The Snow Globe
“You’ve been denied. You’re too high of a risk for rejection.”
Her doctor hardly looked sympathetic. But, Jessica supposed, that wasn’t what she paid him for.
“Most people are lucky to receive one donation. You’ve already had that chance.”
“And it wasn’t like I wasted it sloshing around a bottle!” She snapped.
“I was not implying you are in control of this at all. That’s the thing about medicine, our bodies make the decision, to heal or not, for us. This was not your route to recovery. We need to find another way.”
Jessica glowered at the doctor. Her money, and dozens of others, had kept this man looking every bit well maintained and healthy. How dare he act like her treatment was so simple as selecting a new upholstery color, or swinging at a tee with a new club.
“I will not sit around comfortable on pain killers until I die. I will get better.”
“That is the one thing I am confident of. You have a supremely strong will to live.”
He had meant it as a compliment, but, he had no idea just how strong Jessica Fachnan’s will to live was.
From the back seat, Jessica told her driver, “We need to make a stop at the bank, please.”
The acceleration on the Mercedes was so smooth, she hardly realized they were on the highway until she looked out the window to watch snowflakes beginning to swirl outside. If only the snow could white out her reality. Cover up the doctor’s offices, and the pharmacy pick-up windows. Blanket over the pain that never really went away. She would go ice skating in a winter wonderland instead of laying up in bed under heavy blankets, forever cold.
If only. Jessica sat up straight on the detailed leather seat. If only, she could shake up her story and let the snow sift out a new world around her.
~
“Come, escape at The Snow Globe!”
Jordan stared at the autogenerated email which had populated to her inbox after clicking “Submit Payment” on her screen. She really couldn’t afford this trip that her friends had convinced her to go on.
“It’s all inclusive, Jo—" Alana had addressed Jordan’s hesitation head on almost a week ago. “Once you get there, you won’t have to spend a dime!”
Jordan’s bank account was probably reeling from this recent blow. A few months ago, a purchase like this would have put her in the negatives, and behind on rent. No matter what she could never get ahead. So, why shouldn’t she go, and have a good time? Jordan had been working her butt off all year to catch up on her student debt and overdue credit card statements. She groaned; the money could have gotten her the transmission work the Jeep really needed.
“Whatever,” Jordan thought, “I’ll be paying bills my whole life.”
She slammed the screen down on her laptop. Her payment was the final chunk needed to confirm their reservation on a six-person sleeper cabin at “The Snow Globe.”
In nine days, Jordan, Alana, and their girlfriends would all be bundled up like Kardashian snow bunnies hitting the slopes during the day, and the hot tubs by starlight. Jordan knew the others were probably going to come way over packed, so she’d just borrow a few things from them and get away without the expense of a last-minute shopping trip. Her worn boots, from when she and her dad used to ski, slumped in the closet of her bedroom. They still had a little kick left in them; it’d be fine.
“Hey girl!” Brandy leaned all the way out of the window while Alana drove a wide circle in the apartment parking lot.
Jordan could hear Alana shouting from the cab, “Ryan sends his love! Isn’t this the best Christmas present?”
More squeals and cheers came from inside the jet-black Range Rover.
“I told him I wanted electric,” said Alana as she opened the spacious trunk for Jordan’s bag. “For the environment and all, but that wouldn’t have fit everybody. So, he got me the expansion series!”
“I can feel the ozone weeping,” Kris joked from a backseat bench.
Jordan fixed her eyes on the fresh off the lot luxury-vehicle. She willed herself not to turn and look at her clunking 1998 Jeep that desperately needed a new transmission. Or a trip to the scrap metal yard.
“Lan! I’m so happy for you. Black has always been your favorite color. You look great in it.” Jordan told her best friend.
At least Ryan had thought ahead about the expansion package. The car was packed to the rims with women and their bags. Jordan refrained from commenting.
She climbed into the backseat behind Brandy. The leather was buttery smooth beneath Jordan’s thighs. And the air was a mixture of high-end skin care and new car. Jordan wasn’t sure she even remembered to use soap on her face that morning. She rolled her eyes.
Smushed together, four women chirped their excitement over one another as Alana pulled onto the highway. In four hours, they’d be in the mountains, living it up.
Someone’s arm jutted a phone toward the dashboard, “I’m snapping a pic!”
And with an inaudible click the weekend began. Playlists, energy drinks, and gossip flowed freely in the cab as they made their way into the Wisconsin forest. Evergreens and birches were draped in a bridal white gown of fresh snow. Jordan settled into the frenzy. She would have fun, like when they were in college. There was no point worrying about Monday when Friday with her closest friends and a paid vacation were right before her. She turned the music up which earned her a surprised smile from Alana.
Into the rearview mirror, Alana mouthed the words, “Together to the end.”
Jordan leaned against the sunny car window and smiled.
“Oh my gosh!”
Jordan snapped awake. She hadn’t realized that she’d fallen asleep, and so deeply. Kris smashed forward over the console, “Look at that gorgeous arch!”
The Range Rover slid into a parking space designated for “Memory Making.” The two in the back poured out, rubbing muscles and stretching sides. Alana marched around taking inventory on her mental checklist. As Jordan stretched her spine, she watched her best friend wondering if Alana would be able to relax this weekend. Alana was always the person with the plan, and rarely ever not coordinated. In the past, that was where Jordan had stepped in, the spontaneous, let loose kind of girl that balanced Alana.
Brandy slung her arm over Jordan’s shoulder corralling them both to the photo op at the resort’s entrance.
“We have got to freshen up your Instagram, Jo. Like when guys DM you, do they realize you’re not twenty-two anymore?”
