour to get there. Because C. didn’t know where he was going he brought us right over the pond. I tried to let him know there was a pond in our path, but he didn’t listen. Jake and I stopped. The pond was frozen, but it wasn’t thick ice. “Keep going!” C. yelled at the top of his lungs. “You are walking onto a pond!” I tried. “It’s frozen.” C. pushed. “It’s not thick.” I answered. “Oh, nice try missy.” C. said. Then he walked onto the pond, took three steps and his foot went right through the ice. “Ahhhhhhhhh.” That’s all that came out of his mouth. He was able to get his foot out and get back off the pond. He pushed us in another direction.

We finally got to the grocery store after our detour to the pond and Allen the main cashier, he was about thirty five or so years old, greeted Jake and myself.

“Well hey there Ella and Jake. It is always good to see you two.” He smiled. We had been in that grocery store so many times together buying something or another for the projects we had done, or tried to do. We had a few failed things. Like that baking soda volcano we made when we were seven. Ok, maybe that was not a failure. It actually erupted, it just sort of erupted all over everything in my parent’s kitchen. We were cleaning up the ceiling, the floor, the counter we had made it on, and I think some of it ended up on the carpet in the living room. Do not ask me how that one happened. It just spewed all over. “Who are these guys?” Allen asked us.

“People you don’t want to mess with.” C. said pointing his gun at Allen. I guess he had to point his gun at Allen. Allen had not been there for the first ten plus times.

“What do you want sir?” Allen said scared out of his wits. His voice shook with fear.

“All the money in the cash register.” C. demanded. “I want every last penny.”

“Um, yes sir.” Allen started punching in the numbers that would open up the register. Poor Allen, he was such a nice guy. He had helped Jake and I out for many of our excursions to this store. That is when I decided to take action. I just could not leave poor Allen hanging. You see C. and G. were not looking at me, or Jake, or D., all their focus was on Allen and the cash register. I was behind them at this point. This was a huge mistake on their part. I grabbed C.’s arm and pulled him down. G. was next to him and I kicked his leg. Both were down. Here is something else that runs in my family. Super-strength. That might be a weird way to put it, but anyway, that comes from my mom’s father. Skavinsky blood somehow includes strength, and Danford blood, my grandmother’s maiden name, brings angel and demon sensing abilities. It makes for an interesting combination.

“You let go of my arm girl!” C. yelled. “Or I will shoot.” He was holding his gun with the hand I did not have control of. I thought for a moment. G. was getting up and I had no control of him. D. and Jake were heading over to take him down, but I did not have that much time. I calmly let go. I had not thought that through properly, but I had now established with G. and C. that I was a force to be reckoned with. Dealing with me was not going to be overly easy, if they let their guard down. I was hoping that would give us some kind of extra time, even if it was only a minute or two extra.

“I completely lost my balance C.” G. said out of breath as he finally stood up. “This girl is exceptionally strong.” G. actually shook a little as he said this. It was almost as if I had scared him a little bit.

“We have the guns you idiot. Just remember that girl” C. said. He turned to me when he said this, but then he turned his attention back to Allen. “Watch her G.” G’s attention was of course on me. I saw the angels hanging around the store. God must have sent out a regimen to protect us from anything worse than the gun being pointed at us, I figured. “Now back to you.” C. said to Allen. “The money.” He nodded at the cash register.

Allen handed a bunch of money to C. I could see the fear in his eyes. I did not know how to help him, with G.’s gun on me. That horribly annoying gun. Prayer is what started going through my brain, and from looking over at him, I am pretty sure that is what was going on in Jake’s brain. Along with some sort of plot dealing with little bottles of perfume. That did not make sense to me, but if it made sense to him, I was not opposed to it. Although he had a few things in his hand too. D. just stood confused, and frustrated with the choice that he had made before they had raided Mr. Anley’s house. I did not know how I was going to explain an exploded door and bloated Bruno to Mr. Anley, but I tried to move my mind back to the task at hand. Mr. Anley was still a few days out. I had to keep my prayers and ideas on the here and now. Getting G. to turn around, then to somehow get the guns out of both G.’s and C.’s hands, and then to bring them down so that we could call the police and be done with this whole ridiculous thing. This whole ridiculous thing.

Then I could go properly take care of Bruno. Take away whatever bacon treats were left, change out the water and give Bruno a walk, after I shoveled out the driveway. Hopefully the sidewalks would be shoveled up by the local group that was hired to do that in the winter. I was not absolutely sure if that would happened, but maybe we could walk around the driveway or something. I did not know absolutely sure what we could do otherwise. I decided I would see if Jake could help me with the shoveling. I knew he would be willing to as long as his folks would allow him to help me after being out this long. Of course I would ask my father and brother. Did I mention I have a brother? His name is Samuel and he is three years younger than I am, so at the time of this story, he was twelve. He had never gotten into any kind of scrapes.

