©
2024 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.
Author's note:
These stories are written in Literary Past Tense. Literary Past Tense describes how most of us use past tense in our stories. That is, most past-tense stories are written as though the events are happening now. Even though we're using the past tense forms of verbs, within the story itself, events are happening in the present, which explains present tense verbs in some descriptions.
All Aboard Andi's Dream
Chapter 7
Road Trip
It was a tough winter that year. The storms of January and February dumped several feet of snow on the snowbelt of Western New York every time they struck. The only actual break they got was in Mid-February when Paul and Andi spent the evening in
Niagara Falls
while John and Macy had a romantic tryst at
the cabin
for Valentine's Day. After that break, the frigid weather returned.
The storm hit during the third week of February, when seven feet of snow fell from Wednesday to Friday. Andi's job started on the following Tuesday, and she was afraid of being housebound by the storm. Every three hours Andi or Paul would man the snow blower and blow the driveway clear with the "Baby Deere," which is what they called the John Deere X540 Lawn Tractor.
Normally the Baby Deere would have a plow attached, but the snow was coming down too fast and too heavy, so Paul broke out the 44 inch snow blower attachment that he bought years ago and only used once. With a little bit of instruction, Andi was clearing the driveway, front walk, and sidewalk in front of the house on Howard Street, and on the north side of the house on Second Avenue.
For the twins, this was real excitement. They couldn't get enough. When Andi pulled on her parka and goggles and headed outside, followed by the roar of the Baby Deere, the Twins followed her progress, running from window to window to watch her blow the driveway and sidewalks clear of snow. "Why don't you guys go out and help her?" asked their governess Yi.
Both twins gave her a disapproving look, eyebrows furrowed, angry pouts on their lips. "Poppa's tractor will eat us!" cried Sandy. Madeline nodded in agreement, then they went right back to watching out the window.
"We can shovel the stairs for your mom and dad," said Yi, who had never seen snow before and now couldn't get enough of the white stuff. "When we're done I'll pull you on your sled."
"K!" and the twins went and grabbed their snow pants, parkas, hats, mittens, scarves, and boots and threw them in a pile in the middle of the kitchen. Then they sorted through the pile and got dressed. Yi helped the twins with their cold weather gear, and it didn't take long. Throwing everything in a pile worked out somehow and soon the only twin skin visible was around their eyes.
"Let's go twin-o!" called Yi, and they stepped outside and Yi had to lift them down the four steps that were covered with snow. The twins had little snow shovels they used to clear a small section of the stairs while the chocolate lab Wonka bounced around and tried to catch the snow that the twins were flailing around while Yi used a full sized shovel and cleared the steps in moments. "Good Job girls, let's go find more snow!"
As Yi led the twins to the front of the house, Andi continued to clear the driveway with the snowblower. It was actually a lot of fun. Paul called it 'shaving the driveway' and Andi saw the similarity to shaving her legs. Just bigger, noisier, and colder. Wearing headsets, she grooved to the song that she loved to listen to while on the Baby Deere:
In John Deere green On a hot summer night
He wrote, "Billy Bob loves Charlene."
In letters three feet high
And the whole town said that he should've used red
But it looked good to Charlene In John Deere green
She couldn't help it. It was a silly song, but it was such a sweet song; it made her happy, and she sang it every time she got on Baby Deere, and the bridge of the song always brought a tear of joy and she hoped it described her and Paul's love:
Now more than once, the town has discovered, Painting over it ain't no use
There ain't no paint in the world that'll cover it. The heart keeps showing through.
As usual, she wasn't paying enough attention to Baby Deere and snow was spilling out of the auger, leaving a line of snow down the cleared section of the driveway. That meant she was going too fast, and the big auger couldn't ingest the snow she was feeding it. As she adjusted her speed, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. "Hi babies!" she called as she saw the twins flailing away with their snow shovels. They paused for a moment and waved to mom and went back to their version of shoveling which spilled snow onto the driveway.
Andi finally finished the driveway and turned to clear the sidewalk that was just outside of the ornate iron fence around the front yard while the twins started shoveling snow off the front porch with Yi. Paul had asked that she didn't blow the snow onto the lawn if she could help it, so she adjusted the chute to throw it toward the street, but she aimed it low so the stream of snow pouring out of the chute splattered against the curb.
