The Last Patch of Snow

Grace trudged off the plane in Phoenix, Arizona. Her stomach twisted into knots as she pulled her suitcase along.

How could her mom send her here, to visit a cousin she hadn’t seen in years, just so she could go camping with her new boyfriend, Bryce? It’s true that Grace had refused to join them. The last thing she wanted was to spend the beginning of summer vacation with someone who wasn’t her dad. Going camping with them would have made the divorce feel all the more real. No, thank you.

Which was why Grace was in Arizona instead of back home in Minnesota . . . to spend two weeks with her cousin Harmony. A cousin she hadn’t seen since they were in first grade, when they traded unicorn stickers and played with glitter. She had not even talked to Harmony much since then. What if they’d grown up to be completely different people?

Harmony and her parents, Aunt Kelly and Uncle Jeff, were waiting for Grace in the airport lobby. Grace recognized them from pictures. But even without the pictures, she would’ve found them because they were holding a big poster that shouted “Welcome to AZ, Grace!” in huge glittery letters. Did they think Grace was still 6 years old? And wait . . . was that a unicorn on Harmony’s shirt? 

Forcing a smile, Grace walked slowly toward them. Harmony dropped the sign and ran up to hug Grace. “I’m so excited you’re here!” she squealed. “We’re going to have so much fun!” 

Grace had her doubts. 

As they stepped through the airport doors, Grace felt a wave of heat so intense it burned her skin. She could barely breathe. 

“Wow, it’s so hot,” she gasped.

“Don’t worry, Grace. It’s dry heat,” Uncle Jeff joked. 

“This is nothing,” said Aunt Kelly. “It gets even worse in July.”

Grace felt sick. And hot. And sad. She missed her mom already. Then she thought of Bryce and grimaced. She wondered if they were having a fun time on the camping trip without her. She hoped not.

That’s when her phone dinged. It was a text from her mom. 

Hi, sweetie! Aunt Kelly said they just picked you up. I hope you have a great time!

Grace didn’t reply.

When they finally reached the house, Grace followed Harmony into the blissful cool of her air-conditioned room. She unpacked her suitcase and then sat on the bed. She spotted something on a chair in the corner. Was that a puppet? A puppet that looked just like . . . Harmony? Weird.

“You like puppets, huh?” Grace side-eyed Harmony.

Harmony laughed and picked up the puppet. “I’m into ventriloquism.” Then she slipped her hand into the puppet’s head. “Hi, Grace,” Harmony made the puppet say in a high voice, without moving her own lips. “My name is Melody. We’re so happy you’re here!”

Grace raised an eyebrow. “Why does the puppet look like you?”

“You mean Melody?” 

Grace frowned. “Yeah, why does Melody look like you?”

“Because Harmony’s parents had me custom-made,” said Harmony. Or Melody. Or whatever. 

Harmony was pretty good at making it seem like the puppet was really talking, but still . . . this was very strange.

“You don’t like puppets, huh?” Harmony asked, gently placing the puppet back down on the chair.

Grace shook her head. Not since I was 3, she thought.

“Well, you haven’t said much since you got here. What do you like?”

Grace thought for a minute. “I love snow. My parents used to take me sledding.” Before the divorce, she added silently. Would she get to go sledding with Mom and Bryce this winter? Did Bryce like sledding? Well, even if he did, it wouldn’t be as much fun as sledding with her dad. Grace took a deep breath to shoo all those thoughts away. 

“My mom and I love to make snow cones from the snow,” she added. “Something you could never do in a place this hot.”

“We do have snow here in Arizona,” said Harmony. “I haven’t sledded much, but if you love sledding, then we could do that tomorrow.”

Grace stared at her cousin, then at the driveway shimmering in the heat outside the window. Was Harmony completely bananas? 

“Right,” Grace said carefully. “Let’s go sledding tomorrow.” 

Grace would be sure to sleep with one eye open tonight.

The next morning, Harmony woke Grace up early. “Road trip!” Harmony announced. 

Grace rubbed her sleepy eyes. “Where are we going?” 

“Sledding!” Harmony jumped on the bed.

Aunt Kelly leaned her head in the doorway. “We’re going to find the last patch of snow in Arizona,” she said. 

Grace didn’t find this joke very funny. What had she gotten herself into by refusing to go on the camping trip with her mom and Bryce?

But Aunt Kelly and Uncle Jeff were already busy packing up a picnic and putting hats, gloves, jackets, a small cooler, and a plastic sled in the car’s trunk. 

Grace watched and sweated in the blazing desert heat. What was going on?

Shortly after they piled into the car, Grace’s phone dinged. It was another message from her mom—a photo of her and Bryce smiling as they held a long, speckled silver trout in their hands. 

