"Steph, I want you to stay inside and listen for the phone. Mom and Dad might call to see how we're doing."
"Oh, I wanna help!" The little girl complained.
"You are going to help." Chris said to her, "We need to know if Mom and Dad call us. If nobody answers the phone, they might get worried. You don't want that, do you?"
"No?" Stephanie said reluctantly.
"You've already been a big help," Micky told her as he put his coat on. "You told the others that I fell down that ditch, if you hadn't seen me fall, I'd be a frozen Monkee right now." Stephanie smiled a big smile. "Ok, I'll stay upstairs by the phone."
"Thank you, sis." Arlene said.
When Stephanie went upstairs, the other seven went back outside and began to shovel the snow away from the other cars. It was hard work; the snow was deep and wet, but the weather wasn't as cold as it was the day before. The snow covered mountains behind the house loomed large against the blue sky.
As everyone was working to clear the driveway, nobody noticed at first the low rumble in the distance. After a few seconds, Marcia looked up from her work and looked at the others.
"What's that noise?" She asked.
Mike stopped shoveling and looked over at her.
"What noise?" He asked back.
"No, wait, I hear it too." Micky said to them, "It sounds like thunder."
Everyone else stopped what they were doing and looked around for the source of the noise. After several more seconds, the thundering noise grew louder?and it seemed to be coming from the mountain!
Seven pairs of eyes looked behind the house to the mountains beyond. To their horror, they saw a huge sheet of snow coming down the nearest mountain?and heading straight for them!
"AVALANCHE!" Arlene screamed.
Unfortunately, Arlene was right. The fast-moving warm front that came in overnight quickly began to melt the snow on the mountains, and now it was coming right towards them in a rush!
"It's coming towards our house!" Arlene yelled.
Indeed, the oncoming avalanche was wide enough to engulf not only the Anderson's home, but other homes next to theirs as well.
Arlene began to run back toward the house, but the deep snow slowed her down.
"Stephanie!" Arlene yelled, "Get out of the house! It's an avalanche!"
But it was doubtful Stephanie heard her as the avalanche noise grew to a roar. Nobody else moved to get away, as they were all thinking about the little Stephanie being in that house when the avalanche hit.
Chris was half-way up the driveway when the avalanche slammed into the house. It held for a few seconds, then its second and third floor were ripped away by the force of the snow. The Monkees and the three Anderson sisters were pushed across the street and down a wooded slope. Frantically, they grabbed onto the tree trunks to stop themselves from being pushed further away. If the house hadn't taken the brunt of the snow, they would've been buried and carried far away. After several long seconds, with the roar of the snow deafening them, the avalanche passed them and continued down the slope.
Peter was able to keep his head above the snow and was the first to start a head count. He quickly counted Mike and Chris, then Micky and Marcia popped their heads up from the snow. After several long seconds, Davy was able to push the snow away from his head as well.
There was no sign of Arlene.
"Arlene?!" Peter yelled, "Can you hear me?!"
Everyone else began to call Arlene's name and look around for her the best they could. They could hardly move with all the snow on them. Finally, Peter saw a hand waving in the snow and moved over there and quickly uncovered Arlene.
"Are you alright?" Peter asked.
"Anybody get the number of that bus?" She asked weakly.
"Oh, no NO!" Stephanie!" Chris screamed.
"We gotta find her!" Davy said.
As fast as they could, the seven people pulled themselves up the snowy slope and over to where the house once stood.
They were all cold, bruised and shaken up by what just happened, but they forgot their injuries and concentrated on finding Stephanie.
The top two floors of the house were gone.
Everyone prayed Stephanie was on the ground floor so they could find her. Pulling themselves over blocks of ice and rocks, they climbed past the cars once again half-buried in snow and over to the house.
"Stephanie! Stephanie!" Everyone began yelling as loud as they could. They climbed to where the ceiling of the den used to be.
The front door was buried. The remains of the chimney stood dark against the snow.
"Oh, this is my fault!" Chris cried, "If she had come outside with us?"
"Don't blame yourself." Mike said, "Stephanie is still alive, she's gotta be!"
Taking a different part of the house, everyone began to frantically dig through the snow, searching for some sign of the girl. Micky was digging by the chimney when he heard a faint cry coming through the chimney, which, miraculously, hadn't been filled with snow.
"Wait, everyone!" Micky shouted, "I heard something! Stephanie?!" He yelled down the chimney.
"Help?" Was the faint answer.
"She's alive!" Arlene shouted.
"We're coming, darling!" Micky yelled back down the chimney, "We'll save you!"
The seven people dug through the snow with their bare hands down through the snow near the chimney. When the reached the floor of the den, they found Stephanie lying under the coffee table which had been shoved by the avalanche next to the fireplace.
The heavy coffee table protected the little girl from the worst of the snow and ice. Chris reached down and pulled her little sister from under the coffee table and carried her to the top of the snow.
Although the coffee table saved Stephanie's life, she still was very cold and weak. Her lips were turning blue. She looked up at her big sister.
"I'm so cold?" She whispered.
"Hang on honey." Chris said, holding her close, "We'll get you warmed up." She looked at the others. "She's got hypothermia, we need to get her warm now!"
Without a word, Micky took Stephanie from Chris' arms and began to run back down to the cars. The others followed him, guessing what he would do. Micky's car was furthest down the driveway so it was less covered than the others. Holding Stephanie in one arm, he yanked open the driver's side door, got in, pulled the keys out of his jacket pocket and started the car. Chris and the others also climbed into the car as Micky cranked up the heater.
Chris got into the front seat and gently pulled Stephanie off his lap and laid her between them. Together, they began to rub her arms and legs to get the circulation going again. Between the heater and all the people jammed into the car, it soon became very warm inside, but nobody complained. After several tense minutes, some color began to come into Stephanie's cheeks. She opened her eyes once again.
"How you doin' sweetie?" Mike smiled down at her.
"I'm getting warm now." She replied, her voice a little stronger.
Everybody breathed a sigh of relief. Chris pulled her sister into her arms. Stephanie smiled at everybody.
"Thank you all for saving me." She said.
"That's ok, we'll just put it on your bill." Micky smiled as Davy hit him across the back of his head. Everyone laughed at that, and so they decided to stay in Micky's car until help arrived.