A Song for the Season

To the Rescue

The drive to the nearest mechanic garage takes half an hour through the storm, but Vernon, the mechanic, needs only five minutes to diagnose the trouble: the engine overheated, and the van needs a new radiator. A patch on his coveralls reads “Hello, My Name Is Vernon!” Zane asks how long it will take, since they have a show in Thompson’s Station at seven. Vernon chuckles sadly. He explains that two cars are ahead of them, and an accident on I-40 has closed the interstate indefinitely because of the storm. It might reopen tomorrow.

Tenney blurts out that tomorrow is Christmas, and they’re all supposed to be home tonight.

Dad admits nobody will be home tonight. Zane concludes they’ll have to cancel the Thompson’s Station show and find a motel instead. Tenney leans against a wall, feeling dizzy, as if she’d just stepped off an amusement park ride. The hope she’d been holding onto, one last great show and getting home for Christmas Eve, has blown away like a snowflake in the wind.

Vernon drives them to the nearest hotel, a lean single-story building with green shutters and a red roof. The lot is jammed with cars and a charter bus, the lobby packed with stranded travelers shaking snow from their coats. Zane wrangles the last two rooms left. Logan steps away to call his mom, and Tenney sits frozen in the crowd near the entrance, huddling into her coat as the doors keep whooshing open with blasts of cold air.

Tenney’s phone finally catches a signal and buzzes with texts from Jaya that never made it through during the storm. The texts are cheerful, gushing about the tour and the Nashville snow. Tenney texts back the whole story, and Jaya asks the question Tenney has been dreading. Will she be home for Christmas? Tenney can only answer that she hopes so.

Looking around the lobby at the sparse decorations and the diner’s tiny, dusty corner stage with its “Merry Christmas” sign, Tenney’s heart sinks. It sinks further when an elderly couple shuffles in, fretting about spending Christmas night here, too. She slips outside into the falling snow and finally lets herself cry.

Through the window, Tenney spots Logan still on the phone, his face pinched with hurt, and wonders whether he’s telling Jude he won’t make it home tonight, too. Watching him, Tenney realizes how much harder this tour has been on Logan than on her. She still has Dad by her side, but Logan’s dad is an ocean away, and the rest of his family is clear across Tennessee. When he hangs up and disappears into the elevator with Zane, Tenney knows she has to help him.

Tenney can’t fix the storm, the roads, or Logan’s homesickness, and with the last show canceled, she worries she’s lost her chance to prove the tour was worthwhile. Then, stomping snow off her boots back in the lobby, her gaze drifts to the little stage in the diner, and an idea strikes: what if they played their very last show right here? Dad hurries over, swiping a strand of hair from her eyes, and asks if she’s okay. Tenney tells him she’s fine, but she needs his help with something.