Winter Tales

Chapter 16 - Battle Scars

Ben and I tried our best to keep the kids occupied and distracted. The twins were uncharacteristically docile, a clear sign that they were frightened. Our attempt to make them go to bed by 9pm were useless. They refused to go to sleep without knowing if the others were okay.

I wanted to argue with them but a knock on the door interrupted us.

I believe that our hearts collectively stopped for a moment at that unexpected sound. Being the oldest, I forced myself to my feet and reluctantly went to open the door. It turned out to be an employee from the company that runs all the lifts.

He came to deliver a message from Alex.

The guy didn't have many details but we managed to puzzle together a somewhat comprehensive picture of what had happened. The most important information, of course, was the one that they were all fine.

He told us that our siblings had indeed been caught in the middle of the avalanche while they were still on the slopes and that they made a lucky escape. Will and Jordan had gotten a bit banged up – Alex' words, apparently, not his – and they were being checked out at the local hospital, which was located on the south side of the town.

According to him, they would get home as soon as the two were released and the road had reopened. When I questioned him how he had gotten here if the road was still blocked, he told us that his colleagues had managed to contact him via radio communication and had asked him to drop by our cabin to give us the news. They rightfully assumed that we were worried out of our minds.

We offered him a drink, which was the least we could do for his troubles, but he declined. He wanted to get back to help his townspeople with assessing the damage and starting to organise the clean-up process. I asked to go with him but he insisted that they had enough hands on deck for now. But when I offered our help for tomorrow, since I assumed that they would need any available assistance, he gratefully accepted.

What followed this unexpected yet highly appreciated visit were an additional few nerve-wrecking hours, until our family was finally reunited. Or at least partially reunited, since it turned out that Will needed to stay overnight for observation. His body temperature had been rather low when he was brought in and he needed to be treated for moderate hypothermia. He apparently was lucky to get off the mountain when they did. Alex stayed with him.

So, at around 11:30pm, after nine cruel hours of waiting and worrying, we were only able to welcome back Sam, Lily, Luke and Jordan. The first two were physically unharmed, but Lily appeared to be quite distraught by the happenings. She clung to Jordan as if her life depended on it and refused to let go of him even for a minute to allow us to give either of the two a hug.

Luke, it turned out, had a mild concussion and had to get stitches for a rather nasty looking head wound above his right eyebrow. He declared that he was actually quite proud to finally have a real battle scar to show off, claiming that it would definitely increase his bad ass image.

Finally, Jordan had somehow twisted his knee when he got mowed down by the avalanche. According to him, it was just a minor injury and he played it down, like I knew he would. The doctors told him to stay off it until the swelling had gone down to avoid inflammation where his old injuries had occurred, but we all knew that he would ignore their advice and do whatever he wanted. He usually claims that he knows best how his own body works and what it needs to recuperate. Not even Sam, who is about to finish his degree as a physio therapist, usually wins any arguments with one of my most stubborn brothers.

I expect the next few days to be quite interesting, until everybody is completely healed.

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