Lia walked off and I shifted back to my room. I took a look at my mailbox, but there was still nothing to be seen of the announced parental email. Instead, a Ludmilla claimed that she was extremely sorry, but she had recorded me with my webcam during certain... activities, and if I would not meet her financial demands, she would send the videos to my employer. Hm. Employer also meant salary. So far I had not gotten one, I should probably sue my employer! Or sue Ludmilla to tell me who my employer was! If only I had one. And already deleted...

"Okay, Auntie knows. Bro, I brought you the overalls, you're welcome to them. It's not really my style."

"Well, you don't really have snowmobile riding clothes, so overalls are definitely better than regular jeans. There's more of the body covered and nothing can slip out that easily."

"Sounds logical, but then what about you? I mean, Aunt Paula told me that you want to go in to the snow with Alex, Micco and the twins."

"That's no problem, Alexandre still has a snowsuit from last year, it should fit me. And besides..."

Oops, I almost gave myself away now. But maybe I had already said too much, my sister already jumped at it.

Sigh. This is what I was afraid of. Lia was hearing everything. At least everything she wasn't supposed to hear. Was there actually something like a two-factor authentication for one's own mouth? That would be really useful sometimes. Double sigh. I guess I should try to get out of this self-made dilemma as best I c ould.

"And besides, through extreme personal effort, I saved your loved one from a tragic fate."

"Alexandre had already made firm plans to feed Pascal to his dog in the near future. In the interest of your happiness, I worked hard to dissuade him."

"Because your sweetheart told us about Alexandre's wild sow adventure. Including wet pants."

"It just slipped out of his mouth. And anyway, why does Alex actually know about it."

"Quite simply because it just slipped out of MY mouth. Including the wet pants."

"Well, if that's the case, then it was your damned duty to save Pascal. But what kind of extreme personal effort are you talking about?"

"I'll put on my skirt one last time, one very last time today when I go to Alex later."

Astonished and doubtful, my sister looked at me. Well, I was also surprised at myself.

"Ha! You know, I'm getting the impression that you actually quite like to put on That skirt! You're really taking every opportunity and every excuse not to get rid of it for good."

"Menno, that's not my fault! Alexandre said that the twins would like to see me like this. For real, not just in a photo. And then he demanded that I do it in return for sparing Pascal' s life. "

"Hmm, keep telling yourself that, little brother. But isn't it a little too cold for the skirt today?"

"Yes, Lia, it would be. If Auntie wouldn't drive me to Alex, and then someone would drive me back home later. For the outdoor happening, I'll put on Alexandre's old snowsuit. In the skirt I just have to shuttle from house door to car door."

"Well, you're lucky, otherwise Auntie certainly wouldn't have let you out the door like that."

"She's about to find out, because you should start getting dressed and report to her. Don't be late for your sweetheart."

Okay, I really didn't want to risk that! Every minute with Alexandre was precious and irreplaceable. I put on a blue turtleneck, considering the expected snowsuit a hoodie would not be practical. I turned to the closet to grab the next piece of clothing, but Lia had already beaten me to it and held it in front of me with a grin.

Menno! That was sheer envy talking! Well, considering the clothing preferences of my sister probably not, she just wanted to tease me again. I grabbed the skirt and slipped in. And once more I became a photo motif!

"Don't you have enough skirt photos of me yet? Are you going to start a whole collection or what?"

"Of course! After all, you're wearing something different in addition to the skirt every time, so that's proof that the photos weren't taken on just one occasion. T his is the third day in a row now, Lioline."

Okay, this time Lia had failed to get out of my range in time, and accordingly she cried out when my knuckles met the back of her head.

"And you're a naughty brat, so it balances out nicely. Don't take my picture, and you won't catch any more head shots from me."

I ran my right hand over my flat chest with a grin, and I had been nimble enough to dodge the sisterly slap that now followed.

Well, I guess I should be a little bit nicer for now, so I quickly went to my nightstand, took out the cookie box, and held it out to my sister as a peace offering.

"Here, poor girl, you may even take five. You still think that I don't know how to treat girls? "

"At least that's a start, Lio. There, now move on, you guys really need to get going."

I looked at the clock, crap, I really should hurry now. I stowed the box with the pitiful cookie remnants back in its place, then nodded to Lia.

"Hehe, I'm going to snuggle up really close to him like I said and hold on tight. Have fun with Alex and Micco. And the twins."

I waved at Lia one more time, then left my room and dashed downstairs, where Aunt Paula was already waiting for me in the kitchen.

I grabbed the aforementioned items, but didn't put them on just for the short walk to the car. We stepped out of the house, and I looked toward the sky in surprise.

In fact, not much new snow had hit there yet, so surely there was still a little time before we would have to start shoveling it. We got into the car and were on our way to Alexandre's house.

"Now tell me why you're walking around in a skirt again, Lio. I'm beginning to think you actually like wearing it, and I'm going to have to get you a few more. If I do it on the way home, it'll work out just in time to pass for Christmas presents."

I used the time it took to reach our destination to explain to my chauffeur why I was going pantsless again. This time I even managed to refrain from mentioning his wet accident when telling about Alex' s adventure with the wild sow, after all I was capable of learning. In the end, Aunt Paula was once again having a great time.

"It's very honorable of you to so selflessly save the life of your favorite sister's boyfriend! That ought to turn your skirt into a badge of honor, so to speak."

"A little less honor and a little less skirt at the same time would be just fine, Aunt Paula."

Of course, she immediately jumped on it and literally twisted my own words around in my mouth.

"Oh yeah? Just a little less? Let's see, you've had your skirt on for three days in a row now. What would 'just a little less' mean? Wearing a skirt only every other day? That would still mean you'd need at least one more to switch between them, Lio."

