Clever Magazine, Winter '09 " Snowbound, Day 17 " (www.clevermag.com)

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Snowbound – Day 17

by Dianne Kochenburg

Sidney sat on the couch with her stash of Ben’s books piled in front of her on the coffee table. She had sorted them several times. A large pile of paperbacks that she had quickly scanned and decided she hadn’t read yet -- these she pushed to one side to read later. This pleasing bunch of books she'd save, ration them out for after her daily chores were done.

She rubbed her hands together to warm them. It was always so darned cold these days. Even with their little electric heater going full blast all the time, there never was enough heat. She sighed as she looked at the dead fireplace. Probably have to start lighting a fire again. They’d been reluctant to burn up the firewood now that the electricity was back on. It could go out again any time. She shuddered and pulled the comforter around her a little tighter. The wind was howling off the lake again and stirring up the trees. They made such a racket when a storm was coming. The clouds were dark, more snow on the way.

The next stack of books was smaller. A couple of history books that she had quickly tossed onto the pile. American Plains Indians. Why on earth did that end up in the sled? Nature essays. Nothing of interest there. She wasn’t in the mood to even look at gardens of the southwest. A book about fishing. That pile of books could go back to Ben’s for all she cared.

The book that did interest her was called The Complete Tracker: the tracks, signs, and habits of North American Wildlife. It was tall and slim, covered in a green dust jacket with pictures of animals on it. She cracked it open. What luck! The first chapter contained drawings of animal paw prints. She looked carefully at all of them to see if any matched up with the ones she’d seen around the cottage. Most of the sketches looked like big dog prints to her. Those were wolves and coyotes. Bear prints looked sort of human, like a person running around barefoot. Unfortunately, the snow prints she had seen would be hard to identify. They weren’t as carefully outlined as the ones in the book. Mostly what she had seen in the snow looked more like scrapes or holes. She’d have to go out with her book in hand and see if anything matched up.

She turned to the back of the book to see if there were any other marks that would help her. Tucked into the back flap of the dust jacket was a small stack of postcards, all of them featuring local animals. Now she remembered seeing these very postcards at the lodge. She’d never paid much attention to them before. This could be helpful information.

She grabbed up her journal, which she usually kept in the bookcase when she wasn’t writing in it. She didn’t want Matt reading it. If she left it lying on the kitchen table, he’d paw through it out of boredom.

Sierra Nevada Wildlife: Mule deer, Steller jay, ground squirrel, marmot, bobcat, black bear, raccoon, coyote, mountain lion. These animals were all featured on the cards. Some of them were standing in snow. Gulp. She looked at the back of the wolf card. The card read: Friends of Animals is leading the fight against aerial wolf shooting in Alaska. Thank you for your support. Aerial wolf shooting. Sidney thought about that. What could it mean? Aerial wolves? Oh, then she got it – aerial wolf shooting must refer to shooting wolves from the air, like maybe from a helicopter. How awful. Who on earth would do such a thing? Too bad there was no mail service. She’s send Friends of Animals a donation.

This was a big animal list. She remembered seeing lots of deer and squirrels, which she always thought were chipmunks. Ah well. And of course, those camp ground black bears. She was quite familiar with them. Sidney shivered again. There were lots of birds up here, not only blue jays. There were a couple of eagle nests across the lake. And geese, Canada geese that commute down here every year. Do they really come all the way from Canada to Goose Lake? What made her a little uneasy were the animals on the list she hadn’t known about, like the mountain lion, for example. She hadn’t heard anybody ever mention seeing a mountain lion around here. Bob cats and coyotes, she didn’t know about them either. Maybe they were off in another part of the Sierra. More research needed. But for now, she’d see if she could identify any of the little tracks she’d noticed out in the snow. And she'd get Matt interested in this too.

Matt and Toast were still curled up in bed with the down comforter over them. The cat was such a sack rat, and Matt was picking up on her bad habit. They wouldn’t get up until Sidney made lots of noise or started to cook something that smelled good. That was getting more difficult. According to her calendar, they’d been here 17 days now. Every morning she’d put a line through the date, just like they do in prison movies. Soon it would be Thanksgiving. What did they have to be thankful for? She’d have to think about that.

She threw off her comforter and started for the kitchen, her cold coffee mug was ready for another splash of luke warm water. She’d left some dried beans on the stove in hot water to soften over night. She’d fix them some bean soup today. They could have it for lunch and dinner. There were a couple of carrots left in the fridge. Although they were both sort of wilted and gray around the edges, she would only use one of them, sliced thin and toss it into the simmering beans later, so it wouldn’t get too soft. She wished for an onion and a little piece of ham, but that wasn’t an option. She’d flavor the soup with some bay leaves, salt and pepper. Not much of a dinner. Maybe there was a can of some other vegetable she could put in with it, and perhaps she’d break up a few strands of pasta too. How about ketchup or hot sauce? She was making herself hungrier just thinking about it.

For breakfast she’d bake the last of the biscuit mix into four biscuits. They could each have one for breakfast with a little jam and then another one tonight. There was still lots of flour left in Maggie’s big canister, and some yeast. There must be some other ingredients needed for bread. Maybe butter. That would be another project. Find a bread recipe and see if she could learn how to make bread.

Now she had two projects for today: find out how to make bread, and – what was the second one? Oh, yes, see if she or Matt, or maybe both of them, could determine what kind of animals were prowling around outside the cottage.

