Almost as if reading our thoughts, our partner told us to make a quick exit to the backdoor, “and try not to slip on the ice”, she yelled almost as an afterthought.
In those 30 hours from car to house, our eyes burned shut into squints, our nose hairs froze, plus our once warmed body became an instant snowman praying for the inside of that house.
The 4 of us: partner, many teenagers plus myself scrambled plus cramped into the tiny mudroom. We quickly took off our coats plus boots plus opened the apartment door to the welcoming…..Frost? Why was I still breathing frost in what was supposed to be a heavenly host of warmth plus security? Her parents greeted us; fully dressed in layers handing us the promised cocoa, plus explained the weather had frozen the pipes of their old condo plus the gas furnace was no longer coming out. Their only source of heat was the small electric fireplace that gave off a 2ft circumference of warmth. My partner’s mother complained, “I told your father to have a Heating plus A/C professional check the pipes plus component to this old apartment long before the storm hit, however NO she told myself and others she could service anything that broke. Ha! That’s why the people I was with and I are still resting here in the cold. Not to worry the repairman should be here tomorrow morning, weather permitting”, her mother chirped along. “We’ll all stay warm bundled under all these blankets snuggled together.” It was not a warm evening at all. They should have thought about wonderful heating service.