1 The day of the disaster it was twenty degrees below zero with snow that showed no sign of letting up Most of Zach’s friends had left for warm spring break vacations while Zach and his dad decided they would go ice fishing A beach vacation was sounding much more appealing considering the way this trip was starting off The temperature was dropping by the minute and Zach was more likely to get frostbite than a suntan This place was almost in Canada and it was freezing No palm trees or sand here All he could see from the window of his little cabin was blowing snow 1
Zach balled his freezing hands into fists and saw by the glowing red numbers on his watch that his dad was over two hours late Normally they would have driven up together but Zach’s dad was out of town on a work trip so they had decided they would drive separately and meet at the cabin Zach had planned to open up the cabin get groceries and have everything all set by the time his dad arrived But when the snow started coming down harder Zach skipped the grocery store and headed straight to the cabin to get the heater going He wasn’t hungry at the time having just polished off a bag of tortilla chips on the drive up but by now his stomach was growling He wished his dad would show up so they could go get some food Zach walked over to the fridge to check if there was anything to eat But even as he pulled open the handle he knew it was probably no use Empty His dad was always meticulous about clearing any food out of the fridge before they left 2
Zach shut the door and stared at the pictures stuck haphazardly to the fridge He saw a scattered timeline of his life An old picture of Zach missing his two front teeth from the Boy Scout trip where he had first learned how to fish A wrinkled copy of Zach’s freshman year football picture A shot of him sitting behind the wheel of the old tan family car right after he had gotten his driver’s license A picture of him in the dorky uniform he wore to his first job All of these achievements had been followed quickly by a father-son trip up to the cabin to celebrate with a weekend of fishing They had planned this ice-fishing trip as soon as Zach got his college acceptance letter It was supposed to be a last hurrah before Zach went away to college next year He wouldn’t have been surprised if his dad brought up a copy of the acceptance letter to stick on the fridge next to the picture with his childish toothless smile Nothing had ever stopped them from celebrating with a fishing trip so when 3
his dad had called and said the weather forecasters predicted a blizzard Zach insisted they go on the trip as planned They had been there in storms before Why should this one be a big deal There was a scratch on the cabin door I’m coming I’m coming Zach opened the door and shivered as the cold hit him Normally he sweated through anything more than a t-shirt but this storm was brutal He was glad that he had put on a second pair of pants He thought briefly about going out to the car to grab the spare sweatshirt he kept in the trunk but decided he’d just wait until his dad showed up Skye Zach’s dog bounded past him into the cabin Her fur was covered in a layer of snow She sneezed and shook out her fur the same way she shook off after having a bath Snow sprinkled all over the entry to the cabin She nudged his hands Her wet snowy fur was freezing against his already numb fingers 4
