EDITOR:
MIRIAM BELLE
CREATIVE CONSULTANTS:
MIRIAM BELLE & SIMPLY_CYN
"TRACKS IN THE SNOW"
***
It didn't just snow.
The small city of Breystaff, along with the neighboring towns of Castleton Springs, Mt. Shasta and Weed, was blanketed with three feet of pure, virgin snow in a matter of eight hours. During the early morning hours of December 20th, Pacific Power reported that seven transformers had blown out from lines being pulled under the weight of the snow. Most of the people in Breystaff woke up to find their alarm clocks silent and their televisions dark.
The morning sun did little to penetrate the thick, roiling clouds hovering over the broad stretch of Siskiyou County. As the hour rolled to eight, only a third of the streets had been sufficiently plowed to allow access to downtown. All three plows under city contract had been running steadily since the storm started just after ten the night before, and the men behind the wheels of the monstrous machines were tired and weary, ready for their relief drivers.
Fortunately for Eve Walsh, one of the big trucks had already passed the Animal Hospital and she was able to carefully maneuver her chain-laden blue Celica to the partially buried clinic. The blade of the plow had created a large enough wedge in the burm of snow to allow her to park off the road. The parking lot and building had been transformed into an alien landscape, soft rolling hills of white subduing the architecture beneath. As she stood at the edge of the cut in the snow made by the plow blade, arms huddled to her body inside her thick black jacket, she wondered just how the hell she was supposed to get inside.
"I'll bet Cat ain't even here," she muttered, her breath curling from her lips.
She was about to get back in the car and drive home when a flicker of light caught her eye. Inside the window of the examination room one of the bright, white halogens flashed and then dimmed and then burned brightly in the morning haze. The muffled sounds of the power being restored to the electrical lines hummed and then fell into a barely audible thrum. She looked at her car and then back at the window where the lights were on.
"I know I shut those off when I left," she said out loud, the idea of trying to traverse the deep snow becoming more and more unappealing by the minute. She supposed she could have gone home and probably not had a problem with Catalina. After all, the entire town was snowed in. Eve had only gotten out of her driveway because her father had been one of the few with a tractor and scoop. In all likelihood, there would be no repercussions if she didn't show up.
But those lights... Eve sighed, angry at her obsessive nature. She remembered turning them off, specifically making sure to check them before she locked up the night before. And yet, here they were lighting a room with no one in it. Eve stepped towards her car, her boots crunching in the ice and snow and then stopped suddenly, her momentum still leaning to the vehicle.
"Damn it," she shook her head, "I'm not going in there."
She looked to the clinic.
"I said I'm not," she put her hands on her hips, "I'm going home. It's just a light."
She glanced down at the ground and sighed as the idea of that light being on picked at her brain. She kicked the wall of snow and realized she would be hip deep in the white stuff just to make it to the door. In the distance, she could hear the scraping of metal to pavement as the plows worked steadily a block away.
"Son of a bitch," she breathed, "Fucking OCD..."
She waded through the snow, her thighs working in a dull protest as she pushed onward. She fell forward a few times, her hand outstretched to brace herself and then sinking into the snow. After five minutes of cursing and more hard work than she had planned on doing that day, she finally reached the door. The cold was bitter on her fingers as she slipped her gloves off and fumbled into the pocket of her jeans to fish the keys out.
"Fuck-a-doodle-doo," she hissed, her breath steaming around her.
Once inside, she closed the door and shook herself off. After tossing her jacket and gloves onto the chair behind the reception desk, Eve went to the bank of switches that controlled the lights. As she put her finger to the switch she heard voices coming from Cat's office. Her first instinct was primal and filled with anxiety. Someone was in the office already. Cat's car wasn't here, there was no way.
"Who the hell..." Eve walked quietly down the hallway, the heels of her boots squeaking quietly and yet loudly enough that a herd of elephants might as well have been passing by. She stopped by the door to her boss's office and found it slightly cracked open. Leaning close to the door frame, she peered in with one eye and was surprised to find Travis and Cat talking.
"Come on, you can tell me," Catalina smiled.
"We did some stuff," Travis said as his face turned red.
"Like?"
"Eve would kill me if I kissed and told."
Eve tensed up. They were talking about her?
Now Catalina was truly curious. "You're telling me you two dated in high school for a year and nothing happened other than 'stuff'?"
"Some good stuff," Travis said with a smile. "We had sex, if that's what you're asking."
"You lost your virginity to her?"
Travis took a deep breath and let it out slowly, more than a little uncomfortable. "Yes I did."
"Naughty naughty..."
"Hey, she was my first real girlfriend. I'm glad it was her."
Eve found herself drifting back to her senior year in high school, when she had been the love of Travis Goldsmith's life. They had been a good match, both of them popular but not so popular that their relationship was gossip worthy. Like the first time Travis had entered her, their relationship had been exciting, wonderful, slightly painful and a perfect fit. Eve thought of that first tentative love making session that seemed frozen in time eons ago. She felt a pang of hurt rise up in her chest.
Catalina paused for a moment, "Was she good?"
"Yeah," Travis shrugged, "But it was our first time with anyone. So even if we were bad, how could we tell?"
Eve found herself smiling despite herself. She liked how he had said "we."
"What happened between you two? What caused the break up?"
"Why are we talking about this?" Travis laughed, "We should be talking about us."
"I'm curious."
Eve felt her heart sink at the mention of the break up, familiar wounds opening wide and searing her all over again. Guilt swept over her and she closed her eyes.
"We had a-" Travis paused, and then after a moment, "We had a falling out."
"Oh," Cat said, and then, "So, enough about that. How do I stack up against her?"
"Feeling insecure are we?" Travis laughed.
"No," Cat countered, "I'd just like to know how an old maid like me compares to a sex bomb like her."
Eve felt a sudden pang of jealously.