Charles knew it as soon as he woke up the next morning. He could tell by the quiet, muffled sounds from outside like the scrape of snow shovels. There were no traffic noises, just the beeping of a snowplow backing up. He jumped out of bed and ran to the window. Sure enough, snow had fallen all night long, leaving a thick white blanket covering everything in sight. A few flakes still drifted down. “Snow day!” he said to Buddy and Cocoa. They stretched and yawned on the rug next to his bed, where they had slept all curled up next to each other. “Snow day!” said Lizzie, popping into the room. “Mom just checked online. All the schools are closed. Yahoo!” She opened her arms wide to let Cocoa jump up on her, and they waltzed around together. “Want to go sledding? I’m going to call Maria and tell her to meet me at the school.” Sledding sounded great — but Charles had other things on his mind. “I have to practice my skiing,”
