Red String 2 {h.s}

Chapter 22

Harry dutifully attends his twice a day dance training with Jamie. Every day he feels better about it than the last. Amy catches him in their bedroom a few times practicing steps. He begins walking around with a wooden dowel across his shoulder blades that he holds up with his hands to work on his posture. He knocks over something at least twice a day with it, making him curse and Amy giggle, as he clumsily forgets about the additional length. Amy doesn't understand how someone can be so lithe and accident prone at the same time. By Friday, he kisses Amy goodbye as he excitedly leaves for practice before she pulls him back pushing a heavy coat into his hands.

"What's this for?"

"It started to snow."

"I won't be gone for long. How bad can it get?"

But Harry underestimated how fast snow could accumulate when you live directly on the ocean and the temperature drops quickly. The torrential downpours of rain in Vancouver, that he still hadn't gotten used to, soon turned to whiteout conditions. He was grateful for Amy's parents car that had snow tires on it as he made his way back to the apartment, driving more slowly and carefully than he had in his life. He shakes the snow off his coat before getting into the elevator and going upstairs.

He's not surprised that Amy and Sandra aren't home yet when he enters the apartment. He can hear Richard working quietly in his office and so he goes to take a shower trying not to worry about Amy and her mom being out in this weather. When they're still not back after his shower, he begins calling Amy's phone and it goes straight to voicemail and his anxiety picks up. The cancer centre is a lot further drive than the dance studio. He looks out the window of the apartment and all he sees is white. The roads are completely covered. The leafless trees suddenly looking magical instead of barren. There are only a few cars on the streets below, despite them being in the middle of the city. He tries her phone and again it goes to voicemail. He's about to go ask Richard what he thinks they should do when the apartment door opens and in comes Amy and Sandra.

"Thank god!" he says, wrapping his arms around both of them for a big hug.

"What for?" Amy muffles out from being pressed against his sweater.

"I was worried about you two driving in the snow and I tried calling you and you didn't pick up."

"The Jeep is great in the snow," Amy says, referring to her parents Jeep Grand Cherokee. "And I don't have my phone paired to their Bluetooth so I couldn't answer. Plus, I wanted to keep focused while driving. It's getting bad out there."

The snow doesn't relent all afternoon and Harry ends up calling off his evening session with Jamie. He is completely fascinated by the blizzard, as he watches the city turn into a ghost town as everyone heads home early and there is barely anyone on the streets. The four of them have dinner together, and Amy checks in with her sister to see if she needs anything. The forecast is calling for it to last for another two days and Amy doesn't want her and her future niece stranded with no food. Sarah assures her that she's alright and David will go get anything they need.

At around nine, Sandra and Richard turn in for the night. Today was Sandra's last day of her first round of chemotherapy. She will go back to the doctors on Monday to check how the treatment is working. Amy is glad she has some time to rest now because she has been so weak lately, barely able to last until supper time.

"What would you say about going out to play in the snow?" Amy asks Harry.

"I would say, you read my mind, darling," he answers back with a smile.

The two of them bundle up in heavy winter coats, boots, gloves, mittens and hats. Harry pokes fun at Amy calling the hats 'toques' and she tells him that she'll never let him have poutine again if he continues to make fun of Canadian culture. He immediately takes it back, apologizing profusely, vowing to always call them toques in honor of his future Canadian wife.