An Alaskan Midnight

Chapter 11

The next morning, the first thing Eddy did was write to Lucy again. After talking about how much he missed her, he wrote about Brett's weird method (at least to him) to cook the fish because the electricity went out, and then going on a bunny trail about how they had to catch and filet all those fish and how he was so freaked out about it. Then he changed topics, talking about how he thought that Brett might actually be fine with him now, perhaps even be a friend.

He took more firewood from the shrinking pile, arranging it in the way Brett had and finding a match to light it. To his relief, the fire started, beginning to warm up the room.

The sun began to rise as the morning continued on. Then Eddy realized, Brett had still not come downstairs. 

Walking up the creaky stairs, Eddy gently knocked on the door before opening it. Brett was curled up on the bed, wide awake but shivering from the cold. Eddy understood -- the room was freezing.

"Hey Brett," Eddy whispered, realizing why his friend didn't want to go out of bed. "I started the fire downstairs. It's warm down there now."

For a moment Brett sat up. Then he lay back down. "Is it even worth it? We're just going to be trapped in here until we die, there's clearly not enough supplies for us to last."
Eddy sat down next to him. "I know it's been a hard few days, and I know there's not a lot of hope for us. But instead of feeling upset the whole time, why don't we take the opportunities we do have to spend time with each other?" He smiled. "It's not every day you get to have a Christmas vacation like this, up in Alaska out in the middle of nowhere with no responsibilities."

Brett nodded. "Maybe, we could play something together? Like compose a piece or something?"
"Good idea!" Eddy grabbed Brett by the arm. "Let's go downstairs."

After a few minutes of playing and improvising, Eddy could tell that his friend was feeling a lot better, almost hopeful. He smiled at Brett, glad that he was able to help him.

"Hey Eddy," Brett said after they finished improvising.

"Yeah?"
"Put on your snowpants and coat," he responded cryptically. With that he went upstairs to change himself.

Eddy put on his snowgear, wondering what Brett could be up to.

A few minutes later, Brett walked down, a mischievous smile on his face. "Let's go get the sled out."
"Huh?" Eddy was completely confused.

As they pulled out the sled, trying to fight the blowing wind, Eddy could feel the snowflakes pelting on his face. Then a large snowflake pelted his shoulder. Eddy looked over at Brett, who was snickering gleefully.

"You trickster!" Eddy laughed as Brett continued hurling the pile of snowballs he had formed while Eddy had been doing all the work.

Eddy tried to resist the storm, still laughing as he made a snowball of his own and threw it at Brett. He hit Brett right on the forehead. Bullseye.

"Revenge!" Brett cried. He threw snowballs at Eddy's legs.

"No, no, no!" Eddy cried, trying to cover his sensitive area. But it was too late.

"Bullseye!" Brett cried, laughing hysterically. Eddy winced at the pain between his legs, but he was still laughing, throwing a snowball at Brett at the same spot.

"Ouch!" Brett yelped, giggling. He jokingly tackled Eddy, making him fall in the snow. For a moment they just lay there, unable to control their laughing. Finally Brett stood up, reaching out a hand to help him up. "Since you can't get up yourself, you dork," he teased.

"Hey, no fair!" Eddy cried, laughing. He accepted Brett's hand readily though, keenly aware of his clumsiness.

They wandered back to the house. "I'm assuming we won't be needing that sled," Eddy smiled.

Brett shook his head, still laughing. "Nope."