Aunt Santa

Chapter 17

At first, it was the shock more than anything else. Sara had never been electrocuted, but she wondered if it felt like that first hard contact between her body and the ice-filled water.

There was a moment when everything went numb like she was suspended in mid-air. "Breathe!" She heard Jakob's call as she attempted to tell her body to tread water. She moved her arms and legs or thought she did. Were they moving?

Sam. She spun around to see him also treading water, or trying to. His eyes were wild as he turned in a jagged circle. "Sam, breathe," she tried to say, the words emerging as gasps.

Her nephew's eyes locked onto hers and they both tried to take a few deep breaths. Something in Sara's brain called out to her to relax and she tried. "The hard part is over," she said to Sam in between breaths.

"Right." He stopped moving his arms and legs as much. "That's better. It's better."

"You're doing great." He was right. Once she stopped fighting and moving it felt easier.

"That's time!" Jakob had wandered over. He reached down and grabbed Sara's arm as she braced herself against the edge of the ice and tried to pull herself out. Jakob guided and pulled her upward until she was clear of the water. He pointed to the towels. "Dry off quickly and dress."

There was a second shock now of being in the cold air in nothing but her wet underwear. Sara moved fast, grabbing towels and wrapping them around herself, one eye on Sam as Jakob guided him up and out of the hole. "Well done," he said with a broad smile and clasped a gloved hand on Sam's bare shoulder.

"You did a great job," BB said, patting Sara on the arm. She said it with such seriousness that Sara would've laughed if she wasn't trying to move so quickly to put her clothes back on.

"Thanks, Beebs." She pulled her long-sleeved shirt over her head and noticed that Sam was still wrapped in the towels, talking to Jakob.

Both were talking animatedly, though she couldn't hear what they were saying. She saw Sam let out a laugh. His skin was flushed red and his teeth were chattering, but he barely seemed to notice. Jakob said something and he laughed again.

"BB," she said. "Come inside with me. You can eat some breakfast while I dry off." She gathered the towels in one arm and guided her niece away from the dock with the other, leaving the boys to their moment.

Inside the noticeably warmer cabin, Sara looked at the limited food options in the kitchen. "It's oatmeal or toast, BB. What do you think?"

"Toast, please."

Sara pulled out the brown sandwich loaf that sat on the counter. It wasn't her niece's preferred white bread, but she'd eaten it without complaint the night before. Perhaps she'd been too tired to notice.

"No butter!" BB declared when she saw her aunt remove it from the refrigerator.

"Seriously? Dry toast?" Sara fixed it for her on a plate and shook her head. Kids were strange beings.

She'd barely moved to stand by the warmth of the fire when BB announced she was done. "Can I go outside to play now?"

In Sara's dazed, post-plunge state, she hadn't even noticed that BB still wore her coat and boots. The red hat was on her head, poking out under her second hat to keep her extra warm. She had crumbs clinging to her little face.

"Wear your gloves and stay away from the pond, please." Sara fixed her sternest expression and grabbed BB as she passed. "I'm serious, BB. No pond."