This year, she felt her aloneness, her loneliness more acutely than ever before. She was twenty five years old and alone here in the city, especially for the holiday. She wouldn't take time from work, because she had given her days to the women with children, and thereby sacrificed going home to LaFayette to be with her family.
There was a sense of peace in the quiet of that side of the park, and as she walked the paths and took in her surroundings--the bright white of the snow, the thick trees, a frozen fountain with icicles dripping around it edges--she relaxed. Soon she could hear the whoops and hollers of sledders on the hills around the bend.
But before she got there was a shout and a red sled with two bundled people came flying over the hill, far off the sled trail, traveling so fast they were airborne.
She heard at curse and a shout, "Look out!"
When she stopped tumbling in the soft snow she was sprawled on top of a man with a woolen scarf tied tightly around the lower half of his face and oranges scattered around the. But she knew those eyes anywhere.
Edward Lowell looked at her and said, "We have to stop meeting like this."
She burst out laughing.
"Penny," he shouted. "Are you okay?" A child dressed in a warm blue coat, matching mittens and a knitted scarf plopped down on her knees next to them and said, brightly, "Let's do it again, Uncle Eddie."
"I think we should access the damage first. Penny, this is Miss Everdeane...a friend. Idalie, this is Miss Penelope Courtland, my niece and sledder extraordinaire. Are you okay," he asked quietly.
"I'm fine, I think. Just surprised. How very nice to meet you Miss Courtland, Idalie said, formally, and held out her hand, which brought a series of giggles from the little girl. She, however, was aware of on whom she lay, and how she lay. "I need to get up." She pushed off of him but he was faster and rolled out from under her and was helping her up, lifting her actually, hands on her waist, as she weighed nothing. It was an electric moment. She looked up at him and something warm and slightly uncomfortable passed between them.
"Your hat's crooked," he said.
"Everything is crooked." She twisted her coat back around, shook out her woolen skirt, and adjust her hat with its pin. He began to dust the snow off of her and seemed to be concentrating on her backside. "Thank you, Edward," she removed his hand, "but I can handle this." The look she gave him said she wasn't fooled for one minute.
Penny was jumping up and down. "Let's go again. Please."
"First we need to help Miss Everdeane pick up her groceries." He retrieved her bag and began to fill it with oranges, the pineapple.
"There's a ham and some yams around here somewhere." She looked on the path and the drifts round them, where their tumbling bodies had made wide swaths in the dry snow. The ham was wrapped in white butcher paper and blended in, but she found it wedged against a tree root.
Edward joined her. He was balancing four yams in his hands and he began to juggle, making his niece giggle even harder. He snatched the last one out of the air and said, "Are there more?"
Idalie held open the bag for him to drop the inside. "No, that's all of them. It's just me."
He studied her for a second as if he wanted to say something but thought better of it. He picked up her purse and frowned, then handed it to her, “This weighs more than your groceries.”
She nodded, choosing not to explain she had a hammer in her purse because then there would just be more explanations.
He shoved his hands in his coat pockets and said, "I'm sorry. I haven't been sledding in a long time. I might have shoved off the hill a little harder than necessary." He laughed. "I'm not sure how long we were even on the snow, let alone the trail."
Penny grabbed her hand. "Come with us, Miss Everdeane." and she pulled at Idalie to go.
Penny...." he warned.
Idalie shoved her groceries in his arms. "I would love to, Miss Penny." And before he could say a word they were trudging up the hill toward the sled runs.
At the top of the run Idalie settled in front of Edward, aware of where she was sitting and the close warm of his chest to