Calico Canyon by Mary Connealy

Author:Mary Connealy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction/Christian Historical
ISBN: 9781607420422
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2009-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

A fist, delicate and lily white, punched out of the snow and smacked Daniel in the nose.

He jerked backward, his feet slipped, and he landed on his backside. He looked at the hole in the snow made by the fist and saw Grace’s cherry-red nose poking out of the snowdrift. He suspected his nose was now the same color, and not because of the cold.

“Well, it’s certainly nice to see you boys.” Grace smiled and pulled her nose back out of sight.

“We got through!” Mark dived at the hole and began clawing with his mittened hands.

The other boys plunged in.

Daniel scrambled around on his hands and knees and began digging. The hole grew wider. He saw little boy hands and big girl hands digging from the inside.

“We didn’t think you guys were ever going to get here!” John shouted.

The sound of his son’s voice gave Daniel such a thrill that his heart almost pounded right out of his chest. He’d been so scared. He’d been fighting off the urge to begin mourning. Then he’d heard Grace and then John through the stovepipe.

“We’re sick of being stuck in here!” John yelled as if he were disgusted.

They all laughed as if that was the funniest joke they’d ever heard. John and Grace laughed, too. All of their spirits were so high that, although Daniel was exhausted from hours of hard work in the sharp cold, and he knew the other boys were, too, Daniel could feel them bursting with energy.

Daniel heard Grace’s gentle laughter from under the mountain of snow. He didn’t think he’d ever heard her laugh before. The music of it warmed him as much as the hard work.

Before long, John poked his head out of the widening hole, then dived forward and tumbled through into the outside.

“Hey, don’t leave me behind.” Grace’s good-natured voice—something else Daniel had never heard before—was full of mock indignation. Nowhere did he hear the prim, overly polite schoolmarm.

Grace scrambled out next, laughing. She jumped to her feet, threw her arms around John, and hollered, “We’re free! We made it!”

John slung his arms around her waist, and she whirled him in a circle. Then, as John’s legs flew out, she let go deliberately and tossed John into the feather-soft snow. She turned on Mark and did the same thing to him.

Mark landed in the snow beside John, who grabbed a large ball of snow and slammed it into Mark’s head. Ike got tossed next as Grace wrestled with him.

The reunion turned into a riot. Grace tackled every one of the boys. They ran wildly away from her, screaming, only to turn and attack. John joined her side and lunged at anyone who got close to them.

They were all shouting and shoving at each other when Grace turned from the chaos. Daniel caught the wicked gleam in her eye just before she charged him. She ran smack into him with her shoulder and slammed to a stop. Daniel looked down at her, feeling her arms around his waist and seeing her upturned face just inches below his.

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