Hot Flash Holidays Read Online Free PDF Page B

sleigh, his sack bulging with presents, his white beard blowing back in the wind. The string of reindeer wrapped around the sweater, ending with Rudolph with his red nose on Faye’s back shoulder.
    Admiring the sweater, her eye fell on her clock. Oh, no! It was already one forty-five. Laura’s plane landed at Logan at three! It would take Faye a good hour to drive there, and that would be only if the traffic was not too congested.
    Hurriedly, she kicked off the ancient loafers she wore to do housework, grabbed the half-eaten carton of ice cream, and started down the stairs in her thick wool socks. Her purse was on the hall table. She’d pull on her boots, coat, gloves, and just
go.
The car keys were in—
    Suddenly, she slipped. Her body was sailing in the air.
    “AAAH!” she cried, throwing out her hands to grab something,
anything.
In a flash, she hit the wood floor at the foot of the stairs. Her head hit
hard
on the last step. For a moment she actually saw stars. Then everything went black.
    She was dreaming of Christmas when a car alarm sounded rudely in the distance. Why was she sprawled out on the cold, hard surface of a parking lot? And who had run over her? Why wasn’t someone coming to help her?
    Faye opened her eyes. She was collapsed in the front hall. Her ankle hurt. Her back hurt. Over in the corner, by the umbrella stand, lay an ice-cream carton in a puddle of brown liquid.
    The noise wasn’t a car alarm; it was the telephone. She’d been lying here long enough for the ice cream to melt—Laura!
    Faye pushed herself up. A searing pain shot through her, beginning in her neck and radiating out to her shoulders and back.
    The phone continued to ring. Carefully, Faye turned her arm so she could see her watch. Three thirty-seven. Laura’s plane had landed, and here Faye was, on the floor.
    “All right,” she said to herself in the calm voice she’d used years ago when Laura was a child, “it’s going to be all right. If you can’t pick up Laura and Lars and Megan, they’ll simply grab a cab. They’re not helpless. You need to get yourself to the kitchen, swallow a couple of aspirin, and you’ll be fine.”
    Slowly, sensibly, she tried to roll over.
    Her left ankle exploded in fireworks.
    She fell back against the newel post, eyes closed, gasping with pain.
    “Shit!”
she cursed. “This isn’t right. This is terrible! It’s
Christmas
!”
    The phone continued to ring, a shrill, demanding, exasperating sound.
    Well, if she couldn’t walk to the phone, she’d damn well
crawl.
    Resting her left ankle on top of her right knee, she pushed with her right foot. Awkwardly, like a debilitated seal, she scooted on her back down the hall.
    Someday, she knew, she would find this funny.
    Right now, she felt only pain and frustration.
    Tears ran down her cheeks. The phone rang and rang. After what seemed like a century, she bumped off the wood floor and onto the tile of the kitchen. A few more shoves, and she reached the alcove where she kept her phone book and phone. The demon clamped on her neck would not allow her to sit up, so she lifted her good leg and clumsily kicked at the ringing phone until it clunked to the floor.
    “Mom?” a tinny voice said.
    Grimacing in agony, Faye reached over and grabbed the handset.
    “Laura!”
    “Mom? I’ve been calling for ages. We’re at the airport, we—”
    “Laura, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
    Laura laughed. For a moment, Faye was horrified. How could Laura laugh at her? Then she remembered the television ad for an alarm button one could wear around one’s neck. The actress who displayed it was a little old lady who quavered, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” For some reason, which at the moment completely escaped Faye, she and Laura had always laughed maniacally at this ad, and so had everyone else she knew.
    “I’m not joking, Laura.” Faye strained to sound firm instead of frantic. “I fell down the stairs. I’ve twisted my ankle,