I decided that I could significantly thin out my list of Christmas gift recipients. Unfortunately, that came a little too late, for this year at least, but I would keep it in mind for next Christmas!

Not to everyone. I would stay away from Michelle, and even if an encounter could not be avoided, I would definitely not say a word to her. I unbuckled my seat belt and opened the car door.

"Yes I will, looks like Alexandre will have to take you home in the horse drawn sleigh later."

Hmm, did his family have something like that? That would be nice too, the Christmas Market sleigh ride had been cool, now with snowfall added to the mix it would be almost kitschy romantic.

I climbed out of the car, threw the door shut and made my way to the front door of Maison de LaGrange. Just as I brought my hand to the bell button, the door opened and a man I didn't yet know with curly black hair stood infront of me.

"Oui!", I replied, using most of the French I knew. I knew what a dwarf meant in French, but the man facing me bore no resemblance to such a small fellow, on the contrary, he was probably almost two meters tall. And was laughing at me now.

"Oh, Alexandre hadn't mentioned that you speak French. Come in, it is warm inside."

"I don't, except for a few words. Alex called Joël and Noël nains, so I know what nains means. And I know a swear word, which I prefer to refrain from using in the presence of adults."

"Ha, yes, that's probably better! I'm the father of the dwarfs, by the way, so you're welcome to call me 'Uncle Jacques'."

"Leave your jacket, cap and gloves down here, and please take off your shoes, too. Then you can go to Alex. Do you know where to go?"

"Okay, you need to go up the stairs then, to the second floor. Then to the right, Alexandre's room is at the very back of the house. Or you could just follow the noise of the twins."

"You're welcome. Oh, and That skirt suits you really great! I had not wanted to believe Alex before he showed me the picture, but really, here in the village an example of haute couture! Very beautiful! With this you could also score in Nice."

Great, soon I would be sent to the catwalks of the world! But being a polite young man, I thanked him for the compliment before Uncle Jacques disappeared and I made my way upstairs to Alexandre and then ains.

Surprisingly I didn't get any acoustic help in finding Alexandre's room, it was quiet in the house, but luckily Uncle Jacques had described the way so well that I found it without any problems. Once there, I knocked on the door, on which hung a large picture of Micco with an almost grinning, pointy-toothed open muzzle, along with the text 'If you can't run faster than me, you better be nice to me!' What a warning! Maybe I should have brought a few dozen doggy treats, but I didn't have any of those. Bummer. They were definitely going on the next shopping list!

Hopefully the dog had understood that I was invited! I opened the door and stepped into Alexandre's room.

Alex, who had been sitting in an armchair, jumped up and came sprinting to me, the next moment I had his lips on mine. Only briefly though, but still very welcome!

"Hi Lio! And yes, that's how you pronounce it, but don't spoil the twins, they're only supposed to speak German here."

"Since my French is extremely limited, you don't have to worry about then ains."

Alexandre laughed out loud and stepped back a bit, as the fiercely tail-wagging quadruped had just squeezed between us. He seemed to remember me and be in good spirits, as I noted with relief when I leaned down and scratched him behind the ears.

Smart furry guy! I straightened up again and looked to the doggie master, who was now holding a little curly head under each arm. The twins looked at me with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity. Amused, I looked at the pack of three. Alex in the middle wore dark gray tights with a cable knit pattern, along with a black t-shirt. Joël and Noël were more colorful, of course also in tights, but these were - funnily enough - pink, in addition there was a plethora of narrow stripes in all possible colors. Their long-sleeved t-shirts were white.

With that, Joël's curiosity was quenched for now, but his extremely identical brother immediately jumped into the breach.

"But Lio, why are you wearing the skirt again today? You had said that it was only because of your aunt. And then once because Alexandre wanted to see that again."

Oh, and Alex had told me that the twins really wanted to see me in the skirt in real life - but now they knew nothing? I jotted that down on my mental list of all the things I wanted to return the favor for when the opportunity arose.

"Your cousin was of the opinion that you would like to see me like this. Not just in a little photo on the iPad."

Now both dwarfs grinned and nodded vigorously. They also dared to come out from under the arms of their protector and wandered around me, thus looking at me from all sides. After they had circled me, I looked at them challengingly.

Strange, and I had thought that in their native France this would be a normal outfit for the sophisticated young man.

"Why not, Noël? It would look good on you too, and your dad said to me that I could easily fit in wearing that outfit in Nice. He even called it haute couture!"

Alexandre laughed out, then grabbed both twins and tickled them thoroughly, which they let him do without much resistance. The attack didn't last long anyway, after all, we still had something to do.

"Okay you two, go to your room and get dressed, we want to go out in the snow. Or would you rather stay at home? Micco is going out with us though."

And off they dashed, the dog on their heels, leaving Alex and me alone in his room. Unfortunately, we couldn't take advantage of this, as we also had things to do.

Nodding, I freed myself from my skirt, then took the inherited garment of the bed. It was a royal blue jumpsuit with white sleeves, color-wise it matched my boots and cap just fine. That it fit me also size-wise I noticed soon, when I had climbed into it and pulled up the zipper.

I looked over at Alexandre and realized that his new model was a two-piece one. He had already put on the overalls, but the jacket he probably wasn't going to add until he got to the front door. The pants came in a dark purple, while the jacket was as white as the sleeves of my suit.

That's exactly what we did, we left the room and marched downstairs, where the twins were already waiting for us, along with their four-legged protector. Joël and Noël were wearing bright red one-piece snow suits, with black boots peeking out from underneath on their feet.

