Today is the second day in a row of frozen trees, icy roads, snow, and general mess. Nobody can get anywhere. Chrissy sees no reason to get out of her cozy bed, so she snuggles down into her covers, ready for a long second sleep.
“Good morning, merry sunshine, how did you wake so soon?” the Doctor’s Wife comes into the room, singing in her forceful tenor.
“Go away,” Chrissy says.
“You’ve scared the little stars away and shone away the moon!” her mother continues the rest of the chorus.
After breakfast, Chrissy sits in the nook by the window. The furnace kicks on and Chrissy sighs, looking up from her book. The snow continues to fall. She blinks, looking out the window. It’s so quiet with everybody gone away to college.
Through the snow, a large shadowy figure makes its way up the driveway. Then it isn’t a shape, it’s Chrissy’s friend Pat Rheingold riding up to the back porch on her horse.
“I got so sick of being inside and I couldn’t get my car out,” Pat says. “Want to go for a ride?”
Chrissy scrambles into jeans and snow boots, parka. She climbs up behind Pat, holding her around the waist. The horse is obliging, clopping, sure of foot on the snow and ice.