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One of the worst things about an Indiana winter was that if it snowed enough, or got cold enough, not only did it drive the people crazy, but it put the electricity on the fritz, too. For most houses, this wasn’t too bad. The heat would stay on if you had a furnace or a wood stove, and a lot of people had camping lanterns or candles or other things to keep the lights on, and books or games to keep them occupied until the power came back. And most of the time, the temperature only got bad enough to cause a blackout during the night, so most people were usually sleeping when it happened and it was fixed by the time they woke up again. But this wasn’t always the case, and every house was different, so some handled it better than others.
It wasn’t supposed to snow that night, but by the time the little holiday get-together that Steve was hosting for the party had ended, there were at least two inches on the ground and it showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Most people had left by then, Hopper and Mrs. Byers were looking forward to a quiet night in, Robin’s mom had picked her up as soon as the snow started laying on the roads and Jon and Nancy had driven the kids, who had planned a sleepover at the Wheeler’s, so they took them home, which left only Steve, Billy and Eddie alone in the house. Steve tried to encourage them to head home before it got too bad, but they insisted on staying to help clean up, and Steve knew better than to argue with either of them by now. But by the time they’d gotten the trash cleared and the games put away and the dishes washed, it was up to six inches at least, and the roads were no longer safe to travel.
“Welp, looks like we’re having a sleepover of our own,” Eddie said as he looked out the window, assessing the snowfall. “There is no way we’re getting out of here until they come and plow the roads.”
“Fuck, really?” Billy asked, looking outside, too. “Damn, my poor Stella. She does not do too well in cold weather.”
“Who’s Stella?” Eddie asked.
“My car,” Billy replied, sighing as he looked out at her, her blue paint job being covered in solid white.
“You named your car?” Eddie asked, laughing a little.
“You didn’t?”
“No? I never saw the need to.”
“No wonder that thing quits on you so much. You gotta name your car, man. They treat you better if you do,” Billy said, shaking his head as Eddie rolled his eyes. He walked away from the window and Billy followed, heading back into the kitchen as Steve hung the phone back on the wall.
“That was Mrs. Wheeler, everyone got home safe and the kids are already planning a snowball war for tomorrow morning,” he reported as the other two walked in, sitting at the counter.
“That’s good,” Eddie said as he popped open a cookie tin and started to munch. “I just hope it doesn’t freeze over by tomorrow morning. Wouldn’t want those little gremlins hurting themselves.”
“Isn’t it, like, already frozen, though?” Billy asked, still getting used to snow as a concept. He had always known it was a thing, but growing up in Southern California, he’d never really experienced it until last year.
“Yeah, but as the sun warms it, it melts just enough to freeze again and go from powdery flakes to pretty much solid chunks of ice, at least on the top,” Steve said, shrugging. “By the time they get outside, though, it should still be pretty fresh, so they’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“And that there is just another reason I prefer sand instead of snow,” Billy said, shaking his head again. The other two shrugged and the three of them migrated to the living room, shivering as they passed the big glass sliding door, the cold seeping in through the glass and giving them a chill. They plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV, checking the weather report before moving on to something else. The snow was supposed to continue through the night, with the temperature expected to drop to the single digits, and they were now predicting at least two and a half feet before it even started to slow.
“I guess we’re gonna be stuck here for a while,” Steve said, then stood and stretched before heading over to the cabinet beside the TV. “Anyone up for a movie?”
They settled on Stand By Me, which had just come out on VHS, and loaded the tape into the player, waiting to play it until they’d changed into pajamas and made hot chocolate. Then they started the movie, all comfortable and content as they watched and discussed the plot. And then, just as it was getting good, when the boys found the body and Ace and his gang started to threaten them to back off, suddenly, the TV screen went black, as did all the lights in the room.
“Ah fuck,” Steve groaned, throwing his head back and scrubbing his hand over his face. “The power’s out.”
“I mean, it’s not a huge deal. The movie was good, but the book was better and I’m getting tired, anyway,” Billy said, shrugging as Steve shook his head.
“You don’t understand,” he said, “The power’s out. That means the fancy new electric heating system my folks had installed is no longer working. In about ten minutes, this place is going to feel like a fucking freezer.”
“Are you shitting me?” Eddie groaned too, rubbing his eyes.
“Unfortunately, no, I’m not. I can’t even start up the old wood stove, either, we don’t have any wood and I’m not about to go out there to get any,” Steve said, gesturing out the window.
“Well, shit. Now what do we do?” Billy asked, already starting to feel the chill creeping in.
“Go to bed, I guess. At least if we’re under a bunch of blankets, we should be fine, but it’ll suck when we have to get up tomorrow,” Steve sighed, getting up and stretching again. “C’mon, I’ll show you to the guest rooms.”
Eddie and Billy followed Steve’s lead up the stairs and to the two guest rooms, surprisingly not tripping over anything despite the darkness of the house. The two rooms were next to each other and across the hall from Steve’s room, both of them smaller, but with a full size bed and fluffy, warm looking blankets, so neither boy complained. They each climbed into bed and said goodnight to each other, all of them shivering as they finally settled down and tried to sleep, ‘tried’ being the operative word. Despite each of them curling up beneath a mountain of blankets, they were still freezing, and it was only getting worse as the night went on.
