I shivered as I opened my eyes to the bright winter light outside, the snow made everything brighter. I reached to the floor, pulled my blanket up, and snuggled into it. The fabric was cold from being on the floor for who knows how long.
I closed my eyes wanting to return to sleep. I heard small feet patter against the hard wood floor. I felt my mattress jump a little and bony feet walking up my side. Then I heard the loud purr of my cat, Marridie, she brushed her soft face on my shoulder.
She started to nibble on my face; this was her way of telling me she was hungry. She was going to have to wait. I wasn't ready to get up yet. Then she jumped on to my pillow trying to push my head off with hers. I buried my head under the cover. She crawled under with me and let out a loud 'meow' right in my ear. Then continued her attempts to get me up.
Finally, I kicked the covers off and sat up. "Happy?" I asked her. She purred louder and rubbed her face against my arm. I lay back across my bed just to annoy her.
Then I heard loud feet running into my room, "Lacy! Lacy! Snow! Snow! Let's go sled! Let's go sled!" My little four-year-old brother yelled jumping on to my bed.
Marridie took off under the bed.
For a kid who has lived in Montana all his life you would think he would be over it by now. His big green eyes stared at me pleadingly. "Allen, it snowed yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, give it a rest," I told him, smiling at him. His eyes watered slightly, and his lip trembled. I couldn't stand the look on his face. My parents didn't spoil him, so I took over the job. "The snow will still be there after you eat breakfast." I said.
"Yey! Yey! Yey!" My brother had a habit of saying things more than once when he was excited. He was still shouting when he ran to the other room, to wake Kevin. He slid across the floor still in his footie Pjs.
I sat back up and pulled Marridie out from under the bed, grabbing her by the scruff. I held her as I walked into the kitchen, sat her on her mat, and poured her food in the bowl. She ate like she hadn't seen food in a month. My eyes caught my reflection in the microwave, "ugg" I said, when I saw how I looked. My long hair had half fallen out of its pony- tail and the other half was hanging limply down my back. My skin was creased slightly from the rough pillowcase; it must have waded-up during the night.
Kevin walked in with a jumping Allen by his side. His dark hair was sticking in many directions. "That's a good look for you, you should wear your hair like that more often," I joked.
"Shut up." He grumbled, rubbing his eyes.
"Lacy! Kevin said a bad words!" he said, pointing at Kevin.
The two started to bicker, 'must I always be the grown up?' I thought. I walked behind them and flicked them in the back of the head.
"Ow!" Kevin shouted as if I had wacked him with a frying pan instead of my fingers, Allen didn't even make a sound. Which I had considered doing a few times.
"Whinny little baby." I muttered as I picked Allen up, and carried him to his booster seat.
During winter vacation, it was my job to keep them in line. This was always a hard task.
Kevin grabbed a pop tart and walked into the living room. I rolled my eyes and looked to Allen. "What do you want for breakfast?" I asked. I knew the answer before I even asked.
"Oatmeal." He said.
"Chocolate milk or strawberry? I asked
"Strawberry" he said.
"Coming right up." I walked over to the stove and fixed his oatmeal, the kid lived off the stuff, and he finally stopped calling it 'Quacker' oatmeal and started calling it 'Cracker.' We laugh each time he does it. He still had a way to go to get it to 'Quaker' but you have to admit, the kid is close.
I poured the steamy mush into two bowls, poured the pink milk into his cup, and brought it to the table.
"It's hot. Be careful," I told him.
After we ate, I laid out his turtle- neck and a thin shirt for him to put on under it, and his thick snow overalls so he wouldn't get wet wallowing in the snow. I left the room to go change, I was glad the only thing he needed help was to know which boot to put on which foot, and to tie them.
I put on a similar out fit. I brushed my hair, and pulled on a warm hat. I pulled it over my ears and put my hair into braided pigtails.
Kevin was already shoveling the driveway for mom and dad when they get home from work. Which he should have done this morning.
I went to help Allen into his snow boots. I wrapped a scarf around his neck and zipped his coat up over it. I slid his boots on over his feet and tied them.
"Okay, Chipmunk lets go." I said using his nickname. He looked more like Theodor with his big green coat, it made him look rounder, and he could barely walk with the many layers. I shook my head, walked outside grabbing our mittens.
Allen grabbed his sled and took off like a penguin down the hill; he kept going down until he slid into the woods.
"Allen!" I shouted. I ran down the less step side of the hill, Kevin followed. Allen was getting up off his sled and was just starting to walk deeper into the woods when Kevin and I caught him. "Allen, come on, you know you aren't supposed be in the woods without mom and dad." I said.
"But look at it Lacy!" he pointed the white horse not four feet from us.
"Allen, be careful not to scar it, and walk over here." I said. His shoulders slumped and he walked over to me. The horse slowly lifted his head, all three of us gasped when it lifted his head. It was not just a horse... it was a unicorn.
Many years later...
And our adventures began with that, just a simple slide into the woods, once we saw him; our world was never the same again. I still remember that day with perfect detail. It turned out there was more to the world then we knew; another dimension lurked just beyond the trees in our yard. I have heard a million times that it was a small world. Boy is that person wrong. There are still so many places to uncover and some of those places can only be found by a child, as we were at the time. Even little Allen is all grown up now. He barely remembers it. After Kevin and I became a certain age, the unicorn didn't show his face to us, only to Allen, but when he reached a certain age the unicorn didn't show himself to him either. So we have been to a world that no one else has known, and it will always be our world.
