Jane Marsh put down her pen and stood to answer the telephone by the forth ring.
"Hello."
"Jane, how are you?" The voice at the other end of the line paused for a second or two before continuing.
"The sheriff was just here and left word that there's a hiker lost somewhere near your cabin."
"How does the sheriff know that he's around here?" Jane asked the caller.
"The man left notice with the park ranger that he was going to attempt to hike the Dunn Trail in two days. Your property borders the worst part and we thought you might want to know."
"Hell, I know the trail," Jane told him, "and there's no way it can be done in just two days."
"Yeah, I know, but some of these nature freaks...well, they just don't listen to good reason most of the time."
"I'll take a quick walk up that way and see if I can spot him," she said as she glanced out the window, "we have about five hours of daylight left and it's looking like its going to snow any minute."
"Yeah, that's what they are calling for, maybe twelve inches tonight, then more tomorrow."
"Yeah, lucky us."
"Ok, Jane, you be careful up there."
"I always try, thanks."
Jane replaced the receiver on its cradle and walked back to her desk. She looked at the notes she had been writing before the call and decided that she needed a break anyway. She walked to the mudroom and slipped her feet into her snow boots, then took her parka off its hook and put it on. Checking the woodstove one last time, she walked out her back door, and into the coming storm.
As she walked upward towards the head of the trail, she mused about the turn of events in her life that had brought her here. The break up with David had been unexpected and painful. Coming home from work on that day, to discover that he had packed his things and gone, leaving a simple note on the coffee table;
"Jane, this just isn't going to work for me. I'm sorry. David"
One line, just one fucking line, and that's all it took for him to completely destroy her world. She had no earthly idea of why he decided to do this to her or why he did it in the manner that he did. He didn't even have the courage to actually face her and explain his feelings. He didn't even offer her the chance to try and work things out between them. He just left her, destroyed her, with one fucking line.
After David left, she used the opportunity to take her grandmothers offer of the old cabin in Dale's Glenn, where she might be able to pull herself and her life back together.
At 32, she still had the looks that made most men turn and look at her twice. Shoulder length blond hair, fair complexion and eyes the color of the sky on a clear day. She was an avid outdoors type woman, in very good shape, and liked nothing better than taking long walks in the forests and along the many trails in the desolate area that she now called home.
The sky had grown darker with each passing minute and the bite of the cold air against her face brought her back from her memories.
As she looked around to get her bearings, the snow began to fall. Large, fluffy, pure white flakes as big as quarters, soon made it almost impossible for her to see more than thirty feet in any direction.
She entered the woods at the head of the trail and wondered about the lost hiker. Had he even made it this far? She suspected that he probably had, and was further down the trail to her left. With the snow starting to cover the ground around her, she turned, took a deep breath of the cold air and started down the trail, looking for the lost hiker.
After forty minutes of steady walking, she had not seen so much as a rabbit. The snow was now two or three inches deep and the sky had darkened to a deep, dull, gray. If she didn't see anything of her hiker within the next thirty minutes or so, she would have to abandon the search or risk getting herself lost in this blizzard.
She reached a point on the trail that she decided was as far as she ought to go in this weather.
"Ok, that's it," she said aloud, "this is as far as I go."
As she was turning around to start back, something dark and out of place caught her eye. She moved closer to the edge of the trail and realized that she had found the lost hiker.
He was sitting on the ground with his back against a large cedar tree, ten feet off the trail. Although the tree had provided him some protection from the snow, he still had a heavy dusting covering his body. He appeared to be asleep, but with all the snow falling, it was hard for her to tell.
"Hello, are you alright?" She shouted, but the man did not stir or react to her voice.
She carefully climbed down to where he was and nudged his foot, causing him to moan in pain.
"Mister, what happened?" "Are you all right?"
He moaned again and slowly opened his eyes, looking up at her.
"Please help me," he whispered so quietly that she had to lean closer to hear him say, "I've hurt my ankle."
She kneeled by his feet and noticed that his left boot was untied, with the lacing completely undone. When she gently put her hand on it, he groaned in pain.
"I slipped in the snow and fell," he told her, "and must have landed with my foot under me."
"Yes, it sure looks that way." She agreed.
"I managed to crawl over here to get out of the snow, but when I tried to stand up, I couldn't." "It hurt too much to put any weight on it."
"Think you can try standing again, with my help?"
He looked at her, nodded his head and held out his hand.
As she helped him get to his feet, she couldn't help but notice that he was a good-looking man, probably in his early twenties. Because of his bulky outer clothing she couldn't tell anything about his build, but being a hiker, she knew that he would be in shape.
"Doing all right?" She asked. "Can you put any of your weight on it at all?"
"No, well, maybe just a little, with your help."
"Go ahead and put your arm across my shoulder and I'll put my arm around your back." "Put some of your weight on me, I'm not as flimsy as I might look."
"By the way, since we're going to be traveling close together for a while, my name is Jane."
"It's very good to meet you Jane; I'm Paul, Paul Edwards."
"Well, Mr. Paul Edwards, we better get started because it's about a three hour walk back to my cabin, and with this snow and your ankle, it's going to be difficult journey."
They made their way slowly back up to the trail, and then headed off to her cabin.
*****
The darkness of a winter night had descended by the time Jane and Paul arrived back at her cabin. They were exhausted, hungry, wet and very cold. Paul had done well on the trip back, stopping only twice to rest and never complaining of his injured ankle. He was elated when she announced that the cabin was just over the next hill.
She opened the front door and helped Paul come inside, then pulled a chair over by the woodstove and sat him in it. She helped him take off his heavy coat, and then placed a small footstool in front of him. She was as gentle as possible as she lifted his injured leg and placed it on the stool, and then carefully removed his boot. Paul's ankle was swollen and colored in deep shades of black and blue; his foot was as cold as a block of ice. She knew that he needed to have a cold pack applied to ease the swelling but thought that it could wait because he needed to warm his body first. Jane went to her bedroom and gathered the warm comforter off her bed and returned to the front room.
"Paul, you need to get out of those wet jeans," and handed him the comforter. "I'll help you if you need me to."
"I think I can do that by myself." He said as he unbuckled his belt.
When he tried to pull his pants off, he found that he would need her help after all.
"I guess I can't do it by myself," he told her, "but there's something I better tell you first."
"No problem, just lift your butt off the chair a little and I'll slip these out from under you."
"But...But," he sputtered, "You need to know that...." When she had his jeans off his butt and started down towards his knees, she couldn't help but see that he wasn't wearing underwear and that even though he was still cold, the cold had no effect on his maleness.
"That's what I was trying to tell you," he said, "I never wear them."
"Oh." She said and laughed nervously, "Well, here, you might want to cover yourself to stay warm," and tossed him the comforter.
She asked if he wanted a bowl of hot soup and maybe a sandwich, to which he readily agreed. Going into her small kitchen, she gathered the ingredients and started their dinner.
"Is ham and cheese ok with you, Paul?" "And mushroom soup?"
"That would be great, Jane, all I had with me the last two days, was some trail mix."
After preparing the food, she picked up a TV tray and set it beside him, then brought his dinner and asked him if he wanted something to drink.
"I have water, tea or wine," she told him.
"Wine would be nice, if you don't mind."
"Yeah, I think wine too," she said, "might help us warm up."
Opening the bottle of wine, she grabbed two glasses from the dish drainer and filled them generously.
"I better warn you though, this is homemade dandelion wine and it packs a real punch."
"Did you make it?"
"No, an old man from town makes it, and then gives it to his friends as gifts."
"Good kind of friend to have," he said.