Cheeky bunch! Alex, however, seemed to be used to it, just laughing as he put on his moon boots that just fit under the legs of his overalls. It was easier with my regular boots, and shortly after I was ready to face the winter too. I packed the cap on my head and tied the cords under my chin so that the earflaps were tight. I was sure I would still hear enough. Alex put on the balaclava again, while the identicals wore red stocking caps that only left their faces exposed. Micco didn't have to bother with any such things and was already prancing around behind the door in anticipation.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'll be fine with the snowballs Micco will drag into the house in his fur. Well then, have fun, and don't stay out too long. If you start to freeze you come straight home, got it? And Alex, watch out for the twins, at that age they 're the last to notice when they freeze."

Joël and Noël dashed off, dragged on by Micco, who jumped around them barking loudly. It would probably take both little boys to hold his leash!

"Just a quick heads up, Lio: this is how it's going to be all the time. Micco and the twins are worse than the Energizer Bunny on steroids."

"We're going to walk across the big pasture at the edge of the forest first, there's lots of space, Micco can romp around there and the dwarfs can build a snowman. And maybe we can too, or is that too childish for you?"

Too childish? Nah. As long as nobody posted a video of me doing that on Facebook or TikTok or wherever!

"Nope, it's not! I'm like your cousins, I think it would be great to experience a real winter for once. With snow. And snow. And some more snow!"

"Haha, well we really have more than enough of that! And it seems like there's another load coming down right now. C ome on, let's get going. Micco! To the pasture!"

The dog seemed to know exactly where to go, and effortlessly pulled his two anchor dwarfs along with him. At least the two of them slowed the woofer down a bit, allowing Alex and me to follow the trio at a more leisurely pace.

The way to the promised open space was not far, at home we would have had to take a bus to get to such a place. The twins had quite a time staying on their feet, Micco probably would have made a very good sled dog as well, as easily as he could pull the weight of the nains.

"Did your doggy save his strength all day to be able to outpower the dwarfs now?"

"Nope, the three of them have been playing and frolicking all morning. Will be interesting tonight to see who falls asleep first."

A little later we had arrived at the edge of the forest along with the associated pasture, where Alex let the dog off the leash, whereupon it immediately dashed off. And the twins also dashed off as if freed from a leash. Nevertheless, they had to do without their four-legged playmate for the time being, as Micco raced across the pasture in huge rounds.

I realized that the wintry disguise was a huge disadvantage: the name necklaces were no longer visible, making it completely impossible to tell the twins apart.

"I think I'll have to persuade Aunt Mireille to embroider their names on the snowsuits."

"Oh, shoot, that's right. I got it, we could get their names tattooed on their foreheads!"

"That would really be the safest solution, except I have my doubts that their parents would be okay with that."

"I'll do that! Just for fun, of course, but believe me, Aunt Mireille and Uncle Jacques have had their share of grief with mixing them up."

"Worse! One time one of them ran in front of a car while playing, and the driver just managed to swerve out of the way, but crashed into a tree and got hurt badly. And this after Uncle Jacques had already warned the twins several times. Well, his father first hugged the twin with relief because nothing had happened to him - and then put him over his knee. Later, at the pool at home, both twin's buttocks were gleaming red, the innocent twin had let himself get spanked by the guilty one. Out of solidarity, but also so that no one could tell them apart. But don't ask me which of the two was the culprit, as usual the two are keeping absolutely tight."

You could literally see it working behind the dwarfs ' foreheads, but then they seemed to accept that label.

Weren't they just trying to build a snowman a few minutes ago? Well, such a cold guy was probably less interesting than a hot-blooded herding dog.

Alex pulled a... um... a sausage of some textile material out of his jacket pocket, like 20cm long and bright green.

"His bringsel. A toy to play fetch with. It's better than a stick, if a stick splinters in the dog's mouth when he chews on it, the dog can hurt himself."

That sounded logical, and the next moment the thing flew through the air, and the dog chased after it, barking loudly. Behind this the twins followed, thus Alex and I had some peace from them again for a while.

In fact, there was only one snow globe lying around so far, this one, however, had turned out quite large considering the size of it's little creators.

"Well, we have to blame Micco, he is much more interesting than a snowman. What do you think, should we finish this one?"

Now while the dwarfs took turns chasing the dog through the snow, Alexandre and I finished building the snowman. We were so busy with that that we didn't really notice that the snowfall was getting thicker. When we were done, the snowman was standing taller than Alex! Unfortunately, some things were still missing.

Astonished, I looked at Alex, who now pulled out of the unfathomable pockets of his snowsuit first a carrot and then various smaller things. The carrot immediately landed in the middle of the snow face, for the eyes there were two black barbecue briquettes, and for the mouth Alexandre crumbled another barbecue briquette and placed the generated fragments in a grinning arc under the nose.

"Ha ha, no I'm not, they don't have matching tights to go with the uniform, just scratchy knee socks."

"Hehe. Seriously, no, there is a group around here, but when we moved here a few years ago, I had enough on my plate with myself and Micco, and I didn't want to make a commitment like that, you have to go to meetings and stuff regularly. Well, and now I'm in the rescue dog squad, so I hardly have time for any other hobbies."

Okay, that was understandable, and this work was, after all, extremely commendable.

"Yes, I do. Mostly we just train, but this fall our squad was searching for an old man who had gotten lost in the woods while looking for mushrooms. When he hadn't returned to the vacation home in the evening, his wife called the police, we were alerted and deployed the next morning as soon as it light ened up."

"Yeah, the ancient one didn't have any sense of direction, but had managed to build himself a little shelter for the night."

"Yes, he did. However, he had forgotten it in the vacation home, where it was of rather little use to him."

