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- Mary greeted the skiers at the door when they returned from "A-Basic."
- "Joey's been hurt. Louise called me after you left this morning. He broke his ankle, dislocated his shoulder and tore some ligaments last night while skiing," she announced.
- "Gee, grandma," Mal said. "I thought he was a really good skier. Didn't he see that snow snake?"
- Mal thought about Joey's taunting and tripping him the day before. He felt a twinge of "serves him right" before putting that selfish thought out of his mind.
- Agnes and Mort were both about to renew their lecture to Mal about "think twice before acting once" but decided against it. Joey was hurt and that was more important right now.
- "I'll call Louise right away and find out more," Agnes said.
- When she hung up, Agnes explained to everyone that Joey begged to stay for the night skiing even though he was very tired from being out all day. Fred and Louise were reluctant, but gave in because they couldn't afford too many days of skiing and wanted to let their son have the extra time on the slopes.
- "We'll go visit him first thing in the morning, before driving back to the airport," Agnes decided.
- "Aw, Mom," Mal complained. "Now we won't have time to stop anywhere on the way back."
- Mel was almost as disappointed as Mal, but just nodded. She didn't want to look as selfish as her twin brother.
- "That's settled, then" Mort said, and asked "is Joey back at home or still at the hospital?"
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- "He's at home," Agnes answered. "We should take him something to cheer him up. I'll bake some cookies. Mal, Mel, you could draw pictures on his cast. I'm sure we can find some markers or crayons for you.
- "Oh, goodie," Mel said with a sigh.
- Everyone busied themselves packing the next morning. They would pick up their luggage after vising Joey.
- Of course Mal and Mel hoped they wouldn't have to stay too long at their aunt and uncle's house. After all, there were a lot of neat places to stop at on the way to the airport, and it wasn't their fault that Joey got hurt.
- It was already mid-morning when they left to visit Joey. Everyone was surprised to see Joey answer the doorbell. His left arm was in a sling and the cast on his left foot was almost to his knee. Joey grinned and said "Hi. See what a monster snow snake can do to you? I wrestled it to the ground, but it ..."
- Just then Louise came to the front door. "Now Joey," she said. "You know you were just too tired. Skiing at night takes all your attention and you were fooling around instead of looking where you were going." "It was nice of you to come, especially since you need to get to the airport," Louise said to Agnes and Mort. "Mel and Mal, do you want to add your decorations to Joey's cast?"
- Susie and Amy had already drawn trees and birds on Joey's cast. "That's because Joey ran into a tree and went flying," Susie explained.
- While the adults were talking about Joey's accident, Mel decided she would draw a flower with her face in the middle. Mal tried to draw an outline of a snowflake with a black marker. Both the flower and the snowflake were lopsided, but the adults all admired their handiwork. Joey? Not so much.
- "Where'd you learn to draw like that?" he asked. "From your dog?"
- Mal and Mel chose to ignore their cousin's remark. But Mal couldn't resist an idea he had and picked up his marker.
- "What are you going to TRY to draw now?" Joey asked.
- "Just signing my snowflake," Mal said as he wrote 2 = 1.
- "Two can't equal one," Amy said.
- "Sure it can," Mal replied. "Think twice, act once." Mel giggled, while Mal was immensely pleased with his little inside joke.
- Louise suggested they stay for lunch, which Agnes accepted. Mort looked at his watch, saying they would have enough time as long as they drove directly to the airport.
- Mal and Mel were disappointed, but Agnes told them that there would be other trips and that the mountains and other interesting things to see along the way weren't going anywhere.
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