Chapter 5 - The Freeze Deepens
By the time Friday evening arrived, western Michigan was trapped under an Arctic air mass that broke forty-year temperature records. The wind coming off Lake Michigan drove the wind chill down to twenty-five below zero, turning the snow drifts into concrete-hard waves of ice that buried driveways and bent pine branches until they shattered.
Inside the Mitchell lake house, the catastrophe had transitioned from financial to physical.
The propane tank in the backyard had run completely dry at three o'clock that morning.
Without the central furnace running, the vast, open-concept timber frame house acted like a giant refrigerator. The temperature in the main living quarters had plummeted to thirty-four degrees. Frost was actively forming on the interior brass doorknobs, and a delicate, deadly pattern of white ice crystals was creeping across the edges of the hardwood floors.
Thomas sat huddled on the sofa, buried beneath three heavy wool blankets and his shearling coat, his breath billowing in white clouds with every ragged exhale. His hands were stuffed into thick leather work gloves.
The embarrassment in Chicago had broken something inside him. He had spent three hours in a holding cell at the First District police station before Elena Howard agreed to drop the battery charges on the condition that he and Kevin leave the county immediately and sign a formal trespass warning. The drive back across the state line had been conducted in absolute, suffocating silence.
"Thomas," Eleanor cried from the kitchen, her voice trembling with cold. "The pipes in the downstairs bathroom... they’re making a horrible banging noise."
Thomas didn't move. He felt old. For the first time in his life, the armor of his stubborn, domineering pride felt paper-thin and brittle.
"Just leave the taps dripping," he muttered through chattering teeth.
"I tried!" Eleanor said, emerging from the kitchen. She was wearing two winter coats, a knit ski cap, and thick boots. She could barely close her swollen, arthritic hands because the cold exacerbated the inflammation in her joints. "Nothing is coming out! The water has stopped! It’s frozen solid!"
Suddenly, from beneath the floorboards in the basement, there was a sound like a rifle shot.
*CRACK.*
Then another.
*CRACK.*
A low, violent hissing sound began to echo up through the heating vents, followed by the terrifying, unmistakable sound of rushing water.
"Oh God!" Eleanor gasped, clutching her chest. "The pipes! The pipes have burst!"
Thomas scrambled up from the sofa, the heavy blankets tumbling to the floor. He rushed down the basement stairs, his flashlight beam slicing through the darkness. When he reached the bottom step, his boot plunged into three inches of freezing, murky water. A main copper supply line leading from the municipal pressure valve had split wide open, spraying an unbroken geyser of pressurized water directly into the finished drywall, the electrical junction box, and the custom home theater Kevin had insisted on installing two years ago.
"Turn off the main!" Eleanor screamed down the stairs.
Thomas lunged through the freezing water, slipping on the slick concrete floor, falling hard onto his knees. The water soaked through his denim jeans, freezing to his skin. He reached the brass shutoff wheel and strained with all his remaining strength, but the valve was seized with decades of mineral corrosion. It wouldn't budge.
"It's stuck!" Thomas yelled back, panic finally stripping away every shred of his bluster. "It won't turn!"
He scrambled back up the stairs, shivering violently, his teeth knocking against each other like dice in a cup. He grabbed his cell phone with dripping, numb fingers.
He dialed Kevin.
"Kevin! Where are you?!" Thomas wheezed.
"Dad, I’m at Ashley's house," Kevin replied, his voice flat, exhausted, and hollow. "Her heat is still on, but it doesn't matter. The bank sent an appraiser by today to photograph the exterior. Ashley’s husband packed his bags and left for a hotel two hours ago. He told her he's filing for divorce because she hid forty thousand dollars in personal credit card debt to cover my business lease."
"Kevin, the lake house is flooding!" Thomas screamed into the phone. "The pipes burst! The basement has four inches of water and it’s rising! I can’t get the shutoff valve to turn! I need you to call an emergency plumber right now!"
"With what money, Dad?!" Kevin suddenly shouted, his voice cracking into hysterical laughter. "With what money?! I don't have twenty bucks! The emergency call-out fee is five hundred dollars upfront! I called three companies; they won't even put a truck in gear without a credit card number! We don't have credit! We don't have cash! We are broke, Dad! We are completely, totally broke!"
"Call Ryan!" Thomas begged, the words tearing out of his throat, tasting of ash and defeat. "Kevin, swallow your damn pride and call your brother!"
"He blocked me everywhere, Dad!" Kevin cried out, breaking down into ragged sobs. "He blocked my number! He blocked my email! His lawyer said if I come within five miles of his daughter’s school, they’ll have the FBI pick me up for interstate stalking! It's over! Ryan isn't coming to save us!"
The call disconnected.
Thomas stood in the freezing hallway of his dream home, listening to the relentless, apocalyptic roar of water destroying everything beneath his feet. The cold was sinking into his bones, heavy, merciless, and dark.
He looked at his wife, who was sitting on the bottom step of the staircase, weeping silently into her frozen mittens.
May you like
For four years, they had lived like royalty on the back of the son they had treated like an outcast. And now, the kingdom had turned to ice.
***
