Under the First Mistletoe

Reality At The Doorstep

The next day, Lizzie woke up with a start.

"It was a dream. A nightmare," she mumbled to herself. Her hand flew to her chest, just above her heart. It was beating to fast. "A really good nightmare," she added dropping back on her bed.

She had a dream that last night, a burglar came to her house. She had hit the burglar with Matt's law books. But she realized to late that it wasn't really a burglar. It was Jordan. Jordan was the guy Sally and Spencer was asking Lizzie to be friends with. He was the brother of Spencer's best man in the wedding.

After apologizing profusely to Jordan, Lizzie had gone back to her room. After just sitting in her bed, thinking about what just happened, she fell asleep.

And now she was awake. "It can't be, it can't be real, but it was real," she moaned covering her face with a pillow. "Too real," she mumbled as she recalled Nora coming out of her room, and Nora laughing as she told Lizzie who the 'burglar' was.

She rolled on her side and frowned. She felt restless. For all she knew, last night was just one of her silly fantasies that seemed too real. She knew that what happened was real, but she was too humiliated to want to believe it was real. She wanted to believe it didn't happen.

Her watch said it was only six in the morning. No one was awake yet. Maybe Nora. She could ask Nora.

Besides she hadn't eaten anything since twelve noon yesterday. She was probably so hungry she was hallucinating.

Lizzie changed into jogging pants and a sweatshirt. She bunched her hair into a messy ponytail, and she slipped onto some sneakers.

Lizzie crept out of her room. Out the hallway, she saw all the doors closed. No one was awake yet. Or maybe they were but their doors were just closed. Lizzie shrugged and went down the stairs. She headed to the kitchen and saw that Nora's door was still closed.

"Where is everybody?" she muttered. Opening the fridge, she stared at what was inside. She wrinkled her nose. She wasn't in the mood to cook. "Maybe I'll go for a walk," she mumbled closing the fridge. She grabbed her sweater and coat from the closet and headed outside.

"Whoa," she whispered as her breath formed a mist. "Cold," she muttered rubbing her palms together. She tucked her hands inside her coat. She frowned as she realized she wasn't wearing boots.

Oh well, I just hope the Heaven's Path isn't snowed in, she thought.

The Daniels' Path was something Lizzie's grandparents had thought of. It was actually called, 'The Road to Heaven.' Though Lizzie rarely used that. She felt more comfortable using the Heaven's Path. The Road to Heaven was a cemented path leading from the house to the stables to the gates to the fields to the lake, basically, to everywhere.

Lizzie sighed deeply as she walked. It was the Road to Heaven, built during the winter of 1982. That was how it got it's name. Her grandmother used to say that whenever you used that path during winter, you'd see clouds on either side, clouds, which, in reality, were just snow. Besides that, it gave off the feeling of tranquility and peace.

Lizzie was about to turn towards the stables when she spotted a blue jacket. She craned her neck to get a closer look. Then she squinted her eyes just to make sure it wasn't a rock. It wasn't it. It was actually moving.

Towards her.

Then it stopped.

"Lily, where are you?" a deep male voice called.

Somewhere behind her, Lizzie heard a giggle. She spun around.

"Look, come on out. We're not even supposed to be doing this. The Daniels' will probably kick our butts," he muttered. "We're trespassing, Lil, so come on out," he explained his voice growing impatient.