"Eagle Glen Motor Inn, Cabin 12" the slender lady muttered to herself as she parked her car right in front. She still wasn't sure this was a great idea but she knew she just couldn't spend another Christmas at her sister's place. It's not that she didn't love Irene..and her husband Greg..and their daughter Penelope.
"Penelope," Ronny whispered barely aloud as she remembered those beautiful bright round eyes getting even bigger as she rounded the corner from the stairs into the large living room and saw the presents surrounding the tree. Penelope, whom everyone else seems to prefer to call Penny, had just turned four that November and was at a wonderful age for a visit from Santa. No, it wasn't that she'd not enjoyed their company or the Christmas day festivities, but it had been hard for her that first Christmas without Stephan. He'd been dead only a few months then and she still saw him everywhere! She had hoped that her sister and her family would be a good distraction from her grief. Instead, it was like living a constant reminder of what she no longer had and never would have now.
Ronny (she never thought of herself as Veronica anymore despite insisting that people not shorten her name for the first two decades of her life) could feel Stephan sitting in the car in the seat next to her even though she knew he couldn't be there. She'd been driving two Christmases ago when they'd come here for the last time. He'd dozed off during the long mountain climb away from Interstate 61 and had been sleeping soundly when she'd pulled the car up in front of their cabin. She was weeping silently as she sat there staring at the cabin door, which still had the two of the number twelve hanging crookedly on just one nail, afraid to look to her right to the passenger seat she knew was now empty. As if it was yesterday or even moments ago, Ronny was remembering how she'd awakened Stephan with a kiss upon his brow, then over both eyes, and finally, knowing he was awake now and just waiting, her lips had caressed his mouth before his lips parted and she had wandered dreamily in. When the kiss had ended he'd smiled up into her face framed by her shoulder-length red-brown hair and, with that so-familiar twinkle in his warm brown eyes, had chastised her for starting to celebrate their holiday too soon.
He had told her sternly, "No time for that fooling around. There're things to be done...unpacking and decorating and preparation for dinner. There'll be plenty of time for that sort of thing, Ronny (he always called her that, and she'd been just 'Ronny' ever since she'd lost him) after the work is finished." He had pretended to be like a general in charge of his single soldier, ordering her to do this and that as they gathered their suitcase and the boxes and bags of food and gear they'd bought for their holiday stay here in the beautiful Appalachian mountains and carried it all inside. On the last trip in there'd been only one small overnight-style bag left and, very uncharacteristically, he'd not volunteered to go out and get it, but had ordered her to fetch it double quick if she didn't want to pull KP for their whole vacation. But, then he'd followed her out to the car, stood watching as she got the bag and locked up their vehicle. As she was approaching the door, somewhat nervously because he had that look in his eye, she was sure he was up to something.
When she stepped onto the little stoop just outside the cabin door, Stephan had stepped up quickly and swept her up into his arms. He kicked open the door as she clutched the bag across her stomach he kissed her, holding the kiss as they passed over the threshold until he'd kicked the door closed behind them..exactly as he had on their honeymoon three years before!
Ronny hadn't even remembered how the overnight bag had disappeared, but in moments they were on the overstuffed divan inside the room of the cabin which served as living room and kitchen. The bag was gone, her arms were around his neck and she was drinking in his scent as he hugged her to him and nuzzled her throat just inside the fur-lined hood of her coat. Despite 'the general's' orders of minutes before, they had not waited until all the unpacking was done, but had made love right there hastily, passionately like sex-crazed teens who were finally alone for the very first time and didn't know how long it would be before they were interrupted.
Still sitting inside the SUV, now with her eyes closed Ronny revisited the blissfull event. It had all been a glorious blur of activity...of zippers and buttons being undone and snaps and straps being popped and pushed aside..of urgent kisses and suckings and touches without subtlety or nuance intended only to pleasure and to prepare for the coupling which had ignited such fires within her that Ronny had seriously doubted they could ever be quenched. And they had spent three incredible days there in Cabin 12 of the Eagle Glen Motor Inn.
Except for the few times they'd ventured out to explore the woods surrounding the lodge or to replenish supplies, it was as though the two-room interior with it's rough timber walls and ancient furnishings (including the wonderful high double bed with the huge down pillows and hand-made comforter that had 'come to know' them quite intimately) was their whole world.
