Avalanche!

by Frieda Wishinsky

  At ten o’clock Ben’s dad drove up to the Masons’ house. Alex’s mom and dad invited Ben and his dad inside for coffee, milk and buttermilk scones.

  “Everyone at the resort says your pastries are delicious, Nora,” said Ben’s dad as he took a second bite of a scone smeared with thick English cream and raspberry jam. “But now I know they are.”

  “They’re great, Mrs. Mason,” said Ben.

  “Thanks!” said Alex’s mom. “But why are you boys eating so fast?”

  “We want to get outside and start building,” said Alex. “We have a lot to do.”

  “And the weather report said there’s a thirty percent chance of freezing rain late in the afternoon,” said Ben.

  “So we want to finish in case it comes down.”

  “Good luck, boys,” said Alex’s mom.

  The boys slurped down their milk and gobbled up the rest of their scones. Then they hurried outside. Alex pulled out four plastic containers, three metal shovels and two long wooden sticks from the shed. Ben and Alex started filling the buckets and tubs with snow.

  “Can I help?” asked Emma, skipping out in her furry winter boots.

  “Here,” said Alex, passing her a container and shovel. “Fill it to the top with snow. Pat it down and then dump the snow brick near the side of the house. We’re drawing the shape of the fort.”

  “Okay,” said Emma.

  Alex picked up a long stick and gave one to Ben. The boys carefully marked where the walls of their fort would go.

  “Look! I made four bricks!” said Emma.

  “Cool. Keep going.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  Alex sighed. Emma always bailed.

  “Come on, Ben,” he said. “Let’s make the bricks.”

  One by one, the boys filled the containers and piled the finished bricks. When they had enough bricks for their snow fort, they started to build. They built a front entrance to the fort near Alex’s back porch.

  By one o’clock grey clouds filled the sky, and they had more than half of their fort finished. They needed to build a wall and the back entrance and then they could crawl into their fort.

  “I’m starving,” said Alex. “Let’s go inside for a quick sandwich.”

  The boys leaned their shovels against the house, piled their containers against the side wall of the back porch and raced inside. They flung off their hats, wet from sweat, and laid them out on the back door bench. They shook the snow off their boots, hung up their jackets and dashed into the kitchen.

  “Peanut butter with jam and bananas?” asked Alex.

  “Great,” said Ben.

  Ben’s dad had gone home. Alex’s family was watching an old movie in the living room.

  “It’s going to be an awesome fort,” Ben said to Alex as they spread peanut butter and jam onto their bread.

  “Yeah,” said Alex. “It’s … hey, did you hear that? It sounds like … It can’t be. Not now.”

  The boys stopped smearing peanut butter onto their sandwiches and raced to the window.

  The sun had completely disappeared. The clouds had turned a dark, gloomy grey and icy pellets pinged against the window.

  “What do we do now?” asked Ben.

  “Maybe it will stop. Come on. Let’s try to keep building anyway.”

  The boys dashed outside to inspect their fort. The icy rain came down harder. Their damp hats got wetter.

  “I’ll grab the shovels and containers,” said Alex. He hurried to the side of the porch. But as Alex reached for a shovel, he slid on a patch of ice.

  His right leg twisted beneath him. “Ouch,” he groaned.

  “Are you okay?” asked Ben. “Can you stand?”

  “I … I think I can …”

  “Come on. Grab my hands and I’ll yank you up.”

  With Ben’s help, Alex hoisted himself up. Then he leaned against the wall of his house.

  “Are you okay?” asked Ben.

  “My leg hurts but I’ll be okay.”

  Alex hobbled over to a mound of snow. Ben followed. The boys dug their shovels into the snow, but everything was so wet all they hit was slushy ice. They couldn’t make good snow bricks from that.

  And Alex’s glasses were smeared with rain. He could barely see.

  “I hate freezing rain,” said Ben.

  “Me, too. I can’t see a thing.”

  “And my hands feel like icicles even with these thick gloves.”

  Alex sighed. “We’d better go in.”

  The boys trudged inside. They slipped off their boots and wet, dripping jackets. They shook out their drenched hats and gloves. Underneath, their hair was soaked.

