Page 26 of Christmas on Ice
Sutton had been gone a lot, first on deployments and then classified “projects,” which I suspected weren’t work-related, but I couldn’t prove it. We’d done okay financially, and I’d been able to stay at home with Ryleigh while I took classes. I was able to drop her off and pick her up from the day care on base myself and hadn’t had to rely on Brenna or friends for anything.
Sutton wasn’t a social guy, not like Trask, who had a big team of friends he spent time with on and off the ice. I was sure Sutton was close to men in his unit, but he never talked about them, and we never had people over. I hadn’t made any extra effort to connect with other wives and mothers on base, except for an occasional kid’s birthday party if Ryleigh was invited.
Life was changing fast, maybe faster than what I was ready for.
I set my backpack down and opened it to retrieve my shallow auger, a Ziploc bag, and a trowel. About six feet from the water, I located the original site I’d previously sampled. I cleared the loose vegetation and pushed the auger into the ground. It wasn’t easy, since the recent snowfall had hardened the ground, but at least it wasn’t frozen. It took even more muscle to pull the auger out, but I managed. With the bag in one hand, I knocked the soil out of the auger. Squeezing the bag between my fingers, I mixed the soil before setting it aside.
I had my hand lens with me but decided to wait until I got back home to analyze the sample. I’d borrowed a 10x microscope from the lab and planned to spend most of my day off Monday double-checking particle size and crystalline structure. Today, I just needed to get the soil.
I labeled the bag with a permanent marker and continued up the trail, wishing I was with my girl on the Santa Express. I told myself for the millionth time there would be plenty more opportunities once I had my doctorate and my financial concerns were a thing of the past.
I knew when I moved us out of base housing that it would strain our finances. I’d been okay for a while getting by on my savings, but when they ran low, I panicked. Brenna offered me a job, but that meant I needed regular day care. The base day care was too far for Brenna to help out, so on her suggestion, I enrolled Ryleigh in the Plex’s pre-kindergarten program for three-year-olds. Then Ryleigh met the Kriz twins and got hooked on cheer after a free class.
Now that hockey season had started up, I was making enough money at Brewski’s when I worked home game nights and team events. There was always a big crowd when the team played in town, and the fans were big drinkers and big tippers. It helped that Brenna’s brother Keegan was working on expanding the brewery part of the business and gave free samples every few weeks when he had a new flavor to test out.
I finished up at the first site and packed my gear up. I’d estimated about eight hours and was right on schedule. If I kept this pace, I’d be home around her bedtime, and maybe Trask would still be there.
15
Trask
“Ryleigh? You okay in there?” I stood outside the bathroom as the Santa Express chugged back toward Palmer City. It’d been about five minutes, and I was beginning to get a bad feeling.
“I’m okay!”
A few more minutes passed, and I knocked again. “Do you need help?”
“No! Um, yes! But—no! I need Mommy’s bag!”
Kami’s bag was about ten rows away. I sprinted for it and was back in record speed, despite the confused looks from my friends and other passengers.
“I have it. Can you open the door?”
The doorknob turned, and Ryleigh poked her head out, revealing just enough of herself to not reveal too much. The unmistakable aroma of number two wafted out. I looked past her into the tiny compartment.
Ryleigh stuck her hand out for the bag.
“Hold on a sec, sweetie.” I crouched down so I was eye level with her. “Do you need help?”
“Um.” She turned to look behind her, then hung her head. “My bum is super poopy. Mommy or Auntie Brenna or Daddy or my teacher always makes it clean.”
Good lord. “It’s okay, Ryleigh. Do you want me to get Natasha or Ava’s mommy to help you?”
Tears welled in her eyes, and she shook her head. “No. I’m almost four. They’ll think I’m a baby.” She sniffed.
“You’re not a baby, Ryleigh. But you’re stuck right now, right? You don’t know what to do?”
She nodded and hiccupped. “I’m the stuckest, Mr. Tiggerman.” Her woeful assessment made me want to fix every problem she ever had.
“It’s okay to ask for help, sweetheart. Just tell me who to get.”
She blinked at me. “Can you help me? Please?”
My heart cracked at her earnest plea. “I can’t go in there with you. Let me call your mommy, okay?
“Okay.”
I pulled out my phone and video-dialed Kami, hoping she was in a place that had good enough reception.