Most of the time in the cabin had been spent with Stephan wearing only the short satin robe she'd given him the Christmas before (the one that was barely long enough to hide anything important and that parted readily when the important part wished to demand some attention) and Ronny wearing naught but one of his long flannel shirts. As often as the urge had come over either of them, they had given and taken freely of the delights of one another's passion.
Resolution at last settled the flutterings in Ronny's stomach and she shoved open the door abruptly and got out of the Lincoln Escalade she and Stephan had purchased right after getting back from their second honeymoon in Colorado. She moved quickly to keep from loosing her nerve as she pulled her overnight bag from the back seat and made for the cabin door. The key stuck slightly just as it had two years ago, but she remembered the trick of pushing in and then turning and was inside, the door was closed and she was standing with her forehead leaning against it, her back to the room that was filled with so many memories.
Taking and expelling a long breath she began turning slowly to take in the familiarity of her surroundings and all the painfully joyful stirrings they impelled. Along the wall to the right of the cabin entrance were two chairs on either side of a slightly rickety oak table upon which they'd eaten many a meal. The chairs were wood and wicker and in varying states of repair. The table was centered on the wall decorated with an old-fashioned hand-done cross-stitching in a frame. She knew without moving to see the artwork that it had a picture of a horse-drawn sleigh emerging from a covered bridge at the top and the words from that old children's song about the winter holidays "Over the river and thru the woods" below.
In the corner was an old style wood and iron butter churn long past its usefulness. Above that was a built in shelf on which rested a radio that looked like it hadn't worked since the golden age of such programming as The Shadow and Abbot and Costello. There was no TV, no computer (harder for Stephan than for Ronny as he had been connected to the pulse of the business world on every continent thru his work -- but he had promised..and kept his word not to even bring the laptop), only that radio which got a 24-hour church revival station and the static-filled "Voice of the simple folk Country-Radio on 86.8 on your AM dial".
Continuing from that corner along the side wall, the one shared with Cabin 10 (all the even numbered cabins were along this side of the office and the odd ones made up the opposite wing of the Glen Eagle Motor Inn), an old four burner electric stove, a sink with a very tiny counter between it and the stove, and a small refrigerator. Under the sink was limited storage space to serve as a small pantry.
The opposite wall from the one of the door boasted an antique cupboard and a sideboard she knew were filled with dishes and bowls and glasses and such with table cloths and spare bed linens in the lower drawers. The cupboard was tall with solid doors covering the upper two thirds decorated with faded painted images to far gone to be clearly identified and two long drawers below. A stuffed majestic-looking bird was displayed on a shelf above the sideboard. The heavy furniture piece had an uneven surface due to the age and swelling of the wooden boards on which stood a pitcher and bowl which Ronny believed was made of Chinese blue willow patterning -- possibly the only real thing in the whole cabin of true monetary value. Between the heavy-looking furniture pieces was a doorway with a short tension rod and a blue satiny drape filling the area within the frame.
She stood and stared at the fabric barrier for what seemed like forever as though she might be able to will Stephan to push back the shiny material and step thru as he had so many times when last they visited. When he failed to appear, she released the breath she'd not realized she'd been holding and finished her perusal of the room. The old couch along the left hand wall (there was no Cabin 14, so there was a window which could be shuttered from the inside but was currently uncovered that looked out at the woods alongside and behind the Inn) was flanked on either side by end tables supporting tall lamps with large red glass globes at the bottom of each. The lamps matched even though the end tables did not.
Ronny knew that the switch just below the bulb hardware was a three way that would either light a small bulb inside the red globe for 'just the proper ambiance' as Stephan had declared on more than one occasion during their previous stay, or light the bulb surrounded by the tall, cheap paper shade for 'enough light to wake the dead' he had exclaimed when she had once fumbled the switch twice instead of once in the wee hours of the morning and blinded his stirring form just so she could 'sneak off to the bathroom'. Or one more twist would light them both for a useless combination of red ambiance and blinding 60-watt illumination. The memory of that full-bladdered dash after she'd stumbled from the sofa and had blinded her lover by accident rushed to take over center screen in the 'movie' she was watching of her former visit to the cabin.
