Chapter 10

The Value of Family

Winter 12, 2005 (Friday)

The days of Winter are cold. But to Trei, they are colder than the Winter days in the city. The snow has fallen covering the ground in several inches of snow, and the days are shorter. The work in the farm would be a bit more bearable if Trei didn't have to work outside. Keeping the animals warm in the barn is also another challenge he must overcome to avoid the animals getting sick.

That evening, the snow is falling heavily. Trei is in the barn trying to keep the animals warm and well fed. Muffy is busy cleaning up the house. Myo is sitting in the bedroom with her art pad drawing something for her parents. After she is done, she picks up her drawing, and takes a good look at it. She is satisfied at what she drew, and she now wants to show her parents.

Myo walks into the kitchen where Muffy is drying some dishes she had recently cleaned. She tugs on her skirt to grab her attention. She raises her drawing in the air saying, “mommy! Mommy! Look! Look!”

Muffy looks down at Myo jumping around with her drawing smiling cheerfully. She smiles, then kneels down patting her on the head saying, “That's very nice sweetheart. But mommy is too busy right now to play with you. Why don't you wait for daddy to come home?”

“Ok,” said Myo in a sad tone. She then returns to the bedroom where she sits and waits. It only takes her a few minutes before she becomes bored of waiting. So instead, she pushes a stool to the front door, and opens it to visit her father who is in the barn.

Myo may be small, but she still can walk through the snow with minimal difficulty. She uses the side door to get into the barn, and finds her father placing some feed into the bins of food for the animals. She walks up to him carrying the art pad in her hands, and tugs on his pants to grab his attention.

Trei looks down at Myo who is once again jumping around with her art pad yelling, “daddy! Daddy! Look! Look!”

Trei smiles and kneels down patting on her head. He then tells her, “What are you doing here little Myo? It's cold outside, and you might catch a cold.”

Myo then pouts and yells, “but daddy! Look! Look!”

“Sorry Myo, but I don't have time to appreciate your art right now. I have to feed the animals, put blankets on them, clean the barn, and a few other things. When I'm done, I'll look at it all you want. Okay?”

“Ok,” said Myo with a sad tone again.

Trei rubs her on the head and continues, “why don't you go home, and watch some cartoons. I'll be home in an hour or two.”

Myo nods and walks out of the barn. On the way to the house, she stops walking and thinks for a moment. “Daddy no pway wit me. Mommy no pway wit me. So borin. Maybe I go play wit uncle Cody!” She then turns around and walks out of the ranch to go pay a visit to Cody's trailer.

A little over an hour later, Trei is finally done with his work. The night sky is pitch black and the only light he can see is to the house. The winds has picked up, and snow is falling a bit heavier. The air is getting colder which gives Trei the idea that a snowstorm may be in it's way to Forget-Me-Not Valley.

The walk home is short so he’s not worried about catching a cold. But as soon as he walks up to the house, Muffy bursts out with a worried look on her face. She looks at him and yells frantically, “Trei, have you seen Myo?!”

“I saw her about an hour ago in the barn. I asked her to go home,” answered Trei trying to calm Muffy down.

“She's not here! I've been looking for her for a while, but she's not in the house! I think she ran off by herself out of the ranch! Trei, we have to go look for her! The weather is getting pretty bad, and she might get hurt out there!”

Trei holds Muffy's hands and says, “don't worry, if she's outside, then all we need to do is follow her tracks.” Trei turns around and finds that the snow has already covered any traces of Myo's footprints. This makes Muffy even more worried than before.

Without thinking, Muffy starts to run off to look for her. Trei then yells, “Muffy, where are you going?! Let me go look for her, and you wait here in case she comes home!”

Muffy turns around and yells, “I am not going to stay home and wait! I am going to go look for her too!” She then runs off calling Myo's name. Trei leaves the door unlocked in case Myo comes home before they find her. Trei then runs out of the ranch to look for her to the opposite side of the valley where Muffy is searching.

