Three Wishes Read Online Free Page A

white, and colder, far colder than before.
    â€œIt’s too early for this,” Flash grumbled as they approached his Explorer. While he dug behind his seat for a scraper, Bree started on the windows with the sleeve of her jacket. When he took over with the brush, she climbed inside. Leaning over the gearshift, she started the engine and, once the windshield was clear, turned on the wipers.
    Since the parking lot had last been plowed, another several inches of snow had fallen. Between those inches and what had been left around cars that were parked, the lot was ragged. Flash gunned his engine to back the Explorer over the pile of snow at its own rear, then shifted into drive. The Explorer jolted its way to the street.
    Bree stared hard out the windshield. As far as she could tell, the only thing marking the road was the slightly lower level of snow there. The headlights of the Explorer swung a bright arc onto East Main. Flash accelerated. His tires spun, found purchase, started slowly up the hill. They hadn’t gone far when the spinning resumed. The Explorer slid sideways. He braked, downshifted, and tried again.
    â€œBad tires?” she asked.
    â€œBad roads,” he muttered.
    â€œNot if you’re going downhill. Let me walk. Please?”
    He resisted through several more tries, shifting from drive to reverse and back in an attempt to gain traction, and he always did, but never for long. The Explorer had barely reached the first of five houses that climbed the hill to the town green when, sliding sideways and back this time, he gave in.
    Bree pulled up her hood and slid out. “Thanks for trying. See you tomorrow.” Shutting the door, she burrowed into her jacket and started up the hill.
    At first, with the Explorer coasting backward, its headlights lit her way. When Flash turned at the diner’s driveway and came out headfirst, the lights disappeared. Moments later, even the sound of his engine was gone.
    In the silence, Bree trekked upward. The snow on the road wasn’t deep, rising only to the top of her boots, but she had the same problem the Explorer had. With the drop in temperature, the thin layer of packed snow left by the plow had frozen under the new-fallen stuff. She kept slipping on the steepening incline.
    Tightening her hood, she tucked her hands in her pockets and plodded on. When she slipped again, her arms flew out for balance, hands bare and cold. She wished she had gloves, wished it even more in the next instant, when she lost her footing and landed wrist deep in the snow. Straightening, she shook herself off and went on. One more slip, though, and she trudged to the side of the road. The snow was deeper there, well past her calves, which made the walking harder but safer.
    Head bowed against the steady fall of snow, she leaned into the climb. She had walked the same route for years, barely had to lift her eyes to know where she was. One foot rose high after the other to clear the drifts. By the time she passed the last of the houses, her thighs were feeling the strain. She felt instant relief when the road leveled off at the top.
    Turning left, she started around the town green under the gaslights’ amber glow. There were no cars about, just snow-shrouded shapes in driveways. Wood smoke rose from high chimneys to scent the air. Snow slid, with a rush and a thud, down tall steel panels from roof to ground.
    The curve of the road took her past the Federal that housed the bank, with smaller offices above for the town’s lawyer, realtor, and chiropractor. The one beside it housed the Chalifoux family, the one beside that the Nolans, the one beside that the library. Farther on, in a more modest house, lived the minister and his family. At the end of the oval, spire high, large green shutters and doors finely edged in snow, was the church.
    The wood fence circling the churchyard had disappeared under the snow, as had the split-rail one around the town green. But the