  Alex’s mom hurried over with towels. “I was about to call you in. Give me your jackets and hats and I’ll run them through the dryer. Then I’ll make you hot chocolate to warm up. I don’t think the freezing rain is going to let up for a while.”

  “I thought there was only a thirty percent chance of freezing rain,” said Alex.

  “And it was supposed to come down late in the afternoon,” said Ben. “Not at one thirty. So much for weather reports.”

  Alex sighed. “Yeah. Our fort could have been great.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  The next morning the temperature rose and the icy rain turned to a steady drizzle. Alex stared out of the window of his room. Their fort was turning into a sad mess. He and Ben were going to a movie. That would take their minds off their fort.

  By Monday the snow on the streets and roads had completely melted. At school Mr. Moore talked about global warming and how it was making the weather yo-yo from heavy snow to warm temperatures and back again to snow and cold.

  In the news, the local rangers and the national park service warned that the crazy weather might trigger more avalanches in the backcountry.

  For the next two weekends, Alex and Ben played video games and watched movies. Sometimes it was even dry and warm enough to play catch outside. Every time they got together they also drew snow fort designs. Each one had two entrances. Some had three storeys, four rooms and couches made of snow.

  “I wish I had a snow-making machine,” said Alex. “Then we could make snow forts even if it didn’t snow.”

  “That would be awesome,” said Ben.

  “Look,” said Ben’s dad, showing them his phone. “The long-range weather report predicts snow next week. Well a sixty percent chance of snow, but that’s pretty good. That’s good news for the resort, too. Business has been down this month.”

  Alex closed his eyes. Please let it snow, he thought. Let it snow and snow and snow!

  * * *

  As soon as Alex walked into class on Monday, Owen glanced his way, poked Nate in the arm and whispered. Owen turned to Lena, whose desk was beside his, and whispered. Then he turned to Ryan, Sophie and Ethan and whispered.

  No matter what he does, I am not going to let Owen bother me, Alex told himself.

  But it was hard. Owen’s whispers turned into loud comments. “Do you know how to ski, New Boy? It’s going to be good skiing weather this weekend.”

  “I know how to ski a little,” said Alex.

  “On the bunny hill? Like this?” Owen stuck out his arms, wobbled and then slid to the classroom floor. “Oh dear,” he said in a high-pitched voice. “I hurt my little self. My little bunny rear is sore. Can you help me stand up, Nate?” Nate extended his hand and yanked Owen up. Owen, Nate and Lena laughed. No one else laughed, but some of the kids gave each other looks. The only person who spoke up for Alex was Sophie.

  “Stop it, Owen,” said Sophie, glaring at him. “Not everyone knows how to ski.”

  “I’m just imagining how Alex would ski.”

  “Yeah, right.” Sophie made a face at Owen.

  Just then Mr. Moore walked in. Owen raced to his seat in the front row. As he passed Alex, he mouthed, “Bunny Boy” and wiggled his nose.

  Alex tried to concentrate on Forever Jones, the book they were discussing for English. He liked the book
, and last week he had contributed to the discussion. But he couldn’t today. He didn’t feel like doing anything today. If only he wasn’t in the same class as Owen.

  “Take out your journals, class,” said Mr. Moore. “I’ll give you twenty minutes to write. Remember: don’t just write what you’ve been doing but how you feel about what’s happening around you and to you.” Alex tried to concentrate on his journal. He wanted to write about how Owen made him feel. But Mr. Moore sometimes read their journals. Alex didn’t want to mention Owen. What if Mr. Moore said something to him? That would be worse.

  Alex looked up at the clock. Ten minutes to recess. Alex’s stomach churned. He was sure Owen was going to bother him at recess.

  The bell rang.

  “Come on,” said Ben. “Let’s play catch.”

  “I don’t feel like going out. I …”

  “Don’t let Owen get you down,” Ben whispered.

  “I’ll try,” said Alex. “But he’s not going to stop teasing me. He doesn’t call you New Boy in that snarky voice. Just me.”

