Christmas in the Air (4 page)

Kneeling, Livia rested her head on the pew, finding comfort in being in a place where people had worshiped long ago.

God, thanks for Your protection on this stormy night. I pray that You will give my parents peace of mind. I know they are worried about me. I'm thankful for this opportunity to witness Your love and goodness with my dear friends, and the ones I've met tonight for the first time. And about Quinn, Lord? When no other man has ever been able to replace him in my heart, does that mean he's the one You've meant for me all along? Is that the reason we're snowbound? Whatever the outcome, Lord, I praise You for Your watchful eye, yesterday, today and forever. Amen.

Livia was warm enough in her heavy clothes, so instead of wrapping in the blanket, she folded it under her head as a pillow. She didn't remove her boots when she stretched out on the hard pew. She wasn't a large person, but the only way she found any comfort was by turning on her left side and curling up in a fetal position. Sleepily, she wondered how anyone the size of Quinn or Allen Reynolds could find rest on these narrow benches.

Livia felt as if she'd just gone to sleep when Quinn touched her shoulder. Stiff from lying on the wooden bench, and tense from drifting in and out of sleep for
the past several hours, Livia could hardly move. She struggled to a sitting position, rubbed her eyes and moved quietly to sit on the bench beside the stove, which Les and Allen were now vacating.

Les opened the door of the stove and laid several chunks of coal and two sticks of wood on a glowing bed of coals. “You probably won't have to do anything for an hour,” he whispered.

“We'll be fine,” Livia assured him, keeping her voice low so that she wouldn't disturb anyone who was sleeping. “You rest and don't worry about us.”

Livia propped her feet on a coal bucket because the cold from the floor seeped through her boots. She tried to relax, although that was difficult, with Quinn sitting beside her, his shoulder touching hers. She unzipped her coat. Was it the heat from the stove, or Quinn's presence that caused the sudden flash of warmth?

Quinn hadn't been able to decipher Livia's feelings toward him. Was she angry because he'd ignored her advances when they'd been together before? Since he blamed himself for ending their relationship, it was up to him to apologize. Sensing that he'd hurt Olivia, he proceeded with caution.

Praying for the right words, he said, “I've often wondered what happened to you, Olivia.”

She was tempted to answer that he knew where she lived, if he'd wanted to know so badly, but pride kept her from making the comment. Instead, she said, “You might as well call me Livia. Only my parents still use my full name.”

“You've always been Olivia in my thoughts, but I'll try to change.”

So, he hadn't forgotten everything!

Another long silence.

It seemed obvious that Livia wasn't going to speak, so what should he do now? Often, Quinn had wondered if he'd ever see her again, and a few times he'd considered looking her up, because he knew where she lived. But he'd always pushed aside the idea because he felt guilty about the past. Several years older than her, he should have been aware that Livia was developing a crush on him. But he'd never considered himself an irresistible man, and the thought of her being infatuated with him hadn't entered his mind.

“I've often wanted the chance to apologize for mishandling the situation between us. But you were quite a bit younger than I was, and I didn't—”

“Didn't think I was silly enough to fall in love with a man who hadn't given me any encouragement?” she interrupted bitterly.

“Oh, I'm sure it was only a crush,” Quinn protested. “It couldn't have been love. You were just a kid.”

“I was seventeen and old enough to know better. But, please, Quinn, that's a period of my life I'd prefer to forget. Consider yourself forgiven, if you think it's necessary, but I'd prefer not to talk about it.”

“Then what can we talk about? If we just sit here and stare at the walls, time will pass mighty slowly.”

“Let's talk about what we're doing now. I'm studying to be a veterinarian, too. I wanted to do something
using my rural upbringing. My brother, Evan, is a county extension agent, and he also does some teaching at a nearby university. My sister is a high school teacher. I wasn't interested in teaching. But I love animals and I've worked with them all of my life. Being a veterinarian was my best choice.”

“It isn't easy though, as I'm sure you're finding out.”

“I know! I might as well have aspired to become a medical doctor, with all the science and other hard subjects I'm studying.”

“After being in school for several years, I decided to stay on the farm for a while. Working as a farrier helps me keep up with my profession. I intend to set up my veterinarian practice in a few months.”

Someone coughed, and Livia thought it was Sean. She hoped that this exposure to the severe weather didn't give him a cold. Inside the firebox, a large block of coal crumbled and the pungent smell of smoke permeated the room.

Since the wind seemed less blustery than it had earlier, she asked, “Is there any possibility we'll be rescued tomorrow?”

“I doubt it,” Quinn said, with a quick glance toward her. Although Livia's features were shadowed in the dim light, the sadness mirrored on her face made her blue eyes appear almost black. “When we have bad snowstorms like this, the remote areas are always the last to get help. I hope I'm wrong, for your sake and for the others, but it could be several days before we see a snowplow.”

