Emilie's Christmas Love

by James Lavene

  "I don't know where he could be," she told them. "We're a reputable daycare. We don't lose our children!"

  "No one thinks anything different, Donna," the chief assured her. He looked at Nick. "Do you have any idea where your son could have gone?"

  "My nephew," Nick corrected tautly. "I don't know. I guess he could’ve gone anywhere."

  "Was he upset?" the chief asked. "Had you argued about Christmas presents or something?"

  "No." Nick thought again. "I think I know where he might be headed."

  He picked up the phone and called Emilie. Adam was probably trying to get to her house and talk to her. Why hadn't he thought about it sooner?

  The phone rang, but there was no answer. He slammed down the receiver. "He's trying to get to Emilie Ferrier's house."

  "Miss Ferrier? Why?" the chief asked in surprise.

  "She's his teacher," Nick supplied in a rush, grabbing Amber, and heading for the door. "He wanted to spend Christmas with her."

  Nick missed the long looks exchanged between Donna North and the chief.

  "We'll meet you out there," the chief promised. "If we have to, we'll bring in snowmobiles for a search."

  Nick had a difficult time making it to the Ferrier mansion even though he was in a heavy truck with chains on the tires. He could barely see the road. The windshield wipers were having a hard time clearing the window. Fortunately, there were no other cars on the road.

  He thought that he could leave Amber with Joda and make his way back from the house toward the road. Adam had been gone four hours. He knew the general direction of Emilie's house. He could be anywhere, lost in the snow, and the worsening conditions.

  Joda ran out into the snow to meet him as he climbed out of his truck. "I knew you would return."

  "Adam's lost," Nick blurted out. "He left the daycare this morning. I think he’s trying to get here."

  Joda took Amber from him and they ran into the house. Emilie was coming down the stairs when they walked into the foyer.

  She took one look at Nick’s strained face and asked, "What's wrong?”

  "Adam's trying to get here to talk to you."

  "I haven’t seen him.” She knew what the conditions were like outside. It terrified her to think that Adam could be out there alone.

  "He's walking here from the daycare.”

  She drew in a frightened breath. "How far is that?"

  "About five miles. He knows how to get here, I think. It's really bad outside. I don't know if he can make it. He's been gone over four hours already."

  Emilie nodded. "I'll change and help you look for him."

  "No. The storm is really bad. The police are on their way to help. They have snowmobiles. They'll help me look."

  "What can I do?"

  "Stay here," he replied. "He might make it here. Joda is going to take care of Amber."

  Emilie watched him walk back out the door without another word. Snow pelted the foyer, leaving a heavy trail behind him. There was the loud sound of a snowmobile starting up in the driveway. The two women looked at one another.

  "I'll make some coffee," Emilie told her aunt. "We might need it."

  Joda disappeared with Amber before the police arrived. The chief apologized for bothering Emilie as he set up a command post in her kitchen. Emilie passed around coffee to the officers as they drew on a map that was laid on her table. Snowmobiles continued to arrive and officers departed as they set out to try to find Adam.

  The weather had taken another turn for the worse. They had closed the road into Ferrier's Mountain. The wind had picked up off the mountain and was whipping the huge deposits of snow into house-high drifts.

  Visibility was so bad that the chief was worried about his men finding their way back. If the storm didn't lessen, they would have to call off the search—even though they knew Adam might not be found until it was too late.

  Emilie looked at her watch. It had been two hours since Nick had taken the snowmobile and left to look for Adam. She could hear the ice crystals pelting the side of the house that faced the mountain.

  It was in a terrible snowstorm, like this one, that Jacque Ferrier had finally met his fate. He had gone out to look for a lost horse that he prized. They’d found him two days later in the river. He had frozen to death, lost and alone in the storm.

  Something snapped into place in Emilie's brain. The river.

  Adam had told her about the dream that he’d had about being at the edge of a river in a snowstorm. Hadn't the rocks sounded like the river that ran through her property? His mother had told him not to try to cross the water. She shuddered. Was it possible that he had foreseen this somehow?

  Emilie tried to get a snowmobile from the police. There were none available. The chief was debating calling his men back. The weather was getting worse. There was already three feet of snow on the ground.

  "I can't let you join the search, Miss Ferrier," he told her. "It's too dangerous. I don't even know if my men should be out there."

  Emilie went up to her room and started to layer on clothes.

  "You're going to look for him?" Joda startled her.

  She nodded, and continued dressing. "I think I know where he might be." She told her aunt about Adam's dream.

  "You can't go alone! Your leg is not strong." Joda was horrified. "You could be lost, petite. Wait for one of the men to return."

  "No one knows this property better than me, except maybe you." She smiled at her aunt. "I've gone out in blizzards before. I know what to do."

  Emilie pulled her full snow suit on top of her other clothes. She zipped up the front of the bright pink suit and picked up her snow goggles. "I'm going to take the cross country skis. They'll get me out there faster."

  "You don't ski," Joda reminded her.

  "True," Emilie admitted. "But they'll keep me on top of the snow."

  Joda hugged her before she left the room. "Come back, Emilie. Don’t leave me alone here. You are all I have in this life. Your parents will not thank me if I let you go to your death."

