Legacy of the Dreams

Chapter 10 - Intervention

Susan stepped outside the mountain house to discover Matt, Zack, and Chris all ganging up on Jake. Aaron was there too, but he was mainly staying out of the way, while the other three boys stuffed snow down Jake's back, inside his clothes.

"Hey, hey," Susan cried as she erupted from the house. "Matt, Zack, none of that," she scolded. "You know better."

"Yeah, Mom, but he was being a jerk," Matt said.

"Yeah, he's throwing snowballs with ice in them and hitting us in the head," Zack said.

"Jake, are you doing that?" Greg asked as he looked up from where he was helping Melody walk in the snow.

"That's how you win, Grandpa," Jake protested.

"This isn't a war, Jake. It's a friendly game," Greg said. "Avoid getting ice in the snowballs. You could hurt somebody seriously hitting them in the head with ice like that."

"Yeah," Zack said and he began pelting Jake with soft snowballs again.

"Zack!" Susan said sharply.

"What?" Zack said, but he stopped in is tracks.

"Either you play nicely or we end this. Now," Susan warned.

"Moooom!" Matt protested, sounding like he was twelve again instead of eighteen.

"Maybe it's time to find something else to do," Susan said.

"I think that's a very good idea," Jenny said from where she was watching nearby.

"That's not what Dad said," Chris complained.

"Where is your father?" Jenny asked.

"I'm in here, Jenny," Stephen said, crawling through the snow from the inside of the igloo.

"Were you the one advising them to get back at Jake by shoving snow down his back?" Jenny asked.

"It was all in good fun," Stephen protested.

"Maybe you boys should consider going for a walk instead of continuing the snowball fight," Mrs. Abernathy suggested.

"It's nice down by the lake ... as long as you don't push each other in," Susan said.

The boys all stood in the snow looking at one another. They were hot and sweaty from the snowball fight, and all five of them needed to cool off before they went inside the house. But as Susan surveyed the group, she realized it was only the boys who were there.

"Where are the girls?" Susan asked, looking around.

"They went to check out the boathouse," Jenny said. "I think the escalation of the snowball fight drove them away."

Susan looked in the direction of the snow-covered structure built over the water out over the lake, her brow furrowed in concern. A boathouse could be a slippery and dangerous place in winter when water had a tendency to turn to ice on the deck.

"Go check on them," Greg said, correctly reading her concern.

"I will," Susan said.

"I'll go with you," Jenny offered.

"Thanks," Susan said.

c

The two women walked through the snow, along the path Greg and Susan created earlier, out to the boathouse.

"I'm sorry about Chris," Jenny said to Susan. "He can get pretty aggressive at times."

"Boys do that," Susan said. "It's the heat of the competition, I suppose."