If Fire Was A Lover

January 2nd, 2021

I wrapped myself in my warmest coat and hustled out the door to my dad's truck. The snow was coming down like crazy, it was hard to see anything that was more than a few feet away. But I had tons of school work to do and our internet was out, so my dad was driving me to my aunt's house. The car ride was silent, which was normal. My dad and I always had a lot of tension in our relationship. He knew I loved him, and I knew that he loved me, but we both struggled to show it. I think some of the moments that I felt closest to him were ones when we just sat in silence together. No words had to be exchanged, we were just in one another's company, and that was enough. Luckily, my aunt Wendy only lived a few minutes away, so we didn't have to drive in the snowstorm for long. A 90's rock band played quietly from the stereo. My dad liked music that reminded him of when he was a kid. I kind of liked it, too.

Wendy was my dad's older sister, she had 7 years on him. She and my dad weren't very close as kids, but when they got older and got married they found more to relate to each other. It was strange to me that our family didn't see Wendy very often since she lived so close, but really we only saw each other on holidays and random power outages due to the snow. I loved Wendy, we were always really close even though we didn't spend much time together. She was next door neighbors to Logan which is why he's so close to our family. Their street was beautiful, full of charming brick houses, everyone's lawns were green and full of gardens. My favorite thing about going to Aunt Wendy's house was that the neighbor's dogs come by for play dates, all the dogs loved her house. I understand why they did, her house felt like home to everyone.

We pulled into the driveway and the front porch light turned on immediately. Wendy's figure waved at us through the window.

"Alright, see you later kiddo." My dad said, patting me on the shoulder.

I nodded in response and grabbed my bag before getting out of the truck. The ice dared me to walk slowly, every step I took I almost fell down. I could hear Mia barking inside, aware of my arrival. I walked up the cement steps and opened the door to Wendy.

"Hey, honey!" She greeted me, wrapping both arms around me. I'll never understand how she and my dad grew up in the same house, as affectionate as she is. I suppose my grandpa didn't get sick until she had moved out and my dad was born, so he did get the worst of it. But still, they had the same mother, didn't they? Why did they show love so differently? Wendy's home smelled like vanilla and Irish Baileys. Her living room was decorated with browns and greens and paintings of the forest. A snow globe sat in the center of her coffee table, surrounded by her cat's toys. She'd had that snow globe for as long as I could remember, I think her father gave it to her before he passed.

"How're you doing?" I asked her and sat down on the dark green sofa. Snowball, one of her cats, came to say hi to me the second I took a seat. She jumped right onto my lap and began purring. I laughed and started petting her, completely careless at that moment that I'm allergic to cats. I never cared when it came to Snowball, she was just the cutest thing.

Wendy started making coffee, she knows me well. "I'm doing good sweetie, just getting used to having an empty nest. It's so weird having all of the boys gone to college! I mean don't get me wrong, it's nice not having rap blasting on the loudspeakers all night, but I miss those stinkers!" She joked.

"Ha! I bet it's weird having the house quiet all the time. That's the real reason I came over, I knew you missed it!" I told her. She laughed and brought me a cup of coffee. "So I was wondering, do you have an extra snowboard that I could borrow?" I asked her. We were about the same height, and the only short people in the family.

"You know, I left mine up at the lodge when Steve and I went up this weekend. Hmm..actually! I bet Logan's got a few you could try, he should have some old ones! You could go ask him." Wendy smiled at me.