I thought and I thought. I made a decision. They could shoot me if they wanted, but we needed to be done. I started walking up towards G. He of course glared at me. As if he really thought that a glare would scare me into stopping what I was working on doing. I just kept on walking. I could see his finger coming closer and closer to pulling the trigger, but I did not care. I finally got close enough to reach for the gun. He pulled the trigger. The bullet lodged in my hand. My hand was seething in pain. I screamed. But I used that hand to grab the gun anyway. He tried to pull the trigger again.

“G., what are you doing?” C. yelled still keeping a close eye on Allen. “I’ve got almost all the money.”

“She’s not even stopping.” G. answered. He had lost the gun this time, it was in my hand. My very pained bullet infested hand. D. caught on. I had a gun, and so did he. C. had been stupid enough to not take away D.’s gun once he changed his mind to help us. His gun was now pointed at G.

“Don’t even try anything, Gary!” D. said. Oh, good, I thought, now we have a name, using initials was confusing to me.

Gary turned to D. “What are you doing Darrin? Don’t do this.” Another name, that was cool.

“No, get Charles to not do what he’s doing.”Darrin said. Gary was glaring, Charles had turned his gun back to me. Honestly, Charles and Gary were taking on to many people at once, especially since they were down to one gun and the people they had taken on now had two.

Jake

I had found a bunch of perfumes at the counter that Charles was not focusing on. They were those little spritzer bottle things, kind of like pepper spray bottles. I had an idea to get close enough to Charles or Gary and spray them in the eyes. If we could take one down, it would not be so bad. If it did not do anything to the eyes it would certainly slow them down as they choked on the awful smells, these things were really awful. I mean horrible. I could tell why these things were not selling. As I was working on grabbing one for each hand, I heard a gun shot. When I turned my head, I saw an awful, horrible thing. Much worse than the smell of the perfumes. Ella had been the one to get shot. It was her hand, I guess it could have been worse. Then she had an idea. Girl gets shot and she still has an idea.

Ella

“Jake,” I said, fighting back the tears that were coming out due to the pain. He looked at me. “Take it.” I was of course referring to the gun.

Jake understood. He started walking towards me. “Don’t do that Jake.” Charles piped. “You will be shot.” Jake blinked at him, then kept on walking. Charles shot. But he just plain missed. Jake was completely surrounded by angels. They were like a wall surrounding him. I almost could not see him. But I saw the wall of angels floating towards me.

“Thank You, Lord.” I prayed silently. “Thank You, Lord.” The Lord was just so awesome.

Charles shot again. He of course missed. “What is wrong with this gun?” he screamed. “Maybe I’m aiming at the wrong person.” He turned the gun to me again. The angels were all around Jake, but I just did my best to be calm. “You move any closer to her and I’ll shoot her.” Jake stopped. He looked at me. The look in his eyes said how much he could not live with himself if I got shot again. I knew we had to finish this. So, I did what I could to get him to come in spite of his issues with the idea of me getting shot a second time in the same day.

“Just keep coming Jake.” I prompted. “Do not worry about me. Let’s end this this horrible thing.”

“Oh, I will end this.” Charles said. Jake froze. I soon saw a bunch of the angels that were surrounding Jake come around me. There were still several around Jake too. Charles would just be wasting his bullets. I smiled at God’s protective hand. If I did not say this before, God is awesome.

“Jake, angels are around both of us.” I tried to explain to him. He knew about my ability and believed in it, so he would believe me on this, I hoped he would act on that belief. “We are being protected. Come on.” I coaxed him. “It will be ok. It will be ok.”

“Angels.” Charles scoffed. “The gun is real kid. Not those angels. Angels are just part of the imagination. But this gun.” He swung the gun around. “This gun is completely real. You can touch it, see it, and shoot it, which is what I will do, if you move closer.”

“Charles, my gun is on you. You pull the trigger on anybody here, I will pull the trigger on you.” Darrin threatened.

“I will shoot her.” Charles insisted. “I will shoot her.” As sure as he seemed, there was a slight tinge of uncertainty in his voice. This was a good thing, I decided. Gary just stood there. He was really lost. Allen was still behind the cash register. I think it was good that the blizzard had happened, because nobody had yet to try and enter the store. We did not need anybody else caught up in this messy debacle. Jake I think took heart at my encouragement about the angels and God’s protection, and at the fact that Darrin had a gun, that he was using for our advantage. He came forward and grabbed the gun from me, this was nice, because I was no longer holding it in my hand, which meant less pressure on the bullet that was still lodged in my hand. He seemed confused as to who to point the gun at. He finally chose Gary, who was still standing completely frozen.

