“Don’t you want something for yourself?” asked Ruthie.

“Not really. Besides,” Lucy said, brightening, “if we eat out, I won’t have to cook and clean up!”

There was a sudden burst of activity as calls began coming in and the women were kept busy taking orders. Around eleven-thirty the calls finally slowed down, and Lucy found herself nodding off.

“Gosh, if things don’t pick up a little, I’m going to fall asleep.” She yawned. “I’ll never last until one.”

“Why don’t you take a break and get a cup of coffee?” Beverly suggested.

“Oh, no. If I have coffee now, I won’t be able to sleep later. Maybe I’ll just walk around a bit and get some fresh air. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

Lucy took off her headset and made her way past the other operators in the phone room, out to the corridor. Walking slowly, stretching her arms and legs as she went, she passed the rest rooms and the break room with its coffee and snack machines. She pushed open the fire door to the outside. It had begun to snow, and the cars in the parking lot were shrouded with one or two inches of soft powder. Lucy took a deep breath of the clean, cold air and watched the flakes falling in the light of the lamps that lit the parking lot. They were large and coming down heavily; the town could get a lot of snow if it kept up all night.

Oh, no, thought Lucy. Not a snow day. A snow day meant that all three children would be home; even the nursery school Sara attended three mornings a week would be closed. She had so much to do to get ready for Christmas that she couldn’t afford a snow day.

Lucy sighed and stepped back into the warm building. As the door closed it occurred to her that something wasn’t quite right outside. She thought she heard a squawk like a duck quacking. But ducks don’t quack at night, especially in December. Perhaps it was a laggard goose making a late migration south, or a dog barking. She opened the door for another look and realized she could hear an engine running. The cars were all mounded with snow, yet the hum of a motor broke the silence. This wasn’t right, and if something wasn’t right, Lucy had to get to the bottom of it.

Lucy took a wooden coat hanger from the rack near the door, wedged it between the door and the jamb, and went out to investigate. It wasn’t very cold, and Lucy was comfortable enough in her jeans and wool sweater. Her high-top Reebok athletics left small prints filled with circles in the fresh snow.