“Pond’s® Really Cold Cream”

If there’s one thing a big blizzard is good for, it’s sleeping through the afternoon. There’s no need for blackout curtains, white noise machines or any other sleep aid. Heather could attest to that. It was already a quarter past five & she had not so much as stirred since Patrick had put her to bed earlier that morning. Now she needed a bathroom.

But first things first. She wanted to see Patrick, thank him for taking such good care of her when he got up, get any updates on the weather, & hold Josiah if he was still awake.

She jumped straight to number four on her list. Patrick was in the kitchen warming a bottle while Josiah lay in his playpen trying to figure out what he wanted to do with the objects hanging over his stomach, nicely within reach of his flailing arms. Between those & his binkie, which was firmly planted in his mouth, he was a busy little boy.

“How’s my good boy? How’s he doin’?” Heather cooed as she bent over the playpen & tickled him on his side.

“Can’t complain,” Patrick replied. “Actually, I’m doing pretty well. Thanks for asking.”

Heather ignored his teasing, except for the little smile that crept across her face, slid Josiah from beneath his arc of toys & scooped him into her arms.

“Is Daddy bein’ funny? Huh? Did Daddy just try to make a joke? I know, it’s sad, isn’t it? But it’s really the best he can do. Best to giggle a little so as not to hurt his feelings,” Heather said to Josiah in her best oo-goo-gooey baby voice. She made faces & tickled him as she carried him into the kitchen, causing him to squeal with delight.

Patrick had a five-cheese pizza baking in the oven & a Caesar salad covered in garbanzo beans on the counter, one of her very favorite throw-together-at-the-last-minute meals. Heather breathed in deeply, savoring the fresh-baking aroma of frozen pizza. “Smells good. I’m hungry. How long before we eat?”

“About seven minutes,” Patrick replied with a gesture toward the timer on top of the stove.

“Then I guess I better go use that little girls’ room right over there before I have to borrow one of your diadies for myself,” she oo-goo-gooeyed to Josiah, laying him back down in the playpen.

Emptying her bladder wasn’t the only reason she needed that room. Last night she hadn’t thought to remove her makeup & clean her face. Now, she was beginning to feel a little crusty, as though her face was flaking off, one tiny piece after another. After she had managed the necessaries & washed her hands, she opened the medicine cabinet to retrieve her facial cleansing & moisturizing cold cream.

It wasn’t there. Then she remembered.

In the shadow of an approaching & gigantic snowstorm, Heather had decided to have a little fun with her classes yesterday. She knew that they would have snow on their minds, those who hadn’t already headed for home, that is, & so she had determined she would conduct some mini clowning workshops for her students. White snow. A clown’s whiteface makeup. It seemed perfect. She had taken her Pond’s® for removing their facial artwork after each class was over.

It was still in the back of her car with all her other clowning supplies. She wasn’t sure what happened to Pond’s® Cold Cream when it got really cold, i.e., when it sets outside in subzero weather for over twenty-four hours, but she guessed it wasn’t good. One might think it had become a frozen Pond’s, or ice cream, or Pond’s® Stone Cold Creamery, or…. She ran out of puns there. That was probably just as well. She wasn’t a dad, so becoming too proficient in dad jokes might become concerning. She should leave that area of expertise to Patrick.

Or Corbin.

She went over to the closet to fetch her spare jar. “At least that was one good thing that came out of nine years of misery,” she thought, bitterly shaking her head.

“That’s not fair,” she corrected herself. There were a lot of good things that she still treasured from those nine years. The fact that her heart had been breaking most of the time… The memory of how she had been hurt kept her from scolding herself any further.

One of the habits Corbin had insisted on instilling into Heather’s psyche was that when you opened the last one of anything you used regularly, whether it be toilet paper, Kleenex, or Pond’s® Cold Cream, write it on the list. Patrick thought it was silly, a wee bit anal retentive. He was more of a pick-it-up-when-you-need-it kind of guy.

