Lisa decided that for her first day off at Fire Lodge she’d go snowshoeing.  She got bundled up, checked out a pair of snowshoes, and packed a thermos of coffee, a bottle of water, and some sandwiches in her knapsack, along with her camera.  Then she went down to the lobby.  As she’d expected, Jennie was already behind the check-in desk, working on something on her laptop, worry lines creasing her brow.

“Are you sure you can’t go snowshoeing with me?  Even for a little while.”

Jennie looked wistfully out the window and the clean snow covering the forest.  It was a perfect day for snowshoeing.  But as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t go.  There were still too many things she needed to do to get ready for the start of the season.

“I wish I could, Lise.  I’ve just got too much to do around here.  You go on, have fun.  Make me so jealous when you come back and tell me about all the fun you had.”

Lisa hadn’t expected she’d be able to drag Jennie away from the lodge, even for a little while.  But she’d had to try.

“O - kay then,” Lisa said.  “But you’ve got to promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?”  Jennie’s eyes narrowed skeptically.

“Promise me you’ll remember to eat lunch.  And you’ll eat it somewhere other than at your desk.”

Jennie laughed.  “I promise.”

Lisa formed her face into a mask of seriousness and help up her hand, the pinkie finger extended.  “Pinkie promise,” she said.

Jennie extended her pinkie toward Lisa’s, but Lisa jerked away her hand at the last instant.

“You do know what a serious thing it is, to break a pinkie promise, don’t you?”

Jennie nodded, trying her best to not to smile.

“Okay, then.”  Lisa extended her hand again, linked pinkies with Jennie, and they shook on it.

“Now go!”  Jennie said.  “It’s a beautiful day outside and you don’t need to spend it all in here worrying about me.”

Lisa headed for the door.  Halfway there, she stopped and turned around.  “There’s some soup left from last night in the fridge.  And I made an extra ham sandwich and put in the fridge for you.”

Jennie laughed.  “All right, Lisa!  I’ll be sure to eat lunch.  Believe it or not, I did manage to feed myself before you came along.”

Lisa smiled, not even dignifying that comment with a reply.  Between her workaholic tendencies and a bundle of unresolved grief, she had a feeling that Jennie wasn’t remembering to do anything but run the lodge.  Lisa was determined that by the end of the season she’d have her boss at something approaching a decent work-life balance, but there was nothing more to be gained by nagging Jennie about it now.  Who knows, maybe be the end of the season she’d even be able to get Jennie to go out on a date - there had to be someone in the valley she’d like!

“Oh!”  Jennie added, catching Lisa just before she reached the door.  “Be sure to be back here by dinnertime.  There’s something special we’ve got to do tonight - a Fire Lodge tradition.”

“You got it, boss-lady,” Lisa said as she stepped out into the cold.

*  *  *  *  *  *

Jisoo finished making fried egg sandwiches and filling a thermos with coffee.  “I hope Chaeyoung likes fried egg sandwiches,” she thought, as she wrapped the sandwiches in butcher paper and put them in a paper bag.

“Jisoo!”  Chaeyoung was calling from upstairs.  “C’mon!  Let’s go!”

Jisoo put the sandwiches and the thermos in a shopping bag, grabbed another shopping bag which was full of more shopping bags with her other hand, and dashed upstairs.

“What took you so long?”  Chaeyoung asked.  “Were the bags hiding from you?”

“Oh no,” Jisoo rushed to say, “I found the bags right away.  I decided to fix us some coffee and some breakfast and...”

Chaeyoung interrupted her.  “I was just kidding with you!  Surprising me with breakfast and coffee?  That’s better than I ever did as an assistant.  Let’s get on the road.  There’s a place we can stop to eat about half an hour from here that has a great view of the valley.”

Jisoo followed Chaeyoung out to the truck, stowed the shopping bags in the back, and climbed into the cab with the bag of breakfast.  Chaeyoung was already in and starting the engine.  The truck struggled a little, then started up.

“I hope that’s not a bad omen,” Chaeyoung said.  “This truck is almost as old as I am.  One of the things Jennie is planning to do when she gets the insurance money is buy a new truck.  Too bad the lawyers still have that all tied up.  We’ll just have to baby this one as long as we can.”

Jisoo thought for a minute.  She’d heard the story about the accident that killed Jennie’s parents, but didn’t know much about what they were like when they were alive.  It seemed like something it would be nice to know if she was going to work at Fire Lodge.  During the drive, while she had Chaeyoung away from Jennie, seemed like a perfect time to ask.  “What were Jennie’s parents like?”

“Well,” Chaeyoung began, as she pulled out of onto the road, “Jennie is just like her mom.  Looks just like her, acts just like her.  Imagine Jennie 20 years from now, and that’s what her mom was like.  Her dad was a chef - the first chef I ever worked under.  There was nothing that man didn’t know how to cook.  The squash soup we made last night was the first recipe he taught me.  And he had knife skills like you wouldn’t believe - he could clean and filet half a dozen trout in the time it took me to slice a lemon to cook them with.  I remember one time we had a guest who wanted...”

Chaeyoung filled the 3 hours of the drive into town with stories about her time at Fire Lodge.  Jisoo was fascinated, hanging on her every word.  Some of the stories made her laugh until she thought she’d lose her breath, while others had her on the verge of tears.

“...and here’s town.” Chaeyoung said, wrapping up a story about a time Jennie tried to take four Americans on a snowshoe hike.

An