Cell phone forgotten, direction forgotten, I didn't even want to think about what kind of mushrooms the good man had collected! Ha, maybe his wife should be happy that the mushroom dinner was cancelled!

"That grandpas get lost? Yes. Grandmas, too. We have a retirement home in one of the neighboring towns, and it often happens that one of the old folks goes missing. But usually they're found before we have to be called."

"Hm, maybe they should be given smartphones and smartwatches. After all, some can even detect if the wearer has fallen and can automatically call for help."

"True, but especially at that age, only a few still manage to make friends with such 'newfangled stuff'."

I looked at my companion, who suddenly held his own smartphone in his hand - probably pulled out of another of his many snowsuit pockets. I did as I was told, and once again a photo was taken of me. Afterwards, Alex stood on the other side of the cold guy, held the phone far away from him with his arm outstretched, and snapped a selfie with all three of us.

"Now one more with the dwarfs, if they can tear themselves away from Micco for a moment."

However, it didn't come to the execution of this good idea, because before Alex could even call the twins to him, they already came running up shouting loudly.

What was happening now! The clarification however followed on the foot, or more correctly on the paw. On four paws! But not the paws of Micco!

Or rather the dog had found them. I looked at the black fuzz that was standing dutifully next to Micco and realized that he was wearing a strange harness. Alexandre seemed to recognize the dog immediately.

Ohhhkay... Then it probably wasn't a good sign that this guide dog here was walking through the snow completely without the one he had to guide!

"Lio, take Micco on his leash, I'll take Branko. Let's see if he'll lead us to his master. Twins, you stay nice and quiet with us now."

I grabbed the leash Alex held out to me, bent down to Micco and clipped the leash to his collar.

As if the dog understood exactly what was being asked of him, he set off with purpose. My boy friend let him lead, I followed at a distance of two meters with Alexandre's own dog, who had probably also noticed that the time for playing around was over for now, he walked quite demurely and without tugging at the leash next to me. On the left and on the right of us we had a twin each. The one on my dog-free right side hesitantly pushed his left hand into my right and looked at me delightedly when I did not push him away but took him firmly by the hand. On the other side, dwarf number 2 held on to Micco's collar. So we walked through the increasingly dense snow fall, which, together with the onset of dusk, slowly but surely made visibility worse. Hopefully we would find the blind boy quickly! And hopefully nothing serious had happened to him! How did I get the idea that the missing person was a boy and not an adult? Quite simply, Alex had only called him Elias, not Uncle Elias.

Now even the guide dog, who had been walking obediently until then, started to pull a little; he certainly wanted to get to his master. Alex let it happen, and our whole group speeded up a bit. A little later we arrived at the dark figure in the white snow, who was sitting on a boulder at the side of the path and the first thing he felt was the long red tongue of his dog in his face.

"Oh, hi Alex! Have they alerted the rescue dog squad already? I just fell a few minutes or so ago, didn't I?"

"Like I said, your dog found us, only because of him we found you. Why was he out all by himself anyway, and what happened to you?"

"I tripped over something and crashed. When I tried to get up, my foot hurt so much that I dropped right back down. Branko led me to the stone here, I more or less crawled over and sat down. Then I tried to get help with my cell phone, but it seems to be broken. Can you have a look at it, please, Alex?"

"Yeah, my hip hurts too, probably from that. Well, anyway, I realized I had a real problem. But then I heard a dog barking, and I figured that Branko could find it, and hopefully the people with the dog were smart enough to realize that someone needed help. Now that Micco was the barker was a lucky coincidence that I certainly won't complain about."

"Hehe, yes. So, now we should figure out how to get you out of this mess. You can't walk at all?"

Alex handed Elias his right hand and slowly pulled him upright by it. At first everything seemed to go well, but as soon as the blind boy put weight on his left foot, his face contorted in pain. By the way, boy. Elias seemed to be Alexandre's age, at least they were about the same height. Eli lowered himself back onto his stone.

Alexandre once again rummaged around in one of his snowsuit pockets, then brought out something that looked familiar. The little flashlight he'd gotten from Santa! He turned it on and pointed the bright LED light at the wounded foot as he knelt down in front of Elias.

"Don't be alarmed, I want to take a closer look at your foot, to see if anything is broken."

At first there wasn't much to see in the light of the flashlight, the boot totally obscured the foot.

"I'll try to get the boot off you. Tell me if it hurts too much. Lio, hold the light for me, please."

Carefully Alex opened the boot, which fortunately was only closed with zippers. Well, they were probably easier for a blind person to use than laces.

Tentatively, Alex pulled the boot off Eli's foot without causing any more sounds of pain, then set it down to carefully palpate the damaged foot. To my relief, there was no blood to be seen, nor were any pieces of bone spearing through the skin and sock.

"Doesn't look like a fracture at first glance, Eli. I'll move the foot gently, let me know if it hurts."

"Okay, all right. Seems sprained pretty bad to me, that can hurt more than a fracture. Let me pull your sock down and cool it with some snow for a minute. Not for long, just a minute or so."

"Sorry, Alex, I can understand you wanting to see me naked, but I can't do a striptease for you here."

"Alex, that's not a sock, it's a pair of tights, and they don't come off that easily."

"Oh. Hehe. That's right, can't do any cooling in that case, the snow would make the tights wet, and that wouldn't be good either. All right, grit your teeth again, I'll put your boot back on."

"Will do, but you better be really careful, you don't want to have Branko clench HIS teeth around YOUR arm."

A little later and without cries of pain or an attacking guide dog, the injured foot was booted again. Alex rose and looked down at Elias, pondering.

