King of the Mountain

 By Stacia

I had already known that snow was a rarity in Tulsa, but when I told the Hanson’s about the house that my family had once spent Christmas in they all seemed exciting at the thought of spending their Christmas there.

Maybe I forgot to mention how much snow parts of rural Northern Illinois could get or I just seemed like I was bullshitting them.

Still, three days before Christmas we all went to bed excited and every so often peeking out the windows at the first real snow of the year and the next morning even I was dismayed to see that it had continued through the night.

Taylor and Ezra were second only to Diana to join me in the kitchen as I made breakfast, which had become habit when I wasn’t home alone.

I tried to hide a smirk as Taylor sat Ezra at the table. Although Ezra at, the age of four, could barely see over the table he and his father both gaped at the postcard worthy scenery beyond the frosted over glass.

“Wow!” they whispered in unison.

“Wow.” I replied as Zac joined us. “Hey, babe.”

“Yo.” Zac said blankly staring out the window and taking a piece of toast.

Yo

had become his basic reply when he wasn’t paying attention or felt like being “cool.” I believe an episode of Cowboy Bebop had something to do with it.

“I could run around naked with a pot on my head whistling Dixie and they wouldn’t notice right now.” I muttered to myself with a soft laugh and heard another laugh from Diana.

“Well, what can I tell you, Paige?” Diana sat her mug of hot chocolate on the table, “They don’t see anything like this every day.”

“I know. I know.” I sighed, hearing a knock at the door. “That’ll be Bill. Uh, he plows the driveways around here.”

“He must make good money doing that.” Taylor spoke up taking a seat.

“Ten bucks a pop.” I said on my way out to the front hall.

“Hey, Paige.” Bill said as I opened the door. “More snow than usual already this year.”

“I know. It’s crazy. There’s five extra and don’t protest.” I held up a hand as he started to speak, “I’m not taking it back and here’s a plate of cookies. It’s Gran’s recipe.”

I smiled proudly, knowing that my grandmother had given Bill cookies every year since he was a pimple faced teen with only a shovel, getting around by getting rides from his dad and that this was the first time in almost eight years that anyone had used this old house for anything but tax purposes.

“Why thank you, Paige! I thought she took the recipe to the grave!” Bill laughed taking the gigantic $uper Dollar $tore platter and giving me a nod as he started back to his truck. “See you soon.”

“See ya, Bill and be careful!” I waved as he waved from the driver’s seat and I felt Zac hug me from behind.

“There’s got to be, what, twenty inches of snow, right?” Zac said resting his chin on my shoulder.

“Said twenty-three on the radio.” I told him and kissed his cheek, closing the door. “What idea has wormed its way into your brain, Zachary?”

“We need to start spending every year here.” Zac chuckled, taking my hand and leading back to the kitchen, “And I want my eggs over easy.”

I rolled my eyes and got a pat on the butt on the way back to the stove.

“You know what we need to do?” Zac asked with a smile to the rest of his family sitting at the table.

“What?” Ezra asked bouncing in his seat, as Zac always had the best and most exciting ideas.

“After breakfast…” Zac paused to build suspense, “We all need to get dressed…and go outside…and then we’ll play out there until someone’s nose falls off from the cold.”

“NO!” Ezra squealed firmly clamping both hands over his tiny nose.

“Maybe not that long, but can we at least stay out there until our boogers freeze?” Zac asked and I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from laughing.

“If we come in before my nose falls off.” Ezra said shaking Zac’s hand like it was a serious business deal.

“Holy shit!” Zac let out a long low whistle looking at the piled snow that had been covering the driveway only hours before.

“Zac!” Taylor hissed, giving Zac a sharp elbow in the ribs.

“Cow! I said cow.” Zac replied rubbing the sore spot.

“He said cow.” Ezra verified, tugging on Taylor’s coat sleeve, “Can we play?”

Taylor sighed trudging off with his son, “Yeah, we can play.”

“How ‘bout you? Can we play, babe?” Zac asked embracing me tightly and wiggling his eyebrows.

“Later, Slick.” I rolled my eyes and pulled his ski cap down over his eyes. “You gotta catch me first!”

I took off towards the snow that was piled about nine feet high with Zac hot on my tail.

“Oh, you are so going to get it!” Zac laughed calling out after me as he tried to climb up the snow drift on steroids, his weight often causing him to sink into the snow and forcing him to start all over.

“Ha! I’m half polar bear compared to you!” I teased as Zac got high enough to grab my ankle and pull me down.

I landed on my butt and slid down while Ezra and Taylor watched laughing. Zac started crawling to the top, giving up any hope of staying on his feet.

“Oww, my butt! You meanie!” I pouted, working my way back up to where he sat grinning like the cat that ate the canary. “I’ll show you the bruises and you better enjoy it because that’s the last you’ll see of my ass for a while!”

Zac threw his head back as he laughed at me throwing off his balance, but after a moment of wind milling his arms he gave me a smug look, as my foot slipped.

“Face it, baby. I’m king of the mountain and there’s nothing you can do about it. You married me so you‘re still the queen if that makes you feel any better.” he taunted as I stopped just below him.

“Dude, we need to get the camera out late and get a picture of you pretending to meditate, like the ninja master on top of a boulder in a bad karate movie.” I giggled and he doubled over, giving me enough time to join him at the top of his mountain.

“Hey, sweetie.” he grinned sheepishly and leaned in for a small kiss, hoping that I was the bigger person.

“Hey, baby.” I grinned, pushing him backwards, “That’ll teach you. This is my mountain.”