Second Chance Snowmance

1.

Travel to the middle of nowhere. Keep going until the people's accents grow so thick you can only smile and nod because you have no idea what the hell they're saying. Then, toss a marble onto the floor, follow where it goes, and you'll find the town where I was born: Eden's Creek. The biggest hole in the entire country.

The most exciting thing to ever happen in Eden's Creek was the yearly Christmas carol event during which we, and the towns surrounding us, collectively traded our Sunday shoes for winter boots and gathered outside in the square. We drank powdery chocolate milk while the choir sang Good Christian Songs with all swear words, hints of sexuality, and any semblance of a soul beaten out of it in the bandstand. We wrapped up at eight, went to bed by nine, and called that a party.

Eden's Creek had a longstanding, insignificant history as a goat herding town, and later on also a pit stop for people on their way to an actual city. People came to Eden's Creek seeking peace and quiet... Or they came because they just really happened to like goats. Everyone claimed to be happy, but with the amount of alcohol some consumed I wondered what exactly they were trying to forget.

But I digress. Everything was all happy, quiet, and quaint in Eden's Creek. Like a travel guide picture. It always stayed that way because everyone who did want a ruckus packed their bags and ran as fast as they could the moment they finished high school. Everyone who stayed too long became one with Eden's Creek. Like my brother, Peter. He was a vegetable now, rooted forever into the ground and buried in the village's soil, unable to see the outside world. Potato Peter.

I jolted when blinding lights suddenly flashed into my face. A car zoomed past mine in the other direction on the narrow, snowy road. I breathed in and out deeply. My heart was in my throat, but I was okay. The engine of my car was still humming peacefully underneath me, and Christmas carols played on the radio. The sun was slowly setting in the distance. My GPS had failed long ago because it wasn't familiar with this bum-ass middle of nowhere road. But I knew I was headed the right way and would reach Eden's Creek in an hour so.

"Get it together, Darcy," I mumbled to myself. 

Zoning out and getting lost in memories of the past while driving a car in slippery, snowy weather wasn't smart.  There wasn't a single bone in my old, weary body that wanted to go to Eden's Creek, but I sure as hell wanted to stay alive long enough so I could watch the village disappear into the distance as I drove away from it after the holidays. 

I sighed. I'd resigned to my fate. Three days. Three days I had to sell my soul to Santa, then I would go back to my real life. 

I would've preferred selling my soul to Satan at this point. How was I thirty years old today, yet, still just as susceptible to my mom's emotional blackmail as I'd been as a child? 

It was the same every year: I tried to resist. I told her I may have other plans, while I didn't. I'd even tried telling her I just didn't want to come to Eden's Creek for the holidays. Mom would go quiet and pout and say she understood. But I knew she didn't actually understand because she'd keep asking about Christmas every time we called after the rejection, and I would cave in the end. 

I was one of the runners. I'd left Eden's Creek and never looked back when I was eighteen. Every single year since then Mom had made me drive 'home' for Christmas and stay at least three days. She'd stuff me with food like a goose in a cage, undoing as much as possible of my hard work at the gym during the rest of the year. The self-esteem I'd built up would also expertly get crumbled by remarks about my dating prospects over dinner. 

I passed the sign and the exit leading to Dawn's Creek. I tried to ignore it, but seeing it always gave me a hollow feeling in my stomach. At least Mom cared about me and wanted to see me, I guessed. Unlike some other people I'd left in the dust after finishing high school.

I stared at the Dawn's Creek sign and watched it slowly become smaller in my rearview mirror

Then I suddenly heard a loud bang. My car slipped to the side and I lost control of the wheel. When I slammed the breaks the world outside started spinning. I screamed and then the world went white.