  “He’ll stop. He’ll get tired. Don’t let him know that he bothers you. There was a kid like Owen in my school in LA. He teased me about my hair. He called me Goldilocks.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t know what to do at first. Every time he called me Goldilocks, I cringed. But then he said it once in this weird, creaky voice, and I couldn’t help it — I laughed. He was so surprised that he stopped. From then on, every time he called me Goldilocks I laughed. Soon he found someone else to pick on.”

  “Okay. I’ll try laughing.”

  It didn’t take long for Ben’s laughing theory to get tested. As soon as the boys hit the playground, Owen shouted. “Don’t trip, Bunny Boy. You don’t want to hurt your bunny knees. You’ll need them for skiing the bunny trail.”

  Alex felt his face turn red. Bunny Boy was worse than New Boy. He took a deep breath and tried to laugh, but the laugh came out like a croak.

  Owen stared at Alex. He covered his ears and wrinkled his nose.

  “What weird sounds you make, Bunny Boy,” he said. “You can’t ski and you can’t laugh. What can you do?”

  “I may not be a good skier but I know about snow. I build amazing snow forts.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Owen poked Nate in the side and the two of them laughed.

  “If you don’t believe me, come over and see.” As soon as he said that, Alex wanted to yank his words back. He didn’t want Owen coming to his house to see his fort. He didn’t want Owen coming over for anything.

  “I might just do that. My great-aunt and uncle live next door to you.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The recess bell rang. Alex and Ben ran inside. Soon Alex was so busy with a math quiz and a science experiment that he forgot about Owen.

  At noon the bell rang for lunch.

  “Look, Alex,” Ben pointed to the window. “It’s snowing — hard.”

  Thick snowflakes blanketed the yard. “If it keeps coming down like this, we’ll have enough snow for a snow fort!” said Alex.

  The snow didn’t stop. By the time the last bell of the day rang, the snow covered everything — cars, trees, roofs, even the crossing guard’s hat.

  “I can’t wait. Our fort’s going to be awesome,” said Alex as he and Ben ran out the front door.

  “If this snow keeps up, we’ll have enough snow on Saturday to make two forts!” said Ben. “See you tomorrow.”

  Ben waved and headed toward his house. He lived a few blocks from the school. Alex hurried onto the school bus and slipped into a window seat behind Emma.

  Emma turned around. “Are you going to build a fort on the weekend?”

  “Yeah, on Saturday. That is if the snow keeps up.”

  “I’m playing with Lisa on Saturday, so I can’t help you make bricks. But I can help if you build your fort on Sunday. I like making snow bricks.”

  “You do not. You only made four bricks last time.”

  “You used them. Next time I’ll make more. You’ll see.”

  Alex rolled his eyes. He was glad he didn’t have to count on Emma or even his dad to help build. Ben would build with him. It had been fun to work side-by-side on their first fort, and it would have been amazing if it hadn’t been ruined by the rain. This time they’d finish their fort. Alex closed his eyes and imagined what it would look like.

  But to Alex and Ben’s disappointment, it stopped snowing that night and it didn’t snow on Tuesday or Wednesday. By Wednesday morning the weather suddenly turned warm, and Monday’s snow began to melt.

  “It doesn’t look like we’ll have enough snow for even a mini fort,” Alex told Ben as the last bell of the day rang on Thursday. “The weather report said there’s only a thirty percent chance of snow today.”

  “Remember last time? They don’t know everything. Look!” Ben pointed out the window. It had started snowing lightly, but the snowflakes were so big you could see each one’s beautiful pattern.

  By the time the boys headed out the front door of school, the snow was coming down hard and thick.

  “Fingers crossed this snow keeps up,” said Alex as the school bus drove up. “If it does, do you want to come over on Saturday and build?”

  Ben nodded. “Yeah. And I’m crossing my fingers, my toes and my eyes to make sure that it does.”

  To Alex’s delight, it was still snowing when he got home. It was still snowing while he ate dinner, worked on his homework, played a video game and climbed into bed.

  Best of all, it was still snowing when he woke up. It had snowed so hard all night that there were little snow hills all over the yard.