The roast earned Brandy a laugh from Kris and Alana.
“I don’t have to wait for DMs, they stop me on the street to hit me up,” Jordan flicked her hair across Brandy’s cheek. She almost didn’t recognize her old self coming out to play.
Jordan could feel Alana watching her, judging for herself if the teasing and jokes were genuine. A small pinkness burned the tips of Jordan’s ears. Who could blame her? Sometime after college, Jordan had gotten serious. Seriously in debt. Serious about picking up overtime shifts. Serious about saying no to fun. It was kind of a miracle that Alana had even kept up contact with Jordan when just about every invitation was met with, “Busy, sorry, Lan.”
Jordan was going to make it up to Alana, this weekend. Help them both enjoy the vacation the way they needed to.
“Check this place out!” Kris scrambled from room to room, taking in the cabin reserved for their girl’s weekend.
Alana smugly pretended she’d been here a million times before. Jordan had to admit the place was gorgeous. The fireplace was lined with hundreds of glowing glass stones. Bright white countertops adorned the open-concept kitchen. The cabin felt more like a designer home than a vacation rental.
“Alright,” Jordan siddled up to best friend, “you’ve outdone yourself.”
Alana smirked, but not before Kris ran by in her bikini, “We have our own hot tub!”
Pop!
A champagne cork whizzed by overhead.
“They sure settle in quick.”
Jordan passed Alana a wicked grin, “Then we better hurry and catch up.”
“Mimosas for the basic bitches!” Brandy waltzed from the kitchen with a tray of frosty flutes.
Lazy hours passed in the hot tub as they shucked off their worries, transforming back into the carefree girls they used to be. Snowflakes settled on messy buns while they sipped cocktails and told first-date horror stories. Jordan let the tipsy bliss smooth the edges of her vision. Alana’s hand gripped her’s under the water for the briefest of moments. But it was a heavy smile on her best friend’s lips, not a playful grin. Jordan made a mental note to check in when the two of them were alone.
Maybe the car had been a makeup gift for something Ryan had done?
Alana emerged from a steamy bathroom at five thirty-seven am. It had taken all of Jordan’s strength to get up after their late-night drinking and talking in the jacuzzi. The smell of coffee from the high-end grinder was consolation for chasing the dawn to spend time alone with Alana. After subsiding on Folgers Instant so strong you could chew it, Jordan was going to indulge in everything this resort had to offer. Her back cracked as she stretched her way into the kitchen.
“That literally smells like salvation.”
Alana slid over a hot mug, topped with perfectly steamed oat milk. The pretty leaf poured into the foam shouldn’t have surprised Jordan. Everything her friend touched was beautiful. But it still caught Jordan off guard. When was the last time someone had done something thoughtful for her, and she wasn’t paying for their kindness?
“I wasn’t expecting you to be up,” Alana pressed a few buttons on the espresso machine, beginning a second latte.
“Can a gal want to spend time with her bestie?”
Alana narrowed her golden eyes.
“Well, I got up to snowshoe, but I know that isn’t really your thing. We can—”
“Hey, Lan, I’ve been a bad friend lately. I asked, so let me do this, ok?”
Those same confident eyes Jordan had looked in a million times before were getting a little misty. Whatever was there, just below the surface, Alana settled her mask back in place with a blink.
“Ya, okay. I’ll just braid my hair and we’ll go. Okay.”
Jordan huffed every ounce of oxygen out of the air. And still they marched on.
“This is so beautiful!”
There was no time for workouts, or walks, or any sort of physical activity that would have prepared Jordan for the pace Alana was keeping. Jordan was long past side-cramps and numb toes. But she had promised, so not one word of complaint or agonal breathing left her lips.
Three hours into marching through the wildness, a snowmobile engine rumbled up the trail. A uniformed parka cut the gas and pulled down his ski mask to grin at them.
“I have to say I’m impressed!” Icicles clung to his eyelashes, making every blink that much more exaggerated. Jordan gulped down her panting. Alana stood up a bit taller.
“Can I give you two a lift back? Lunch will be up at the lodge soon, and I have to say it looked pretty amazing when I left. Wouldn’t want you to miss it.”
“Please say yes, please say yes.” Jordan zinged telepathic messages toward Alana.
“We wouldn’t want to take you away from your work.”
“Nonsense! Finding brassy maidens in the woods is my job. I’m Jacob by the way.”
Alana needed little convincing, and thankfully she hopped onto the back of the sledge making room for Jordan. Snowshoes strapped to the side, Jordan planned on never using them again.
“If you aren’t completely starved, I can take you around the long way to see the rest of the trail?”
Jordan snuggled against Alana’s back so she was forced to hold onto Jacob’s parka. She hadn’t missed the instantaneous interest by her best friend. Ryan wasn’t here this weekend, and it wasn’t like Jordan was going to say anything.
If the cabin was stunning, then the lodge was jaw dropping. Gorgeous cedar logs, carved with delicate winter images, adorned the entrance. Fire pits blazed near the front doors attracting snowboarders and skiers.
Jordan gawked. This place was unlike anything she had ever experienced. It was sort of incredible Alana had found it and been able to secure them a reservation with the budget they had all agreed to. A sturdy hand squeezed at her shoulder causing her to jump.
“Can I help you out of your coat?” Jacob asked. The attendant stood, ticket at the ready.
Alana was flicking messages across her screen. She must have already connected to the wi-fi.
“I’m off the clock for lunch,” Jacob said, “can I join you ladies?”
“My friend and I were about to catch up—” Alana said, not looking up from her screen.
“But we wouldn’t mind your company for lunch,” Jordan cut in. “Someone has to recommend us what to eat from that impressive menu.”
