Clever Magazine, Spr. 09 " Snowbound - Day 35 " (www.clevermag.com)

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Snowbound - Day 35

by Dianne Kochenburg

Sidney and Matt sat at the kitchen table over their meager breakfast. It was still early, but neither had been able to sleep very well. The tea tasted good, but way too familiar. It was warm in the room, a small fire crackled in the fireplace, and the cat, having finished her kibble and face-washing, was tucked into a quilt nearby.

Sidney sighed aloud. “Do you ever think about what you’d be doing if we weren’t here?” She couldn’t look Matt in the eye. Sid really didn’t want to know the answer, she just wanted to hear him talk. He seemed almost content these days, somewhat preoccupied with his cellar projects. He never wanted to talk about anything except rusty bolts and how neat and tidy it was under the house.

“You know, like right at this very minute?” Sidney shifted in her chair and sighed again.

Matt looked at her as if she’d spoken in a foreign language. “Umm, no, I can’t say that I’ve given it much thought lately,” Matt finally answered. “Now that you mention it, I guess I’d be reading up on the tax code about now. You know, getting ready for the season. Why did you ask that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Don’t you ever worry, or wonder if anybody is thinking about us?” Sidney asked.

“Well, don’t forget, everybody we know believes we’re traveling somewhere. If they give us any thought at all, it’s to wonder why they have gotten a postcard lately. The neighbors, the kids, my boss. We even joked about it before I left the office. I couldn’t tell him the exact date we’d be back home. The fact is, Sid, nobody’s worried about us.”

“I know, I know, I’ve thought a lot about that. Nobody cares. Not even Lynne, I guess. It’s only been a little over a month. But every day seems so long, so monotonous, just like the one before. Unless I was looking at a calendar, I would have thought we’ve been here months and months.”

“Sidney, you gotta take this in stride, just keep doing what you’re doing, one day at a time.”

“You mean like prisoners serving a life sentence?”

“Well, yeah, I guess you could look at it that way. But we are going to get out of this, kiddo. Look at how well we’re doing, the three of us, snug as bugs here, everything’s just fine. And one of these days, somebody’s going to show up, or the weather’s going to get better, and we’ll just go home. You’ll see.”

Sidney picked up the dishes and began to clear the table. Another day, same chores, the only thing to look forward to was making another cross on the calendar and finishing up the day. She wanted to scream and throw something. She wanted to tear off her clothes and run outdoors and jump into the snow. Anything she could think of to change the monotony of this day-by-day existence. She knew she had to hang on, get a grip somehow. But she wasn’t sure if she could.

Toast woke with a start. Sidney saw her tense and then slip quickly out from under the quilt. The cat ran and jumped to the living room window, flattening her lean body against it, her ears pasted to the back of her head. Then she made a low growling sound, not loud, but persistent. The cat was warning them about something.

“What is it, Toast? I can’t see a thing.” As if to answer her, Toast started making her clicking sound that usually signaled birds were close by.

“A bird?” Sidney whispered. “Is there a bird out there?”

Just then the cat’s fur stood even straighter along its back and its tail swished, big and full. Toast was on red alert. Now Sidney could hear it too, a faint scratching and scrapping sound, maybe coming from the cellar door. It grew louder, and as it did, the cat suddenly leapt straight into the air, landed on the floor and took off upstairs.

“Wow. Something’s scared the piss out of the cat,” Matt said as he watched the frightened animal scatter the piles of stuff lining the stairs as it flew out of sight.

“Somebody’s trying to get into the cellar, Matt,” Sidney said, keeping her voice as low as possible.

“What the hell. It must be that coyote again,” Matt said.

“Oh, crap, what do we do now?”

“I’m gonna get the shotgun, maybe take a pot shot at him. Scare him off.”

“Where’s the gun, Matt?”

“Down in the cellar. I’ll go get it and bring it up here,” he was talking as he tried to see whatever it was that was lurking outside their cottage. “I’ll make some noise while I’m at it. Maybe he’ll just take off.”

Matt ran down the stairs, banging around, tossing things at the lower door. Soon he was back upstairs again, with the shotgun in one hand and a box of shells in the other. He quickly threw on his jacket and then picked up the gun again and started to load it.

“Do you really know how to use that thing, Matt?” Sidney questioned.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said, as he looked the thing over and eventually figured how to slip the shells in. “Can’t remember the last time I fired it though.”

“Have you ever fired it, Matt?”

He just looked at her. “Not now, Sidney. I gotta concentrate. I’m going out there and fire off this gun. You stay behind me and watch. See if anything runs off, okay?”

Matt gently opened the door and stepped out onto the deck. Sidney watched him look around. She grabbed her coat to follow him.

“Don’t get too close now. Give me some room here,” he admonished her as he tiptoed toward the edge of the deck. “Hmm. Nothing down here.”

