Saving Elijah

hideous episode, I felt as if I hadn't really been home then. Only now did I remember how much I loved the house, which we'd painted mustard yellow last year, with black shutters. Originally built as a farmhouse in the 1890s, it retained a quaint charm, with cozy nooks, uneven wide plank floors, a porch in front, and an eclectic floor plan. We'd found it through Becky, which was how I'd met her.
    Kate came running out without a coat to greet us, her arms outstretched. Alex was behind her, just as enthusiastic though trying not to show it. Kate scooped Elijah out of his car seat. He held on to Tuddy while his big sister hugged him, and Alex kissed him, then Kate scooted him off into the house. By the time I got inside, she already had Elijah down on the floor. He had Tuddy on his lap and the two of them started playing a hand-slapping game. Alex watched from the sofa. I noticed he was sporting a pierced earring.
    "When did you have that done?"
    "Last week. Dad said I could."
    Before I could respond to that, Elijah erupted in laughter. Kate was tickling him.
    "Maybe you'd better not get him all excited," I said.
    "Oh, Mom," Alex said, "you're such a worrier."
    Worrier.''
    "I think your mom's right," Sam said. "Let's just give him a chance to settle in. Then we can tickle him all we want. Right, Elijah?" He reached over and tickled Elijah, who giggled happily and climbed onto his lap.
    Before long, we had a family Monopoly game going that continued into the night by candlelight, because the power went off just after dinner, as the blizzard got worse and worse.

    *    *    *

    In the morning, the world was white-hushed and beautiful. There wasn't a sound outside except for an occasional tree branch cracking under the weight of all that snow. A street plow had deposited a mountain of snow in front of our driveway, blocking it. The schools were closed but Sam insisted he had to go to work, and spent an hour digging out.
    "Guess I can skip the run today," he said, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, wiping his steamy glasses with a tissue. He'd worked up quite a sweat.
    "You couldn't skip the run when Elijah was in the hospital." I was immediately sorry I'd said it.
    He frowned. "You handled it your way, and I handled it mine."
    I put the coffeepot down. "I'm sorry, that was a stupid thing to say."
    "Don't be absurd," he said. "If you were keeping count of every stupid thing I've ever said, we'd be in big trouble. Remember volleyball?"
    The summer after Elijah was born, when Alex and Kate were ten and eleven, we'd rented a charming Victorian house on Cape Cod for a week, with Mark and Becky and their kids, and Jim and Pam Magill and theirs. Every day, when we got back from the beach, we all played volleyball in the backyard, even me, when I could coax the fretful Elijah to take a nap. Sam has always been quite competitive, a real jock. He went a little overboard that week, with his cutthroat play and constant instructions. Two days before the end of the vacation, Alex missed an easy serve from Jim and Pam's twelve-year-old daughter, and Sam blurted out, "What's wrong with you, Alex?" "I'm stupid and clumsy and I can't do anything right!" Alex said, and he stomped off.
    Sam and I had one of our few actual fights ever that night. I told him he'd been completely out of line and he needed to give our kids a break. Sam countered that I was a pushover, I was constantly catering to them, and if I didn't stop it I was going to turn them into spoiled brats. When we made up two days later, we each admitted the other had been partly right.
    "Still, I'm sorry," I said now in the kitchen. I moved toward him, holding out my arms, and we embraced for a long time, he in his parka, me in my bathrobe.
    He burrowed into my neck, and his kiss was sweaty and salty, but it felt good to be in his arms again.
    "We are very lucky," he whispered.
    "Yes," I said. "We are."
    After he showered, I drove him in the four-wheel drive over to the train station, then hurried back to find Kate and Elijah making homemade waffles and a mess in the kitchen. Alex was upstairs celebrating the closing of school with his new pastime, lying on his bed and listening to savage music, loud. In the kitchen, Kate abandoned ship before cleanup, but Elijah helped, then I put him in his snow pants and he played in the snow while I shoveled the rest of the walk. In the late morning, we all built two snowmen on the front lawn, right next to each other.
    That afternoon,