Blizzard

The front door opens, the wind catches it and blows it open with such force that it rattles the cabin. The kids jump out of their seats. Jessica comes running out from the kitchen, holding a candle. Just as she steps into the living room, the gust of air blows out the candle. "Darn it," she says under her breath. "Sorry, dear." Mark says as he's walking in with his hands full of firewood, "the wind caught the door just as I was opening it." "Dad!" yelled all the kids at once, "You scared us!" Savanna pouted as she stood there, staring at Mark with puppy eyes. 

          "Sorry, kiddos, maybe I wouldn't have made so much ruckus if you guys were to come and help me instead of sitting in here on your phones all day." The five children rolled their eyes so hard you could hear the eyes rolling. Jessica walked over to Mark as he was stacking the wood next to the fireplace. She got close enough so the kids couldn't hear, "Honey, it will be getting dark soon, the kids are getting restless, and there is still no service. How much worse do you think this storm is going to get? Our flight left two hours ago, and we couldn't even call anyone to let them know where we are or to reschedule." Mark turned to Jessica, "dear, it is ok. We have plenty of firewood and food to last us a few days. I don't see the storm lasting more than a few hours."

They both turn around to the kids. Jessica now is the one rolling her eyes. All five kids have their phones glued to their faces. Just as she was about to open her mouth to say something, Esther moans out loud, "My phone just died!!! Mom, when are we leaving?!"

 Enzo chimes in, "When the storm is done, stupid. Do you want us to die?!"

 Savanna looks up from her phone. "Mom, Enzo called Esther Stupid." 

 "Can you all just please shut up already!" Screams Priscilla.

 "Can all of you please shit it for a minute?" Jessica asked as she nudged Mark, who had gone back to stacking logs. She whispers out of the side of her mouth, "Little help here,… Dear."

 "Ok, kids, your mom is right. Everyone needs to please the quiet. Fighting is not going to get us anywhere. Unfortunately, the storm is stronger than they had originally predicted, and we're going to have to spend another night here. Hopefully, by morning everything will be good, and we will be able to go into town. Until then, we need everyone off the phones to save power in case of an emergency. Thank you."

Peyton got up to look out the window. "Dad, it looks like it's getting worse. Can I please go help you bring the rest of the firewood back before it gets worse?"

"Thank you, buddy. That would be great." He looks over at Enzo, "You too, kid!" As he walks by and presents to smack him on the back of the head. "Get suited up to come to help us. We're expected to get four feet of snow tonight, and since the power is out, we are going to need all the firewood we have to make it through the night."

The boys get dressed and head outside with their dad. Jessica turns to the girls. "Ladies, we need to get the candles out of the closet upstairs," as she looks at Esther. "Yes, ma'am," she grunts as she gets up from the couch. "And Miss Priscilla, please grab some of the firewood for the stove so I can get started on dinner." Priscilla looks over at Esther, "But she's older and so much stronger. Can't I go get the candles instead?"

           "Fine, you big baby, I will get the firewood, you get the candles. However, don't forget about the ghost in the closet that froze in there because he couldn't find a light for the candles." Just as Esther headed towards the fireplace, they heard a huge thud upstairs and the sound of the window breaking. All the girls screamed. Savanna's face went white, and she started crying. Jessica ran upstairs to check out the noise. Savanna started screaming, "NO, MOM!!! It's the ghost! He will kill you." Esther and Priscilla turned to each other and started laughing. Priscilla put her arm around her baby sister. "Savy, it's ok. There is no ghost. Esther was just poking fun. The storm must have broken the window." Seconds later, Jessica yells from upstairs," It's ok, girls, a tree branch broke the window. Get dad, please." Esther puts a hand on Savanna's shoulder. "Yea, sorry, I was trying to scare Priscilla. Come on, help me with the firewood for dinner." She turns to Priscilla," Yell out to the boys to let them know a window broke upstairs.

Later that evening, the wind was still howling, and then Jessica and Savanna were finishing up dinner in the kitchen. Esther was setting the table, and Enzo was helping dad with the fire place. Priscilla comes down the stairs, half running, half tripping. Mark, near the fireplace, stands up.

 "Priscilla, what's going on? Are you ok?"

 "I heard something in the attic. It sounded like footprints."