Trei runs over to the bar and Grant's home asking if they have seen Myo. But the weather is so bad that they cannot see outside their windows. Muffy is at Vesta's farm asking them is they have seen Myo, but no luck there either. Trei then searches by the lake close to the beach, but he doesn't find her. Muffy is looking around the field close to Vesta's farm. She asks Galen if he has seen her, but Galen has not noticed anyone walking through the snow.

Trei is doing fine out in the cold. But Muffy on the other hand isn't. She rushed out so quickly, that she forgot to wear something warm. Her skirt is far too short, and she has very little sleeves to cover her arms. She is freezing cold, but she doesn't care as long as she can find her daughter.

Thirty minutes later, Muffy or Trei still has not found Myo. As Trei continues the search, Muffy is slowing down from the cold coughing loudly. She is coughing and sniffling as she rubs her arms to keep as warm as possible. She knows that she needs to find a warm place to rest, but she is too worried about Myo to be concerned about herself.

After Trei checks Romana's villa, he stops to think for a moment. The valley is too large to do random searches, so he needs to think carefully about where Myo might have gone. As he thinks, he says, “where has Myo gone? I know that she likes to go off on her own, but where might she be? I'm always working, so Muffy should know Myo's habits more than I do. I should check back at the house, in case that she has found her.”

Trei then runs home to check if Muffy has found her. But when he gets in the house, he doesn't find either Muffy or Myo inside. It's been almost an hour since Trei and Muffy started looking for her, but Myo is still not found. Trei starts to become very worried about Myo. He takes a moment to think. As he looks around, he find several crayons lying on the floor. He then remembers that Myo was showing her a drawing she had made before she went missing. Also, Muffy mentioned earlier that Myo has been going to Cody's to learn about art. He snaps his fingers and yells, “I bet she's at Cody's trailer!!”

He runs out of the house again, and runs directly to Cody's trailer. The door was unlocked, so he let himself in. As soon as he rushes in, he finds Myo inside painting on a canvas with Cody.

Trei takes a sigh of relief after Finding Myo. Cody looks at Trei and says, “hi there. You came to pick Myo up? I tell you, she's getting very good at painting and art.”

After explaining that he and Muffy has been looking for her for a while, he takes Myo and carries her home. On the way home, he tells her, “Myo, why did you run off on your own? You have any idea how worried me and your mother have been?”

“I go pway with uncle Cody!” answered Myo.

Trei laughs at Myo and says, “you know, you should tell somebody where you're going before you run off. And the weather is pretty bad today, you could have gotten hurt out here.”

“I sowwie,” apologized Myo.

Trei smiles at Myo, “it's okay, as long as I found you.”

After returning home, Trei made something warm for Myo to drink. He then gives her back her art pad, and crayons, then says, “I have to go look for your mother now. Why don't you stay in the kitchen and draw me a picture until I come back.”

“Okay!!” cheered Myo.

Just then, he hears the sound of the front door open. “That must me her right now,” said Trei. He walks out of the kitchen, and into the bedroom and says, “Welcome home, I've-.” His mood changes when he saw his wife’s condition. Muffy walks in slowly breathing heavily. Her skin is pale, and has a slight blue coloring to it. She is leaning against the door struggling to stay standing. “Muffy, are you okay?”

Muffy looks up at Trei with a painful look on her face and asks, “did you find Myo? Is she okay?”

“She's in the kitchen drinking some warm milk. I found her at Cody's, she's just fine,” answered Trei.

Muffy straggles a smile and says, “thank god. . . I'm so glad that she's alright. . . Thank you so much for finding. . . Her.” She then collapses on the floor and passes out immediately.

“Muffy, what's wrong!” yelled Trei as he runs to her aid. Her skin feels as cold as ice to the touch. Her breathing and heart rate has slowed down dramatically.