Jacob eased up, “Right this way. Can you believe I’ve sampled nearly everything Chef makes?”
Surprised at Jordan’s candor, Alana quirked an eyebrow up. She was now fully focused on Jordan and Jacob, slipping her phone back into her pocket.
Jordan passed up the vegan options that Alana and Jacob seemed so delighted in finding together. She loaded up a bowl of steak chili with every mix in the buffet line had to offer. Shredded cheese, sour cream, oyster crackers, onions. She wouldn’t be kissing anyone later so who cared. That grueling hike nearly did her in, she was starved.
Jacob returned to their table with three pints of amber ale.
“Lodge specialty, right here. I have also made friend with the brew master. A man’s got to get his priorities sorted out, day one.”
Alana rolled her eyes.
Jordan watched the two banter back and forth, totally chill to sink back into the plush leather seat of the booth. Tomorrow morning, she was going to feel every one of her muscles. The beer and chili were a warm comfort in her belly. If only someone would bring by a blanket—
“So, what brought the two of you to the Snow Globe?” Jacob asked.
He was eyeing Jordan, drawing her back into the conversation that she had been happy to dip out of. Alana pivoted to face her.
“Jordan looks like she could use a nap,” Alana teased. “I’ve worn you out.”
Jordan blushed a hint of grapefruit pink and shrugged her left shoulder.
“The lodge has this great oxygen bar and IV therapy zone, back near the saunas. It’ll perk you right up,” Jacob offered.
Alana sat up, “I do remember seeing that on the website. That actually sounds great! Come on, Jo. Ryan and I get these treatments all the time to cure jet lag.”
A small wince crinkled the corner of Jacob’s eyes. He was seriously into her friend. Jordan warmed to the lodge patrol guy. That was just like Alana to reel in a great catch, and leave him batting his eyelashes wondering what hit him. She pulled Jordan out of the comfy chair and off to the next activity.
“Remember when you used to be so afraid of needles,” Alana chatted as they made their way through the lodge. “You’d cry for days before school started because you thought you had to get your shots every year. Your mom said all through college, I never have to worry about my JoJo doing drugs—”
“Lan, you talking about my fear isn’t convincing me that I want to go get an IV bag full of unknown chemicals put into my veins.”
Jordan’s stomach flipped. The happy belly feelings were gone. She rubbed her sweating palms against the sides of her joggers. Maybe she’d just go for the oxygen.
Two crisply dressed spa attendants greeted them. Their buns were slicked back with a good amount of glossy pomade. It almost seemed like they were wearing high-tech space helmets. They handed over a menu card to Alana, who looked entirely at home in an establishment like this.
“At the top of the selection guide, you will find the complimentary options. Elevation uses the highest quality, natural ingredients. And our oxygen is triple filtered and bottled in virgin titanium tanks.”
Two manicured fingers traced the card’s edge guiding Alana and Jordan’s eyes to the premium options. The attendant noticed Jordan stiffen.
“Please, take a moment with our menu and decide what services you would most enjoy today. Elanté and I will be back with seasonal tea and warmed robes.”
“I’m requesting the Revive IV and Oxygen therapies for us both. A massage is calling my name,” Alana said.
Jordan’s eyes had to scan the menu twice before she understood that Alana had selected the most expensive offering. All-included, yeah right. She started to come up with an excuse having to do with her fear of needles, but Alana held up a hand.
“My treat. Well Ryan’s really. He told me that he’d pay for whatever I wanted. And I want to get a massage with my best friend.”
Jordan watched irritation and resolve pass over Alana’s face. This wasn’t about going to the spa with girlfriends, something was bothering her. But before Jordan could ask, Elanté returned with a wooden tray holding two petite cups and a steaming pot of tea. The woman made an elaborate display of pouring single-handed before offering the cups to them.
“Have you made your selection? Or do you have any questions?”
“The Revive packages,” Alana decided, “charge it to my room, please.”
This time Jordan did fall asleep. Sometime between the hot oil massage and the IV infusion. Every surface around her was warm and soft and smelled like a heavenly garden. At some point, Alana reached out to squeeze Jordan’s hand during the massage. It’d brought blurry memories back of the night before in the hot tub. Jordan would talk to her, tonight back at the cabin. She just needed a quick nap.
“I’m going to place this oxygen mask over your nose and mouth. It varies for everyone, but soon you will feel your heart racing. Not because something is wrong, but because the high concentration of oxygen is going to wake you up very quickly. Breathe deeply.”
Jordan nodded a dreamy half bobble. A light, plastic pressure touched her face followed by a gentle whooshing of air. She closed her eyes to return to the dream she’d been having.
A sharp prick startled her awake. And then the racing heart sensation kicked into gear.
“Oh my gosh, I am so so sorry. Don’t worry.”
A young spa attendant was staring at Jordan’s hip, pressing a white cloth against Jordan’s leg.
“I caught your hip with the cart as I was rolling by. I’ve never had that happen before.”
When the young woman pulled a crimson blotted towel away, Jordan yanked at her mask to sit up and see through the tangle of cords and tubes. A wave of queasiness crashed over her. She wasn’t sure if it came from being pumped full of supplements or at seeing her own blood.
“How about you lay back? You look awfully pale. I don’t want you to fall.”
A knock sounded at the door, “Janiaya, I came by to borrow some of that wonderful oil for my client— Oh, is everything alright?”
“I bumped her hip and scraped the skin,” Janiaya said.
Jordan heard the women whispering back and forth between their bowed heads. She heard, “It’s bleeding quite a lot, could you get me some gauze and a bandage?”