"Okay, now what's the best way to do this. I could use my cell phone to call for help, but that would take a while, and it's starting to snow more and more, and it's getting dark fast now. D o you think you can walk if you can lean on me? Only as far as my place, which is much closer than your house."

Elias chuckled despite his pain at the dwar f en protests, then allowed himself to be pulled back up again, leaning on Alex, and our procession began to move very slowly. Hm, this way it would take us quite a while to reach Alexandre's home, but at least this way of moving seemed to be bearable for Elias. His dog walked obediently by my side, even though he periodically looked around for his master. Micco, too, behaved well and did not overpower his twin leash holders for a change.

We were walking in silence for a few minutes, it seemed to be quite exhausting for both Elias and Alex. It was actually getting darker very quickly now, and soon my boy friend was using his flashlight to light the path in front of him. It would be pretty stupid if both of them were to crash right now.

Hehe, I liked this guy, he could joke about himself too. Or maybe it was just gallows humor.

"Lio, please check if that door is open. If it is, we can cut across the garage yard, it'll save us at least three hundred meters."

I turned with Branko towards the door, sent a short prayer to heaven and pressed down the handle. Sure enough, the door opened! Still, there was something else to sort out.

"Shine the light inside and see what the snow situation is like. Not that you'll have to trudge through deep snow with Elias."

Alex carefully led Elias to the door and then let the beam of his flashlight wander across the garage yard ground. What we got to see was a nice surprise.

That's what it actually looked like, and we were able to take the shortcut. I was still interested in one thing, though.

"Hehe, that's right. There was actually just a fence here, but some of the garage owners didn't always want to take a detour, so they put in a door. The actual driveway is on the other side."

"I'm sure it is, they have an electric gate. But there's a contact plate on the inside that opens the gate automatically. It's supposed to respond only to cars, but it's enough to bounce around on it a bit to trigger the opening."

Alex, however, just kept giggling, the twins, on the other hand, immediately jumped into the breach.

"That's okay, I don't need a break. But what about you? You're the one half carrying me through the snow all the time."

"Thanks for asking, but I can handle it. It's not like I'm a dwarf like Joël and Noël."

Joking like this, we slowly wandered across the garage yard and were indeed soon standing in front of a large gate. Alexandre pointed the beam of his flashlight at a spot about 2 meters in front of it.

"Okay you two, give it a try. If possible, jump at the same time. And most importantly, land at the same time."

The twins rushed to the indicated spot and started jumping around violently. However, they lacked coordination, actually strange especially with twins, and nothing happened with the gate. Even the fact that Micco was prancing around them, probably wondering about the strange behavior of his leash holders, did not help.

"It doesn't really look like it from here. Come on, try again, if that doesn't work, Lio will have to jump in."

Ah yes, jump in in the literal sense, hehe. The twins pulled themselves together and actually managed to hop almost in sync - but it didn't seem to be good enough for the gate yet, it didn't open. Sighing, I made my way to the jumping spot, but suddenly the gate squeaked and slowly slid to the side.

"We all got that. Come on Eli, we have two minutes before the gate closes again."

Then I guess we really should hurry up a bit, who knows if the gate would let itself be outwitted by the gaggle of dwarfs again.

Soon we had left the garage yard, and now I could already make out the house of Alexandre's family. The fact that we were now in the area of the street lights helped a lot, even if the visibility was still limited by the heavy snowfall. It looked like 15-20cm of new snow had come down in the last two or three hours, and it didn't seem like the snowing was going to stop anytime soon.

A few minutes later we had reached our destination, the twins had rushed ahead and rung the front doorbell, so when the casualty and his human walker arrived, the front door was already open and the in-house uncle doctor was waiting for us. How fortunate that he wasn't on duty at the hospital right now!

"Dad, can you help me, Elias kind of twisted his ankle badly and can't walk by himself."

Uncle François changed places with his son and led Eli into the house. There, Alexandre's grandparents were already waiting to take the dogs off our hands, both of which needed some de-icing and de-snowing. Dogs with long fur in the snow, they almost bring their own body weight in snow from the walk into the house!

Aunt Ilona dashed off while Uncle Rolf threw a big bath towel over Micco. Dog number 2 had sat down dutifully and was waiting for things to come. Meanwhile, Alex, the twins and I were already busy getting rid of our boots. Alexandre's father had set Elias down on the shoe bench and was now crouching in front of him.

"Hello Elias, you know I am a doctor. I'm going to take your boots off now, first the one from the uninjured foot. On the right, correct?"

That was quickly done, then the good doctor turned his attention to the wounded hoof.

"Okay, now the other boot. I'll do it as carefully as I can. Oh yes, 'Uncle François' is formal enough, or should I address you as Mr. Schlender?"

Elias laughed, probably forgetting his pain for a moment, which his medic took advantage of to relieve him of his left boot.

And already the boot was off and Alexandre's father eyed the foot that had come to light.

"Dad, I already looked at the foot, there was no blood and there were no bones poking through the skin."

"Very good. Did you possibly cool it down a little with snow? The foot feels warm and is also a little swollen."

Both Alex and Elias chuckled softly, then Branko's master enlightened his attending physician.

"Alex wanted to do it, but failed because he couldn't get all my clothes off out in the snow. I'm wearing tights."

"Ah yes, I would have been surprised if my son hadn't thought that far ahead. Look, we'll take your jacket off now, then I'll take you into the living room and lay you down on the couch. But then you won't be able to avoid dropping your clothes."

"Alex introduced you as his friend, and I'm starting to get the feeling that this is more than a simple friendship."

"Hehe, you don't have to because of me, I'm into girls, and only girls. You'll have to keep your Alex under control yourself though."

"I'm not that bad! And even if I look at pretty boys once in a while, only you are my boy friend, Lio."