  Emilie hugged her tightly. "Take care of Amber. I'll be back."

  She started toward the kitchen, and then heard the chief clearly tell his officers that he was calling off the search. Conditions were too bad to continue. They would have to wait and look again after the storm broke.

  Quietly, she veered away from the kitchen and let herself out a side door. She picked up a pair of her mother's skis from the storage shed in the back of the house. She put two long spools of cord into her pocket and found a pair of poles. Thank goodness for Aunt Joda keeping everything!

  Emilie fitted the skis to her feet and pushed the locks in place. She tied one end of the long, nylon cord to her waist then tied the other end to the iron hitching post at the back of the house.

  The cord was bright green against the blinding white of the snow. She wasn't sure how long each spool was, she hoped it was enough to get her down to the river. If she could find Adam, she could follow the cord back. No matter how bad the storm was, the cord would be in her hand.

  The goggles protected her from the whiteout effect of the sky and the land. Markers were clear to her even through the heavy white blanket. She'd grown up running wild on this property. She could find her way around it blindfolded.

  It was a long shot, she knew, that Adam would have made it around the house and grounds to the river. Yet with the blinding snow, it was possible. She'd heard stories of people in blizzards getting turned around in their own front yards and not being able to find their way back.

  That her only clue was his dream might not make sense to anyone else, she realized. She felt certain that it meant something. She was positive that she would find Adam at the river. She only hoped he recalled his mother's warning not to try and cross it. Though it was cold and there was plenty of snow, the ice would only be a thin layer across the water. It wouldn't hold up under his weight.

  That he would try something so desperate made her eyes sting with tears. He’
d probably thought that he could make it all better for her and Nick. He probably wanted there to be the happy ending that his parents had been denied. He was so young! And he had been through so much.

  Emilie felt the pull on her leg, and in her back, as she moved across the snow. The wind was a powerful enemy, blowing against her from the mountain. She had to bend down to try to streamline her body into it. She pushed forward as quickly as she could, praying that Adam would be waiting on the side of the river.

  When she’d reached the tree line, she had to start the new spool of green cord. She looked back and saw some of the cord. Most of it was buried in the snow. She tried pulling on it experimentally and it was sturdy.

  She couldn't see the house from the trees. The air was white with snow. Her lungs burned from the exercise in the frigid air.

  She tied the new cord to the old and started out again. She couldn't be far from the river. She couldn't hear it through the baffling blanket of snow, but she knew it was on the other side of the trees.

  She took off the skis and leaned them against a tree that had held her first tree house. They would be easy to find on her return trip. The fir branches were too thick in the forest to allow much snow, even though the trees were heavy with it.

  The skis had taken their toll on her leg and her strength. She was limping heavily through the quiet forest, but she was moving quickly. She could be exhausted later, she promised herself. She could stay off of her leg for weeks. She just wanted Adam to be safe.

  Ice crystals had formed around her nose and mouth. She had to take off her goggles when they steamed up and she couldn't keep them clean. She followed the path through the woods to the river with relentless determination.

  She didn't look up from the places her feet had tramped down through the years. All of the times she'd walked that path came back to her. The forest had been her solace through the terrible things that had happened in her life. The trees had been her friends when she was alone.

  The forest opened directly on the rocky banks of the river. Her family called it the river of gold because Jacque had made his first gold discovery there. Everyone still believed that the mountain was full of the precious yellow mineral, but there wouldn't be any mining there as long as Emilie was alive to stop it. The land was more precious to her than the gold beneath it.

  Her eyes scoured the river. Even with the heavy snow and the cold, there were still places where the deep current refused to allow it to freeze. Water ran sluggishly past the rocks and the snow. In some spots, it was only a trickle. In other spots, it was ten feet to the bottom.

  There was no sign of Adam's red and blue jacket. Even though the trees couldn't protect her from the snow in the river's clearing, she knew she would have seen those colors. She pushed through the heavy snow that had accumulated on the riverbank. Her body strained to get through waist high drifts to the spot that Adam had described in his dream.

  She stood at the place that his memory of the dream had evoked in her. There were two large boulders, one small. She called them the river family when she was a child. There was no sign of his jacket. She cupped her hands to her mouth and called to Adam. There was no answer.

  She was exhausted. She felt every strain and pull that the weather had placed on her. She winced when she put her weight on her leg. All for nothing. Adam wasn't there.

  All she could do was go back to the house and hope that someone else had found him. Maybe if she was lucky, no one would notice that she had gone chasing after her intuition.

  She had to sit down for a few minutes. Even with the wind pelting her with snow, she had to rest, or she wouldn't make it back. She chose a rock that was sheltered by the forest and sat down clumsily on the hard surface.

  Trying to catch her breath, she still scanned the river.

  She thought about her mother. Beautiful, graceful, charming and witty. Her mother had told her that her handicap was in her mind. She’d said Emilie could do anything that she wanted to do.

  Emilie never believed her. She didn't understand how she could say that when there were so many things that were impossible for her.

  Yet, she’d danced with Nick in the big ballroom. She’d helped children like Adam to go on with their lives, despite their handicaps. She’d lived a good life. She had loved, and she had known passion. She knew she could have been a good mother.

