Elin Hilderbrand - Winter Storms

The text says: Are you by any chance coming to Nantucket for Stroll? I really need to talk to you.

Stroll, Jennifer thinks. That’s right. Tonight is the Friday of Stroll weekend on Nantucket.

Burl Ives sings “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.”

“I just love the way records sound on this turntable,” Peter says.

Jennifer gives him a blank look, then she stares at the message on her phone. Stroll weekend last year was when all of Jennifer’s troubles began. She wanted oxy and Ativan, and who, of all people, supplied her habit? Argh! Jennifer wants to go back in time to Stroll weekend of last year and do everything differently.

“Are you okay?” Ken asks. He hands her a martini.

Jennifer slips her phone into her pocket and fakes a smile. “Yes!” she says.

“She wants to leave so she can go on a date with her hubby,” Peter says. “Let her go already.”

What does Norah want to talk to her about? Should Jennifer respond or just ignore this text as she did the last one?

“You can go,” Ken says. “But this martini is a work of art. Take it home and enjoy it as you get dressed. I’ll get you a cup.”

“And take a deviled egg!” Peter calls out from the kitchen.

Andy Williams sings “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

The third text from Norah comes as Jennifer is wrapping the boys’ gifts on her bed and bingeing on Bloodline. Bloodline comes at the recommendation of Sable; former addicts know all the best shows, Sable insisted, and Jennifer laughed, thinking this was probably true. It’s eleven o’clock at night a week before Christmas, and Paddy is still in the home office, working. Jennifer brought him a glass of scotch and a piece of gingerbread with lemon sauce an hour earlier while he pored over the day’s market activity. He has raised thirty-two million for his hedge fund so far. This is going to happen, he assures Jennifer. This is going to be a success.

When Jennifer’s phone pings so late, she assumes it’s her mother in California, who is infamous for disregarding the time difference.

When Jennifer sees that it’s Norah, she gasps, as she might have at a stranger’s face appearing in her dark bedroom window.

The text says, simply, Jennifer.

“What?” Jennifer whispers. “What do you want?”

A second text follows: I’ll be in Boston the next few days. Call me, please.

Jennifer nearly screams. Norah is coming to Boston. Norah is going to… what? Stalk Jennifer? Knock on the front door or sit in her menacing black truck, engine idling, out on Beacon Street? Will she trail Jennifer as she takes the kids to school? Will she harass Jennifer in front of the other parents? Will Jennifer’s dirty little secret get out? Will Norah harm Jennifer or threaten the children?

This has to stop, Jennifer thinks. She holds her phone gingerly, like it’s a ticking time bomb. She types in: Leave me alone. Please. But that makes her sound like she’s a victim, pleading, groveling. She doesn’t send it.

Jennifer deletes the texts, just as she deleted the other two texts; she can just pretend they never existed. She can block Norah’s number on her phone. She should have done this back in August!

What does Norah want? She knows Jennifer got caught by Kevin and Paddy and she surely must guess that Jennifer has been through counseling. Norah should count herself lucky that Jennifer didn’t go to the police!

She should go to the police now, Jennifer thinks. To Paddy first, then the police. She should have kept the texts to turn over as evidence!

But another, calmer part of Jennifer’s psyche encourages her not to overreact. Norah is, no doubt, just after some money. Jennifer should continue to ignore her. Eventually, she’ll go away.

Jennifer wraps the last present-a black leather belt with a silver buckle, for Bart. Mitzi has said he’s lost weight and none of his clothes will fit. An American hero needs to keep his pants up, Jennifer thinks. Then she laughs. Thoughts of Norah fade away.

His radiation oncologist has granted him a week’s reprieve over Christmas. He doesn’t have to report for his final treatments until December 27.

He may skip those anyway. The radiation isn’t working. He has inhabited this body for more than sixty years and he holds the ultimate authority over it-not his doctors. He knows the cancer is growing, sinking its tentacles deeper and deeper into his brain. He’s dizzy all the time and needs to hold on to the rail as he descends the stairs. He can barely hear out of his left ear, a development he’s trying to conceal by cocking his head when someone is speaking to him. And the headaches are… stupendous. They are impossible to endure without medication, but the pain medication makes him loopy and, of course, he doesn’t want to become addicted, like Jennifer.

Although, he reasons, what does it matter if he becomes addicted now? The end is coming. He can feel it.

He doesn’t share this knowledge with anyone. Nobody wants to hear it! Everyone expects Kelley to battle, to wield his mighty sword and fight off the failure of his body. Plus, everyone is distracted. It’s Christmastime! Kevin and Isabelle are getting married! Bart is coming home! Ava is moving to the city to embark on her new career! Patrick is starting his act two, a hedge fund where he will be his own boss!

Kelley is so fortunate to have stood at the head of such an incredible family. When he passes, he can do so knowing everyone is safe.

But enough maudlin thoughts.

The house is decorated from the floorboards to the rafters. Kelley can’t enter or leave a room without hearing a merry jingle (Mitzi has hung sleigh bells from every doorknob throughout the inn). He smells the pot of beef bourguignon on the stove, ideal for this chilly night. (Because Mitzi was a non-red-meat-eater for so long, every time they eat beef, it feels like a Christmas miracle.) Bart is supposed to fly from Germany to Washington on the twenty-second and from there to Boston on the twenty-third. He will be on Nantucket Friday night, which is cutting it a little close for Mitzi’s taste, but what can they do? The mere thought of seeing his son, hugging him, holding him makes Kelley almost weep. Bart has a wound on his face in the exact spot that Kelley dreamed he had a tattoo of a star. This is uncanny, so eerie that Kelley is certain that no one will understand or appreciate his prescience, so he keeps it to himself. He wonders if the cancer in his brain is, somehow, giving him a sixth sense.

The closer Bart gets to home, the more impatient to see him Kelley grows. He has waited twenty-three months, but these last three days are torture.

He won’t waste a second of his holiday worrying about his health, he decides. He will simply enjoy this Christmas as though it were his last.

When was it that Margaret said that her favorite news stories were about the weather?

On the twentieth of December, she gets the first warning from the meteorological team at CBS, and this warning is given in person by Dougie Clarence, the new, young hipster face of weather at the network. Dougie comes over and sits on Margaret’s desk. He’s wearing a fedora, a plaid vest, pants that reach only to his ankles, and lace-up loafers with no socks. His shirtsleeves are rolled up and he sports a goatee. Every woman in New York City under the age of thirty-five loves Dougie. Margaret loves Dougie. If Ava weren’t involved with Potter, the first man Margaret would have set her up with was Dougie Clarence.

However much Margaret enjoys Dougie’s company, though, finding him sitting on her desk five days before Christmas and three days before she’s supposed to fly to Nantucket for her son’s wedding is not good. Dougie visits Margaret only when he has an urgent weather bulletin worthy of the national news.