A Season of Firsts

Chapter 33 - Snowstorm

A day before December 31st

AIDEN

I whistle as I drive to Mount Mansfield, even though my mood is anything but happy. Whistling a tune off the top of my head is just something to do to try and keep my mind off what I'm going to have to tell Emma.

The journey is a pretty one, snow starting to fall all around me as I park the car and get out.
It's bustling at the bottom of the mountain. Apparently, everyone- well, mostly tourists, want to visit it while it's still covered in thick snow. I don't blame them, it's quite a sight to see. Especially for one who has not seen much of the white, icy cold substance in their life. Like me.

I'm confident I'll find Emma where we went together the last time I was here. No one often goes there, or so Emma told me. There are too many that are afraid of heights, the same as myself, I suppose. It's a secluded peak on the mountain overlooking a frightening drop. I wonder how many times she's been there without me, alone, and if she thinks about me when she goes there.

I take my time walking to the small office where I can buy a ticket for a cable car ride up, and even when I do get there, I have to queue in a long line. I could take my car and drive up the winding roads on the mountain, or even hike the trails, but I'm too worried that Emma will have come down by the time I get there. The cable car is the fastest way up, and I don't want to miss her.

"Did a blonde girl buy a ticket from you earlier?" I ask the lanky, bored looking man in the office, who wears a raincoat with the hood pulled over a cap.

"Nah," he gives his nose a rub, his bland expression not changing. But then he pauses, his hand falling away from his face. "But...I did see a blonde lass, just one girl, take a trail up on foot. No one else is crazy enough to do that in this weather, so I thought to myself, what does she think she's doing?"

It sounds like Emma to me. "Thanks," I say.

I pay for my ticket and soon I'm in the cable car, on my way up, surrounded by a crowd of people. They wear bright colours that are harsh on my eyes after the peaceful, toned down landscape around me. A few, the tourists most probably, talk different languages as they babble over the height we're climbing, slowly but surely. All of them speak loudly.

I hear a crackle from a speaker of some sort, and then a voice sounds out.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this will be the last ride of the day. It looks like there's a storm heading this way, so please don't be long on Mount Mansfield. Enjoy the view, but keep in mind that the last cable car leaves in less than an hour once you arrive at the top."

I don't have much time to find Emma, then. Hopefully it will be easy and she will be where I think she is. I close my eyes and try to think about her, and not about how high up I'm going to be.

Don't open your eyes, Aiden. Don't look down. Whatever you do, just don't-

I open my eyes and look down. Immediately my stomach lurches and I start to sweat.

Idiot.

Oh, the things I'm willing to do for her.

~ ~ ~

CLEO

I told Aiden to call me to tell me what time he and Emma would be back. He messaged me instead. He sent it to me not very long after he left to go find her. They should be back before seven pm, he said, and if not, then it's safe to say we should worry.

I look up at the unfriendly sky. There's a monster of a storm on the way.

The problem is, I'm already worrying. I have this queasy, unsettling feeling in the bottom of my stomach about today. About Emma, about Aiden.
It's been awhile since there was a snowstorm in Stowe, and there haven't been any seriously damaging ones in any case. I tell myself this, trying to calm myself down.
But it doesn't work.