Look what we caught! The text read.

“What’s the matter?” Harmony asked. “You look upset.”

Grace swallowed. “They seem like they’re having a great time,”
she said, showing Harmony the photo.

“Why didn’t you go with them?” Harmony asked.

Grace shrugged. “I didn’t want to go with Bryce.”

“What’s wrong with him?”  

“Oh, he’s just . . . he’s not . . .” Grace didn’t know what to say. 

What was wrong with Bryce? He tried too hard to make her laugh. He sang along to the radio when he didn’t know the words. The only shirts he wore were plaid. 

She sighed. “He’s really into camping and fishing. My mom never did those things before.”

“Maybe it’s fun for her to try something new,” Aunt Kelly said. 

Grace stared back down at the photo. Her mom did look happy.

Happier than Grace had seen her in a long time.

“He’s really different from my dad,” she said finally.

Aunt Kelly nodded. “I bet that’s hard,” she said. “But hard for Bryce too! He knows how close you and your mom are. He’s probably dying for you to like him.”

Grace kept looking at the photo, but now her eyes were fixed on Bryce’s wide, eager grin.

“He has a nice smile,” Harmony said. “And that’s a really big fish they caught.” She leaned forward and opened the car window.

Strange. The air felt cooler. Much cooler. 

“Where are we?” Grace asked. 

“About 2,000 feet higher,” said Uncle Jeff. “And another 8,000 to go.”

“It doesn’t look like the desert here,” said Grace. She was still skeptical about the snow, but the landscape had definitely changed. It wasn’t at all what she expected. The cactuses were gone. The sand had changed to grass. 

“Just wait,” Harmony told her, with a little secret smile. “We’re driving up Arizona’s tallest mountain, Humphreys Peak.”

Grace watched the landscape slowly turn from grasslands to red mountains, to towering canyon walls, to pine trees. She opened her window and closed her eyes. Breathing in the cool air reminded her of Minnesota.

For a while, the car zigzagged, climbing higher and higher. Finally, Uncle Jeff parked in a dirt parking lot. “We have to hike from here,”
he said.

Grace got out of the car and couldn’t believe it. It was so chilly she started shivering. She looked at Harmony, who was grinning and holding out a winter jacket for her. 

“Thank you,” Grace said softly, slipping the warm jacket over her goosebumps. 

The four of them hiked up a narrow dirt trail, and as they went, Grace slipped on a winter hat. Then gloves. Then a scarf. 

Suddenly, Uncle Jeff stopped. “There it is,” he whispered, pointing a finger at something in the distance. 

Grace couldn’t believe it. There it really was—snow. White, soft, and sparkling in the sunshine. In Arizona. In summer. 

In their excitement, the four of them ran up the trail until they reached the shaded patch. It was only about 5 feet wide and 10 feet long, not much bigger than a parking spot. They threw snowballs. They lay on their backs and made snow angels. Grace and Harmony each built a small snowman, and when Harmony did her ventriloquism thing to make hers talk, Grace laughed and tried to make her snowman talk too, without moving her lips. It was harder than she thought. She decided that ventriloquism wasn’t so dorky after all.  

And of course, they sledded. They couldn’t sled very far or very fast, but it didn’t matter. They had a blast.

Just as they were getting ready to leave, Grace’s phone dinged again. She looked down at the picture of her mom and Bryce. They were sitting near a lake and had written in the sand, “We miss you, Grace.”

Grace turned back to the strip of snow. She found a smooth patch and wrote with her gloved finger, “I miss you, Mom.” 

She looked at the photo again, hesitating. Then she added, “and Bryce.”

She took a picture of it and, before she could change her mind, she sent it.

Harmony smiled at her. “They’ll like that,” she said.

“Time to go!” Aunt Kelly called. 

Uncle Jeff scooped snow into the cooler, and they hiked back to the car. On the way home, Grace said, “Arizona is really different from what I expected.” 

“Is that bad?” Harmony asked. 

Grace smiled. “No. Actually, it’s really good.”

When they got home, Aunt Kelly spooned snow into glasses, and they poured rainbow syrup on top. Grace and Harmony took their snow cones outside and sat on the porch together. They laughed as rainbow juices ran down their hands and chins. 

“That was fun,” Harmony said.  

Grace turned to her. “Maybe you could teach me some ventriloquism tricks tomorrow.” 

Harmony grinned. “Sure!”

Just then Grace’s phone dinged again.

It was her mom. I love that picture. Bryce does too. But where are you? That must be the last patch of snow in all of Arizona!

Grace showed Harmony the message and they both smiled.