This is my submission for the 2019 Winter Holidays contest. Don't forget to vote at the end, it would be much appreciated. Of course, comments and feedback are also very welcome.
NOTE: This story is about 5 pages long, and has a slow buildup.
If you're just looking for a quick fix, this story might not be for you, but I promise we'll get to the good stuff eventually.
Many thanks to Ada Stuart and BrokenSpokes for talking through my ideas with me. They helped me realize I was approaching the story from the wrong angle, and while it meant scrapping my half-finished first attempt and starting over from scratch, I think it's lead to a story that's much better than it would have been without their help.
I also want to thank Ada for proofreading the story. Her feedback was very useful and helped me fix some odd sentences and other weirdness throughout the story.
Special thanks go to SheDreamsInRed, who helped me out with the recipes and cooking scenes. I'm a terrible cook, so her expertise was invaluable. Any mistakes or inaccuracies in these scenes are entirely my own. I also want to thank her for giving the story a final last minute once-over, catching some things that slipped through my editing. It really helped to give the story some more polish before submitting.
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"You sure you don't want to stay until tomorrow, Tim?"
"No thanks, I really should go now." I gave my mother a reassuring smile before hugging her tightly. "I'm going to miss your cooking."
My father stumbled down the stairs, putting my suitcase down in front of me and stretching his back.
"You see the weather forecast? Looks like it's going to snow, and not a little either. You really want to go now?"
"Dad..." I sighed impatiently.
I didn't exactly need to head home just yet, but I couldn't tell them that. I still had a full week off work for Christmas, and I didn't have any plans for the next few days. It wasn't that I didn't like spending time with my parents either. We were pretty close and I always felt welcome. However, there was someone else that I was itching to get some distance from.
"Gonna miss you, Timmy." Speaking of the devil...
My big brother crushed me in a bear hug that cracked my ribs and squeezed the air out of my lungs. His huge hand ruffled my hair painfully, undoing all the time I had spent earlier to try and tame my bed head. It didn't matter that he had just turned thirty; I was still his little brother and the way he treated me hadn't changed since we were kids, despite me only being two years younger.
"Andy," I wheezed, struggling helplessly against his iron grip. "Air, please..."
He let go of me and I felt my feet touch the ground again. It took a few deep breaths for my head to stop spinning. When I looked up I noticed the woman hovering awkwardly behind him.
Maria approached me and smiled, making me feel lightheaded once again. How my oaf of a brother had managed to marry such a lovely woman was beyond me. She seemed intelligent enough to have a better taste in men, and I doubted that she had a lack of choice either with looks like hers. But then again, women had always been a mystery to me.
"Drive safe," she said softly.
"I will, thanks."
I extended my hand towards her but she surprised me by pulling me into a hug instead. I closed my eyes for a moment as I took in the flowery smell of her hair. Then I became aware of the way her protruding stomach was pushing against mine. Great, as if I needed another reminder that my brother wasn't only married, but expecting his first child too. He had mentioned it at least ten times over the last few days.
Maria let go of me and I quickly bent down to grab my suitcase in an attempt to hide the blush that was creeping onto my cheeks. Andy would kill me if he knew that I had a crush on his wife. Or well, crush was a big word. I just tended to get shy around women, especially attractive ones.
"Well, it's a long drive. I guess I'd better get going." I turned around to open the front door but my mother stopped me, pushing a small paper-wrapped package into my hands.
"I packed you some lunch," she said with a smile that had just a hint of nostalgia.
"Thanks. I'm sure it's a lot better than anything I could pick up along the way."
My hand found the doorknob unhindered this time and soon we were all standing outside among the snow on the cold December morning. They all watched as I loaded my suitcase into the back of my car. After a final round of goodbyes I was finally on my way, soon leaving the town I was born and raised behind.
I had only been driving for about an hour when the first snow of the day started falling. Just small flakes at first, lazily drifting in the wind and sticking to my windows before almost instantly melting away. But there were clouds in the distance, dark and threatening, promising this was only a small taste of what was to come.
The clouds quickly delivered on that promise. Soon the sky turned dark and the wind picked up. More and more snow fell, the flakes getting bigger with the minute, whipped around by the howling winds. Visibility got worse until I could hardly see more than fifty feet ahead of me and my windshield wipers were fighting to keep the snow at bay.
As the weather got worse, I started wondering if I'd made the right choice. Sure, Andy had been annoying, but had it really been worth ignoring the weather forecast? Of course, it hadn't just been Andy. Seeing him with Maria filled me with a sense of envy that I couldn't quite explain, making me more grumpy and sarcastic than usual.
And then there was mom's prodding into my love life... She'd been dropping subtle and not so subtle hints urging me to finally find a girl and get married the whole time, and the talk about grandkids was making me sick. It was not like I hadn't had any girlfriends in the past, but it was never something long-term. And mom would get her hopes up every time, thinking I'd finally found 'the one'. It was driving me nuts.
After a few hours of driving, I decided to take a shortcut: a long, narrow road cutting through some farmland. While the main roads were pretty much clear of snow, here I could hear it crunch beneath my tires. At least it was fresh snow with only a few tracks from other cars and not the compressed, ice-like layer you get when people keep driving over it repeatedly. I still drove carefully, but I didn't need to worry about slipping quite as much as I would have otherwise.
It was approaching noon by the time I decided to take a lunch break. I parked my car at the side of the narrow road and opened the package my mom had handed me, finding two turkey wraps she had made using some leftovers from last night's Christmas dinner. They were cold but still tasted amazing. Her food always made me smile, and while I wasn't a bad cook myself, it was one of the things I had missed most since I had moved to the other side of the state for work.
I was halfway through the second wrap when it suddenly got suspiciously quiet. I'd left my car running so the heater would stay on, but now both the hot air and the rumble of the engine had stopped. Frowning, I turned the key, trying to start the car again. It had some trouble in cold weather sometimes, so hopefully that was all I had to do.
The engine sputtered before falling silent. I tried again. And again.
"FUCK!"
I hit my steering wheel with the palm of my hand, falling back into my seat. Even in the few seconds since the windshield wipers had stopped moving, the snow had already started to accumulate on my window. I was personally more worried about the temperature, though. Right now the inside of my car was comfortably toasty, but that would soon change without the constant supply of hot air from the heater.
Panic grabbed my heart like a cold hand, but I forced myself to take a deep breath and think clearly. First order of business: calling someone. I fished my phone out of my pocket and tried to unlock it. Nothing. Maybe it had turned off in my pocket? I held the power button down in an attempt to boot it up but was greeted with an 'empty battery' message before the screen went black again. Oh boy... This wasn't good.