They’d gone to bed around ten, but by midnight, it had gotten so cold that their teeth were chattering, even under all those blankets. It was nearly unbearable, and finally, Billy, who’d had the least experience with the cold and hated it the most, decided to get up and see if there were any other things he could do to quell the cold. He wrapped the wool comforter around him as tightly as he could, then ventured out into the hallway to Steve’s room, knocking on his door sharply.
“What’s up?” Steve asked in a groggy voice as Billy entered, sitting up as he walked into the room.
“I’m gonna fucking freeze to death, that’s what’s up,” Billy said, feeling goosebumps on his legs as he stood there. “Are there any more blankets?”
“All the extras were already on the beds, so no,” Steve replied, sniffling as his nose started to run from the cold.
“Well shit, now what? If we don’t do something, we’re all gonna wake up tomorrow frozen solid,” Billy grumped, his toes starting to go numb.
“I know, you’re right,” Steve sighed, “But I might have an idea. Go get Eddie, if we combine all our blankets, we might be able to stay warm enough to at least get some sleep. It’ll be kinda cramped with all of us in one bed, though.”
“As long as my nipples stop hurting from being too cold, I don’t give a fuck,” Billy said, dragging his blankets with him as he went back across the hall to Eddie’s door. He didn’t even knock this time, just opened the door and went inside, getting Eddie and his blankets and going back to Steve’s room. The two of them arranged all the blankets on top of the ones already on the bed, then climbed in as quickly as they could, shivering as they did.
“How did I end up in the middle of you two?” Billy asked as he fidgeted around, trying to find a comfortable position, but it was futile.
“It doesn’t matter, just stop moving around,” Eddie said, cursing as Billy accidentally leaned too hard on his hair and pulled it.
“Yeah, I told you it was gonna be cramped. It’s not gonna be a great night’s sleep, but at least we’ll be conserving body heat, so just calm down and try to close your eyes,” Steve said, turning over himself so that he was facing the other two, and getting as comfortable as he could, given the circumstances. Billy grumbled, but he stopped moving finally, lying on his side and resting his head on Steve’s shoulder. Eddie was also on his side behind him, having to practically hug Billy to him in order to keep from falling off the edge. It was odd positioning, but at least they were starting to warm up a bit, and they were relatively comfortable, so once they all stopped moving, they finally were able to fall asleep.
The next morning, they woke up covered in sweat. It wasn’t even seven yet, but the power must’ve come back on, because underneath all of those blankets, the three boys were dying, this time from heat. They were still tired, so they worked together to throw off most of the blankets, leaving only one or two, before lying back down and passing out again. They were still cuddled together like the night before, Billy resting on Steve and Eddie spooning him from behind, but it was a lot more comfortable now, and as their bodies regulated their temperatures, they were able to fall back into a deep slumber.
When they woke again, it was nearing ten in the morning. Billy was the first to crack his eyes open, clearing the crust from them and starting to laugh as he laid there, trapped between the other two.
“What’s so funny?” Steve grumbled as he yawned, not quite ready to open his eyes yet.
“I can’t move,” he said, “And someone is poking me in the back with their morning wood.”
“Huh?” Eddie asked as he finally started to wake up, trying to get his hair out of his mouth. Steve laughed a little, too, and finally stretched as he sat up, giving Billy a little bit more room. He scootched away from Eddie but didn’t get up quite yet, still entirely too comfortable to be ready to be upright again.
“Damn,” he heard Steve say as he got up and went to the window. Billy sat up and looked over, too, but he couldn’t see super well, so he finally got up and went over to look.
“Fuck,” he added as he looked out at Steve’s backyard. The chain link fence that separated it from the woods was buried almost entirely in snow. It had stopped falling by now, but only about a quarter of the fence was still visible beneath the heavy layer of white powder.
“What are we lookin’ at?” Eddie asked as he wandered over, scratching his head.
“The snow,” Steve said, “It’s gotta be at least four feet deep, maybe five.”
“Shit, that’s a lot. Looks like we probably won’t be leaving anytime soon,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, there’s no way I’m gonna get Stella to start in this weather, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to dig her out,” Billy said, sighing as he admitted, “It is kinda pretty, though.”
“Yeah, I love it when it’s like this, when it’s just smooth and undisturbed. It’s not the same once people start to plow and shovel and make footprints in it, y’know?” Steve sighed, gazing out the window at the sparkly white ground.
“I know,” Eddie said, “I also know that I’m starving and that there’s bacon and eggs in the fridge downstairs. I’m gonna go make breakfast, you guys coming?”
“Right behind you, Ed,” Billy said, he and Steve following Eddie downstairs. They ate breakfast on the couch as they finished the movie from last night, then spent the day just relaxing and messing around throughout the house. They plowed the roads sometime that afternoon, but it was getting dark again by then, and there was no point in trying to dig their cars out in the dark, so Billy and Eddie stayed for one more night. It wasn’t as cold that night, and the power stayed on, but none of them said anything when they all climbed back into Steve’s bed that night, cuddling up together under the covers and keeping each other warm.