Smile

I woke up to the sunlight gently warming my face. I stretched out leisurely under the down comforter and saw a note next to the bed. He’d snuck out. I’m a deep sleeper.

     

We forgot bacon! Going to Ned’s in town. Be back soon, coffee is brewing!

      Xoxo

I smiled then got up and wandered to the kitchen. I poured myself a steaming cup of coffee and looked out at the blanket of white covering the yard sparkling brightly in the sunlight. It was beautiful in its own way, but I still missed the beach. We went there yesterday and the wind that blew off the lake was freezing and giant snow drifts covered the sand, sure to morph the beach into a different landscape than the previous summer once it melted in the spring. The upside was that we had this place all to ourselves. It’s nice to spend time with family, but it gets hectic, so it’s always great to get some time alone away from the city. I like the quiet and this time of year is the quietest. There were about a half dozen other cabins on the crescent, all empty this time of year.  A five minute drive down the road was the beach, and five minutes later was a small town.

I picked up our camera and turned it on as I curled up on the couch to sip my coffee. I scrolled through the photos on the little digital screen. I smiled. We took some good ones yesterday. We didn’t have many photos together, so I was happy. We made a snowman at the beach and had someone from town who was walking their dog snap a photo of us with it. He’d put his scarf around it. I was laughing.

After that we went snowshoeing, but even with those tennis rackets strapped to our boots it was too hard to make our way through the deep snow, so we snapped a couple of selfies together, and he took some of me doing a snow angel then headed back. I kept scrolling. A picture of me sleeping peacefully. I smiled. What a dork. The next one I was sleeping and he’d taken the blanket off to reveal me in my underweared glory. I laughed. What a creep! I scrolled to the next. There I was again half clad, and he was sleeping beside me. I stopped for a moment. It was a picture of both of us sleeping. I scrolled through more. A half dozen of us, with me moved into different positions, like I was doing a photo shoot. We never locked the door out here. There was no need. I heard the creaking of  a footstep behind me. I looked out the window. The car wasn’t back yet. There was another creak. I looked behind me. A gloved hand held rope. A ski mask covered a face.

A voice said: Smile.