He turned and started peering through the gun sight into the trees at the other side of the driveway. “Hey, look. There he is, see him over there by that pine tree, the one with the branches touching the snow.” He pointed with the gun as if trying to line up a shot.

Sidney was beside Matt now, nodding her head. She could see him too, partly hidden by the tree, sniffing them, front paws low, ready to spring out. Sidney whispered, “You’re not going to shoot him, are you, Matt?” She covered her ears and closed her eyes in reflex to what was coming next.

Matt lowered the gun a little. “No, I’m going to miss him even if I aim at him. I’m not much of a hunter.” With that there was a huge bang-bang uproar. Sidney shuddered as the horrendous sound echoed and echoed around them. Then she realized that Matt was no longer standing beside her. She looked down. Matt was on his butt, the shotgun on the deck lying next to him.

“What happened, Matt?”

“Ah, crap, I didn’t mean to fire both barrels at the same time,” he muttered and he picked himself up. “Where’s that damned coyote?”

They both looked up at the same time, no coyote where it had been. “Did you shoot it, Matt?”

“Oh, look there, Sid. There he goes.”

Sidney turned in time to see the coyote running like mad up the slippery driveway trying to make headway on the snowy upslope. It never looked back as it crested the top of the hill and took off out of sight.

“Are you okay, Matt? You must have slipped when you fired, huh?”

“Yeah, something like that. I didn’t remember that it kicked like that. It just threw me to the ground. I think I might have bruised my shoulder,” he said, “and my ass too.” He grinned at her. “Well, now we know one thing, that gun still works.”

Sidney’s ears were ringing, she rubbed them and moved her jaw around to try and clear the sound. Then she heard another sound, a low rumbling noise.

“Do you hear that, Matt? What’s that?”

“Yeah, I hear it. Sounds like an earthquake, or something.”

The rumbling continued, it seemed to be off in the distance, but it sounded like it was getting closer. There were added crackling sounds and other crashing noises too. And then the sky was full of snow off in the distance. It was a big, wondrous noise for their usually quiet lakeside. Birds flew off and unseen animals squawked and howled. The forest seemed to come alive with fright. And then just as suddenly, it was over.

“What on earth was that, Matt?”

“I don’t know, maybe a rock slide?”

“Or an avalanche,” Sidney said.

“Yeah, that’s probably it. Over there by Mount Baldy, where all that loose rock is. I guess that’s all full of snow now. Could be the noise of the shotgun set off an avalanche. Weird, huh?”

Sidney was still amazed, the sound that filled the air was awesome. They definitely weren’t alone up here.

“Let’s go inside, Matt. This day has started off just a bit too fast for me.”

Matt pulled her to him and gave her a big hug. “Hey, we did good. We’ve just scared off the bad guy, and maybe that avalanche sent a signal to him not to come here again. Take some deep breaths, Sid, and look around. It’s a beautiful day, the sun is out and we know the birds are twittering. At least I hope they still are, if I haven’t given every living thing within a ten mile radius a heart attack.”

Matt was still chuckling as they wandered back into the house. He stopped to pick up the shotgun. “I think I’ll name her. She’s one hell of a piece of equipment, don’t you think?”

“I’ll drink to that, Matt.” She gave him a big smile. “Maybe happy hour should start a little early today. What do you think?”

At least this wasn’t a typical day, Sidney thought, as they made their way back into the cottage. She’d have something interesting for her journal. The pine scent from the fireplace drifted over to them as the breeze from the open door re-energized its flame. They had been burning the huge pine cones for a fire starter. Toast was still nowhere to be seen. She might not come out from hiding for hours. Sidney would have to shake the kibble sack to lure her back downstairs.

Matt decided he didn’t need that drink after all. He headed to the cellar to work on the shotgun. He figured he’d take the afternoon off and rest up his shoulder which was getting a little stiff already. He smiled and brushed off Sidney’s attempt to commiserate with him. It was nothing, just one of those things hunters have to put up with.

Sidney would go upstairs to her little nest, pull out her nature books and read up on coyotes. She hoped they had seen the last of it, just for the cat’s sake, if nothing else. Cats scare easily, but Toast didn’t deserve to have the wits scared out of her like that. Toast’s main job was to be contented and model her coping skills for Sidney and Matt. Sidney wanted nothing to happen to them that would cause their hair to stand on end and have them rushing up to the loft to cringe in terror.

Being Snowbound was cruel enough, camping here in their little cottage in the woods cut off from everybody and everything. As Matt said, they could endure it just fine. They had enough food to keep them from starving, they were warm and, so far, they were safe from the elements and the unknown. She just hoped that the unknown would stay the hell away from them until the snow melted and they could go home again.

Go to day 41...