They live on a corner lot, so she had a long sidewalk on the north side of the house, and she purred along impatient to see what their backyard looks like in full summer bloom. There was a big white privacy fence around the in-ground swimming pool and above ground hot tub. But behind the garage was a large yard, almost a full lot in itself with trees and grape arbors. Paul has a zero turn John Deere for cutting the yard in town. Baby Deere goes back to the cabin when the weather clears to cut the lawn there.
When she finished the sidewalk, she came back up the middle of Second Avenue and went past Howard Street and went a couple of houses up the street to find Josh and Veronica trying to clear their driveway. Josh was digging with a shovel and Veronica was fighting with her snow blower. "Need a hand?"
Veronica set her machine to idle. "If you don't mind, this storm is crazy! We can't keep up!"
"Tell me about it," said Andi and she lowered the auger and chewed a path through the hill that the village snowplow left, then backed into Veronica's driveway. Veronica's driveway was two cars wide. That meant less lawn to cut but more snow to shovel. Andi backed the Baby Deere to the garage behind the house and engaged the auger. Then she reset her headphones and cranked up the music.
Country roads! Take me home! To the place I belong!
Western New York, snow belt momma, take me home, country road.
<><><><><> ÖŽ <><><><><>
Yi walked up Howard Street to Main Street. She had a venison roast in the oven, and she wanted a few things for the side, so she loaded the twins onto a plastic sled and pulled them up to Main Street, where Bee Quik IGA stood ready and waiting. The parking lot was an unplowed madhouse, and the crowd inside was snagging bread, milk, and toilet paper like it was the end of the world. Yi shrugged. They had enough fresh milk to last the twins a full week of drinking nothing but milk, and they had enough flour to make bread for months. She needed the things this group wasn't looking at. Like endive lettuce and fresh asparagus
"Do not run off!" demanded Yi, and she hung the twins on the sides of her shopping cart. The twins knew Yi's limits by now and knew exactly how many buttons they can push before getting in trouble, and it wasn't many.
"We need chicken wings," said Sandy.
"You don't like chicken wings," said Yi. She learned quickly that what the twins liked was to get the Franks hot sauce on their hands, then dip their fingers in the bleu cheese dressing and lick it off. (some Frank's hot sauce + melted butter mixed with bleu cheese dressing makes the twins' favorite salad dressing)
"What else do we need for dinner?" asked Yi.
"Ummm... Gummi bears?" suggested Sandy.
"Bacon?" suggested Madeline.
"No Gummi bears, and we have bacon at home. No suggestions?"
The twins saw a display and gasped, their favorite vegetable. "GREEN TREES!" shouted Sandy.
"Green trees with holiday sauce!" gushed Madeline. The twins will eat hollandaise sauce like it was soup if you let them. Yi considered making instant hollandaise because they would eat it so voraciously, and even if they didn't notice, Yi would. Andi and Yi discovered that when one or both of the twins got in a picky mood and not eat anything but a single item, the application of a little hollandaise on anything they turn their noses up at would cure that mood.
Yi inspected the asparagus, then put a cluster held with an elastic in the cart, then she got some "pointy lettuce," and a head of "white trees" (cauliflower) and a few more items, then headed over to the deli. "Half a pound of capicola, half a pound of provolone, and a pound and a half of roast beef sliced as thin as humanly possible and some au jus."
"Havin' beef on weck?" asked Martha, the counter manager, who seemed to know everyone.
"Yeah, tomorrow. This storm is going to last a couple of days so I want quick and ready meals."
"NOOOOODLES," cried the twins as they peered through the deli case at all the salads and hot dishes. A huge tray of mac and cheese called to them, taunting them.
"Where did you two come from?" Martha asked the twins as she handed Yi a sample of the roast beef to share with the twins.
"My mommy," said Sandy without taking her eyes from the mac and cheese.
"We used to live in her tummy," added Madeline, causing Martha, a twin mom herself, to whoop with laughter.
"These are Doc Jarecki's daughters."