Trei carries her to the bed, and wraps her in a warm blanket. He adds more lumber to the fireplace to heat up the room. But no matter what he does, he condition doesn't get any better. Instead of sitting around and watch her, he takes Myo to the Blue bar, and leaves her there. He then runs over to the clinic, and practically drags Doctor Hardy back to his house.

Trei waits in the kitchen impatiently as Dr. Hardy examines her. Uncontrollable thoughts of the worst that might happen to Muffy plagues his mind. He is extremely worried, he has never been this worried about anyone before. He barely knows how to act in this time.

About an hour later, Dr. Hardy finally comes into the kitchen to deliver the news to Trei. He runs to him and demands, “how is she!? Is she going to be okay!?”

“She is suffering from severe hypothermia, but she will be okay as long as she rests.” The news that Muffy will survive sends a rush of relief through his body. Trei falls to his knees and nearly cries. Dr. Hardy then rests his medical bag on the table and says, “care to explain what happened?”

Trei stands up again and explains, “our daughter Myo went missing, so we went out to go find her. She was in such a rush to leave and find her, that she didn't dress warmly. I found Myo, and brought her home. Muffy came home not to long after that, and just collapsed.”

“Did you try and stop her?” asked Dr. Hardy.

“I asked her to stay home and wait for her, but she wouldn't listen to me.”

“How long has she been outside in this bad weather?” Dr. Hardy continues to ask.

“I don't know. . . About an hour and a half?”

Doctor hardy shakes his head in disbelief before saying, “my god, I'm surprised that she is alive right now.”

“What do you mean?” asked Trei curiously.

“You know that your wife cannot handle the cold very well. She has poor blood circulation, and she suffers from hypothermia very easily, especially since she is not a very big fan of dressing warmly. I'm sure that if she was outside only a few seconds longer, she could have died tonight.”

The news shocks him. He has been living with her for less than a year, and he thought that he already knew everything about her. But now he realizes that he may not even know much about her at all. He is usually in the barns or the field all the time working and spends little time with his wife or child. “Now that I think about it, Muffy has not been leaving the house since Winter started. She has been skipping her cooking classes, and never visits anyone. How could I have ignored the signs? If only I have known that this might happen, I would have forced her to stay home. Muffy doesn't think straight half the time, and she doesn't have much common sense, especially when she's upset.”

Dr. Hardy grabs his bag and begins to leave. But before he does, he tells Trei, “you need to be more responsible to your family. I understand that she only ran off to find her daughter, but it's you that needs to protect not only Myo, but your wife as well.” He then leaves and returns to the clinic.

Later that night, Trei sits next to Muffy on the bed waiting for her to get better. Myo is sleeping over at Griffins which gives them a chance to be alone. He holds her hand, it's still cold, but warmer than it was a few hours ago.

He places her hand on his forehead and says, “why did you run off like that. You're such an idiot, leaving the house without a coat or at least something warmer. You're no different than Myo, you know that! I guess she got that habit of running off from you!”

Suddenly, Muffy starts to wake up. She looks to the left, and finds Trei looking at her nearly crying. She smiles and says, “hi there. . . Is everything okay?”

“No, everything is not okay!” scolded Trei. “Do you have any idea what I've been through? I almost lost you! What were you thinking going out there in the snow dressed the way you are!” Just then, Trei remembers what Hardy told him a while ago. He then holds Muffy's hand tightly and says, “I guess it's my fault too. I've been working too much, and I didn't notice that this might happen. I'm sorry, please forgive me.”

“It's not your fault,” answered Muffy. “I know that I should have stayed home, but I was too worried about Myo. Please understand that Myo is important to me. I would do anything to make sure she's safe. Even if it means risking my own life. After all, I would do the same for you. Wouldn't you?”

Those words touched Trei in a way that nothing has ever done before. Warm tears touched Muffy's hands as he kisses it saying, “yes I would. I was so scared that I would lose you. Please promise that you won't do that ever again.”

Muffy nods. She then suddenly cringes in pain. “What's wrong!?” Trei yelled concerned for her health.

“I’m still feel very cold. I'll be fine, I just need to rest for a while,” answered Muffy.