“I’ll be right back, can I bring you anything to drink? Water, tea?”
Jordan shook her head back and forth, the wooziness taking forever to clear. She wasn’t ready to sit up, and she felt her eyelids lose the battle to stay open.
When a gentle nudge on her shoulder woke her up, Jordan was bandaged and sent out with fresh glass of lemon-essence water. A spa attendant deposited her in the relaxation room. Alana perched on the edge of an ottoman, not looking relaxed.
“What took you so long?”
Jordan reeled back at the accusation. Her fingertips gripped instinctively around the water glass.
“I have been sitting here for nearly three hours. What happened?”
Jordan looked everywhere for some indicator of what Alana was claiming. How did she always know what time it was?
“Um, I’m sorry,” Jordan started.
“No one would tell me what was going on. Just that you were still in treatment. How could it possibly take that long? We’ve wasted nearly the whole afternoon.”
“Hey!” Jordan was fed up with people blowing off at her.
“I was not the one who insisted we get the ReVive package. In fact, I didn’t even want to come to this stupid place. “I need a massage.” Remember?”
Alana paused, and then seemed to really see Jordan for the first time since they’d gone to separate treatment rooms.
“You’re right, I guess I got overly annoyed not knowing what was going on.”
Jordan shrugged under the weight of the Turkish terry cotton robe. She wanted to get out of here.
“Forget it, let’s just go.”
Alana bounced up and outpaced Jordan to the reception desk.
“The service was fine,” Alana started, “but please let your manager know I was not happy with our experience. I have been sitting in that room for over two hours. I understand that you are new and all, but if I were another customer, I would be demanding a full refund.”
“We are so sorry, ma’am. Is there anything we can do to make it right?”
Jordan watched an icy expression harden on Alana’s face. “That chance passed about two hours ago.”
She dropped her robe on the counter and marched out down the hallway. Jordan had no other choice but to follow, feeling the crinkle of the bandage below her waistband.
Years had passed since they were roommates in college. And still Jordan was fairly certain, she had never watched her friend blow up at anyone for bad service. The worst she had seen was a quip at a really drunk guy at a party who had sloppily thrown his arm over Alana’s shoulder.
“You aren’t getting anywhere smelling like that.” Alana had shoved him off her, to the entertainment of everyone within earshot.
Alana was smart and sharp, but she wasn’t mean or calculated. Jordan wondered how much of Ryan and the high-profile life he was driving them toward was rubbing off on her.
“Lan, hey, wait up.”
Alana slowed, her breath fogging in the dusk air outside the lodge. A bonfire was built up to a full roar, letting loose dancing sparks that sizzled in the frosty air around Alana’s shadow.
“The attendant cut my hip, so I think that might have been why I was back there longer. I am sorry it was such a wait for you, but it really was just an accident. The girl was mortified.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Well, it all happened really fast.”
“Like how bad? Let me look.” Alana tugged at Jordan’s coat to lift the edge, “I can’t believe that place.”
“Lan, stop. Gawd, take a girl to dinner first.”
Alana blazed like the embers in the bonfire basins. She raised her hands.
“Right, you’re fine. Let’s head back to the cabin. I’m starving.”
Back at their condo, Kris and Brandy were deep into bottle number two of the white Zinfandel they had brought. Hooting laughter and a few snorts seemed to break away the ice in Alana’s disposition.
“Hey, you two!” Brandy called over the couch edge, “how was your day?”
“It was great!” Alana said. “We snowshoed, tried some of the Lodge cuisine, and went for an IV/Oxygen treatment at the spa. I feel amazing. This vacation was exactly what the doc ordered.”
Kris handed her up a full glass, clinking the stems once Alana had a grip on the wine.
“Cheers to that!”
Brandy offered up a second glass to Jordan, but she didn’t take it. Jordan had been watching her best friend put her happy-girl mask fully back on.
“Actually, I’m going to pass. The IV made me a bit woozy. I’m going to go take a shower before dinner, if that’s alright?”
In the bathroom, Jordan peeled back the bandage. Her hip had throbbed the entire walk back from the lodge. It felt more like a punch to the bone rather than a scrape. Purple mottling blossomed under the gauze.
“Jeez,” Jordan craned over her shoulder to look at the whole hip in the mirror. Her fingertips felt around the wound, but the only thing she could feel was a swollen lump the size of a pea. Had all that blood come from that tiny spot?
“That it not a scrape!”
Jordan scrambled to cover herself up with her discarded clothes. “You scared the shit out of me! No one’s been in the bathroom with me in like months, maybe years.”
“Yeah, about that bikini line.” Jordan whipped her t-shirt at Alana’s face.
“I’m kidding! But for real, look at your hip.”
Jordan and Alana stared at the bruised skin together. The whole thing was confusing. Plus, Jordan had slept through a lot of the afternoon, so she didn’t count herself reliable in piecing together the events causing this injury.
“All she said was she swiped me with the IV pole.”
“I’m sorry, but there is no way.” Alana got down on one knee to get really close. “There is like a puncture—”
“Jo, Alana! You’ve got to check this out. Look at this.”
Legs pulled up under them on the couch, Brandy and Kris had abandoned their wine glasses. They were staring at the TV which was streaming the local news.
“Two skiers perish at The Snow Globe resort after a head on collision on the slope. Owner Jessica Fachnan released this statement, “A terrible accident this soon after the opening, of what has been a lifelong dream for me, haunts me. The Snow Globe was designed for play, relaxation, and joy. The team and I hope to restore people’s faith in us as soon as possible. My deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of these young people.”
Alana looked up from her phone, “They’ve closed down the slopes for the rest of the weekend.”
