Cole & Jamie

February 2005

"Jamie! The phone is ringing!" Cole yelled from his spot on the couch. Making no effort to pick it up.

"You know you could have picked it up," I said as I jogged down the stairs.

Exposing a mouth full of chewed-up pizza rolls, he replied with a measly, "Sorry."

"Don't talk with your mouth." He made spiteful smacking noises ignoring me.

I glared at him from the kitchen. He's lucky I didn't kick his ass out in the cold. I grabbed the phone off the hook in the kitchen. "Hello."

"Jamie." She let out a sigh of relief, "I am so glad your home."

"Mom? What's up?" I wedged the phone between my cheek and my shoulder as I dug through the fridge. It was fully stocked from our recent trip to the grocery store so there was no shortage of options.

"The snowstorm is coming sooner than we thought," she exhaled, her voice still shaking with panic. "There's already been some power outages across town. They're saying it's going to be one of the worst storms we've had in twenty years."

I knew a storm was coming but I didn't know it was going to be that bad. I mean they always say storms are going to be worse than they are, but if this storm is as bad as they say we could be snowed in for days. "Are you almost home?"

It was almost five she should be on her way home by now. She didn't do very well when it came to weather, storms of any kind made her anxious.

"I'm stuck at work, they think we'll be here all weekend."

I choked on my water. "What! You can't stay there all weekend! What will you eat? Where will you sleep?" How is she going to shower? All sorts of questions ran through my head as I thought about my poor mother sleeping in her cubicle.

"We are fully prepared for the storm here, so don't worry about me," she assured me. "Jamie, I need you to stay inside. There's enough food in the fridge and cupboards to keep you for a few days and you know where the spare heater is in the downstairs closet. Is Cole still there?"

"Yes."

"Good, I feel better knowing you're not there alone," she said. "I'll call his dad and let him know he's weathering the storm at our house."

"All right," I said. Cole had come into the kitchen while Mama was telling me about safety precautions, he hopped on the kitchen counter after dumping his plate in the sink.

"Now Jamie I want you to sleep in my room and Cole can sleep in your room. I don't think you guys would do anything like that while I'm away but better safe than sorry."

"Mom," I said blushing at what she was implying. "That would never happen."

"Never say never. Strange things can happen when you're trapped in the house with someone with nothing to do."

I hadn't even kissed anyone yet how could she think I was going to have sex. In Trish's words, I was the "purest virgin." I hated it. The sex was one thing, but I'm sixteen, I should have at least kissed someone by now.

Before she could get on her soapbox about teenage hormones, I said, "Okay, Mom. I got it, we'll be safe."

"All right," she exhaled. "I love you."

"I love you too, Mama." We said our goodbyes and hung up the phone.

"What did she say?" Cole asked, taking a cookie out of the cookie jar.

"The snowstorm is coming in sooner than expected. Mom is stranded at work. And we're stuck here."

"We?" He asked.