“Doesn't it bother you to miss Christmas with your family?”

“Somewhat. But this isn't the first time I've been away from home on Christmas. I've gone skiing in Colorado with my friends several times over the Christmas holidays. My family doesn't go overboard in observing the holiday like a lot of families do. What special things does your family do at Christmas?”

As they talked, Livia realized that they were easily drifting into the close relationship they'd experienced before—a camaraderie that had turned into love on her part. Although the years had dimmed her emotions, she had no doubt that her feelings for Quinn hadn't been just a crush. He was her first, and only, love. Remembering that he'd said “not yet,” when someone asked about his marital status probably indicated he was engaged or involved in a serious relationship. She had to guard her heart carefully to avoid reviving the love she'd once had for him.

Realizing that her mind had been wandering, Livia said quickly, “Our family has always had some unique ways to celebrate Christmas. I won't bore you with all the details.”

“I won't be bored, I'm sure,” he said.

“Mom prepares special, traditional family foods. Christmas Eve is a time for our immediate family, but on Christmas night, our aunts, uncles and cousins come to Heritage Farm, the ancestral home of the family. We sometimes have a hundred or more people. And we always go to church on Christmas Eve for a candlelight
service. I'll probably miss that more than anything else.”

Quinn stood, flexed his muscles, opened the stove door and replenished the fuel. The firelight glinted from his dark, curly hair as he moved his head. He held his hands out to the warmth of the stove.

“By daylight, we'll probably have a better idea of when we'll be rescued. If it's fairly obvious that it will be a few days, we should plan our own observance of Christmas. We have all we need to do that. Eric is a preacher, so he can prepare a sermon. Your friend, Roxanne, can play the piano, if it's still in good condition. Your group can sing. The rest of us will be the congregation.”

Her eyes brightening, Livia said, “That's a wonderful idea! Preparing to celebrate will keep us busy, and we won't have time to feel sorry for ourselves because we're stranded.”

When Roxanne and Sean started their shift, Livia went back to her hard, narrow bed with a lighter heart. Her mind was busy with the possibilities of observing Christmas and sleep still eluded her. Also, her thoughts focused on Quinn, and the wonder of seeing him again. She hadn't been mistaken in remembering him as a wonderful companion.

Livia particularly recalled the time when she and Quinn had taken a group of teenagers on a one-day canoeing expedition. A thunderstorm had come up, the creek had flooded, and they couldn't return to the camp. The twelve of them had spent a soggy, miserable night
in the open, without tents or sleeping bags. The circumstances were similar to their present experience. And that time, like this one, Quinn was a bright presence for her.

 

On the other side of the church, Quinn also was awake. He'd recalled Livia as an energetic, fun-loving girl, but she was a woman now—an intriguing, exciting woman. How much had he missed by rebuffing her advances in the past? She'd been too young to make decisions about her future then. Still, if he'd handled the situation differently, if he'd talked to her about her crush and suggested that they remain friends, he could have kept in touch with her. That friendship might have developed into love by this time.

But since he'd discouraged her once, he had the feeling that Livia wouldn't accept if he tried to deepen their relationship now. It wasn't a matter of taking up where they'd left off, for that was apparently painful for Livia, but he definitely didn't want her to go out of his life again. Would these few days of isolation also convince Livia to start over again?

L
ivia may have spent a more miserable night in her life, but when she turned on the narrow bench and rolled out on the floor, the night she'd just endured received high marks for misery. The sound of her fall sounded as loud as an earthquake in the church that had been silent all night, except for the noisy, penetrating wind scattering snow around their shelter.

Besides being embarrassed, Livia felt a pain in her knee. Her hope that she hadn't disturbed any of the others was dashed when Sean, who'd spent most of the night on the bench behind her, peered over the seat. His light brown hair looked as if he'd been running his fingers through it for hours. He was wide-awake.

Holding on to the seat and pulling up from the floor, Livia wrapped a blanket around herself and sat on the pew facing Sean.

“Did I wake you?”

“Are you kidding? I've spent a miserable night. I slept a little before Roxanne and I started our shift,” Sean said wearily. “Les relieved us early, an hour ago, but I haven't gone to sleep. Did you hurt yourself when you fell?”

“My knee stings a little, but it's no big deal.”

Glancing around the room, she saw that some of the others were seated in the pews or hovering around the stove. Marie, a few seats back, caught Livia's eye, and motioned outside. Livia shivered at the thought of making a trip to the necessary, but she would welcome some fresh air. All night long, sporadic bursts of wind had swept down the chimney, blowing smoke into the room, making breathing difficult.

Livia cast the blanket aside, pulled on the heavy coat she'd taken off during the night and picked up her wool gloves. Marie and Roxanne waited by the back door.

“One thing about sleeping in all your clothes, you don't have to make a lot of preparation when you go outdoors,” Marie joked.