During this conversation, both Elias and Alex had gotten rid of their jackets, the twins and I didn't have it quite as easy because of our one-piece snowsuits.

"Dad, can we leave you alone with Elias for a minute? We need to get out of these warm clothes."

"Yes, do that. But it would be good if you and Lio came right back down afterwards, I could possibly use some help. And I'm sure Elias would like to have a friend around."

"No problem, let my son-in-law help you now and don't worry about Branko. He even has a playmate here."

The doctor pulled his patient upright and led him to the living room, the dwarfs, Alex and I dashed upstairs to get out of our warm clothes.

"Dwarfs, take off your snowsuits and put them in the bathroom, I'll hang them up to dry."

The twins giggled, and while one gave his big cousin the famous finger as he marched off, the other quickly saluted him.

I nodded as I sat down on his bed to comfortably step out of the one-piece snowsuit without risk of falling.

"Well, not very wet, but a little. I didn't roll around in the snow with the twins and Micco, but just because of the constant snowfall, it couldn't stay completely dry. Not to mention the snowman building."

"Maybe you should hang Micco and Branko over the line then, too? I'm sure they got really wet from all that running around in the snow."

"Haha, I'll have to suggest that to my folks, it's really always a problem with Micco in the winter. Especially when someone comes home with him and there's no one else there to catch the dog and dry him off. I usually put one foot on the leash and hope Micco is tired enough to not take me down."

I could vividly imagine that! In my mind's eye I saw Alex, balancing one leg on the leash while lifting the other to take off a shoe. Now that would make for a fun video!

I looked at Alex, who was walking around in just a t-shirt and tights, and shook my head.

"If you're going to walk around here like that then I can do that, too. I won't put the skirt on until it's time to go home."

With these words we left Alexandre's room and went to the bathroom, where we found no twins, but their snowsuits. Alex pulled an inconspicuous handle on a strange device hanging on the wall, and the next moment several clotheslines, or rather laundry rods, appeared.

I did what he had asked of me, and a little later our gathered snowsuits were hanging over the bars of the clothes dryer, for as such I had by now recognized the device on the wall. Alex looked at the laundry, then nodded.

"Yes, blower. Didn't you wonder about the rods being so thick and having holes in them? There's warm air coming out of them, and the suits will be really nice and dry again soon."

We left the bathroom and Alexandre went to another room door, which he opened after a quick knock. He stuck his head into the room and then shook it.

"They're probably downstairs already. We'd better go down, too, and make sure they don't get on Dad's and Elias's nerves."

That was probably a really good idea, so we made our way down the stairs. Even from a distance we heard loud laughter mixed with the barking of two dogs. The noise s didn't come from the living room, though, which was a good sign. We followed the barking into the large kitchen, where Joël and Noël were rolling around on the floor with both dogs, half-wrapped in several large bath towels. The fun, i.e. playing with the dogs, was combined with the useful, i.e. drying them. Neither the two- nor the four-legged guys noticed us, only Alexandre's grandmother smiled at us and pointed wordlessly in the direction of the living room. Following this finger pointing, we reported to the family doctor and his patient shortly after.

"Alexandre, please run upstairs again quickly and get a pair of pants and socks for Elias. Preferably loose sweatpants."

Alex glanced at the patient, then, grinning, obeyed his old man's command. I, too, looked at Eli and found him lying on the couch in just a T-shirt and boxer briefs. And the blind teenager was anything but ugly! But the doctor had a job for me, too.

"Lio, please take Eli's overalls and hang them up in the bathroom, his and Alex's jackets are already there."

Hmm, I hadn't seen them there at all, but Uncle François recognized my astonishment and specified his request.

Okay, that settled that, and I set off with the black overalls. The downstairs bathroom was quickly found, and it had the same clothes dryer as the upstairs one. In fact, there were already two jackets hanging on it, one of them the same black as Eli's pants, with bright red contrasting elements. I hung up the garment, made sure it was well blown through, then headed back to the living room, where shortly after me Alex reappeared.

"Not today, young man, we should be careful not to add to your injured foot. So do what I tell you, I'm a doctor!"

The scolded boy swallowed briefly, then nodded. He of course couldn't see that Alexandre's father had looked anything but angry.

"I believe you, and that's a good thing to do. But right now you're in special circumstances. So swallow your pride for now and let us help you, agreed?"

It wasn't long before Elias was back in long pants, and his uninjured foot also had a sock on it. The other one, however, was still naked and now looked quite swollen.

"You get the task of cooling Eli's foot. Your grandpa will bring a cooling compress in a minute, and you'll make sure it gets to the right place and stays there."

No sooner had he said that and Grandpa Santa Claus showed up to hand his grandson a cooling pack and two small towels. Papa Doctor gave the exact instructions.

"Watch out, Elias, I'm going to move you a little bit so I can put your foot up. Tell me if I hurt you."

Uncle François turned Elias a little so that he was now lying lengthwise on the couch, then he lifted the leg with the injured foot.

I dashed to the couch and complied, whereupon the doctor slowly lowered the foot and then turned to his son.

"Here, Alex. First a towel, then the cooling compress, then fix it with the second towel."

Alex followed the instructions to the point, then looked questioningly at his father.

"I think so. Elias, how is it, too cold? I want it to be nice and cool, but I don't want you to get frostbite either."

Ah yes, that's probably why the cooling compress didn't go directly on the skin.

"Hmm... A phone! I need to call home and let my folks know what happened and where I am."

Alex dashed off again, he was kept busy, hehe. Eli, however, still had something on his mind.

"He was busy rolling around on the floor with Micco and the twins just now. I don't think you need to worry about him."