But this time Corbin had really saved her bacon. She wanted her makeup off. She wanted to wash her face. And she only had seven minutes to get it accomplished, minus the couple of minutes she’d spent sitting down relieving her bladder. She needed her Pond’s®—not frozen, but rather warm, soft & supple.

“Ironic want for a cold cream,” she thought to herself. “Stop it, Heather! Enough with the dad jokes.”

Unfortunately, her brief walk down memory lane meant the invitation was back on her mind. Should she send it, or would she just be asking for trouble? For all the pain he had caused her, she still cared about him. He hadn’t handled her leaving at all well. Five years later, would he be able to handle this?

She finished her cleansing & moisturizing routine just as she heard the timer go off. She grabbed a towel to dry her face & headed back to the kitchen. Maybe sitting down to eat with Patrick & Josiah would grant her another reprieve.

Patrick already had the pizza out of the oven, cut into six slices, plates & salad on the table along with Josiah’s bottle, & a glass of water with a splash of lime for both. All she needed to do was fill her plate & decide if she wanted something else to drink.

Hmmm. White or red? She didn’t care about the etiquette of proper pairing. The only question was what was she in the mood for. There was plenty of white going on outside. It was going to have to be red.

Patrick picked up Josiah & carried him to the table. He tested the temperature of the bottle one more time on his arm, then lifted it to Josiah’s mouth. Holding it with both hands, Josiah went at it full bore, allowing Patrick to finagle a bite of his own food now & then.

Watching the two of them, Heather couldn’t believe how blessed she was. Josiah had recently begun sleeping through the night, but not so much otherwise, except for an afternoon nap. Patrick had taken care of him all day long, changing no fewer that five diapers, made supper & somehow managed to sweep the floor, too. He not only did it without complaint or need for recognition, but genuinely seemed to enjoy every bit of it.

And he worshiped the very ground upon which she walked. Of course, she felt the same way about him, about both of them. She couldn’t think of any two men with whom she would rather be cooped up during an epic blizzard.

So why was it so difficult to make a decision over one lonely invitation? Yes or no? Send it or not?

Doggone it, that reprieve had been nice. She almost made it through the entire meal. Did she really have to go back to her waffling so soon?

She sat there adoring the two of them until Josiah had finished his bottle. Then she took him to burp while Patrick took care of the dishes & cleaning up the kitchen. Afterwards they spread out his baby blanket on the living room floor & laid down to help him play with his toys.

“Blizzards aren’t so bad,” she thought to herself. “Not when you’re safe & warm & at home with the ones you love.”

As the evening wore on & Josiah finally began to droop, they carried him together to his crib, tucked him in, & stood for awhile cooing & loving on him. Within two minutes he was sound asleep. They both stayed a full minute longer just watching him before tiptoeing out the door.

They returned to the living room where they sat down & snuggled together on the couch. They didn’t even try the tv. Reception had been lost in the early afternoon & it wasn’t likely to come back any time soon. Instead, they watched the snow swirling about through the picture window in front of them.

Around ten, when Patrick was getting ready for bed, Heather went right up to the window & looked at the winter lying beneath them. The snow was so deep it no longer appeared that they lived on the third floor of their apartment building, but on the second. An entire floor buried within a day. She thought about those on the first floor who would open their drapes to find nothing but a wall of white. And there were still two or three days left. The streetlamp which had offered some illumination last night was completely buried. And the snow continued to fall so heavily & blow so violently she could barely see that which lay illuminated by a light through the window of the apartment below.

When Patrick had finished, she took her turn in the bathroom. After she had brushed her teeth, she climbed into bed with him. He held up his arm so that she could nestle herself against his body. He wrapped his arms around her & kissed her on top of the head. He closed his eyes, completely content. She thought it didn’t matter whether she could sleep or not tonight, she just wanted to feel his arms & hear his heart beating.

She fell asleep before he did.

Around two in the morning, Josiah’s eyes flew open. He wasn’t wet. He wasn’t hungry. And he didn’t feel like crying. Only one thought was going through his mind.

“What was that noise?”