Chapter 5
Ellie surprised them by bouncing down the stairs at 9 am the following day, ready to see her surprise. Eric had been out after breakfast, to start up the tractor and check to make sure that everything was working smoothly, while Cassie located her and Ellie's ski gear in the garage and the guest room closet where their parents stored seasonal clothing. Eric briefly worried that the sound of starting up the cold tractor might have woken Ellie prematurely, but it became evident pretty quickly that she had just drifted off to sleep earlier than usual and woke up earlier than usual, excited to see what her surprise was.
They insisted that Ellie have a good breakfast before they would let her see her "wish". Once she'd eaten, they led her out into the yard and toward the building that concealed the rope lift. At the last minute Cassie stopped to blindfold her, while Eric went ahead to start the tractor, and then they both led her carefully to the base of the rope line where her skis and poles were leaning. Her boots and some ski socks were laid out on the tractor seat. It took Ellie a moment to process what she was seeing once the blindfold came off, but once Eric hopped on his snowboard to demonstrate, Ellie squealed with delight and had changed into her gear and put on her skis by the time he had made it back down to the bottom of the hill from his first run.
Eric followed her up the rope line and it didn't seem to have any problem taking them both at the same time. As Ellie and Eric started their shared run down the slope, they could see that Cassie had also donned her skis and was being towed uphill, even as they passed her going the opposite way. For the next few hours they made endless loops from the base of the hill, up the tow line and back down the snow covered slope. It was only when the tractor began to sputter from the fuel tank running empty that they finally shut it down. The girls headed inside to make lunch while Eric made several trips with the fuel can until he had topped off the tractor's tank again.
When he walked through the kitchen door, Ellie bounded up to engulf Eric in a huge hug, squeezing him tightly for several seconds while rocking side to side before grabbing his neck and pulling him down to plant a kiss on his cheek.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Eric!" Ellie gushed. "Cassie told me you did most of the work. I can't believe you did that for me!" She seemed to get emotional for a moment. She used her hands to fan her eyes and her voice cracked. "That's the best ski trip I've ever been on!"
Eric laughed as he took off his coat and gloves. "The best part is you can ski as much as you want every day," he smiled. "No lines at the ski lift, we're the only season pass holders and it takes about three minutes to get there instead of a three hour drive." He beamed as he took a seat at the table and dug into the sandwich they had waiting for him.
"I don't know about you guys, but my leg muscles are shot right now," Cassie admitted. "I'm pretty sure they're going to be plenty sore for the next few days. I've got some chemistry lab work to catch up on and plan on doing some stretching and relaxing in a hot bath this afternoon so I can minimize how badly my legs will feel tomorrow. You guys can ski some more this afternoon if you want, but count me out."
"You know she's probably right," Ellie admitted. "Better not to push it too much the first time out. Most of the time you feel like you have to get a full day's worth of skiing in and you end up needing a week to recover. This way we can take it easy the first few days and work up to it." She beamed. "We've got all winter to enjoy it. What's the rush?"
"Smart thinking," Eric agreed between mouthfuls of his sandwich.
"Plus, we should probably spend the afternoon finishing up Cassie's present anyway. Don't you think Eric?" Ellie flashed Eric a winning smile and he nodded enthusiastically in reply.
Ellie was bubbly and talkative as they walked toward the cluster of storage sheds after lunch. Once they were around the corner of the first building and out of view of the house, she insisted that they get high immediately instead of waiting until they got to 'Operation Paradise'. They stopped to take a couple of quick puffs from Eric's pipe before making the rest of the walk to the enclosure.
Eric had refilled the tank of the generator before he'd headed in for lunch, just after he had topped off the tractor. He quickly had the generator up and running and they were soon rewarded with the warm glow of the lights coming on through the translucent barrier of plastic. When they reached the flap, Ellie pointed out that it had frozen shut and Eric delicately pulled the duct-taped flap edge away from the frame of the enclosure so as not to damage either.
They realized that condensation must have built up on the walls during their stay yesterday and it had frozen as the temperature dropped once after they'd shut it down. Eric thought that leaving the flap open after they were done might allow the humidity to balance out as the greenhouse cooled down and allow some of the moisture to vent out. They agreed to try it when they left.
It was hard to believe how chilly it was as they waited for the lights to heat up the space once again. A thin film of ice had formed on the lagoon and it was only when the heated water from the coil had begun to circulate that it slowly melted. Before he got too relaxed, Eric pulled out a small bottle of liquid that he'd brought in his coat and poured it into the water, carefully distributing it around the pool as the water circulated on its own from the incoming hose.
"What's that for?" Ellie was taking off her coat as she stood beside him watching what he did.
