Inconsistent Paper Stars

Let’s fast-forward this so-far happy story to three months from now. It’s now December, and instead of the traditional snow and cold that everybody loves (or hates, depending on who you ask), in Huntington Beach, it’s as sunny and hot as ever. That’s why--instead of staying around home for the holidays--Zacky and Brian were going up to the mountains with their mothers to spend a Christmas in the snow, just like all the storybooks.

Being only five years old, both boys hadn’t really seen a lot of rain where they’d lived, and snow? It was merely a dream, a figment of their imaginations. They were excited, and extremely happy to be going together. Ever since that first day of kindergarten, they’d been inseparable. Jimmy was usually with them, but since he had such a charming personality (that both mothers swore would get him plenty of girls when he got older), he had made friends with everybody in the kindergarten class. In fact, all the boys (besides our two) had declared him their best friend, and the girls their husband. He was quite popular.

The mothers were glad for a retreat, too. Maria Baker hadn’t ever really left her house except to go to her job after she had Zacky, so to have a new friend and to get out of “that little hole”, as she sometimes fondly called it, was a nice change. Jan Haner had just divorced her husband a month ago, and although he hadn’t come back yet, she was worried that he would come to take her little Brian away. Something she couldn’t even begin to think about dealing with. She loved Brian so much, he was her world. So, a getaway to the mountains was just what her paranoid mind needed.

Upon arriving at the cabin that the two small families would share, Zacky flopped out of the car and landed face-first in the snow. Jan gave a gasp, but Maria ignored it. She knew Zacky well enough to know he was messing around.

Sure enough, Zacky’s head came up out of the snow and shouted to Brian, “It’s weally, weally cold, Bwian!! Come feel! My face is frozeded!!!” Snow had stuck to his eyebrows and had flown off his lips when he talked.

Brian gave a laugh and poked his friend’s cheek. “Wow, it really is frozeded, it’s all cold and hard!!! Oh, wait, it’s only hard ‘cause you smile so much and your mu-sces-cles are all built up. But it’s cold, dat’s for sure.” Brian grinned at his friend. He loved how happy Zacky always was. He can’t recall one moment of Zacky not having a smile on his face. Not one.

“ZACKY! Get your belly up out of the snow and come help us drag your stuff out of the car! Your suitcase is five times heavier than when I picked it up this morning, I swear.” Maria’s voice was playful and happy like her son’s. Brian couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been smiling, either. Must run in the family, he decided.

“It’s only heavier ’cuz you don’t have any coffee!!!! Come on, Bwian, your mommy prolly wants help with your stuff, too, if you pack anything like I do.”

“Oh, no, Zacky, you must have put something else in here,” Maria kept on complaining as the boys ran to help her. “I know you, I bet you crammed another couple hundred rocks into this suitcase since I lifted it.”

“Not rocks, Mommy. Pretty stones. And there was only…..hang on….” Since they had finished all the letters, the boys were learning numbers in their kindergarten class. Not how to write them, but just what they were. “Um…..dere’s about three for each of my fingers and toes, Mommy. How many is dat?”

Maria pretended to faint. “That’s about one hundred and twenty, Zacky. That’s enough pretty rocks to last you from now until the end of the trip. Okay?”

“Okay, Mommy. I can put them in another bag dat I brought and carry them all by myself. Does dat make you feel better? And if I get more rocks, I’ll put dem into my bag and I’ll carry dem awllllllll, I promise, Mommy. Okay? Okay!” Zacky happily dragged his suitcase into the little cabin, Brian right behind him.

“How did that happen?” Jan asked a laughing Maria.

“I don’t know, but he’s going to be the best debater in high school, I can tell you that!” And with her suitcases in hand, she followed the boys into the small, cozy cabin.

It was quite something to behold. Though small, it had all the comforts of home. A large living room opened up into a kitchenette, and on either wall of the living room, there were two doors. On the right wall, these both led to bedrooms. On the left, one led to another bedroom, and the other to the bathroom. Zacky and Brian had already claimed the room next to the bathroom. “It’s closest to the warm black thingy there!” Zacky claimed. There was indeed a woodstove right next to the boy’s door. It was a nice one, too, that you could just pack with wood after you had created the embers and leave it for twelve hours at a time before you had to pack it with wood again. Maria smiled. This will be a perfect trip, she thought.

“Who wants to go sledding?” She called after everyone had unpacked and the mothers had changed out of their beachy clothes to more snowlike gear.

“ME!!!!!” came a screaming call from across the large room. Zacky and Brian bolted out of their room, their snowsuits miraculously put on the right way, and completed with boots.

“Alright, then, grab your sleds and let’s go!!!” Maria did as she said and grabbed her own green sled, the same color as Zacky’s.

“You have one?” Jan looked curiously at the object in Maria’s hand as though it was something foreign.

“Of course! I didn’t have much of a childhood, so I do everything I can with Zacky. It’s a blast! I got one for you, too.” She handed Jan a sled almost identical to her own, only purple instead. It matched her son’s sled. “Come on, it’ll be a blast.” Jogging out the door with her son, Jan decided to let go a little and join the happy trio in racing out to the slopes, Brian and Zacky squealing and laughing at the top of their lungs.