Are you coming to the Winter Festival?
“Are you coming to the Winter Festival?” Sierra and A.S. sat in the warm comfort of her parlor. A.S. had brought her three-year old son and the two of them were talking comfortably until that moment. Suddenly, Sierra realized that this was something REALLY important to A.S. She could just tell by the look on her face. She tread carefully. “I haven’t heard about it…” A.S. smiled and handed the baby to Sierra. She walked over to the pile of mail by Randy’s computer and pulled out a multi-colored card. She handed it to Sierra and took the baby back. “I guess we shouldn’t have wasted money on those, then.”
Sierra looked at the card, advertising the Merriton Winter Festival. It actually looked like a lot of fun. A.S. continued to talk, “It’s the first year we’re having it. There has been so much snow this year, and with the avalanche, it just felt like we needed a reason to celebrate.” Sierra could smell the cookies baking in the kitchen before the timer went off. She stood up to rescue the cookies from the oven and A.S. followed her. Sierra answered her while she put on her oven mitts. “It looks like fun. I’ll ask Randy if he wants to go. Why aren’t you having it at Mt. Zen Cafe? It seems like all the events happen there.”
The baby eagerly reached for the cookies, cooling on the rack, but A.S. held him back. “Things are kind of… strained with me and Angie.” Sierra nodded and lifted a cookie, breaking it in half and blowing on it before giving it to the baby. “Yeah, I noticed. What’s up with that?” A.S. took a cookie for herself and Sierra poured two glasses of milk. All three of them headed to the kitchen table while the room stayed quiet.
A.S. blew out a lungful of air and finally answered, “She’s just a bitch.” Sierra didn’t know how to respond. She shrugged. “You’re both nice to me, so I don’t really believe either of you are bitches. There has to be something more than that.” A.S. broke her cookie into little pieces while the baby slowly ate his own cookie. “She’s jealous of me because I have kids and she doesn’t.” Sierra could tell that wasn’t the full story. “And why are you jealous of her?”
A.S. put the boy down and he sat on his big, fluffy diaper, intent on the cookie. “She THINKS I’m jealous of her because of her career, if you can call working in a greasy spoon a career.” Sierra watched A.S.’s face to see what she really thought, but the pretty woman was unreadable. “Is that true?” A.S. shrugged. She stood up and retrieved the Winter Festival card from the futon. Sierra watched her look at it while the heater turned on. The dry heat from the heat vents filled the room with dust and the comforting sound of warmth.
“Me and John got married a couple of years after Angie and Curly.” A.S. walked back to the kitchen table. She looked around as if others were listening. “They got married when she was in high school,” she whispered. “Curly had graduated, but Angie was still a senior. Everybody thought they’d get divorced, you know, because they married young and they didn’t get married in the temple.” Sierra was confused, but she let A.S. continue. “Me and John, we did everything right. We waited until he got back from his mission and we got married in the temple.” She looked Sierra straight in the eye. “We were WORTHY to marry in the temple, if you know what I mean.” Sierra didn’t, but nodded anyway.
A.S. sat down at the table and picked up the baby. She looked deep into Sierra’s eyes. “I did everything RIGHT.” Sierra didn’t know what A.S. meant, but she considered how happy Angie and Curly were together and compared that to A.S. and John’s divorce. She clenched her jaw and wished they were outside, running so hard that the cold air would bite their lungs.