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by Dianne Kochenburg

“Are you up there?” Matt hollered from the bottom of the stairwell.

“Yes, I’m up here, I’ll be down in a few minutes, Matt.”

“Okay, just wondering where you were.”

Sure he was. Where else would she be: outside feeding the wolves? What he really wanted was for Sidney to go downstairs and keep him company, make some dinner, watch TV with him, the usual stuff.

Sidney counted the remaining pages in her journal, about 40 blank ones left. It would be the middle of February when she got to the last page – if she got to the last page. It was a dreary business being snowbound. One day after the next in an unending pattern of boredom and restlessness. It gave new meaning to the phrase time standing still. She took little pleasure in turning to a new page and labeling each new day. And there wasn’t much to write about. Luckily, it was a small book. She could write one long paragraph and the whole page was filled.

She always recorded the weather, each new snowfall was carefully described. She also mentioned the sunny days, the wind and clouds too. She only commented on the state of their health if something out of the ordinary occurred. She had a little cold for a few days, with the familiar runny nose and achy bones. At least that’s what she thought it was. It passed. Matt didn’t catch it even though he was sure he would.

She listed the movies they watched, even the ones she didn’t like. Actually, none of them really interested her. Apparently the Clausens liked action movies, something that held little attraction for her in the best of times. Usually they put her to sleep, which was becoming a blessed relief to her. She told Matt to stop trying to wake her if she was sleeping through a movie. Just leave her alone, for Pete’s Sake.

She did not write her personal thoughts or how irritated she became with Matt over the little things.  It was all just part of living such a tedious life. She doubted that it would help her to detail the fact that he didn’t hang up his towel after his shower, or that he slept in too long, or didn’t change his clothes often enough to suit her.

There was nothing for them to talk about. Each knew the others thoughts, at least those they were willing to share. And Sidney wasn’t interested in anything Matt not might be eager to talk about. She didn’t want to hear stories about work, or his bachelor days. They had already hashed out Cal and college life. Lynne was also a sore subject. Sidney could not get past the idea that their daughter hadn’t thought of checking the cottage by this time. It struck her as odd indeed that nobody ever flew over Goose Lake. If they did, they would see the smoke coming out of the chimney, right?

She shouldn't be worried. If they kept their wits about themselves, they were safe. As long as they didn’t do anything stupid, they would just stay warm, safe and slightly hungry until the snow melted. The problem was they weren’t quite sure what constituted stupid.

Matt wanted to walk out as soon as possible. Sidney thought that might fit into the stupid category. Gauging when it would be safe to walk into town was the problem. Survival guides always say to stay close to camp, don’t go wandering off. If somebody is looking for you, that’s where they’ll head. Of course, nobody was looking for them.

But the fact remained that it would be easy to wander off and get lost since they couldn’t be sure if they were following the road. The roads were obliterated. And there weren’t snow plough markers because the road to Goose Lake wasn’t ploughed this far in the winter.

Matt admitted he was no boy scout when it came to using a map and compass, so even that would be no help to them. They weren’t even sure how smart it would be to walk to the next nearest cabin. There was one a ways past the lodge, and another down past the Clausen’s. It was probably the closest, but it was rather derelict and they both figured it probably wasn’t worth breaking into. Trekking past the lodge didn’t hold much interest either. There was rough trail between them unless they decided to walk out on the lake and then veer over. They were still pondering that idea on the stupidness scale.

So each morning Sidney would make a pot of tea with one teabag, drink most of it, and then refill the pot with hot water without adding another teabag. She had enough tea to last a long time if she only used one teabag per day. She also put a half spoonful of sugar into the teapot and made that do for the entire pot. She knew that her tea routine sort of irritated Matt. He figured she was just drinking slightly sweetened hot water. So what? It pleased her.

After she finished writing in her journal, it was chore time. She pushed herself to keep interested in making the bed, washing up the same few dishes every day, sweeping, doing the laundry, and then carefully doling out the meager rations of food. Then feed and play with Toast. Another day to cross off the calendar.

She had counted, sorted and labeled all the food. The last remaining cans had been divided up, and the meager packages of pasta, boxes of mac and cheese, even the Top Ramen had been separated into weekly stashes. These days she counted the strands of spaghetti and carefully measured out the grains of rice and beans. She had to stretch everything, monitoring each morsel of food.

Each week’s worth of food was in a bag or plastic container, all separate, so she wouldn’t accidentally use too much. She figured that's the way those hapless astronauts up in that space station probably did it too. The word for them would be space-bound. At least they were in communication with the rest of the world. She had two more month’s worth of food for the two of them if they stayed on the plan, more if she started withholding a little more from every meal. They were down to two meals a day now, one in the middle of the day and one before bedtime.

She also monitored their other supplies, like tooth paste, toilet paper and soap, everything was scarce. They were a couple of misers, pinching on nearly everything. But there was plenty of water, both hot and cold, and the electricity stayed on. Small things to be thankful for. Life would have been extremely rough without those basics. The little TV still worked too. They could watch the news if they wanted to, or play those Clausen DVDs as much as they liked. And the cottage stayed warm. By using their fireplace as well as the electric heater, the snow didn’t build up on the roof like it did those first few weeks.

She could no longer look at her magazines. She hated seeing pictures of food, reading about wonderful places to visit on vacation, and all those pounds off dieting articles really grated her nerves. They used the mags to restart the fire in the mornings when there were just embers left in the fireplace.