  There was enough snow now for a fort for sure. And the forecast predicted even more snow Friday night and flurries Saturday morning. This time they had to be right!

  Alex was so excited about building a snow fort that when Owen called him Bunny Boy at morning recess, he really did laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” snarled Owen.

  “Bunny Boy is a funny name,” said Alex.

  “It’s not funny. You can’t ski.”

  “So what? Come on, Ben, let’s plan our fort.”

  “I bet you can’t really build a good snow fort,” Owen called after them.

  “We can. Our fort will be awesome!” said Alex.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  On Saturday at nine, Ben’s dad drove up to Alex’s house. The snow had eased off to flurries but it was still cold and crisp outside. Alex’s house, the trees and Mount Ava shimmered in white.

  “I’ll pick Ben up at five before it gets dark,” said Ben’s dad.

  “Come on, Alex. We’d better start our fort right away,” said Ben.

  “It’s going to be great.” said Alex.

  “I’m sure it will be wonderful,” said Alex’s mom. “Don’t forget to wear your hats and gloves. It’s cold out there.”

  “We’ll be fine, Mom. Really. Don’t worry,” said Alex, putting on his jacket and snow pants.

  “My mom was a worrier, too,” said Ben. “But in LA, she didn’t have to remind me about my hat or gloves.”

  “Yeah. Welcome to winter and snow.”

  “I like the snow, especially the kind that’s good for forts. Let’s build!”

  The boys raced outside and grabbed two sticks. They dragged their sticks through the snow to outline the fort.

  “Let’s build two entrances,” said Alex.

  “And make our fort wider and higher than last time,” said Ben.

  The boys started filling their containers with snow for bricks. By eleven o’clock they had enough bricks piled near the side of Alex’s house for half of their fort. Then they started to build.

  At eleven thirty Alex’s mom popped outside. “What a terrific fort, boys. I’m driving Emma to her friend’s house and then Dad and I are going shopping. I told the Henshaws that we’re out. They promised to look in on you.”

  “Come on, Mom,” said Alex. “Don’t worry so much. We�
��re almost twelve. We can stay by ourselves for a few hours.”

  Alex’s mom patted his arm. “You’re right. But Mr. Henshaw said he’d love to see your fort. We’ll be back by four thirty. See you soon.”

  At twelve thirty Mr. Henshaw snowshoed over. “Just checking that you boys are okay. And I brought you some of Mrs. Henshaw’s chocolate cupcakes.”

  “Thanks,” said Alex. “I love Mrs. Henshaw’s cupcakes.”

  “Me, too.” Mr. Henshaw smiled and surveyed their fort. “I used to build snow forts when I was your age, but never one as good as this.”

  Alex and Ben beamed.

  “We’re not far away, so call if you need anything.” Mr. Henshaw waved and headed back to his house.

  “Hey,” said Ben. “I’m hungry.”

  “Let’s finish this wall and we’ll have more than half the fort built. Then we can have lunch. We can have the cupcakes when we’re finished building.”

  “Perfect!”

  The boys added more bricks to the side wall of their fort then hurried inside for lunch.

  “Let’s eat quickly. We should finish before dark,” said Alex. “Tomorrow we can have lunch in our fort. It could be a fort and an ice hotel.”

  Twenty minutes later they were hard at work again. They were so busy building, they didn’t see Owen clomp over in snowshoes.

  “So this is your amazing snow fort?” he said. “My uncle was raving about it.” Owen stood with his hands on his waist and scanned the fort from top to bottom. He walked around and around it, checking the fort from every side.

  Alex and Ben ignored him and kept working.

  Owen peered into an entrance. He tapped the side of one wall. He stood back, stroked his chin and stared at the fort as if he was about to give it a grade.

  “Okay. I admit it. Your fort is actually pretty good, Alex.”

  “Thanks,” said Alex. It was the first time since he’d moved to Glory that Owen had called him by his real name.

  “Look. It’s boring at Uncle George’s place. All he wants to do is play chess. I hate chess. I thought that maybe you guys could use some help. Uncle George thought so, too.”