"It's a Labradoodle, Lio, a cross between a Large Poodle and a Labrador. Hard working like a Labrador, smart like a Poodle. And most importantly, not as greedy on food as a Labrador!"

Ha, yes, I had heard about that! A neighbor at home had a Labrador and was constantly in panic because his dog ate everything that seemed even remotely suitable for him to eat. And some things that weren't suitable at all!

While Elias now began dialing, Alexandre and I settled into a two-seater, Uncle François meanwhile left the living room.

"Yes, this is the number of Alexandre's landline phone, my cell phone is history."

"Yeah, I really fell down. Tripped over something Branko didn't see, it's no wonder with all the snow, he isn't to blame. "

"I'm okay, just sprained my left foot. Alex and his snow gang helped me, and now I'm at his house. Doctor LaGrange took a look at my foot and prescribed cooling and resting for now."

"Hehe, good. Listen, I have to get home somehow, can you get in the car and pick me up? I don't want to put this job on my rescuers too."

Elias turned his head in our direction, no idea how he knew where we were sitting. Well, maybe his hearing was so acute that he had overheard our cuddling.

"Okay, Pops, I'm back. Alex just went to get his dad real quick, then I'll see if I can switch the phone to loud speaker mode."

Hm, it seemed that Eli's father had something important to announce! Luckily Uncle François was already coming back into the living room, so I didn't have to wait for long.

"No, Uncle François, but I got my pops on the line and was going to ask him to come get me, and he said something you should hear too. Can the phone be put on speaker?"

Alexandre's father stepped over to the couch and took the phone from Elias' hand.

"Ah, good afternoon. Well, how good it is, I'm not so sure. First of all, thank you so much for helping Eli. Why don't you pass that on to Alex and his 'posse' as well?"

"That goes without saying. Alex and his friend Lio are also in the room listening in, by the way."

"Great, then thanks to you too, Alex and Lio. Okay, back to the problem. Elias has asked me to get in the car and take him home. I'd like to do that, but have you looked out of a window lately?"

Promptly, everyone except the foot-sick boy moved to the nearest window and looked out. Where it was snowing. And storming. Wow. It had built up to a real blizzard, you could just see the closest streetlight, the light from that was just enough to see that you couldn't see a thing because of all the snow. In any case, the road was a single white expanse, and snowdrifts were hard at work piling up to unimaginable heights at all the smaller and larger obstacles.

At that very moment Alexandre's grandpa came marching into the living room at a quick pace, and all eyes turned to him.

"François, a message just came in on your cell phone, you should see it right away."

He pushed said device into his son-in-law's hand, who looked at it, then sighed and turned to his son.

"Alexandre, the Emergency Control Center just went on standby alarm. You better check and see if your dog squad is meant too."

"Mr. Schlender, you probably overheard that, but I see what you mean now. In this weather it would be irresponsible to send anyone out on the street."

"Yes, that's what I thought, too. While I am reluctant to have Elias be any more of a burden to you r family, would it be possible for him to spend the night with you? Then in the morning we can see how the situation has developed."

"Of course, we have a full house anyways, we won't even notice one more guest. And his dog is also taken care of, Alex has Micco, so enough dog food is also available."

Alexandre, who had already come scurrying back, had overheard what it was all about and now spoke up as well.

"I guess that was Alexandre now. Thank you all so much, it's a huge weight off my mind. I do have an SUV, but the only thing I would venture out with in this weather would be a tracked vehicle."

"Don't worry about that, Mr. Schlender, we will take good care of your son. With a little luck, you'll have him home safe and sound by Christmas Eve tomorrow."

"Always on the little ones! Say hi to mom for me - and behave yourself with her while I'm not home."

Eli's father laughed through the phone, then wished us all good evening before saying goodbye. After Uncle François turned off the phone, he looked to me, and I already suspected what was about to come.

"Lio, we should call your aunt now, I'm afraid you're stuck here for now too. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, definitely better than anyone having to take a risk just to get me home."

"Hehe, I definitely won't! And my clothes should fit my little one reasonably well, too."

"Very well, then everything is settled for now, we'll talk about the sleeping arrangements later. Do you have your aunt's number memorized, we should call her soon, not that she's on her way here already."

That really wouldn't be good, she would have enough to do with calming down my twin sister. Oh man, Lia was on that snowmobile trip with Pascal! Hopefully there were no problems for them!

I was about to get up to get the device, but Alexandre, sitting next to me again, stopped me.

This surprised me a bit, but when he handed me his iPhone with the number already activated, I grabbed it without further questions and started the connection. I didn't have to wait long before Auntie answered.

"I'm calling on Alexandre's cell phone, we're in his family's living room, and mine is upstairs in his room."

"Ah, good, I guess that means you guys are safe in the house, I was starting to get worried."

"Yes, we've been back for a while. Auntie, Mr. LaGrange would like to speak with you, let me give him the phone."

I passed the phone, and in the next two or three minutes the scenario that had already played out between Uncle François and Elias' father was repeated. No, it really didn't pose a problem that I would be spending the night with the LaGranges and Heinrichs, I wouldn't have to starve either. And so on and on and on....

"Lio, it's all arranged with Mr. LaGrange, you'll stay there overnight. We'll know more in the morning. And you behave properly, please, don't disgrace me!"

"Don't worry, Auntie, you can count on me. But something else, what about Lia? Is she still on the road too?"

"No, Pascal cut the tour short in time and dropped her off here fifteen minutes ago. Now your sister is waiting for him to call when he gets home safely."

"Well, with a snowmobile he should still be able to get through reasonably easily. Will you say hi to Lia for me, please? And tell her not to mess with my cookie box?"

Aunt Paula laughed and promised me she would do so, then we said goodbye to each other and I ended the call.

