the cold of winter

Bella reached for her cell as soon as it buzzed. She was afraid it was Fish about the baby, but she should have expected it to be Emily.

She looked around the empty kitchen at her mother's. The place looked dead..or nobody lived here anymore. She looked out across the patio window and stared at the waves of snow drifts. Yes, winter was swallowing them up in so many ways.

"What is it?" She didn't need this. Her sister had only been gone a day.

"Hows Mom?" Emily asked.

Bella's head slowly ached of sleep and tiredness.

"Fine." She felt as if she were set on auto-pilot. At least her mom was sleeping some. Not a lot. But then there was the infant to take care of, and her Mom was trying to breastfeed.

"Don't give me that." They couldn't help but stay in this same mode, even if both swore they would not after what had happened. How they'd made a pack before Parker's funeral to be the best sisters they could be. Not just for their Mom but for themselves and all. It just wasn't easy.

"All right, as well as can be expected. She has Sam and..and, she's eating." Bella knew she was only eating because of the baby. But she could see how weak her mother really was. It was worse than a bad case of the flu. She had no idea if her mother would bounce back from this or not.

"Are you mad at me?" Emily wanted to know. She could tell her sister was crying.

"No. No, I'm not. You have a house to unpack. I'll keep you updated. I said I would." Suddenly, she felt like a secretary of some sort. No spy work would be involved. She'd try to keep the laundry done and maybe crochet a few hats, mean while. Something to keep her busy. She was taking a break from yoga classes, yet she really felt like getting in the floor this instance just to relax a bit.

If only she knew the right things to say to her mother, she would. It came to her now that she and her sister were just too much like their father. Always a blanket of silence. They could do that rather well.