"Oh, good. I would have had to go and cut off his dick, and I really didn’t want to go back out in the cold." I smiled, touched.

"You’d do that for me?"

"Oh, yeah. If anyone hurt you? Sure."

"So would I."

Again, I felt her eyes on me. "I know you would, Andi." We were quiet for a bit, listening to the snow outside. Such a strange sound. I don’t think people often realize that snow makes any sound, like rain is known for it. You always hear that in song lyrics, rain beating on the roof, or whatever. I liked the sound of snow, and knowing it was out there. It always made me feel safe, like I was blanketed in.

"If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you go?" I asked, rubbing my feet together, trying to warm them up.

"Where would I go. That’s a good question. I really haven’t been many places outside the US, other than Mexico and Spain."

"You’ve been to Spain?"

"Yup. Family trip when I was fifteen. I guess I’d have to say Australia or France."

"Why?"

"Well, Australia is beautiful, and I love the French language." I chuckled.

"That’s certainly an interesting reason to want to live in a country."

"Well, fine, then. What about you?"

"Canada sounds nice. I’d want to stay somewhere with this kind of weather."

"The cold and snow?" I nodded, then realized Haley couldn’t see me.

"Yup."

"Huh. Interesting." Another yawn filled the room, this one loud, meaning business.

"Tired?"

"Yeah."

"Me, too. Goodnight, Haley."

"Night, Andi."

* * *

I winced as I felt something crawling up my arm, but was too deeply entrenched in my world of darkness to really care. There it was again getting further up, now it was on my upper arm. My mind showed me this picture of a massive, hairy spider, come in from the cold. Its little eyes, all hundred of them, looking for a nice place on my skin to bite into, or to lay eggs.

With that thought, my eyes popped open, and my hand began to frantically swipe at the Jaws of spiders. Instead all I felt was rubber, and all I saw was a laughing Haley.

My hand on my chest as I got myself back under control, I glared at her.

"That was fucked up."

"I’m sorry." She laughed, trying to keep it in, but to absolutely no success whatsoever. "What was the deal? It’s was only this." She held up her Koosh. I looked at it, imagining the little, limp spines on my skin, and I glared up into Haley’s eyes again.

"That was still fucked up. I hate spiders."

Haley looked at her beloved Koosh, then at me. "You thought Frank, here, was a spider?" I didn’t answer. "Oh, Andi, I’m sorry. I was only playing with you. I wanted to wake you up." I didn’t dare want her to know that I was deathly afraid of the eight-legged little bastards. I would just have to shake this off. She grabbed me in a one armed hug. "I’m sorry."

"It’s okay." I smiled at her, then looked toward the window to see that the blinds and curtains had been opened.

"Oh, you will never believe this." She jumped off the bed, and pulled my by the hand to the window. I looked out to see a veritable North Pole. Everything was covered, and I do mean everything. The neighbors car across the street? No. There was only a radio antenna left of the little Honda.

"My god. Where did this come from?"

"I have no idea. I got up earlier to go to the bathroom, and this is what I saw. I bet you there’s over four feet out there."

"Oh, easily. Wow." The entire neighborhood was white, no color anywhere. I hadn’t seen anything like it in quite a few years.

"Maybe we should turn on a radio or TV. It’s still snowing."

"Shit, my mom." I hurried over to my phone, and dialed up the hospital. "Can I speak with Theresa Littman, please? Thanks." The receptionist put me on hold, where I got to listen to cheesy elevator music, warped versions of classics or pop hits. Haley began to get dressed, pulling on the warmest clothes she had.

"This is Theresa."

"Hey, mom."

"Hi, honey." She sounded so tired.

"Have you looked outside?"

"I haven’t had time. We’ve had car accidents coming in all morning, one guy has already died from freezing in his car. Honey, I have no idea how long I’ll be here, but I can’t imagine I’ll be home today, or maybe even tomorrow. Christine quitting really messed us up here."

"Okay. Well, I’d say you’re better off to just stay put, anyway. There’s like four feet out there, and it’s still coming down."

"Oh, jeez. Where’s Chris? Is he still at Brian’s?"

"Yeah. He left last night."

"Okay, honey. Do me a favor and call over there, tell him to stay there, please?" I could hear her being paged in the background. "Oh, I have to go. I love you, and you guys stay inside."

