The Light In The Garage

“Here we go again.” Kate thought to herself, pulling on her bathrobe and slippers. The clock read 1:22 a.m and her stomach was growling. The hunger pains were so intense around this time every night that it would wake her from her sleep and send her straight to the kitchen. She would try to fight it. Resisting the temptation to binge. But ultimately she gave in every time, and it was in fact binge eating. She would walk to the kitchen and clean out an entire box of Pop-tarts or whip up some instant mash potatoes and eat until she was burping food back into her mouth.

Tonight however, there was something else on the menu. Something more rich and decadent calling her from the kitchen. Tonight she knew she had left over chocolate cake from the Christmas party at her brothers house the day before. Kate was going to try to save the cake for later that evening when Marty, her 11 year old son, was going to open up his one Christmas eve gift. Then they would watch a few holiday classics and fall asleep on the couch waiting for Santa Claus. She knew he didn’t really believe in Santa anymore, but old habits die hard and it really was a tradition for the two.

But too bad for Marty that cake had other plans, it was calling to Kate all the way from the kitchen to her bedroom on the second floor. She had special-ordered the cake herself from "Cooks” bakery over on Colfax. The box was a beautiful maroon with gold lettering and Kate always thought it funny, a family with the last name of Cook becoming Bakers. And they made the best cakes. This cake.. Oh sweet god in heaven was it good. 2 thick pieces of devils food cake layered by a creamy chocolate frosting and topped with another generous spread of the same creamy frosting. It was gorgeously dark and moist with every bite. Kate's favorite was chocolate on chocolate, but to make it festive she asked the bakery to crumble up some candy canes for the top because, “Why the hell not?”

While at the party Kate only gave herself a small helping of the cake but she stood near the dessert table all night, watching as people went by the table and serving themselves up a plate full of pie or cookies. The occasional person would grab a thick slice of her cake. Kate would smile and say something along the lines of, “Ohhh you're in for a treat” or “ I hope you're ready for a slice of heaven”. These may have been.. well a kind of cliche and a little punny, but it was enough to hide the disappointment of having to share her cake at all. She would really just need 20 minutes in a room alone with that cake and no one would ever see it again.

Her good little Marty though, he didn’t bother with the cake at all. He just stuffed his pockets and fat little hands full of different holiday cookies, then took off to play with his little cousins in the next room. He was the biggest child at the party weighing in at 128 lbs and only being 4’4”, but he had a huge personality and didn’t let the weight hold him back from fun, and Kate wouldn’t let it hold him back either. She wished she was brave and less self conscious about her body like her boy was.

The other parents at the party cut their kids off at two or three cookies and only after they finished their meal. Kate on the other hand told Marty, “It is a party Boo, eat as many sweetsies as you want because after the holidays it's chicken and broccoli for you!” He just smiled as she pinched his chunky face.

At the end of the night there was a quarter of the cake left. “Just enough for Marty and I to share before Santa comes,” she told herself as she boxed it back up. In the back of her mind though she knew this cake would somehow be all for her.

Fast forward to 6 hours later and here she was, wide awake slippers on her feet shuffling into the kitchen. The wind from outside was relentlessly beating against the window over the sink. Kate peaked out the window without turning on the kitchen light and saw beautiful white snow blowing hard and causing a white out.The weather conditions were bad and she was surprised they hadn’t lost power yet. She picked up on her phone that was laying on the counter charging. Her weather App showed that they were going to get 10 inches of fresh snow all through the early morning, and the current temperature was 26 degrees. “Guess Marty will have a white Christmas”. She thought to herself, setting the phone back on the edge of the counter.

Kate was about to open the door to the fridge when something caught her eye. A light at the end of the hallway. It looked like it was coming from the laundry room or maybe the garage. Had she left a light on? Probably not. It was after all a part of her nightly routine, make sure all the windows and doors were locked, shut off all the lights (with the exception of the Christmas tree this time of year) and then tuck Marty into bed. Kate paused thinking for a minute, trying to decide if maybe she had missed it this one time. Now more aware, she decided to go check to be sure.

When she reached the entrance to the hallway she saw right away that the light was coming from the garage, and that the door to the garage was also unlocked. Was Marty in the garage? It had to be if it was unlocked from the inside. She hadn’t checked his bed before coming downstairs to the kitchen. Then it hit her. The Christmas presents were hidden in the garage and she was about to catch her little Marty in the act. He had never been one for peeking in the past, but she made up her mind this was what was happening.

“Ohh you little shite” Kate said out loud, “Snooping!”

She walked over to the garage door, turned the knob, and flung it open, allowing all the fluorescent light from the garage to flood the hallway. The room was only large enough for one car, and she drove a Blue Toyota Minivan that took up most of the room. This was the first thing she saw as she stepped onto the top stair leading down to the garage's pavement floor. The wind was even louder in here and the air was so cold she could see her breath. There was a giant decorative thermometer that she had hung on the far wall that read that it was only 34 degrees in her poorly insulated Garage.

Kate looked around for a moment not seeing anything, and not hearing anything except the ear-piercing whistling of the wind coming from outside. “Marty!” She called out.

There was no reply but Kate was not convinced, she was sure she locked that door before. Despite freezing air Kate went down the last couple steps and walked towards the front of her vehicle, that's when she saw him.

“Marty!” she screamed.

There on the hood of the van her son laid face down his hands out in front of him. The skin on his face was white and his lips a light blue and covered in.. in.. Chocolate? His eyes were closed and icicles had formed on his eyelashes, it looked like he was sleeping. Kate grabbed hold of his left shoulder and began to shake him lightly trying to get him to open his eyes, but his whole body was stiff.

“Marty! Marty baby, open your eyes for mom!” Kate touched the cheeks of her little boy and began to cry, he was ice cold. “ Marty, please wake up!” His body remained motionless. She grabbed at his hand and found to her horror he had begun to freeze to the hood of the van. Kate screamed and terror coursed through her body as his pinky came loose leaving a piece of flesh behind. But there was no blood and the tissue on the finger was bright pink like a piece of meat plucked from the freezer.

“Help!” She screamed “Help!” Her neighbors maybe could have heard her on any other night, but tonight the wind was ravaging the neighborhood so hard that anyone tucked in their bed wouldn’t hear a thing.

Kate tried moving him, but his heavy body was wedged between the grill and the wall. “No No No!” she cried brushing his hair back trying to warm his face. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her son was frozen to the hood of the car. Even as she went to lift his face it was stuck, and when she tried for a pulse the skin was hard as ice.

She looked over the body of her frozen little boy and saw he had indeed found the hiding spot for his presents, one of the bags was left open and a little bit of paper with Frosty the snowman peaked out. Small pieces of the wrapping paper had been removed in the corners of the gifts, so he could see what was inside. Next to the bags was the maroon box with the gold lettering "Cooks" written across the top. Her baby had snuck off to eat the cake just like his mom would have done, and found the Christmas presents as a consolation prize. Somehow while he was climbing back over the van he had slipt and wedged himself between the van and the wall.

“Nooo!’ Kate wailed and slammed her fists into the hood of the van.