Under the mistletoe

Chapter Five: the first miracle

During the next few days, Lizzie was kept so busy. First of all, being the sister of the bride and therefore, a bridesmaid in the wedding, of course, she was helping in the wedding preparations. She had to help. And if she wasn't helping in the wedding preparations, she was helping Lily and Jordan not feel as if they don't belong. She didn't understand why it was as if they were her responsibility, the others rarely talked to Lily or Jordan.

John's son, though, usually played with Lily if he wasn't being fitted in his tux or if he wasn't practicing his walk. But John Junior was only three years old and couldn't understand the words that Lily used, just as Lily didn't understand John's one-word sentences. They just didn't understand much of either. All in all, the time passed by in a blur for Lizzie.

On one particular afternoon, she was emailing Elle (she had found out why Aswan was called Upper Egypt and was in the process of explaining it to Elle), when Lily went up to her.

"Lizzie," she began.

"What?" Lizzie asked looking up from the screen and saw the Lily was holding a pair of skates. Ice skates. "Oh, you want to go ice skating?" she queried smiling.

Lily nodded. "I asked Jordan but he doesn't want to and well, everyone else is-well, I don't feel close to anybody else. Maybe Ethan, but he's not here. He went away remember? And I just so wanted to skate because I haven't for so long. Well, the last time I skated was last year. But I so want to skate because it's not always you can skate on a long and-"

"And stop," Lizzie interrupted laughing. "Okay, okay, I'll go skating with you, okay?"

Lily's face lit up. "Oh, you will?"

"Sure. I'll just send another email to my friend, and then get my skates. Why don't you head on down first?" Lizzie suggested typing something more in her laptop.

"Okay," Lily exclaimed. She skipped down the porch steps and headed down the lake singing songs along the way.

"Don't get on the ice, without me!" Lizzie called out in warning. She was responsible for Lily and she didn't want to ruin her chances with Jordan by being completely irresponsible with his much younger sister.

"I won't! I'll make snow angels!" Lily promised.

Lizzie shook her head, amused. She continued explaining the concept of the upstream of the Nile and Upper Egypt, and then updated Elle on the wedding preparations, and her non-existent relationship with Jordan. They'd barely exchanged words, except when they were asking the other person about Lily.

Lizzie sighed and felt depressed that right in front of her was big window of opportunity but she just couldn't find a way to get through it. Or maybe she didn't want to.

With a sigh, she pressed Send then closed the laptop. Running up to her room, she looked around for her skates. She wondered where Jordan was, and why he didn't want to go skating with Elle. "I guess he needed a breather," she mumbled to herself.

She didn't find him, nor did she find Matt and Mark. John and his wife, Tanya was probably in their room because Dina had developed a fever. Sally and Spencer plus her parents had all gone to town to check in with the church and fix whatever it was that needs to be fixed. Becky came along because she knew the necessary things to be done and wherever Becky went, Robbie went. Luke and his wife, Steph, had gone to the gynecologist.

She checked her laptop once again then she headed down the frozen lake. She hadn't gone far when she heard a crack, and then someone crying for help, calling her name and Jordan's. "Lily," she thought dropping her skates, her heart stopping. "Oh God."

She ran down the hill, not caring if she fell, not daring to think what might have happened. Snow flew as she ran. Just as she was near the bottom, she stumbled and cried out just as her body hit the snow. Her breath was knocked out of her and she struggled to her feet. She had to save Lily. Forcing herself to run, she saw the lake. There was big empty hole near the edge of the lake. Lily was nowhere to be seen.

"No!" Lizzie cried frantically. She couldn't breath.

Lizzie ran down the lake. She had no idea if Lily knew how to swim or not. But even if she knew, the water was still so cold she could- "No, don't think it," she whispered to herself coming near the lake. "Don't worry, I'm here," she called looking around for a pole. She didn't find anything. She had to crawl.

Lizzie crawled toward the hole. She thrust her hand inside looking blindly for Lily's hand. Feeling her right arm go numb, she pulled it out and used her left arm. Her hand touched the edge of the ice. The sharp edge of the ice tore through her skin. She whimpered, staring at her hand, which was now bleeding. But she didn't care. She couldn't find Lily just by doing this. Now all she could think of was finding Lily. She knew she had to go in herself.

The ice cracked underneath her weight and she gasped and her whole body plunged in. Her body was numb from the cold. It was seeping through her bones. She felt exhausted and she felt her lungs were going to explode.

Turning her face back at the hole, Lizzie saw that there was no more hole. Another layer of thin ice had grown immediately over it. She pounded on the ice making an opening for her to come out but it was no use. Pain shot through her hand where the wound was still open. Lizzie groped around the dark. She didn't how she was going to find Lily.

But the odds were on her side. She caught sight of something. Swimming towards it, she saw Lily, her hair floating around her and her eyes were closed. She was ghostly white.

Without wasting a minute, Lizzie swam back up with her arm around Lily. She knew she wouldn't last long. She couldn't hold her breath any more. It hurt. She had to breath. Just as she gave up hope, a thin layer of ice cracked just to her right and a hand reached in.

Lily went out first. Then Lizzie pulled herself out the water or someone pulled her out. She couldn't remember. Her wounded hand touched the sharp edge again. When she was out the water, Lizzie lay on her side and watched Jordan bending over Lily, hugging her.

"Lizzie, can you hear me?" a voice called.

Lizzie felt a warm blanket wrapped around her. The voice was so far away. It sounded like Matt's, or was it Mark's? Jordan and Lily was suddenly a blurry vision as if it was a dream. Lizzie was shivering so much. In the back of her mind, she heard crying. What was going on? What had she done?

"Stay with us, Liz."

For the first time in her life, Lizzie wanted to be in a desert.

Then everything went dark.