“It might be a good chance to give up Charles.” Darrin prompted. “You’re outgunned, and out numbered.” Darrin nodded his head. He was sure of what he was saying.

Charles shifted his focus back all around, from Darrin, to me, to Jake, to Allen. “I, I” he was almost speechless. All he could say was I, I, I. At this point the tears were flowing from my eyes, but with the good hand, I took the cell phone out of my pocket. Charles shot at me, it was his last vain attempt at having control of the situation, but nothing hit me. In fact it looked as if the bullet sort of bounced off of me. Darrin was about to shoot, but when he saw that nothing happened to me, he did not. He looked so confused at that moment. I took the opportunity to call nine one one.

Ella

By the time the police had taken Charles, Darrin, and Gary away, we really tried to stick up for Darrin, but they had to take him, and Darrin was good about it, I was completely sold on Jake. I guess you go through something like that with a person and well, the potential exists that you will fall, and as I just said, I did. He was my best friend and so it was bound to happen anyway, right?

I grabbed his hand with my good hand. His eyes lit up. “I am glad that you were there.” I do not think I would want to be stuck in a blizzard under gun point with anybody else.” I was completely serious. No sarcasm.

“Really?” He looked at me skeptically. Ok, he was my best friend, and he actually thought I would not feel this way?

I let go of his hand and patted his shoulder. “I need to go check on Bruno.” I decided to leave it at that, if he did not get it, I was not sure I could explain it to him. The nine one one dispatch had sent the police and the paramedics who had tended to my hand immediately. They did a good job I think. Then I begged them to drive us back to Mr. Anley’s house. Bruno was barking from the room I had locked him in way too many hours ago. I guess he did not like being locked up for so long. I squeezed Jake’s hand, he had gone to back to Mr. Anley’s with me in the ambulance, and reluctantly let go again, and walked right into my dad. I mean, I literally bumped in him. “Hello.” I said. Sure, the first time I had ever held hands with a guy and my dad was there. I wondered how he felt about that. He and my mom were not much older than Jake and I were at that moment when they had gotten married. A year and a half or so.

“Hi there.” He smiled at me. He looked over at Jake. “Good choice. I could not think of a better person.” He whispered in my ear. I smiled. I knew what he meant. “You alright?” He shifted his focus, concern coursed through his eyes.

“Yeah.” I answered. “I am fine.” He looked at my hand with an arched eyebrow.

“Sure you are.” He said with sarcasm. Dad really did not believe me. I guess you can not really blame him for not believing me on that one. I mean, the paramedics had just dressed up my hand because it had been shot and the bullet had been lodged in it, but they had said there was no infection, so it could not have been that bad.

As for Bruno, he was fine. I was able to convince the ambulance driver that they had dressed my hand well enough that we could stop at Mr. Anley’s house. When Mr. Anley finally showed up after his trip, he was very understanding about his front door being exploded and his dog being bloated. Are there any other words I could throw in there to keep the rhyme going? In fact he actually paid me more than what we had originally agreed on, because he was so impressed as to how I handled taking care of Bruno in spite of being under gun point and stuck in a blizzard to boot. He asked me to take care of Bruno again in March. I didn’t have any other jobs lined up, so I of course told him yes. They finally carted me off to the hospital. My hand today is fine, you would never know that I had been shot there. They are really good paramedics.

Jake, well there are more stories to come before he finally… Well, you will see.

Jake

Once those guys were under arrest and everything was back to well, sort of normal, I bought that loaf of bread, gallon of milk and gallon container of vinegar that mom had asked me to get for her many hours earlier. I said goodbye to Ella and her dad, who patted me on the shoulder and gave me a really weird look. I had never seen that look from him before. I did not know what to think of that. Should I have been scared or something. I really did not know.

I walked back home with the bread, milk, and vinegar. Is that a weird combination of stuff? Well, it did not matter, that is what my mom needed at the time, so I went and got it.

“Oh sweetie are you alright?” mom asked me when I walked into the house.

“Yeah, I am fine. Ella got shot in the hand, but the paramedics dressed it up and said she should be fine in a couple of days.” I answered my mom.

“I will put her on my prayer list.” Mom said. She hugged me. “You still got the bread, milk and vinegar. Oh thank you sweetie. You are so wonderful.”

“I did not forget mom.” I returned her hug. “Well, I am going to go shovel the driveway.”

“Thank you sweetie.” Mom smiled at me. She had a bunch of phone calls to make. She had a work from home job where she was on the phone the whole time she worked pretty much, except when she was filling out paper work.