Christmas in Evergreen. Nancy Naigle

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      As Ryan drove through scenic Vermont, the mountains towered above them on either side. Blanketed in snow, the evergreens rose, green with their branches dragging. The snow was coming down good. Blowing in big, blurry gusts in front of him. He was glad they were traveling during the day. This would be treacherous at night.

      “Silent Night” filled the car while he and Zoe played their favorite car trip game.

      “Okay,” he said, wondering why after playing this game with her for so many years that he didn’t have a list of words memorized already. His letter was F. What Christmas word starts with an F? “We’ve got…Angels, Blitzen, Candy Canes, Decorations, Elves… Fireplace!”

      He glanced at Zoe in his rearview mirror. She cocked her head. “Fireplace isn’t a Christmas word.”

      “It’s what Santa comes down.”

      “Santa comes down the chimney.” Zoe wasn’t as easily convinced now as she had been at five or six. Maybe it was just as well he didn’t remember the words he’d gotten away with back then.

      “Okay. Okay. Umm. How about…fruitcake.” Ryan glanced in the rearview mirror to see her reaction.

      “Pretty good,” Zoe admitted.

      “Pretty good?”

      “Okay,” she said with a giggle. “My turn. G.”

      “Okay,” Ryan urged her.

      “Angels, Blitzen, Candy Canes, Decorations, Elves, Fruitcake, and…Gingerbread.” Zoe smiled with that toothy grin he loved so much. It would no doubt set him back thousands of dollars in orthodontics not too far down the road, but for now, he adored that smile just the way it was.

      “Mmm. Mm. Mm,” Zoe said, clearly proud of the answer she’d come up with.

      “That’s a good one.”

      “Thanks. Except…now I’m hungry,” she said, hugging her tummy.

      “Okay. You know what?” He glanced at the clock on the dash. “I think we have time to stop. We just have to make it quick. We’ve got a flight to catch.”

      A couple of minutes later, Zoe pointed out a sign. “Evergreen! Let’s go there.”

      “Yeah, sure.” It was on the way. Who was he to argue? They’d grab a bite, top off the fuel, and be on their way. “Sounds good.” He slowed down and took the exit toward Evergreen.

      The speed limit was only thirty-five miles per hour. After being on the interstate for a while, it felt like they were creeping down the rural route. He was beginning to worry the town might be too far off the interstate and they might have to turn around, when he came upon a big green sign on the side of the road with an arrow to turn.

      The sign read Welcome to Evergreen and was decorated with a red-and-white picture of a jolly Santa Claus holding a candy cane above the town name.

      “We’re here, Dad!”

      They took the turn and drove through a red covered bridge that crossed over the semi-frozen creek they’d been driving alongside for miles.

      Ryan was kind of surprised he and Sarah had never happened across Evergreen. When he’d first started practicing medicine and times had been lean, they’d taken day trips in the car. They’d been to nearly every covered bridge in the area. How had they missed this one? There were plenty of them in this region, each unique and special in its own way. Somewhere, there was a scrapbook with pictures Sarah had taken on all of those trips.

      “It’s so pretty,” Zoe said.

      They drove out the other side of the bridge, and almost magically, the landscape opened up, revealing all the buildings and the town below in the valley. A pretty white church sat on the edge of town, its tall steeple reaching to the sky.

      It looked storybook perfect.