But even though she says that she'll be okay, he doesn't feel that she'll be fine. He stands up and tells her, “Muffy, please look away.”

She has no idea why he is saying that, but she turns to her side anyway. Trei then begins to undress himself while she is not looking. He then climbs into the bed, and pulls her close to his body. The sudden rush of warmth shocks Muffy.

“What are you-”

“Please don't look at me,” said Trei. He has never done this before, so he is feeling a bit embarrassed. “I am sharing my body heat with you. It's the only thing I can do to help you recover quickly.”

Muffy then relaxes her body and says, “you're so warm and comforting. I can feel your heart beating against my back. But why are you so nervous? It's not like we haven't done this before.”

“I'm sorry,” answered Trei. “I know I shouldn't be, but I am. I've never felt this way before. I know that must have sound strange, but I . . .” Trei takes a deep breath and confesses, “Muffy, I love you.”

The sound of Muffy sobbing and weeping begins to fill the room. Trei looks at her and says, “Muffy, why are you crying? Did I say something to upset you?”

“No, but I feel really happy to hear you say that you love me. I haven't heard you say that for such a long time, I thought that you didn't love me anymore.” She the quickly turns around and kisses him on the lips for a while. She then says, “Trei, I love you so much.”

Trei then continues to kiss Muffy. He feels that he is ready to take his feelings to the next step, and begins to undress her. He is confident about how he feels, and he wants to spend his life with her. As nature takes it's course, he swears to himself that he will do everything he can to protect his family from that moment on.

Winter 13, 2005 (Saturday)

The bad weather has passed, and the villagers are free to move around in the snow. Myo returns home with Muffy and Trei with new found feelings between them. As a way to celebrate the passing of bad weather without any casualties, the valley decide to have a little festival.

In Forget-Me-Not Valley, they have few festivals. Many of them include Gustafa the bard playing a tune on his lute like a mini concert. Everyone heads over to the yurt and sit in a circle around Gustafa to listen to him play. Trei also attends sitting next to Muffy on one side, and Myo on the other like a family.

Unlike before, Muffy is wearing her usual red dress, but now she has a large shawl Trei bought for her earlier that day keeping her warm. As Guatafa plays the lute, Muffy sneezed once which causes Trei to panic.

“Are you okay Muffy!?” asked Trei. “Are you cold? Should I get you something warm to drink? Should we go home?”

Muffy laughs at Trei being overprotective of her. “Sweetheart, I am just fine. It's still cold outside, but this shawl you bought me feels so warm. Thank you so much.”

Trei puts his arm around her, and pulls her closer. “Sorry, but I do get worried about one of the most important people in my life.” Muffy smiles enjoying the warm embrace of her husband.

After the song ends, Gustafa stands up and says, “Okay, this is for the couples in the valley. Stand up and dance if you like!” He then sits back down, and plays a more upbeat tune on his lute. Muffy knows that Trei doesn't like to dance, so she never bothers to ask.

Trei stands up and asks, “Muffy, have we ever danced together?”

She shakes her head and says, “no, we haven't.”

Trei then stretches his hand to Muffy and says, “may I have this dance then?”

Muffy gasps cheerfully, and takes his hand without hesitation. He helps her up, and gets into position for the waltz. They then begins to dance off beat which catches the attention of the other villagers. Rather than laughing, everyone smiles, claps, and cheers for them. Sometime in the middle of the song, Trei picks up Muffy, and twirls her in the air making her laugh out loud. Trei can't help but to laugh with her.

Trei puts her back down, and they both continue to laugh. He then places his hand on her warm rosy cheeks, and moves close to kiss her. Everyone awes, and claps seeing that their relationship is stronger now then ever.

As he kisses her, he says in his head, “I love her. I finally understand why I decided to stay here in Forget-Me-Not Valley. It's not because of my dad, and it's not because I like this kind of work. I'm here because I love her. And for as long as I live, I will always be here for her.”