So it was settled that Alexandre's family's house would become emergency quarters for stranded teenagers plus a four-legged companion. On the one hand this sounded quite funny, on the other hand tomorrow was Christmas! And with the prevailing snowstorm, I had my doubts that the drama would be over within 24 hours. Well, I couldn't change anything about it anyway, so I should probably try to make the best of it. And at least I would be able to spend more time with my boy friend than I had hoped for! Hm. Even the night. But I didn't want to think about that for the time being. And just at that moment Alexandre's grandmother came into the living room with a full tray, accompanied by the twins and both dogs.

"I have Christmas tea and cookies, I think we can all use a little strengthening and warming now."

This was really a good idea, and a little later everyone had found a cozy spot and was munching on the good stuff. Joël and Noël had squeezed into an armchair and let Micco warm their feet, while Eli's guide dog sat in front of his master, resting his head on the couch and enjoying Elias' petting. There were also enough chairs for the adults, only Michelle was missing - and was probably not really missed by anyone.

A few minutes later, food and drink were mostly consumed and we all felt much better. This was apparently the sign for Uncle François to start the planning phase for the coming night.

"Good. Now we need to figure out how we're going to do this tonight with the sleeping."

"You should probably ask Alexandre and Elias about that, after all, those are their dogs."

"Micco likes the dwarfs, so that wouldn't be a problem. But I would think that Elias needs his dog."

The boy who continued to lie sprawled on the couch with his limp foot up, shook his head as best as he could while lying down.

"That's not a problem, I don't need Branko at night. If he wants to spend the night with the boys and Micco, he's welcome to do that. But if he wants to stay with me, please bring him to me."

After the twins jubilantly promised that, their uncle took over the conversation again.

"Well, now that that's settled, we still need to decide where Lio and Elias will sleep."

"François, I don't think Elias should be left alone. The house here is completely foreign to him, and he will probably need some help. So no offense to your desire for independence, Elias, but what do you think?"

"Yes, that would be better. I don't want to be a burden to anyone, but I'm really going to need help. Especially since I can't walk around right now and get to know the house by doing that."

Oh yeah, I hadn't thought that far ahead. Things as simple as going to the bathroom would be hard for Elias. He could only walk in pain and with assistance, and to make matters worse, he couldn't see where he was going.

"Lio and Eli can sleep in my room. I have a wide bed and a couch that can also be turned into a bed. That way Eli would always have someone to help him if needed."

"That's not a problem Lio. Aside from the fact that I would carry him up if I had to, we also have a small elevator in the back of the house."

Oh! Okay, I trusted Alexandre's father to carry Elias, who was probably not overly heavy, but there was even an elevator here? Astonished, I looked at Uncle François, who hurried to provide clarification.

"Lio, we want to grow old here in this house, and not have to move just when we need a quiet home the most because we can no longer manage to get around in the house. That's why we had a small elevator put in, big enough for two people or even one person in a wheelchair."

Wow, that's what I call planning for the future! And when I thought about Auntie's house, I realized that she would probably need a stair lift at some point. That c ould certainly wait for many years, but it just showed how far into the future Alexandre's grandparents had thought.

And again it became apparent that this one not only had a sense of humor but also had no inhibitions about using it.

"Yes, bearable. I don't suppose you'll be ready to start jumping each others bones in the night and keep me from sleeping that early in your relationship."

Uncle François snorted a sip of now-cold tea across the table, while Alexandre's head turned so red that it would certainly have been unrecognizable against the dwarfs' snowsuits. To be honest my face suddenly felt very hot, too. One thing, however, Elias had probably not considered.

That probably settled the question of whether the dwarfs had been enlightened yet. Someone else, however, had a new question.

"Ah, okay, thanks. So like I said, if I'm not a burden to either of them, I'll be happy to sleep on Alexandre's couch."

"Very well, that's settled then. However, I suggest you don't move upstairs until after dinner, that way we won't have to bring the food stuff up there."

"There's no way to totally avoid that, Elias, but this is an exceptional situation now. So please don't suffer from unnecessary pride, if you need help with anything, let someone know. No one will hold it against you."

"Good, and while we're on the subject of help: Alex, make sure Elias gets a new cooling compress, please. There are two left in the top freezer, so replace the one on his foot please, it shouldn't have much cooling effect left by now."

Alex escaped from my arms and dashed off towards the kitchen, while his father turned to Elias once more.

"Okay, but for the night I'll give you something, maybe a light sleeping pill. Not that you'll go up the wall in pain if you make a wrong move in your sleep."

At that moment, Alex reappeared as well and replaced the cooling compress. My wandering gaze lingered on his cell phone on the coffee table, and something occurred to me.

"I'm going upstairs real quick and grab my phone in case my aunt calls again. Or Lia."

"That's a good idea, Lio. I guess we should also prepare for the possibility that the power might go out. Ilona, can you get some candles ready? I'll take care of flashlights. Everyone walking through the house should always have one with them from now on, just in case it suddenly goes pitch black in the middle of the stairs."

Ouch, I hadn't even thought of that possibility! And the telephone, Internet and cell phone network could also fail! That would make being snowed in a lot more romantic - but also a lot less practical.

I got up, and before I left the living room, Alexandre's grandpa handed me a flashlight.

I did as I was told, and a glare of light bathed the floor in front of me in glistening white.

I nodded and walked upstairs. In my friend's room, I found the cell phone I had put on the desk after the snowyouting. When I lifted it, the display activated, and after I unlocked it I realized that in the meantime I had received a message from my sister.

Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.^* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.

[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]

^* Some browsers may require a right click instead

Lio

by Peter Conrad

Chapter 5