Page 5 of One Night In Winter

“Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay. He’s probably doing his normal morning routine he used to do. So, he’s not in the house. Did you check his workshop in the basement?”

He shook his head and replied, “It was still dark and everything was still locked up so our crawling terror couldn’t get down there.”

“Let me throw on some clothes. You go check the barn. There was a dusting of snow last night so we should be able to find some leading to him. I’ll go see if I can find something.”

Chris nodded and immediately headed for the barn. I closed the door and headed to my bedroom. Cassy was sitting up in bed looking worried. “What’s wrong?”

“Dad’s managed to get lost this morning and Chris is panicking. I sent him to check the barn. I’m going to see if I can find his tracks since we had just enough snowfall last night.”

Cassy nodded as she bit her lip worriedly. Using my thumb I gently pulled her lip free. “Can I help?” she asked.

“Of course. Get dressed in something warm. I’m sure we’ll find him pretty easily. He has a routine he likes to do, even if he can’t remember why.” Cassy stood up and hugged me before running into the closet and a minute coming out dressed in my sweatshirt and jeans. We went to the hall and put our coats and boots on.

I led Cassy to the back door which was used way more than the front door. “Okay, these are our prints and that massive one is Chris.”

“Look, those head down the road.”

I looked to where Cassy was pointing. “He used to take a walk to get the mail every day. That’s nearly a mile round trip. Let’s take the Gator to follow them.” We hopped into the property’s cart and immediately followed the footprints.

“Devon, there. He’s sitting in the snow!” Cassy cried out.

Jumping out of the Gator as soon as it was at a stop I ran over to my father. He sat there looking confused. “Dad!”

“Devon? Why am I in my robe all the way down here?”

I took my coat off and placed it around my Dad. Helping him to stand, I gently but firmly led him to the Gator as I answered, “You just got confused, Dad. It’s okay. We all get confused sometimes. Let’s get you warm and back up to the house.”

Cassidy had moved to the back seat and as I placed Dad next to her, she wrapped her arms around him to warm him up.

“You’re pretty and smell like cookies.”

“That’s Cassy, Dad. She’s my girlfriend. She’ll keep you warm.”

He closed his eyes, leaning his head on Cassy’s shoulder, and muttered, “Okay. I hope Marlina won’t get mad. She hates when I get confused but she really hates when a pretty lady is taking care of me.”

“Mom won’t be mad. She likes Cassy.” I looked in the mirror and saw Cassy smiling as she held my father close. His dementia had some of the scariest moments and some of the hardest when he didn’t know us. At least he still had many lucid moments to spend with all of us.

Parking back up by the house, Chris ran up and closed his eyes in relief as he spent a moment catching his breath. I quickly hugged him as I said to my brother softly, “He’s okay. He just got cold and confused. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t lose him so no guilt. And remember, it’s not just you anymore. You have us to help now.”

Chris tightened the hug as he calmed his emotions. Then he broke the hug and helped us get Dad out of the Gator and inside.

~~~*~~~

Cassy

A couple of hours later Devon and I returned to his house relieved to know that despite catching quite a chill, his Dad was okay. The doctor gave them directions to help warm him up and what to do if he caught a cold. “I’m so glad he’s okay. I can’t even imagine how scary it was to be cold and confused.”

“Well, the silver lining is that he probably doesn’t remember what happened. Scared the crap out of us but he was safe. Care to join me in the shower?”

“Are you saying I stink?” I gasped playfully.

Devon laughed as he picked me up and put me over his shoulder in the best fireman impersonation. “I see someone needs a reminder that she’s perfect and could never simply ‘stink’.”

Once we were in our bedroom he set me on my feet, chuckling at my red face. Wrapping me up in his arms he placed kisses on my cheeks, on my nose, and finally on my lips. I could lose myself to his kisses, and did, regularly. Sighing happily I wrapped my arms around his neck. “How did I get so lucky?”

“I’m the lucky one, angel. I was going to wait to do this later but I just can’t.”

Before I know it he is on one knee in front of me. “What are you doing?” I ask nervously.

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