“He did! I poured the stuff into the volcano to make it explode.”
Snow was glad to hear it. “That’s wonderful, honey.”
She took Bluebell’s hand and started leading her down the street.
“Mom, home is that way.”
“I know, but we’re not going home just yet. I thought we could go to the toy store. I’ve decided to get you that doll you’ve been wanting.”
Bluebell’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Bluebell flung her arms around Snow. “You’re the best, Mom!”
Snow chuckled, hugging Bluebell back before turning to continue the short walk to the toy store.
They left the toy store about twenty minutes later with a very happy Bluebell, already talking animatedly to her new doll.
When they got home, Daisy was waiting for them and ushered Snow into the lounge. “Look!”
Snow stared in astonishment. She was on TV, talking to reporters outside the Foundation building. She was pleased to see that she didn’t look nearly as flustered as she had felt answering all of those questions.
Daisy put an arm around Snow. “I’m so proud of you, honey.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Mom, why are you on TV?”
“It’s because I won an award, sweetheart, for one of the photos I took. The reporters were asking me questions about my photos.”
“That’s so cool!”
“It is indeed very cool,” Snow agreed. “Now, shall we look at your homework?”
Bluebell nodded enthusiastically. “We need to answer questions about the volcano!”
“And do your math homework,” Snow reminded her.
Bluebell wilted slightly. “And do my math homework.” Bluebell hated math, something Snow privately agreed with her on, but she did her best to encourage her daughter and to make the homework as fun as possible for her.
Homework didn’t go as planned. Snow’s phone was practically blowing up with all the notifications she was getting. Eventually, she asked Daisy to help Bluebell with her homework so that she could focus on all the incoming notifications.
Most of them were from her Facebook page, ordering greeting cards. Snow’s eyes went wide as she saw how many orders she was getting. She would need to get that printer tomorrow and start printing as soon as possible to fulfill all of these orders in a timely fashion.
There were a couple of emails asking her to do photo shoots, and a multitude of emails from reporters asking for interviews. Twitter was already calling her alocal sensation.
It was all so incredible; Snow couldn’t stop smiling. She checked the time and saw that if she drove, she still had time to go to the computer store today to get her printer. She generally preferred to walk, but walking home carrying a heavy printer wouldn’t be fun anyway.
She told Daisy where she was going and got into the car that the two of them shared. Snow hummed as she drove. Today was the best day she could remember having in a while, and all indications were that the days to follow would be just as good.
3
It started off as an ordinary day. Amanda went for a walk through her trees, checking that they were all growing well. Then she went to her computer and looked through the greeting cards she had designed so far.
She was browsing through Facebook, checking if she had any questions on her page, when she saw a link to an article about some local photographer. Apparently, she’d won a national award. Amanda didn’t know why this was turning up on her Facebook, but she opened the link anyway.
Amanda scanned the article, which said that the photographer, Snow Willows, also had her own range of greeting cards. Amanda navigated to Snow’s Facebook page to find it flooded with questions about her greeting cards. By all appearances, people were going crazy over the things.