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Lana as they
headed back to the elevator. “All aboard for the Polar Express to
Walgreens!”
    The first blast of icy air outside the
hotel’s front door assaulted Lana’s face like knives. She’d covered
as much as humanly possible, with her scarf wrapped around her
cheeks and chin and then tucked into her pulled-up collar, and her
hat pulled low over her ears. But nothing could completely block
out the wet, cutting chill.
    “You okay?” she called out.
    “This suuuucks,” was Alexis’s response. “I’m
so sorry for you having to come out here like this with me.”
    “It’s an adventure!” Lana told her.
“Something for you to tell your kids someday.” She lifted her boot
as high as she could to take the next step into the high drifts of
snow. When she put it down again it sank disconcertingly into the
fluffy flakes. “Watch your step.”
    “Yeah.”
    Lana fixed her sight on the bright red
Walgreens sign, barely visible in the white-gray swirl. Snow
stopped being fun past high school, she reflected, burying her
gloved hands in her pockets. “Speaking of adventures, how did you
manage to drop your pills in the toilet in the first place?”
    “Um,” said Alexis, continuing her slow,
stomping march across the snowbank. “I was kind of… texting.”
    “You took your phone out in
the ladies’ room? You’re lucky you didn’t drop that in the toilet!” Teenagers , Lana thought
to herself, before a little voice reminded her that she’d shivered
through the first half of Robin’s morning rehearsal without her
sweater because it wasn’t Mel-worthy.
    “Oh, my God, my mom
would kill me ,”
said Alexis. “Yeah, I know it was kinda dumb but things might be
going somewhere with Tyler and I couldn’t wait to see his next
message.”
    “Well, that’s good, anyway?” Trust a boy
Tyler’s age to feel more comfortable talking about his feelings via
text message.
    “Yeah! I feel good about
it,” said Alexis. “We’re supposed to go see the new Captain Werewolf movie
next weekend together.”
    “Congratulations!”
    Lana and Alexis fought the snow together
until they reached the drugstore, where they killed several more
minutes inside, just to enjoy the warmth. “We’re on our way back,”
Lana told Robin into a cell that felt uncomfortable against her
cold-stained cheek.
    “Cool,” said Robin. “How is it out
there?”
    “You know that year you
played the Waltz of the Snowflakes from Nutcracker for the Christmas
concert?” Lana shifted out of the doorway to let another bundled-up
soul exit. “Not that. Not even close. It’s like a science fiction
movie.”
    “Don’t freeze,” said Robin.
    “See you soon.”
    On the way back, being forced to lift her
boot-heavy feet higher than usual in order to take the next step
into the drifts began to make her knees hurt. To distract herself,
she thought of Mel playing that song—the simple waltz from before.
She didn’t know why, but it reminded her of bittersweet movies
about immigrants longing for their home country. Naturally, as the
child of immigrants she’d been exposed to a fair number of those
her whole life.
    Hearing it in her mind made her fingers,
trapped inside her fists inside gloves inside pockets and close
against her body, unconsciously start trying out what might be the
positions for the song.
    Immigrants thinking of a far-off time and
place… was that what violin was, to her? A land across the ocean,
full of complex beauty and history?
    The hotel lobby beckoned invitingly with its
promise of warmth and lack of frozen rain attacking one’s
eyelashes. Lana and Alexis hurried inside to find Robin and Melanie
waiting for them.
    “Supermom!” Robin pumped both fists straight
in the air, before making an octopus out of her hand to squish
Alexis’s head playfully.
    Mel held out an insulated paper cup. “I bet
you need this.”
    Lana took it carefully in her still-gloved
hand. Hot, spiced apple cider! She enjoyed the smell and the