  Sometimes, she was tired. Sometimes, her leg hurt her until she wanted to cry. Sometimes, she was worried about the future. Still, her mother had been right. She could do anything she wanted to do.

  "I love you, Mom," she said aloud, the wind whipping the words from her mouth and carrying them to the mountain. "I miss you."

  She heard a sound that made her nerves tingle. She thought for a minute that her mother was answering. Then she saw the tiniest bit of red in the heavy snow.

  "Adam!" she yelled. "Adam! It's Emilie!"

  "Emilie," he replied in a hoarse croak. "I was looking for you."

  She dug him out of the snow. He was all but covered in it. He was wedged between the two rocks where he’d gone for shelter. The rocks had probably saved his life.

  "We're going to have to walk back, at least into the forest," she told him practically. "You have to walk, Adam. I can't carry you."

  He nodded. "I can walk."

  He was freezing. His lips had a bluish tinge to them. His little face was pinched and white. There was nothing Emilie could do for him but get him moving and get him home where they could care for him.

  "We're going to talk too, since we're out here." She hugged him to her side. "What made you leave the daycare?"

  He walked stiffly alongside her. "I wanted to talk to you. I want you and Uncle Nick to be together."

  He stumbled and almost pulled them both to the ground. Emilie righted them and kept talking.

  "Sometimes, things don't work out, Jake."

  "Why?"

  Emilie pulled him along with her, one foot after another. "Because that's the way life is."

  "I want to sit down now, Emilie," he complained. "I'm tired."

  "Later." She pulled him up by the jacket. "We have to move, Adam. We can't sit down yet."

  He walked another few steps then stumbled to the ground. "I can't.”

  "You have to," she insisted. "You have to walk, Adam. We have to get home."

  Pulling and pushing him, Emilie got them through the fir trees. They reached the spot where she’d left her skis, already almost covered in snow. She looked out from the comparative shelter of the tree line. The snow was coming down in sheets, blowing back and forth across the open space between the trees and the house. It was impossible to see where they needed to walk.

  Even worse, she didn't see how she could manage to keep him going when she was on the skis. She didn't see how she would make it back to the house if she had to wade through the snow. She couldn't carry him. He couldn't walk. The cord leading them back to the house wouldn't do them any good if they couldn't move.

  She looked at him. He was lying on the ground, half-conscious. She knew she was going to have to leave him there and go for help. He would be out of the worst of the snow, unless he got up and started walking again. She could only pray that her leg didn't give out before she could reach the house.

  She could do it. She thought about her mother's words. She’d found Adam. She wouldn't lose him again.

  Emilie started to put on her skis when she heard a low drone coming towards them. She strained to see. The air was a white wall of snow. Hope leaped in her. It sounded like a snowmobile.

  The bright red snowmobile crested the ridge. She screamed for the driver. She knew he couldn't see her. She ran out into the snow and waved her arms, yelling like a banshee. She prayed that he wouldn't turn around before he saw her.

  He turned off the engine and she knew that he’d heard her.

  "Down here! We're down here!"

  "Emilie?" Nick had heard her. He saw the bright pink of her snowsuit that Joda had described to
him. "Emilie!"

  He started the engine and took the machine down the hill. He stopped and jumped off to haul her out of the snowdrift. "Are you all right?"

  "I'm fine," she told him with a frozen smile. "I thought you'd never get here."

  He didn't say another word. He kissed her hard then gently shook her. "Don't ever do that to me again! I thought you were lost out here! I thought I might never see you again."

  There was no time for her to remark on his change of heart. "Adam," she tried to speak and lost her breath.

  "We couldn't find him. They called off the search until the storm passes. I'm going out again as soon as I get you back to the house."

  "No." She shook her head and cleared her throat. "I found him. He's in the forest."

  "What?"

  "We walked back from the river. He couldn't go on any further. He's in the trees."

  They climbed on the snowmobile and Nick gunned it toward the tree line that he could barely make out at the bottom of the hill. Adam was curled up next to a tree. He was shivering and barely coherent, but he was alive.

  "You'll have to drive," Nick told Emilie as he picked Adam up in his arms. "I can hold him. Just take it slow."

  Emilie took her time getting back up the hill. Nick held Adam, talking to him, telling him that they were taking him home. He told him that the bike he wanted was waiting for him and that they could be at Emilie's house for Christmas.

  They got to the top of the hill and Emilie faced the raging, white wind. She was blinded by the total lack of definition. Everything was white. There was nothing to tell her where to find the house.

  She took the twine from her pocket and carefully rolled it until it was taut. A thin green line pulled out of the glazed white around them.

  "What is that?" Nick asked, looking over her shoulder.

  "The way we're going to escape the Minotaur.” She pulled the cord and put the snowmobile in gear.

  It took almost an hour to reach the house. They rushed Adam inside and heaped blankets on him, Joda fed him warm soup, sang songs to him in French, and chaffed his hands.

  A paramedic made it through the storm, examined Adam, and told them that he was fine. "He's fine. Keep him in bed for the night. Tomorrow he should be right as rain."