A Big Storm Knocked It Over by Laurie Colwin

room was wallpapered with a print of cabbage roses. The Persianrug was faded. One of the inn cats was asleep on a blue chair. It was Christmas Eve day, and she was far away from her family.
    Teddy was fast asleep. Down the hall was her closest friend in the world, the person who knew her longest, understood her best, and knew her past as well as her own. The idea of a holiday with her mother and her stepfather suddenly seemed impossibly appealing, although in her mother’s new house and with her mother’s new husband she felt tense and uncomfortable. Teddy’s breathing was a solace to her. But were they not as strangers, all alone?
    Since the beginning of mankind, men and women had gone off together to form a unit, a couple, an entity with a history behind it and a destiny in front. Was it easier when you did this in the context of an enormous family, or worse?
    Jane Louise shifted around. Her husband had broken down and put on his pajamas in deference to the cold. She covered his shoulder and watched him sleep: He was as relaxed as a child. The tension of the day had left his face. He smelled sweetly of sleep. How easy it would be to do wrong to a sleeping man!
    Such availability, such access! Jane Louise shivered, and she huddled next to him. He turned and put his arms around her. His embrace was so familiar, and so remote, it caused her almost to shudder. They were now related to each other by marriage and were protected by law from any number of incursions into their privacy. They were a legal and economic unit. To undo their relationship would take the intervention of a court of law. And yet they were in this bed because they loved each other, and were meant to love each other in spite of everything, for ever more. It was their mandate to create a family, and fill their lives with photos and memories and trials, and odd bits of family lore and family occasions, and their children would go out into the world and say: “In our family, we always . . .” and, “We feel . . .” She andTeddy, these two unprepared tall humans, whose backgrounds included rancorous divorce and financial uncertainty, were supposed to create some unswerving, stable, and dependable structure. How were they supposed to do that?
    As Teddy was shaving, a tap came at the door, and there stood Edie in a dark green robe and striped slippers.
    â€œOh,” she said. “Yours woke up. Mine says it’s too cold and went back to sleep. I think he expects breakfast in bed.”
    â€œAs you may remember,” said Teddy, squinting into the mirror, “I suggested someplace hot. ”
    â€œIt was too expensive to go someplace hot,” Jane Louise said.
    â€œThink of the wonderful amounts of money we’ll pay in doctor bills for bronchitis from freezing our asses off up here.”
    â€œIt is pretty cold,” Edie said. “The radiator’s tepid.”
    â€œIt’s because of these quaint, old-fashioned fireplaces,” Jane Louise said.
    There was another tap on the door, and in walked Mrs. Schuldes, the owner’s wife, bringing a large basket of what looked like shale.
    â€œCannel coal,” she said. “Burns very hot. It was five below this morning, but it’s supposed to warm up to ten above. Come down to breakfast. The dining room is quite overheated.”
    They went to breakfast; Mokie came, too. They wore silk underwear, leggings, T-shirts, turtlenecks, heavy sweaters, and three pairs of socks. They ate dozens of muffins, piles of toast, and cups and cups of coffee with hot milk.
    After breakfast they ambled into the sitting room, sat in front of the fire, and read the papers.
    â€œGosh, this is romantic,” Mokie said.
    Then it was time for lunch, and then they went up to their freezing rooms and took naps under their down quilts and blankets.If the Schuldes family was celebrating Christmas, there was little sign of it, although the sitting room was full of