Thursday February 9th, 2017

The exercise:

Write something that has to do with: the avalanche.

Worked from 8 until 1 at the bakery today so that I could be home in the afternoon to help with the sick kids. Max seems to be in a holding pattern while Miles is maybe hopefully slowly improving. The antibiotics seem to be helping him, at any rate.

Woke up this morning with a sore throat. A warm cup of water with honey and lemon juice helped, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to get away with that.

Mine:

The avalanche had struck without warning. Temperatures had remained consistent in the week leading up to the catastrophe and no new snow had fallen for four days. The town and its residents hadn't stood a chance.

It seemed like a casual, almost backhanded reminder from Mother Nature that although her mountains are most often majestic and benign, they also brim with the potential for annihilation. 

There was a search for survivors afterward, of course. But no one expected to find such a fortunate soul and no one did. The army collected bodies and labelled bags with the names of the deceased whenever possible. Soldiers in thick winter gear worked in silence under the watchful eye of their commander.

When a secret room was uncovered with the remains of five men within it, excitement buzzed through their ranks like bees once did in spring meadows. Had the organizers of the resistance finally been found? Could the government's foot soldiers at last return home to their families, comforted by the knowledge that their freedom and security was no longer in doubt?

It took nearly two weeks to discover that the avalanche had been man-made. It took less than a day after that to confirm that the bodies of the five men in the secret room were not who the army had very nearly convinced themselves they were.

And so, with nothing but a stone cold trail to attempt to pick up and now suddenly weeks behind their quarry, the search resumed.