"Okay, mom. I love you, too. Be safe."

"I will. Bye." Before I even got a chance to tell her goodbye, the phone was dead.

"Is everything okay?" Haley asked, brushing out her hair. I hung the phone up.

"Yeah. They’re just really busy in the ER today. Some chick quit last week, so she’s probably stuck there for the weekend."

"Oh, wow."

"Well, I don’t know about you, but I am starving." I found a thick pair of sweats and sweatshirt, and pulled them on, freezing in the tank and shorts I had slept in. "Do you like eggs?"

"Oh, yeah." Haley said, following me downstairs. I searched until I found the eggs, a block of cheddar, and a package of turkey breast lunch meat. "Um, didn’t you say eggs?" she asked, leaning against the counter, watching me.

"Yup." Grabbing a knife from knife block, and began to cut up the meat, and shave off pieces of cheese. "How many?" I held up an egg.

"Three."

I turned back to my cutting board.

"So, what do you want to do today?" Haley asked, coming over to stand by me, watching me.

"I’m not sure. I wouldn’t mind getting out into that stuff." I pointed toward the window above the sink with the knife.

"The snow?" I nodded with a silly grin. "You like to play in the snow?" Again the grin. "Oh, Andi, my hero! I love to play in the snow. I’m so excited." She clapped her hands together, walking over to the sliding glass door that led to the backyard, pushing the vertical blinds aside to look out. "Wow." She breathed. "I can’t believe we got so much."

"Hey, there’s a radio on top of the fridge. Switch it on, will you?"

"Sure." Haley turned it on, and all we got was static. "Hmm." She turned the tuner around, trying to find any station that would work. "Oh, here’s one."

"Yeah, if you understand Spanish."

"True." She continued to try and find something, anything. "Shit, Andi. Everything must be out."

"Try AM."

"Nada."

I looked at her, just as she turned to look at me. "Crap. We’re a bit isolated." She grinned at me, nodding.

"Yeah, I’d say so. Cool by me." She walked back over to me as I began to pour my creation into the skillet that I’d already put on the burner of the stove. "Oh, that smells good."

"It is good. Reach into the cabinet above the Lazy Susan, and grab two plates, will you?" She did as I asked, and I began to dish up breakfast.

* * *

"Are you sure we’re not going to freeze our asses off?"

"No, I’m not sure. But we’ll have fun doing it," Haley said, zipping her coat, which clashed mightily with the flannel pants she wore, and tennis shoes. Her feet were much too large for any hiking boots I might own, so we had to make due. "Ready?"

"Yup." We both pushed together to open the screen door against the massive weight of the built-up snow. "Damn. It’s not budging."

"Yeah. We may have to go out through the garage door."

"One more push; we’ll have to open this door at some point, anyway."

"Okay. On three. One, two, push!" We put all we had into it, our feet digging into the rug that covered the tile of the entryway, the material bunching up under us, making us slide.

"Yeah, no. This isn’t going to cut it."

"Garage?"

"Garage."

The garage opened with much protest, as the mechanical parts were near frozen.

"My god, look at that." There was a wall of snow all along where the door had once been, five feet high and higher in some places. "Hey, I could make a tunnel through that." As I spoke, the parts began to crumble, falling in large chunks onto the garage floor.

"Or not."

"Ready?" I looked at Haley to see that adorable smile on her face, a smile like I imagined she looked at five years old. I nodded, and with a scream, we ran, plowing into the wall of snow, falling onto the driveway, disappearing face first into four feet of snow, which thank god was frozen on the lower layers so we only actually fell in a couple feet.

I scrambled to get out of my self-made snow grave, but trying to not disturb the shape of it. As I stood, I realized Haley was doing the same. I laughed as I looked at her, her face covered in a thin layer of white powder, stuck in her dark eyebrows, her bangs stuck to her forehead.

She also laughed at me, as I figured I looked exactly the same. I looked down at myself to see that the entire front of my jacket was caked with snow, and my pants were already soaked in front. Yeah, this would be a short play time. I figured it wouldn’t do well to end up my mother’s next patient, suffering from frostbite and hypothermia.

I reached down to brush off my coat when SMACK! Suddenly the world turned white in my left eye.

Looking over at my laughing friend, I saw the evidence of the white dusting on her right glove. She was trying to look innocent, but of course had about as much success as Clinton.