I nodded and went back under the blanket.
* * *
Time crawled waiting on Mr. Graham’s arrival. The noise from outside, only partially blocked out by the blanket over my head, refused to take a rest. Then all at once, it stopped. Quiet poured over the cabin, and I pulled my head out from its makeshift nest to be sure I wasn’t imagining it.
After a moment of real, honest-to-God silence, three knocks came at the door, followed by a dampened version of Mr. Graham’s voice.
“Jen? Sara?” A familiar tone, accompanied by three more knocks.
“Oh, thank God,” Mom whispered under her breath.
She opened the door to reveal a snowy landscape with Mr. Graham’s car in the driveway, still running. Mr. Graham, himself, was nowhere to be seen. Everything remained still. Mom stepped out into the snow, us