“I can’t believe two people are dead,” Kris murmured, hugging her knees up to her chin.
This whole day was going from bad to worse. Jordan went to sink down onto the couch beside Brandy.
“Ouch!”
A pain deep in her low back ricocheted around her nervous system. Jordan’s fingers fumbled at the waistband of her joggers, she touched at the injury at her hip. It was hot and tender and swollen.
Alana turned around from where she was crowding the television. Concern worked over her face.
“Let me get you some ice. Sorry, I guess I’m a little distracted.”
Alana bustled about the kitchen filling a hand towel with ice. Kris and Brandy made room for Jordan to lay out on the couch, each getting up to do something. The disturbing news reel looped.
Jordan felt herself getting more upset about these skiers. Which was weird, it had been an accident. And she didn’t even know the two people. High octane sports like skiing came with the risk of peril. Maybe it was because she had just been out on that trail this morning. Had the skiers passed her and Alana? Would they have eaten lunch with them at the lodge?
The cabin suddenly felt too small. The air from the fireplace too warm. And the nausea still hadn’t passed from that stupid IV treatment.
“Hey, I need some fresh air to clear my head. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
Jordan was kneeled down, lacing up her boots, when she realized Alana had stopped to stare at her, still holding the ice pack.
“What?” Alana started, “You were just limping to the couch?”
“It’s not a broken bone, probably just a bruise. I’m fine.”
“Take my phone, at least. Your service sucks,” Alana said. Jordan grabbed Alana’s iPhone 15 Pro just to get out of the cabin as quickly as possible.
Wisps of winter wind curled under the tree skirts helping them to shake off a few layers of powdered snow. A large clump of icicles cracked off a branch and sunk into a drift below. Jordan looked for the squirrel who caused the disturbance, but there was only wind.
Jordan let out a long whistle.
Her dad used to do that when they were fishing together. “If you can hear me, well that means you aren’t alone.”
Nothing responded.
“Just try and enjoy your last day of vacation,” Jordan muttered.
The glare of the setting sun was so intense that Jordan had to walk with her eyes looking down. The packed snow on the trail crunched with each boot fall. Step after step, her thoughts quieted, and the cold numbed her.
A chunk of ice kicked out from the toe of Jordan’s boot. It rolled along and then planted into a snow drift piled up on the trail. The light refracted into the snow ahead causing an illusion that the trail was curving up, almost skyward. Jordan wished she’d brought sunglasses. Even this late in the day, the snow was so bright against the white powder it played tricks on her vision. A wobbling reverberation sounded through the air and a tingling vibration ran up her leg. She stepped again and was stopped by a clear barricade.
Jordan lifted her fingers into the space in front of her. They touched glass, and she jumped back. When she pushed with a few pounds of resistance there was no give.
“What in the heck?”
A plexiglass wall was visible up close, and yet so clear it tricked the eye into disappearing. It wasn’t until Jordan noticed the upturned drift hugging an invisible border that she realized the barricade ran a decent length in both directions. She plunged a gloved hand into the snow. Her fingers found the ground, unable to discover the base of the barricade. It was buried in the frozen dirt. Then Jordan looked up.
Curving up above the trees, a tinted glass wall rose into the sunny sky. Jordan laid back into the snow to stare at the structure enclosing her. What was this?
“Two skiers perish after a head-on collision.”
Jordan was immediately colder than could be explained by winter weather or wet snow boots. Cursing herself for going this far away from the rental cabin, she started the trek back. They needed to leave, and quick. Jordan remembered that she had Alana’s phone, and pulled it out to call Brandy.
No Service
Of course, why would there be service in a place designed for seclusion?
Her tongue felt like leather. She wasn’t sure why, but she had just kept walking. Now she was lost, and she’d been gone way too long. It was obvious to her, now, that the trail was not designed for people to take leisure hikes on it.
She turned, her bruised hip zinging in protest, and started jogging back out of the woods.
Footfalls crunching through the ice alerted Jordan to someone coming up the trail. A man’s voice, with the lilt of a snowboarder, was followed by the snowboarder himself. And Alana.
“Jo! Oh my gosh, thank gawd.”
Alana sprinted to Jordan and squeezed her fiercely.
Jordan noticed The Snow Globe patch on the guys’ parka sleeve and tightened her lips.
“Do you know how long you’ve been gone? If it weren’t for Matt, we were about to send a search party out on snowmobiles.”
Jordan watched Matt, but answered Alana. “Guess I lost track of time. I needed to clear my head.”
The trio made their way back toward the lodge. Every detail mocked Jordan. The fake swirling snow. Groomed evergreens without one broken branch. Even the breeze felt like an oscillating fan by its measured rhythm of bursts and whooshes.
At the clearing before the lodge, Matt peeled off with an easy wave.
“Lan, I think we should get back to the cabin and get out of town,” Jordan started. “You know before traffic and everything.”
“Jordan, we have enough time for you to at least eat and get some coffee. You’re probably super dehydrated.”
“You aren’t listening to me,” Jordan pulled the bitch card, “I want to leave now.”
A frigid air blew between them. Alana stiffened.
“I hiked all that way to find your ass, and you won’t even sit and have lunch with me. You can be really selfish sometimes. You don’t even know that Ryan and I are on a break. You are never around and you’re so busy working all the time that you always blow off our plans.”
Jordan felt instant regret. Alana was right, all the moments they’d been interrupted that weekend. She needed to be there for her friend, now. Her dehydration and getting lost in the woods had made her head all weird. Of course, a private park would have a perimeter.
They eased into a booth, frothed mugs of cocoa in each clasped set of hands.