It took a lot to upset Marie, and Livia wished she could be more like her. She couldn't stop worrying about their situation, and her lack of faith in God's providence annoyed her.

They met Quinn entering the supply room with two buckets of fuel. His shoulders were covered with snow.

“So it's still snowing,” Livia said.

“Off and on,” Quinn replied. “The worst problem now is the drifting snow. I shoveled the paths clear again, but the wind will no doubt fill them soon. Be
careful,” he said as he stood aside to let them go out the door.

“Wow!” Livia said as a blast of frigid air almost took her breath away. When they left the shelter of the building, a wind surge staggered her.

“I wanted some fresh air, but this is a little too fresh.” She snuggled deeper into her coat and pulled the collar over her mouth.

Marie stopped in front of her, her face showing her awe as she looked around their white world. The branches on several evergreens drooped under the weight of snow. Large mounds of snow covered shrubbery. A foot or more of snow lay on the roofs of the buildings. Livia had seen many heavy snowfalls and their aftermath in rural areas, but to Marie, who had lived in a big city all of her life, this was obviously a wondrous sight.

“The thing that impresses me the most,” Marie said, “is the quietness. You know how it is in a city—we never have complete silence. But when the wind ceases for a short time, it's uncanny how quiet it is.”

A brilliant cardinal whizzed past them and settled on a snow-laden branch, causing snowflakes to flutter to the ground. The red feathers of the bird stood out vividly against the white landscape.

“Oh, look,” Roxanne said, pointing to the cardinal. “Our state bird in all its glory.”

The ground beneath the low-spreading spruce tree was clear of snow, and a flock of chattering birds perched in the lower branches.

“If Allen has any bird feed in his truck,” Livia said, “I'd like to buy some, and we can put some food out for the birds. This is a difficult time for them to find food.”

The frigid wind and the swirling snow hastened their outdoor stay. The church was empty when they returned, except for Eric, who was kneeling in prayer on the platform. The women huddled around the stove, holding out their hands for some heat.

Livia took her cell phone out of her pocket, but still no service was available. “I'll step outside and see if that will help,” she said to the others.

She walked a few feet away from the church but couldn't use the phone. She waved to Sean and Quinn who were shoveling nearby. She hurried back to the semiwarm church and shook her head to Marie's questioning look.

“Livia, had you known Quinn before last night?” Marie asked, speaking quietly so as not to disturb her husband. “I sensed some sort of a spark between the two of you.”

“It must have been a bright spark to last for three years,” Livia tried to joke. “We met several years ago when both of us were on the staff of a 4-H camp. I hadn't seen or heard from him again until last night. It was a surprise to see him.”

“Even if we have been singing together for over a year,” Roxanne said, “we know so little about each other. I didn't know until last night that you were a farm girl.”

Laughing lightly, Marie said, “I have a feeling that we'll know a lot about each other before we're rescued.”

“Maybe even things we'd rather not know,” her mother agreed.

“Let's try to prepare some breakfast,” Livia said. “My stomach is in the habit of having food three times a day.”

His devotions finished, Eric joined them near the stove. He kissed Marie and said to Livia, “It's a habit you may have to break if we're here very long.”

“Where are the rest of the men?” his wife asked.

“Allen and Les went to the truck to see if they could find some instant coffee. Les insists he can't function until he has his morning cup.”

“So that's the reason for the pan of water on the stove,” Livia said.

“Yes,” Eric said. “Where he unearthed that old pot, I don't know, but he scrubbed it with snow until it was clean enough. He poured a couple of bottles of water in it.”

“Good,” Roxanne said. “I could use some coffee, too.”

“It would be nice to have some hot water for washing,” Marie said hopefully. “I don't want to wash my hands in snow.”

Eric pointed to a carton of antibacterial hand wipes that Allen had brought in last night. “We'll have to make do with those. We can't risk using our bottled water for washing.”

“What's Sean doing?” Roxanne asked.

“Quinn is teaching him how to shovel snow,” Eric said with a lopsided grin. “They're cleaning off the steps and the porch. He's doing quite well for a guy from Southern California.”

As if on cue, the door opened and Sean entered.

“I don't know how you people have survived over the years in this kind of weather,” he said as he stomped his feet to remove the snow. “No wonder my family left the Midwest and moved to California. But why did my dad, who's an alumni of OSU, insist that I follow in his footsteps?”

Although Sean spoke in a light tone, Livia sympathized with him. He was suffering with the low temperatures more than the rest of them.

“Where's Quinn?” she asked.

“He went to his truck, while Allen and Les are down there. He and Les are very insistent that none of us should leave this building alone.”

“Can you see the vehicles from here?” Marie asked.

“No. The visibility is less than ten feet. It isn't snowing right now, but the wind is whipping the feathery flakes until it looks like we're having another blizzard.”

