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Four young college girls on a skiing vacation have to find other things to do when an excess of new snow traps them in their cabin. They find out things about themselves that they had only suspected before that week, but might change their lives forever.
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Julie, Judy, and Joan had been friends since before kindergarten. When their mothers car pooled for school events, etc, they spoke of "picking up The Three J's." Teachers, and most of the community soon started referring to them as "The Three J's." In the fourth grade, Sara's mother went to work for Julie's mother as a cook and housekeeper, and since her mom lived in an apartment over the garage, Sara was added to the mix. After that, they became known to their parents, teachers and most of the community as "Three J's and an S."
To a great extent, Sara was always the "tag along." Partly this was because of the difference in economic status. The Three J's were "from money" with generations of refinement and tradition. Sara was "working class" who cleaned up well, but remained slightly an outsider. Partly Sara was the odd one out because of physical differences. The Three J's were from Scandinavian stock with pale skin, light hair, and blue eyes. Sara was always slightly shorter, more than slightly less pale, and had dark hair and deep brown eyes. But primarily, Sara was the tag along because of the difference in personality.
From their time in pre-school together, The Three J's were all alpha-females with strong personalities and always somewhat of a handful for their parents and their teachers. Sara, on the other hand, was more of a beta, gamma, or even delta personality and tended to defer to whatever The Three J's said or did. Sara was always the quiet little girl in the corner who never caused any problems in class. Still, The Three J's accepted her for what she was, or perhaps despite what she was. Conversely, she accepted The Three J's for what they were and accepted that she wasn't quite their equal and would never be as close as these three girls who had totally grown up together.
It was slightly surprising to some people that The Three J's did not reject Sara when they reached the cliquey society of junior high and high school. Many unequal friendships often fall apart at that time, but the four remained very close knit. They seemed to have a special bond - and everyone knew it.
The few times that Sara was picked on by stronger students, The Three J's made it plain to the transgressor that she was under their protection. She was a part of their group. And she truly was. There was even a picture of all four of them in the yearbook together in their cheerleader outfits. It was a standard cheerleader shot where all four were in the air, their hands raised and legs bent back in a cheer of some sort. The football field was in the background, and across the top of the picture in white script was the caption, "Three J's and an S."
It was no surprise that all four girls decided to go to the same college. What did surprise most people is that The Three J's chose one of the state universities rather than a more prestigious, private college. All four girls, however, had decided that, in one form or another, their careers were going to be in education, and the state schools were viewed as a better undergraduate basis for that.
Sara was planning to teach grade school, which was a good plan because even an undergraduate degree was a financial strain for her and her mother. The Three J's, for whom finances were much less of a problem, were planing on advanced degrees and future teaching positions at prestigious private schools or larger universities.
Because the state university was originally a "normal school," the old term for a teacher's college, Fraternities and Sororities were banned in its charter. After the freshman year, however, students could live off campus in apartments or private residences.
Naturally, their second year, The Three J's and an S roomed together. It was a rather nice apartment in a good area of town. The rent and other expenses were split three ways by Julie, Judy, and Joan. Sara paid her share by cooking and cleaning for the four. She also ran necessary errands for the household.
Joan's father had a timeshare for a skiing cabin out west that he almost never used anymore, and during their junior year, the four girls decided that they would spend Christmas break skiing. Two weeks were available starting four days before Christmas, which was perfect for their schedules. They would be able to be there for at least ten days if Julie borrowed her father's four wheel drive SUV, and they team-drove the nineteen hours to get there.
As they pulled out of town, the roof rack held four sets of skis. The Three J's all owned their own, and Judy's younger sister had loaned Sara her equipment. Four suitcases were also firmly strapped to the roof rack. The back of the SUV was packed totally full of food, additional clothing and two cases of wine.
Julie had asked her father to pick up a couple of bottles of her favorite wine and put them in the back of the SUV before he brought it over to the school and switched cars with her. She was surprised when he asked, "Are you sure you girls are going to drink that much wine at the cabin. You will probably be up at the lodge most of the time?"
Julie answered, "Of course, dad, we are college students," but she didn't restate her request. His comment made much more sense later when she found two cases, rather than two bottles of wine in the back of the SUV.
Judy's only comment when she saw the two cases was, "Whoa! We are going to have to do some serious drinking to take care of that in ten days."
Nineteen hours is a long time to drive, even rotating through four drivers. Counting in gas breaks and food stops the trip actually lasted a little over 23 hours, which is just what the trip software said it would take. Since they had left at almost three in the afternoon, and crossed two time zones, it was a little before one, local time, when they got to the cabin.
Joan had explained that the cabin was about half way up the mountain on a little-used side road that was kept open all winter because it was the supply road for the lodge at the top. They would be able to ski directly from the cabin down a side trail to the main trail that led to the chair lifts. Then they could ride the lifts up to the lodge at the top. At the end of the day, it was just a matter of cutting off the main trail about half way down onto another side trail that would lead them to the cabin.
What Joan had not mentioned was that this was the only cabin on this stretch of road. The nearest neighbor was at least a half-mile away. Effectively, they had the mountain to themselves.
Judy had been checking weather on her smart phone throughout the trip and kept talking about a big snow storm that was supposed to hit shortly before they got there. Julie was overjoyed that new powder would make the slopes perfect, but Joan was worried that it might close the road before they got to the cabin and they would have to stay in a hotel for several days until the road was reopened.
The last several hours they were driving in swirling snow. It wasn't a blizzard as such because there was no wind, but there was a LOT of snow. In a two-wheel drive vehicle they wouldn't have made it. When they got to the mountain road, snow was falling rather heavily, but the road appeared to still be passable for the four-wheel drive SUV. Julie and Judy weren't sure that they shouldn't turn around and wait out the storm somewhere, but Joan knew the road and how far they had to go, and was sure that they could get to the cabin. They continued through the deep snow and arrived without incident. It was obvious, however, that the heavy snow continuing to fall ruled out going out on the slopes until the storm had passed.
The girls dragged everything except the skis up the steps into the cabin. Then they lugged the skis around to the back of the cabin and placed them in an outdoor rack on the side of the deck steps. Since the skis had already been waxed and prepared they did not need to be brought up to room temperature for tuning and would be ready for them when they wanted them in the morning.
As the girls came up the back steps onto the deck, they noticed that there was a hot tub mounted level with the floor. Three large infrared heaters hung from the roof above the deck. Joan explained, "All we have to do it turn on those heaters, and the deck will be as warm as inside. There are some roll up clear covers that we can bring down if there is too much wind." She then flipped a large switch next to the door and the deck was suddenly bathed in warm, red light.
