Ten Thousand Truths by Susan White

into the dining room. Snow was lightly falling outside and it was a perfect Christmas Eve. The twins had set the table with a Christmas tablecloth and napkins, and Jodie had lit some candles and turned off the overhead lights.
    â€œIn Mexico wearing red underwear on New Year’s Eve is said to bring new love in the upcoming year,” Amelia said as Rachel set the steaming bowls of chowder in front of Zac and Jodie.
    â€œWell, I’ve got red long johns,” Zac replied. “Now I just have to wear them on New Year’s Eve and wait for love to find me. I hope whoever she is she can make lobster chowder as delicious as you do, Amelia.”
    Rachel looked at the faces around the table in the glow of the candlelight. She thought back to a point earlier in the day, when she had started crying for no reason. Raymond had come around the corner of the chicken shed and ambushed Zac with snowballs. His laughter as Zac ran after him had sounded like Caleb’s and she’d found herself standing there, watching them with tears streaming down her cheeks.
    She and Caleb had built a snow fort in the backyard of their house on Regent Street. The next day Caleb had hid in it, waited until Rachel came out of the house, and surprised her with a volley of snowballs. He had laughed so hard and run toward the house, trying to get his snow pants off quickly so he didn’t pee his pants. Their mom had met them at the door, holding the angel that they always put on the top of their tree. Rachel remembered her mom hollering at Caleb as he ran by her with his snow pants down around his knees, his snowy boots dripping puddles down the hall as he stomped toward the bathroom. It had been Christmas Eve, their last Christmas Eve, and the last Christmas Eve that she’d had a family. Until now, she thought.
    Rachel’s favourite gift had been the snowshoes. Now, as she trudged through the snow, lifting each snowshoed foot carefully as she tried to keep up with Zac and Jodie, she thought back to three mornings ago when she had opened her presents. It had been a chaotic morning, with wrapping paper strewn everywhere and the twins and Raymond announcing everything they got with excitement as they’d opened their presents. Amelia had passed out the presents, trying to keep it so that everyone always had something to open. She hardly opened any of hers until everyone else was finished. When she had opened her gift from Rachel, Amelia had gone right to the bathroom mirror and put the pansy earrings on, saying how beautiful they were.
    Rachel had opened her gifts quietly, enjoying the anticipation as she slowly pulled the wrapping off of each one. She was completely awed by the pile of things in front of her when she was done. When she’d opened the gift from Zac, the box was empty. She was confused, especially since he had made such a big deal about hiding it so she wouldn’t shake it. She found a note taped on the inside of the box that said her real gift was in the barn behind a bale of hay. Everyone had put their coats and boots on to follow her to the hay loft to find her present. The snowshoes had been wrapped in bright snowman paper with a big red bow, and Zac had taken the time to draw snowshoes on the bottom of each of the snowmen.
    Rachel had been embarrassed that she didn’t have a clue how to put the snowshoes on. At first she’d been really self-conscious of the clumsy way she’d walked with them once she got them strapped to her boots. But she was finally getting the hang of it now and she hadn’t fallen over for at least ten minutes. She came into a clearing, where she could see Zac and Jodie sitting on a pile of logs. Jodie was unpacking the lunch Amelia had made for them and Rachel could only imagine what delicious stuff she had crammed into the backpack. She sat down on the log pile and Jodie passed her a turkey sandwich.
    â€œI hope we weren’t going too fast for you,” Jodie