A smile graced Les's wrinkled face when he walked in a few minutes later. He held up a jar of ground coffee. “We had to hunt for a long time before we found it,” he said. “Is the water hot?”

Roxanne laid an experimental finger on the side of the pan. “Warm, but not hot.”

“I'll put another log or two on the fire,” Les said.
“I'm trying to be sparin' of the fuel. We might be here several days, and we don't want to run out, but I've got to have my coffee.”

“A sausage biscuit would taste pretty good right now,” Sean said. “Have you got one of those tucked away in your coat pocket?”

Although Les was friendly to everyone else, he seemed to dislike Sean, and he snapped, “No, city boy, you're gonna have to rough it like the rest of us.”

Sean exchanged a quick glance with Roxanne and shrugged his shoulders. Livia knew Sean had been joking. In fact, under the circumstances, she thought the basketball player was adjusting quite well to the situation. She touched Sean's hand.

“He's one of those people who's grouchy before he has a cup of coffee,” she whispered. “He'll probably be all right after we've eaten.”

Sean responded by giving Livia a quick hug just as Quinn stepped into the door. Livia felt her face flushing as Quinn observed the gesture with obscure curiosity. Quinn's day-old stubble was frosted with snowflakes, and he looked unbelievably handsome to Livia.

She moved quickly away from Sean and joined Roxanne and Marie, who were examining the boxes of food the men had brought from the truck.

“Here are some individual boxes of cereal,” Roxanne said. “We put the milk in the supply room, and it will be cold enough for us to use on our cereal.” She set out a box of doughnuts.

“We have some juice in individual containers, too,” Marie said. “We're fortunate to have this much.”

“I started my truck and picked up a weather report on the radio,” Quinn said. “I wish I had better news, but there's another round of snow coming this afternoon and twenty-below temperatures predicted for tonight.”

The very thought caused cold chills to run up and down Livia's spine. The little church had been frigid
last
night, and that meant it would get worse.

“What about our chances of being rescued?” Eric asked, with a quick glance at his wife.

Quinn shook his head. “Several counties in this area are completely isolated. No rescue today, I'm sure.”

“So not only will we be away from home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we may not get out of here for several days,” Allen said.

“Looks like,” Quinn said.

“I wish there was some way to let my wife know I'm all right,” Allen said. “But I suppose all of you have the same concern.”

Quinn moved to Livia's side. “I'm sorry you can't get home,” he said quietly.

“Yeah, me, too,” she agreed. “But things could be a lot worse.”

If she couldn't be at Heritage Farm for Christmas, she welcomed this time with Quinn.

“Have you said anything about our plans to celebrate Christmas?”

She shook her head. “Let's wait until they've had
some breakfast. They might be more responsive to the idea then.”

By the time they'd eaten their cereal and doughnuts, the water was hot enough for coffee. The coffee drinkers sipped on their favorite beverage from disposable cups, a sense of satisfaction on their faces. Marie and Livia didn't like coffee, so they drank juice.

They finished eating by nine o'clock, with a long day looming before them. The room was dim because the overcast skies kept the sun hidden. The candles had been extinguished to preserve them, as well as to improve the oxygen in the room.

In spite of heavy socks and boots, Livia's feet felt numb. She put her hand on the cold wooden floor, and knew that the heat from the stove would never warm it. The church was built only a few feet off the ground, and it was doubtful if there was any insulation underneath the building.

She went to her pack and found a comb. Even in the building, she'd kept the hood over her head most of the time. Her hair was knotted and twisted. She combed the tangles out as best she could, but wasn't making much progress when Sean sat down behind her and took the comb from her hand.

“Here, let me help,” he said, “I have two younger sisters, and my mother always made me comb their hair. I got so good at it that I once considered becoming a barber.” Perhaps comparing that occupation with the opportunity to become a professional basketball player, he laughed jovially. “Give me the comb and I'll be
your
big
brother today.” He worked gently with her hair until it flowed softly over her shoulders. When she turned toward the group near the stove, Quinn was looking at her. He turned his eyes away quickly.
What must he be thinking?

Watching the shivering people circling the stove, Livia doubted that there'd be much interest in having a Christmas celebration. The others probably felt as miserable as she did, and she knew it would be tempting just to sit, stew and feel sorry for themselves.

Quinn raised questioning eyebrows to her, and she nodded. “You go ahead,” she mouthed to him.

“Hey, folks,” Quinn said. “Livia and I came up with an idea last night. Since it's pretty obvious that we can't get home for Christmas, we thought we should overcome our difficulties and celebrate Christmas here.”

The other snowbound travelers looked around at each other. Seeing the dejection in their eyes, even if it wasn't necessarily showing in their facial expressions, Livia said, “Come on, everyone. Christmas is more than time spent with family. Let's make a stab at happiness. How many are willing to remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas?”