“Alright, spill,” Jordan said.
Alana sighed, “Not much to tell. Ryan’s moved on and I’m single.”
Jordan leaned on her elbows, laying a hand on Alana’s.
“I’m really sorry.”
Alana shrugged it off and swiped her phone screen to life. The casual gesture made Jordan sit up straighter in the booth.
“I wouldn’t really count that as spilling.”
The amber eyes that met Jordan’s felt sincere, until Alana smirked and looked down at her phone.
“Boys will be boys. Come on let’s go get some O2 for the road.”
“Wait, what? Are you kidding me?”
Alana half shrugged her shoulder, “What?”
“You left there royally pissed off yesterday. Like, “I need to speak to your manager” mad and now you want to go back?”
“I like the buzzy head feeling, come on. I’ll pay.”
Jordan was not convinced that her friend was really ok. In the past, they’d been through seasons of Alana’s slightly manic bouts together. And it’d been costly. But they were past all that now, right?
“Lan, can you just sit down and talk to me—”
Seeing Jacob wave at them from across the dining lounge, cut Jordan off. His long strides closed the gap between them in a flash. Alana was quick to use the intrusion as her get away.
“Twenty-minutes, k?”
Jacob followed her with his eyes, then cut back to Jordan quick.
“Your friend alright?”
Jordan sagged into the booth, “Even you can tell that she’s avoiding me. I just know something is wrong, but she won’t talk about it with me. She’s right not to, though. I’ve been a crap friend lately.”
Jacob listened, his chin tilted down causing his eyes to line up with Jordan’s. The look momentarily distracted her. When he sat down across from her he was close enough for her to notice a constellation pattern in his sun freckles where his googles met his cheekbones.
“Have you always worked at ski lodges?”
“In a roundabout way, sure. I dropped out of school to become an EMT. But I like patrol work, and have a knack for avalanche rescue. This is my third mountain.”
Jordan remembered the news story from earlier, “Is it fairly common for people to die in ski accidents?”
Jacob pursed his lips. Was he sorting out what he could say about the accident?
“Like, hitting a tree for two people at the same time, those have got to be some pretty high odds. And this trail is like newly groomed.”
Jacob ran his fingers through his wavy hair. He reached for Alana’s mug, but then realized it wasn’t his.
“Those skiers collided with something that wasn’t supposed to be in their path—” Jordan lowered her voice, “Like a plexiglass perimeter?”
Jacob jumped like he’d been pinched. His dilated, chocolate brown eyes were full on her now.
“They weren’t supposed to get that far out,” Jacob blurted, “It was a terrible accident we didn’t anticipate.”
It dawned on Jordan that Jacob was a good guy. The purple pouches under his eyes told her, whatever he knew, it was eating him up inside. She remembered their first day, while they were snowshoeing. Jacob had come to get them because they were getting too close to the edge. And the truth. His hairline was dotted with droplets of sweat, causing the strands to curl up.
Jordan gentled, “Jacob, what’s going on here?”
His fingers balled up his beanie, “watch out for yourself, Jordan.”
The cold air left by his absence chilled Jordan to the bone. This was more than some corner cutting developer drama that ended with a fatality. Jacob had looked scared. Jordan scanned the lodge, it all looked too normal. A shiver prickled her neck. Where was Alana? It was time they got out of here.
“This spa is earning a reputation for being impossibly slow. Two for two, Snow Globe,” muttered Jordan as she made her way down the hallway to the reception desk.
She didn’t care how Alana would react to being interrupted. They needed to leave, and Jordan wasn’t backing down this time.
“Welcome back to Elevation, Jordan! What can I have prepared for you?”
“Ummm, I’m not here for treatment,” Jordan stumbled over her thoughts, “how’d you remember my name?”
“Fuck! They really need to give us something for all the bleeding—”
The woman at the desk coughed so loudly that Jordan jumped. The cursing voice shrank back into the room she’d emerged from, her features blurred by shadow.
“I’d say accidents around here are quite memorable,” the receptionist squeezed out a tight smile, “but they seem to happen around you more often. How is your cut doing?”
Jordan noticed two overstuffed laundry bags slumped in the corner, ready for pick up.
“Wow, busy day at the spa.”
The receptionist’s eyes followed Jordan’s line of sight. “People love the pick-me-up an IV infusion offers. Which reminds me, what service can I get started for you?”
“I came for my friend, Alana, since we’re all on first-name basis apparently.”
Jordan was ushered to the relaxation room. Alana had her chestnut hair pulled back, an intense expression tightening her brow while she tapped out something on her phone.
“I came to find you. You’ve been gone for almost two hours.”
Alana wilted, pocketing her phone.
“I really just don’t want to go home. To Ryan, to an empty apartment, to starting over single. I guess I’m milking this vacation.”
Jordan was torn. If it weren’t for Jacob telling Jordan to get out, she’d have let her friend stay and soak up all the time she needed. But right now, they had to go.
Jordan softened, “I totally get it. You know what, how about you text Ryan that you’re staying another night, and you come home with me?”
“That’s really nice of you, Jo. But I don’t want to impose.”
Jordan pulled Alana up and hugged her. “Knock it off, you’re my best friend.”
The attendant, who’d been watching the women during the whole exchange, chirped on que, “We will charge the services to your room. Was everything acceptable to you today?”
Alana nodded, and then leaned onto Jordan’s shoulder as they walked out.
“I feel like I’ve lost myself, Jo.”
Jordan waited for more, but instead quiet gave way to their crunching footsteps. Alana didn’t add, and Jordan didn’t ask. They had time.