 "There's no one in the attic, honey." He looks over at Esther, "Have you been telling your sister stories about ghosts again?" Esther, with a shocked look on her face, replies, "In my defense, I told her the ghost was in the closet, not the attic." Priscilla had made her way into her father's arms. "Dad, I swear, I heard something up there. It was footsteps. Please, can we just go home already?" Suddenly, there was a crash coming from upstairs. And then another. "Stay here. I'm going to go check it out." Mark grabs the shovel from the fireplace. As Mark is walking up the stairs, he can hear noises coming from the attic.

         Enzo is at the foot of the stairs, trying hard to contain himself from letting the others know that he's giggling. Mark stops on the top step to listen. Just above him is the hatch to the attic. As Mark is reaching up to grab the rope, the hatch flies open. Peyton comes bolting out of the attic, screaming. "There's.. there's.. there's a GHOST!!!" He trips on the last step and lands on his face. At this point, Enzo couldn't contain his laughter any longer. He is hysterically laughing to the point of causing pains in his side.

Mark helps Peyton to his feet. "What were you doing up there?! Are you ok?" Mark helps Peyton up, and they walk downstairs to the couch. Peyton, still a little winded, tried to explain, "It was Enzo's idea. He helped me sneak up there to scare Priscilla. I had to walk around a bit until he came to let me out." Enzo, with an angry look on his face, "LAIR," he screams as he points to Peyton. "It was Peyton's idea. He convinced me to help him out with his brain head idea to scare Priscilla." Peyton looks up with puppy dog eyes. "But while I was up there… Daddy, I saw a ghost!" Mark shoots a look at Jessica, who is giggling in the corner. Peyton looks back at her, "It's not funny, mom!" Peyton stands up! "I saw it, I swear!" he screams. "Come up with me, and I will show you."

Peyton stands up and starts making his way up the stairs and up the ladder on the hatch. The family follows. Once the last person was up, Peyton walks over to the area where he saw the ghost. It was right there! Everyone starts looking around, there was a bunch of old junk and a heck of a lot of dust, but no one saw a ghost. The wind picked up outside with a howel, and out of the corner of Enzo's eye, he sees what looks like a nightgown moving, and he screams. "There it is! There it is!" he points in the direction of the window. Everyone looks, but there is nothing there."

           "Ok, Enzo, enough with the…" as Mark was beginning to tell Enzo to quit it playing that there were no such things as ghosts, Mark sees what Enzo saw. He screams. "Everyone downstairs, carefully." Mark makes sure the family is downstairs before he looks back and something about that 'ghost' looked familiar. He walks over to the window and sees a mannequin, with a nightgown on, that looked like the one that belongs to his wife. The wind blows again, he feels a breeze. Someone had set up this mannequin, but his wife's nightgown on, and let the window cracked to make it look like it was moving. He closed the window and grabbed the nightgown.

Mark makes he was back down to the living room. Holding the nightgown in his hand. "Children, everyone on the couch!" All the kids crammed themselves onto the couch together. "Which one of you took your mother's gown to make it look like there was a ghost in the attic?" Mark explained his findings to Jessica and the kids. Savanna raised her hand.

 "Yes, dear."

 "So does that mean there wasn't really a ghost up there?"

 "No, honey, one of your siblings, set it up that way to make it look like it."

Esther stands up, turns to Peyton, "You're plan failed genius."

 "It wasn't me! I was just trying to scare Priscilla by walking around up there, that's all!

 "Then who was it?! Enzo isn't that clever, Priscilla wouldn't have freaked out the way she did, and Savanna can't even reach the rope, let alone get up there on her own."

 Esther looks behind the couch at Jessica, who, this time, is the one who is trying to contain herself from laughter. "MOM!" Esther points at her, screaming! "It was mom!"

Mark looks up at Jessica, puzzled. "I overheard Peyton and Enzo talking about scaring Priscilla, so I went up there and rigged it while you boys were bringing in firewood." Still cracking up, she continues, "I'm sorry, I saw an opportunity, and I took it." She gets up from the stool and walks over towards the kids. As she was bending down to kiss Peyton on the forehead, they hear another loud crash. The family looks at Jessica, "It's not me this time, Scout's honor."