She mixed up the biscuit batter and put it in the oven and then started on her simple bean soup, which could simmer for hours. That would help keep the house warm too. As she was working at the sink, she heard the soft meow of Toast and felt her under foot. The cat liked to rub her head against Sidney’s leg to get her attention.

“Oh, good morning, Toast. Are you hungry too?” The little cat meowed again. Time for breakfast. As Sidney rationed out a couple tablespoons of kibble for the cat, she heard Matt muttering and yawning. Another day was about to get underway. He staggered into the kitchen, stretching and scratching himself.

“Morning, dear,” Sidney said, smiling as she turned from her chores at the sink.

“Morning. Cooking something? Smells good already,” he answered.

“Biscuits will be done in a minute. And there’s plenty of jam too. Water’s hot.”

“I’ll be right there.”

While they ate Sidney showed Matt the book with the track marks and the postcards she’d found. He put on his glasses for a better look at the small print on the back of the postcards and read them all carefully before making any comments.

“So, Sid, these were in Ben’s book?”

“Uh-huh.”

“He bought these postcards and then didn’t send them to anybody. He just kept them?”

“Yeah, I guess so. They were stuck in this book about tracking.”

“Is Ben a hunter? He doesn’t look like much of a hunter to me. Wonder why he had this kind of a book?”

Sidney tried not to get too exasperated with Matt. “What does it matter why he had the book or the postcards? I think they might help us figure out what all those track marks are around the cottage.”

“Track marks? You mean animal tracks, Sid?”

“Well, yes, what other tracks would they be? It’s just us two up here and we sure as hell didn’t make them.”

“Hmm. I never thought much about it. Matter of fact, I haven’t really noticed anything like animal trails. I can see our footprints though. Big Foot is what they look like. Just kidding! Course, those are going to be obliterated soon enough. Look at the snow coming down. This is going to be a big one.”

They both went to the big window that looked over the lake and peered through the mini-blinds. The wind had let up a little and huge snowflakes were falling. The deck had a least an inch of new snow on it since Sidney last looked outdoors, and that seemed like just minutes ago.

“Oh my god, would you look at that. I’ve never seen so much snow. It’s hard to see farther than the edge of the deck.” Sidney breathed onto the window and fogged it up. “It’s gotta be cold out there right now.”

“Yup. This is gonna be a big one. I think we better start hauling up some wood, just in case. Maybe better refill that lantern too. Let’s get to work on it, Kiddo. After that we better start removing what snow we can reach on the roof and then sweep it off the deck and porch. We don’t wanna get buried in this stuff.”

Sidney dressed in a hurry, bundling up as best she could. It was cold in the cellar but she soon she didn't feel it any longer climbing up and down the stairs with the wood that Matt handed her. What they needed was one of those wood carriers. Maybe they would look for one in somebody else’s place. Finally she had stacked a big pile next to the fireplace. Matt came back up carrying a cardboard box full of kindling and big pinecones with him. He also had the lantern swinging from his hand.

“Okay, that should last us a while. Let’s just hope we don’t need it. I’m praying that whatever they did to fix the power lines will hold for awhile. But who knows what kind of a storm this is gonna be.”

Matt was pleased with their work. He’d been cutting wood from big log circles that had been stored under the house for years. He never thought they’d ever burn them up. Once in a while during the summer they’d build a small fire in the outdoor fire pit for a weenie roast but that didn’t take much wood. That was back when the kids were young. He couldn’t remember the last time they’d had a fire up here. Good thing. There was plenty of firewood, good for kindling too, nice and dry.

Next they headed out to the deck. Sidney wanted to get it done while they could still see a little. There wasn’t much light and the storm showed no sign of letting up yet.

“Did you hear anything about this storm on the news last night, Matt?” Sidney asked as they pushed snow off the deck onto the accumulating mass below them.

“I don’t remember, Sid. One forecast sounds like the next one to me. Seems like I would have remembered if they said it was gonna be something unusual though.”

“And not that it matters one way or the other. Nothing we can do except sit here like a hunk of chicken in the freezer,” Sidney muttered.

They worked steady until the deck was clear, knowing full well that they’d be back out here before too long doing it all over again.

“If this keeps up, we’re gonna have a tunnel out to the driveway. We’ll be covered in snow before too much longer. I hate to think what’ll happen if this keeps up much longer.” Sidney wiped the snow from her scarf and clapped her hands together, and then stomped her feet to clear off the snow. “I’m going in. Nothing more we can do here for the time being. You ready, Matt?”

“Yeah, I’m right behind you.” Matt was staring out into the trees between their cabin and Ben’s. “You know, Sid, I feel kind of sorry for those animals out there in this weather. Must play hell on them too.”

“Ah, come on inside, you big lummox. I never knew you had a soft spot for critters.”

They peeled off their jackets and hung them over the kitchen chairs, boots at the door. There would be puddles soon enough.

“I was thinking,” Matt continued, “the other day when I was down in the cellar, I was thinking about making a little trap to maybe catch a squirrel or a rabbit. But then I wondered, what would I do with it once I caught it? I couldn’t kill it. It’s just not in my nature to kill those little animals. Hell, I’m a CPA, not a killer. I might be able to analyze it to death but I sure as hell couldn’t take a knife or a hatchet to it. Sorry, kiddo, but I just couldn’t do it.”

“Ah, Matt. You’re gonna make me cry,” Sidney said, giving Matt a big hug. She planted a big kiss on his cheek. “I understand. I don’t think I’d be able to cook one either.” She grinned at him. “We’re a fine pair, stuck up here, aren’t we?”

Go to Day 20