“I feel every bit twenty-eight,” Brandy whined. Alana passed by the disheveled woman on the couch, leaving Jordan to explain. Kris and Brandy were more than happy to pack up and head home a day early.
“My liver feels sixty,” Kris groaned from under a cold rag draped over her face.
After she finished packing up, Jordan found Alana in the master suite on her phone, “I overheard some stuff at the lodge about the ski accident. Something weird, like bad news stuff, is going on here. I’d feel better if we just got in your car and left.”
Alana looked up, “Of course, we’ll get going.”
As she moved about the room, gathering clothes and snow gear into neat piles, she turned to Jordan, “Shoot! I forgot my jacket at the spa.”
Alana pouted, “Jo, will you please go get it for me? I’ve got so much packing to do.”
Jordan huffed. She was freaked out, even if no one else was. But every theory that her mind had come up with was a bit outlandish. She trudged back to Elevation, this vacation was never going to end.
“Returning for a coat? Right this way.” Elante waved Jordan behind the reception desk. Instead of a small employee office or breakroom, an internal hallway with bright lights stretched before them. Doors ran parallel the entire length. Elante’s glossy slacks swished against her thighs as she walked.
A door opened, but the lights were off.
“Our lost and found,” Elante said, entering the room.
“You would be amazed—”
The sounds of her speech cut off forcing Jordan to follow her in to hear.
“—valuables and clothing left behind.”
Jordan’s wrist tingled with a notification. A message from an unknown number flashed on the screen.
The door clicked into the jam, and latched.
“Get out”
She was too late, a prick at her neck and then the room started to swim. The darkness of the unlit room swallowed up into the darkness of her unconsciousness.
“To think you were so close. Just within reach.”
An elderly woman sat in a power-wheel chair near Jordan’s feet. Three slow blinks, and a face bright from expensive creams and anti-aging serums came into focus. Jordan’s head was swimming, and still she had a distinct sense that she knew this woman. The fog of whatever had knocked her out and was preventing all the pieces from coming together.
“I had them wake you before the procedure. Albeit that wasn’t the original plan. Seeing it all before me, I want to try and reason with you first.”
The combination of these words sobered Jordan up. The chambers of her heart squeezed, pumping blood through her veins like she’d been running.
It took a second, but Jordan’s brain disposed of a bias it’d made. The woman wrapped in a shawl, sitting in a wheelchair, was actually quite young. But she hunched over like her spine couldn’t support the weight of herself.
“Once you hear me out, I am confident that you and I will be able to come to a shared agreement.”
That’s when she felt them, tightened Velcro cuffs at her wrists. Points of sensation were spiking all around her body.
“What is th—” Jordan swallowed the slurred sentence. Her tongue felt like a raw steak pressed inside her mouth.
“As you an deduce, I am rather feeble. The restraints are a precaution for my protection. I only know what Alana has told me of you, and while I would like to trust the stories, you and she seem to have fallen out lately. And everyone acts differently when they feel threatened.”
Panic elevated Jordan’s respirations. She’d left Alana and the other girls back at the condo. She hadn’t had time to warn them, tell them what Jacob had said to her. And now she was strapped down, drugged up, and separated. Clarity rolled in like a late afternoon wave on the shore.
The woman toggled a controller at the arm of her chair and rolled past the glare of the surgical light into view. A honey blonde woman with cinnamon eyes faced Jordan.
Hot tears slipped, one out of each corner of Jordan’s eyes.
“I have Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, which is extremely rare in woman. And in all people, the condition is debilitating. In the past few months, my window for stem cell therapy has nearly closed. The Globe is a creative enterprise to help me attract young, healthy candidates quickly to harvest cells from them.”
Jordan scrambled back in the sheets. Every neuron reminding her of the damage to her hipbone.
“Before you start making a story up, remember I woke you to reason with you.” Jessica raised flattened palms as if gentling a wild animal.
“What have you done to me?”
“We haven’t done anything to you. Everyone was subjected to a simple blood screen. Prior to the IV infusion you signed a waiver that had a clause scattered somewhere in the middle. And because I am a decent—”
“Decent?” Jordan spit.
“You lost decent when you started baiting people into a cage to save yourself.”
Jessica flinched. A curtain of honey curls swept her cheek.
“Hope is the most dangerous of drugs. And I’ve let it completely consume me. The Snow Globe is my greatest medical expense. And I would have stopped today, stopped all of it to prevent my niece from destroying the one friendship that mattered. My life, in the condition I am in, is not worth that damage.”
“Your niece?”
“Alana has never been able to accept my diagnosis. And in some ways, her hope has been contagious to me. She suggested this mad pursuit to find a donor for stem cells all because a few studies have found it to slow the paralysis.”
“But then I found out—” Jessica stumbled, unable to finish.
Jordan deflated, and then whispered, “If it’s genetic, is Alana sick, too?”
“Alana’s desperation isn’t only for me. She has the same genes that code the life-ending syndrome that she watched as a little girl debilitate her aunt. I won’t say more,” Jessica stiffened, “This decision is yours to make.”
For three hours, Jordan met with a team of highly qualified medical professionals of her own choosing. It was impressive the on-demand power Jessica had. Her trust fund had bought her more than allies, it was buying her life.
When the time to make the decision came, Jordan requested a snowmobile, that wouldn’t power off the minute she took it beyond the Snow Globe’s perimeter. She still didn’t trust anyone, especially Jessica, to keep their word.
“I do my best thinking alone.”
Jessica edged forward in her chair, and leaned close, “Nothing will happen to you if you decide the answer is no. A car will be waiting at the gates for you, keys under the floor mat.”
