A Creepy Coincidence

• Josephine Witherdin, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2015

My family and I were going on a skiing holiday at the snow over Christmas. We were all so excited, as we all love the cold weather and the idea of snuggling up with blankets and hot chocolate on an icy cool evening. As the Christmas cheer began to kick in and we started singing some carols, it began snowing outside our car windows. Small delicate snowflakes fluttered down from clouds and softly landed on the branches of the alpine trees. Our eyes lit up like children when they wake up on Christmas morning! The beautiful scenery created certainty for a lovely white Christmas.

We decided to pull over and grab a coffee from a little cottage café in a village we came across. By now the snow was falling heavily and we even had to pull out our big coats to walk down the street. Our cheeks became ice-kissed as we wandered through the village. As we opened the door to the café, we were greeted by the smell of cinnamon candles burning, of freshly baked banana bread and the warmth of rich hot chocolate sitting in the pot just waiting to be poured. I find that when you go to a place with the smell of toasty muffins, you can’t just have a coffee. Instead, I ordered a chai latte and a blueberry scone. My heart was truly content when I scoffed this down.

We walked back to the car, only to discover that in the thirty minutes we spent in the village, our car had become bogged in snow. The bottom of the car and all the tires were covered in snow. Dad attempted to open the driver door, but the snow was too thick. Our next idea was to recruit some people to help push it. So we asked around and finally got about five big men to help get the car out. The white snow wouldn’t budge though, because even with helpers we couldn’t get it out. There was nothing really left do to except call a tow truck to haul it out. We waited a whole hour until they arrived. The man hooked our car onto some wires and did a few other mechanical things that didn’t have any meaning to me. He drove forward and our car magically shifted and then released from the compacted snow. The man kindly showed us how to put chains on our car so we could drive safely.
We gave our many thanks to the man and then jumped back in the car, excited again, that we would soon finally arrive.
By the time we arrived there, it was dark. We entered the cottage with our luggage in our hands. Much to our surprise, we then saw the man who drove the tow truck. I thought he might have been following us but he told us that he owned the place. I thought it was a bit of a creepy coincidence! Mum got the fire going and my brother and I made epic hot chocolates with marshmallows, cream and chocolate topping! We all snuggled up on the couch with furry blankets on our laps, warm drinks in our hands, pumpkin soup in our bellies, cinnamon scents in the air and Christmas with the Kranks on the TV.