The car swerved over the snow covered road. I made a small correction to the steering wheel and the tires regained traction. On the horizon I could see another storm blowing in. I only had a few more minutes till I reached my drive. I'll be snuggled inside the cabin before the storm breaks, I thought to myself. After pulling up my drive and securing the truck inside the garage, I made the trek up to the cabin. The drive was a private road on my property just off the county road. The cabin, a modernized log cabin with all the amenities of a regular house sat farther back from the road nestled in among the trees. It was a bit inconvenient having to always hike the quarter mile from the garage to the house, but when I was looking for a place, I didn't have much of a choice and was pressed for time. Louise wanted me out of our home as soon as possible. She was eager for the divorce to go through with a minimum of complications, and her lover was pressing her to move in. Money changes people. The windfall we received allowed us to drop our jobs, payoff all debts, our families debts and live more than comfortably together.
The funny thing about that was as we spent more time together, we wound up frustrated and bored with each other. We realized the jobs and other distractions, actually masked the fact that we were not a good fit. Well at least I found that out when I walked in to find Louise in the throes of passion with her lovers face between her legs. That was two years ago. We quickly divvied up our assets; I took two thirds since she was the one cheating, and left her the house. I never wanted to see that house after that incident anyways.
I needed to get away from everything. I went hermit and thought that secluding me out in the woods was penance for what I regarded as a failure on our part to work things out and live forever together in wedlock. I wallowed in my self pity for months until I finally started to go stir crazy. Finally I took a shower, shaved, and started thinking about what I would do with the rest of my life. Being in my thirties, I still felt like I was twenty five although there tended to be a few more aches and pains in my joints and muscles.
I did what every rich bored person does, I started a consulting firm. That kept me busy both body and mind, and after a time, the pain and hurt from what Louise did, and what I "allowed" to have happened, disappeared.
I stomped my feet to clear the snow from my boots as I reached the front door. Opening it, I entered the mudroom and changed out of my snow clothes and let the dog out to do her business as I put away the groceries. She was very excited and seemed to be pretty vocal, barking and whining away outside. I hadn't really heard that tone from her before, and I glanced out the window to see what the commotion was about. Maybe a raccoon or something, I thought.
I followed the sightline from where Bessie was barking at, and my blood ran cold. Just a few feet from Bessie was a figure collapsed in the snow lying face down. I hadn't noticed it when I had come in, but now I quickly raced to the front door hoping that I wasn't too late.
It was cold out without my jacket. I trudged through the knee deep snow to get to the figure. The storm was almost upon us, as the first drops of snow started to flicker down from the sky and the wind started to pick up. Bessie was still whining as I reached the figure. I grabbed him and turned him over in the snow to bring his face up. The face which appeared from under the hood of the soaked and frozen sweatshirt was a light twinge of blue. Jeez, I thought, this is the wrong type of clothing for weather like this. Working quickly as the wind bit into me with another gust, I tried to revive him to see if he would respond. At this point I was concerned with the storm coming that there might be others stuck out here with the same type of clothing. If there were, I needed to find them fast.
I heard a moan. He was alive at least! "Hey," I said. "How many others are there?" I repeated it again, as I worked him out of the snow. "How many others?" I repeated. I heard a groan and a mumble of "none" from him. Satisfied and assured, I dragged him back inside. Bessie didn't help much with carrying him, but she had done her job in alerting me.
I worked quickly as I laid the small man on the floor in front of the fireplace. First thing was to get those clothes off. The sweatshirt hoodie wasn't the only inappropriate clothing he had worn out there. The blue jeans, with stylish rips and tears were soaked, stiff and frozen. The shoes were regular tennis shoes. I peeled off his clothing with no resistance from him, tossed them in a pile on the floor, then looked back to see he was wearing a bra. He, no it was a she. She was out. Her body blue. I tore the bra and panties off her, then grabbed the blanket off the couch and wrapped her in it and lifted her up to the couch. I moved quickly turning the heat up in the house and lighting a fire in the fireplace. Next I put a pot on to boil and went out to my bedroom and pulled out a pair of heavy flannel pajamas. They would be too large for her, but would be warm after they had gone through the dryer for a few minutes. As the dryer warmed the pj's I quickly changed out of my wet clothes into some dry ones and went back into the kitchen to make some hot tea with the now boiling water. I went through the cabinets and pulled down a hearty canned stew that I opened up into a pot on the stove and turned the burner onto low. I brought a tall cup of tea, the now warmed pj's and some extra blankets back into the living room, which had gotten quite warm with the fire, now blazing and the heater blowing. Pulling the blanket off her, I dressed her quickly in the warm pj's, and rewrapped her in some heavy blankets. I moved the couch closer to the fireplace so the heat from the open flames would reach her. Her hair was wet and I grabbed a towel and dried it as best I could. Dirty blond, I noticed and greasy. I looked at her face, trying to recognize her. Was she one of the locals that I might have seen in town? She didn't look familiar. She wasn't old, late teens I would guess, senior or just out of high school perhaps.
