2nd December

Vince slept until late at the next morning. When he finally got up he searched for the bath room and after releasing himself he put on his clothes. He was so eager to get back that he did not bother to wash himself this morning. He would take a shower when he was with uncle Jaimy.

"Good morning Boy." When Vince entered the big room with the fireplace the old man already sat on the table and drank his coffee. "Good morning... Brad." He replied a bit shy and sat down as well. Brad offered him a cub of cocoa and a beef jerky. Vince accepted them hungrily.

"I already talked to your uncle this morning." Vince perked up his ears. "There was something unexpected tonight. It seems like there was a landslide in the mountains and the street is blocked. Because of the snowfall they are unable to clean it up right now and it may take a few days or a week until we can get out of here."

The beef jerky fell out of the mouth of Vince. He had expected to get back to his uncle. Sure, Brad was nice and all but he felt uncomfortable with the thought that he had to spend the next week with this old man that he did not know. Brad must have seen or anticipated his thoughts and he raised from his chair and came over to pet the head of Vince with his paw.

"Don't worry boy. You will be fine here with us, you will see. It is not as bad as it looks like." He smiled and showed his white teeth. "I talked to my daughter who lives across the street and she agreed to take you in for as long as it takes until you can get back. She got 2 daughters. I think they are around your age. How old are you?" - "Fourteen" Vince was still in shock. - "Well, then they are a bit younger. They are 10 and 12. But I am sure you will be friends with them in no time. They are adorable little girls."

Vince still did not feel comfortable but at least it seemed that he would have other kids around to play. He was not sure if he would really manage to make friends with them so fast. The last time it took him months to get used to other kids.

Later this day Brad brought Vince to his daughter. Stacy Softpaw was a beautiful snow leopard with a thick tail and bushy fur. Her daughters looked cute and giggled when they saw Vince. The boy was shy and tried to not look into the eyes of them. He noticed that their fur was much thicker than his. He suspected that because this town was so cold they had grown a thicker fur to protect themselves from the freezing weather. Their hose seemed a bit colder than that of Brad. After an introduction and explanation Brad left Vince with the three females and went home. Vince felt a bit uncomfortable because he did not know what to talk about.

"Are you cold?" Stacy asked and looked into his eyes. Her eyes were of a deep blue and it took Vince a few seconds to rip his eyes away from them. "Yes." He replied shy but she just smiled and went to the fireplace in the corner. Vince noticed that it had not been lit but on no time the fire burned strong and warmth filled the room. "We rarely lit the fireplace because we have a good fur to hold us warm." She explained and smiled. Vince shyly smiled back and the girls giggled again.

"Girls, be nice to him okay? Okay Vince. These are Tracy..." she was pointing to the older snow leopard girl, "... and Lilly." Now she pointed at her younger daughter. "We do not have a spare room so you will sleep in their room, okay? There is a spare bed for you and if they vex you just tell me." She looked at the girls with a stern look. "Normally they are well behaved though."

"Thank you for letting me stay here." Vince suddenly burst out. He was always raised to be polite to strangers and in this situation where he felt very uncomfortable it was the first thing that came into his mind. "Nonsense! We would not let you stay outside in the cold. Now show him your room girls and I will prepare dinner."

Vince was pulled to their room, a big room with three beds. The girls seemed to be very excited and Vince suspected that they were not having guests regularly. They showed him his bed and talked all the time. Vince could not follow all of their chatter. He sat there in the middle of the girls and played with them without even knowing what the game was about. He never had played girls games before and it was just too much for him to take at once.

When Stacy called for dinner he was relieved that he survived the time with playing with dolls and so on. For dinner there was a nice steak that made Vince feel like it was not too bad to stay here. The food tasted much better than the food of his aunt Milly. After dinner Stacy played with the children after washing the dishes and then they went to bed. There was no television here and no computer. The live here went a much slower pace than Vince was used to from the city. He lay in his bed and heard the breath of the girls. They had stayed up a long time and asked him all sort of things until they were too tired and fell asleep. Vince was far too excited from his first day here to sleep. He lay awake for a long time thinking about the day and what happened. It was new and uncomfortable for him in this new environment but he had to admit that this unexpected vacation was on its own exciting and refreshingly different from all his other vacations when his parents pushed him away. At least it was better than staying with mom's friend Betsy. After a long time he finally fell asleep.