Jordan was thankful Jessica hadn’t touched her. She needed complete separation. At the snowmobile, she found a full thermos of hot cocoa, a flask of whiskey, and a paper map. Jacob had brought it round for her. The engine purred, and she raced off through the front gates. Freedom was the most critical need Jordan had right then.
~
The anesthesia was becoming a thin veil over Alana’s features. Small twitches at the corners of her cupid’s bow revealed that she was waking up. The stillness was freaky. The lens of Alana’s eyes stopped roving back and forth under the lids. Creases pinched at the soft skin at the corners.
Alana swallowed and shifted into wakefulness.
Her eyes registered the unusual surroundings, widening to take in the darkened spa room. Panic dilated her pupils as she saw the IV drip in the crease of her arm.
“What’s happening—”
“I was supposed to be waking up from surgery right about now. But, it’s not me on the table, is it?”
Alana shrank into herself.
An unbearable screech from metal wheels accompanied Jordan as she rolled out of the shadows toward Alana. Another deep-throated gulp. Alana’s mouth had become desert dry. The shift in power happening in their relationship was dizzying. Jordan felt like teenager at a party, having sucked in too much helium. All eyes were on her right before the silence-shattering laughter brought on by a cartoonish voice.
Jordan had studied this face, now transformed by anxiety, for nearly twenty minutes before injecting phentolamine, reversing the anesthesia. Jordan had needed to see Alana, work out all the riddles, without anything interrupting her thoughts.
“I know I’ve been a lousy friend. But forgetful? Selfish? That’s cold, Lan. You think I would just forget that momentous friendship experience in ninth grade genetics?”
Alana stiffened against the surgical chair.
“You’d been so excited. Our blood types were a perfect match!” Jordan felt the confrontation ticking up her heart rate. “Get this, I even remember word for word what you said to me, “This is like a sign, you’re the sister I’ve always wanted.””
Alana tried to move her arm to hug her waist. But her fingers struggled against the restraints, barely reaching the hem of her shirt.
A metallic groan stilled the movement. Paleness sharpened Alana’s facial features. She looked wolfish in the halo of the magnifying lamp.
“How dare you,” Alana hissed.
It was the exact words needed to catch the fire. An explosion made from all of the brittle words, the dry excuses, and the heat of her betrayal. Jordan stepped up to Alana’s legs and kneed into her shins. A grunt forced from the gut.
“How dare I? How dare I play you? How dare I get close enough to you to know your true insecurities? How dare I rip control out of your fisted, manicured hands and hold it right here out of your reach?”
Heavy breaths tore out of Jordan’s chest.
“Alana, fucking wake up! Five hours ago, this would have been me. You’ve lied to everyone. Everyone for the preservation of yourself. Your control. I can’t say much about your aunt. But I can say something happened to you. From ninth-grade Alana wanting to share something intimate and sisterly, to this woman, who’d drug a best friend for some bone marrow.”
Jordan pressed two fingers onto the hip bandage, Alana’s lip trembled, nearly unnoticeable. She was petrified. Completely afraid of everything and everyone.
Rage spilt out and flung around in Jordan’s arm as she knocked a surgical table over.
“This whole desperate, elaborate scheme. Baiting people in with IV infusions and fun O2 treatments at an all-inclusive resort. You’ve been holding your aunt hostage to her fear of death, because for some messed up reason, you’ve got to be the one to save her.”
Jordan closed her eyes and focused on the slowing whoosh of every breath. The bone ache at her hips centered her.
“If you’d of asked,” Jordan lowered the band of her joggers, one patch on each side. The bruising told the truth.
“I’d have done it. Without any questions, Lan.”
Alana’s fingers clawed to feel for bandages on her own numb hip.
“Stop,” Jordan said, “you need the antiseptic at the entry point. The doctor, the real one, that I insisted on, harvested enough from me for both of you. You are early enough in developing symptoms that the first treatment should take, or at least help. Your aunt, we will have to wait and see.”
Jordan didn’t wait to see the reaction in Alana’s face. She already knew that she had lost something, permanent. But it wasn’t herself. She turned and left, closing the door with the gentlest of clicks. It was time to go and begin again.
Jacob stood beyond the front entry, perched on a log end jutting from the corner of the building. He’d helped her. Anyone else would have told her to bag the friend and move on. But he’d believed her capable of something more meaningful. Jordan wasn’t sure what that meant, but she wanted to hang around him to find out.
Jacob heard Jordan approach, and his lips curved into the goofiest smile.
“I was about to leave to go get a sandwich. That was a lot of girl talk.”
A pause.
“Hug?”
“Ya,” Jordan said.
An exhale she’d needed to take finally left her body. He smelled good. And the cold air felt good. But spas were probably over for her, indefinitely.
“I grabbed your bag, it’s in my truck.” Jacob started. “Hope it wasn’t too forward to assume I’d drive you home?”
“Nah,” Jordan smiled, “I’m good with that.”
“Oh, Ms. Fachnan sent this with me as I went for my last paycheck. She said it’d be better coming from me than her?”
Jacob passed over a clean, white envelope left unsealed.
As they walked to toward the truck, Jordan removed a typed letter and a check.
I respectfully refuse to accept your gifts to my family. Even if you will not take money by way of payment, money will be deposited at the University of Southern California College of Genetics for the admission of Jordan Becker. A subsidy for living will be granted to an account, bimonthly, until completion of undergraduate and graduate studies. Please make a greater societal contribution than I.
Jordan smirked, despite herself. She muttered, “this family is too weird.”
“Hmm?” Jacob looked over his shoulder at her.
Jordan got up in the passenger side of Jacob’s rust red Toyota Tacoma.
“Have you ever been to California?”