I pulled her upright and started nursing the hot tea into her mouth. The outside had been taken care of, now I focused on getting her temperature up from the inside. She drank a few sips, shivering as it went down her. That was a good sign. She was getting more responsive. She kept fading in and out of consciousness as I sat with her, adding my body warmth and mass to hers trying to get her warm. The storm was in full fury as the cabin got buffeted by the winds and snow. I wasn't worried. The cabin was a modern built cabin, structurally sound, and fully insulated. I had sat out many storms since moving here and aside from the noise from the wind, the storm raging outside had no effect on the two of us inside. Make that three of us now, Bessie, myself and our little traveler.
Eventually I fed her some of the stew, left the rest on the stove, and nursed her through the night. I was dead tired when the clock chimed five in the morning. I had been working a long contract a few hours away, burning though fourteen hour days as I helped get the company back on track for the last two weeks. I had barely made it home with no rest when this incident happened. The adrenaline had worn off many hours before, but I didn't feel comfortable leaving her until she showed some sign of improvement. She had been sleeping for the last hour, no more interruptions, and I finally couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I decided to go to my bed and catch some sleep. She would be confused enough when she finally woke up in the cabin, if she discovered a strange man passed out next to her and she wearing his pajamas, I'm sure that would have caused some more stress and shock.
I slept for a few hours, grateful for the rest, but I was still nervous as to her condition. I had questions for her as well. It was Bessie that nudged me awake. She needed to go out and the snow had piled high enough that it blocked her doggie door. I pulled myself out of bed, happy for the excuse to get up and check on my traveler. I stumbled to the back door and opened it, using the small snow shovel to clear some room for Bessie to enter and exit the doggie door. Gladly, she leapt out into the high snow, to disappear and go about her business. Shivering I closed the door, satisfied that she could re-enter through the doggie door, or at the very least she could bark and let me know that she wanted in. She was never shy about that.
I popped my head into the living room to check on the girl. She was still laid out on the couch, bundled up, asleep. The fire had died down and I quietly put a few more logs on the fire to build it back up. I then went back into the kitchen and made some coffee. I heard some rustling in the living room and noticed Bessie go in to investigate. I heard a croak, "Hi there." She said from the living room. I gave her a minute to get acquainted with Bessie then brought the coffee pot out with two mugs and cream and sugar.
She looked up at me as I entered the room. "How are you feeling?" I asked as I set the tray down on the coffee table next to her. I took a seat on the other couch, giving her space. There was a look of confusion that clouded her face for a moment, then looking at the coffee, she muttered, "Better, I'm still cold...I take it I have you to thank for saving me?" Her eyes stayed focused on the coffee, she made an effort not to look me in the face. I thought perhaps more than embarrassment, she felt shame.
"Actually," I said. "Bessie was the one who found you. I guess I can take credit for carrying you inside and getting you warm though." I smiled when she smiled, and continued petting Bessie. I offered her coffee and she drank it. After a time the inevitable question came up. "So," I started. I could see that she was dreading this moment as well. "Let's get this over with, you wanna tell me why I found you out there? You weren't even dressed for the snow."
She swallowed another sip of her coffee first.
"I wasn't planning on going for a walk dressed like that."
"That's good," I said. "At least I can rule out insanity and stupidity."
She didn't say anything, and I realized I would have to pry the information out of her.
"Do you live around here?"
She shook her head.
"Not from around here, then where are you from? We should probably let your parents know you're alright. They must be worried sick about you."
Her eyes teared up and she started blubbering and shaking. I struck a nerve. This was bad news. Then it all came out.
"They're dead. Both of them. My uncle was taking me back to Arizona where he lives when I left him and the car."