Today was Christmas Eve day of all things. Nearly two full months now in this small cottage. She could hardly believe it. But she couldn’t help from feeling a little sprig of interest. Tomorrow she would make them a Christmas dinner. She had hoarded away a can of spam. When she found it among the canned goods they hauled home from the lodge she wasn’t too impressed with it. After all, it was canned meat, and her Spam memories were of a salty, ham-like mystery meat, nearly unfit for human consumption. But the more she thought about it, the more appealing it became.

They hadn’t eaten meat of any sort for over a month, unless you counted the canned tuna that they ate up as sandwiches a few weeks back. She had spread it thinly over the homemade bread. They had enjoyed that. And those little nuggets of meat-like cubes floating in the canned soup and the Ramen noodle packets hardly counted as protein.

Spam. Usually the idea of eating Spam would make her laugh. She figured in her real life she was a Spam snob. But when she thought about it a little more, she realized that lots of people really loved the stuff. For example, Hawaiians and Samoans loved Spam. The idea of people living on beautiful sunny islands surrounded by fresh fish and coconuts eating Spam gave her the fits. But now things were different and Spam was on the menu as a special holiday treat.

She couldn’t decide how to fix it. They wouldn’t eat it all at once. Maybe she could slice it and fry up one piece of it for each of them. They could have some rice and part of a can of green peas to go with it. She also had saved some Biscuit mix for this special meal. They’d have biscuits with jam on them for dessert. A Spam dinner and a small glass of brandy that she’d been hidden away for a special occasion. What was more special than Christmas dinner?

Then she could use the rest of the Spam over the next few days in some simple stir fries with a few strands of pasta. It would be a nice break in their routine. Once the new year arrived, they’d be back on their rations again unless they got their courage up to head over to the next cabin. Not much to look forward to except for knowing that sometime during the new year this ordeal would come to an end.

Sidney closed up her journal and put away her sour thoughts. It was time to go downstairs and close up another long, tiresome day. And to make matters worse, it was Christmas Eve. Maybe she would make her surprise dinner tonight instead of waiting for tomorrow. Good idea, she thought, as she descended the stairs, the cat reluctantly following her.

“Hey, there you are. What’s for dinner tonight?” he greeted her from the kitchen where he’d been standing looking out at the everlasting snow on the porch. He had a sort of silly grin on his puss, a little unusual for him. She wondered if maybe he had a secret stash of booze in the cellar. Maybe that was why he liked it so much down there.

She sidled up to him and planted a quick kiss on his cheek, sniffing his breath as she did. Hmm. No booze breath. So much for that idea.

“Well, tonight is a surprise dinner. I’m not going to tell you what we’re having until it’s on the table. So you go watch TV for a few minutes while I get it ready,” Sidney announced.

“Oh, a surprise, huh? Can I help set the table or something?”

“Sure, you set the table. Get out the best china and silverware, we’ll have a feast.”

“Ah, Sid, come on, pull yourself out of that bad mood. It’s Christmas. At least you can give me a little smile.”

Sidney gave him a quick grin and then shooed him out of her way. She located the hidden spam and the small can of peas. But first she needed to make a couple of biscuits from the remaining packet of mix she’d been saving. She heated up the oven, stirred up the mix and carefully formed it into two good-sized rounds. Nice! She felt herself growing hungry at the thought of warm biscuits with jam on them. They hadn’t had bread of any kind for a couple of weeks now.

Next she found the can opener and opened up the Spam. The aroma of canned meat filled the air. The slippery lump was packed in a gelatin-like substance. She wasn’t sure whether she should keep it or not. Best to try and save everything. Maybe she could use it in soup. She scraped it all back into the can. Now she had a relatively clean hunk of meat to deal with. She’d cut off two slices, maybe half inch each. She wrapped up the rest of it. If she was careful they could get a couple more meals out of it.

The rice was already boiling, so she turned it down to simmer. She would microwave the peas, so all she had left to do was fry up the spam in a little olive oil. Too bad there wasn’t a bit of onion to fry up with it. As soon as the biscuits were done they could eat. She knew Matt would be pleased to see a whole plateful of food for a change. She heard him humming in back of her, he actually was setting the table. He had stoked the fire too. She could feel the extra warmth from the fireplace coming her way.

When she had filled both plates, she picked them up and headed for the small table between the living room and kitchen. Matt had found a candle which was flickering between them. As she set the plates down, she noticed that on her chair was what looked like a gaily wrapped gift. It startled her.  She let out a small gasp and felt her eyes beginning to well up. Oh, Matt.

Just then Matt looked up and smiled at her. Then he noticed the plates on the table. His eyes lit up.

“Wow, real food! Oh my god, Sid, what’s this?”

Sidney smiled at him, “It’s Spam, that’s all. I was saving it for a special occasion. I hope you like it.”

“Love it! It does look like a feast. What a perfect surprise.”

He reached for the little gift, and handed it to Sidney. “Merry Christmas, my love. Here’s a little something for you.” He gave her a quick kiss as she accepted the present. She looked at it for a minute and then set it aside.

Sidney was speechless.

They lingered over the food. The Spam was salty, yet tasty when mixed with the hot, steamy rice. And the sweet peas complimented it. They laughed as they made up gourmet critiques of the meal. But they enjoyed every bite and cleaned their plates with their biscuits, each saving half a biscuit for the strawberry jam Sidney had placed on the table at the last minute.

“Are you going to open your present now, Sidney?” Matt asked as they pushed themselves away from the table, in a mock gesture of having eaten the best restaurant meal ever invented.

“Yes, in a minute, Matt. But first I have a little surprise for you too.”

“Oh? Something else?”

“Let me get it. Now’s the perfect time.” She ran to the pantry cupboard and carefully removed a half pint sized bottle of brandy that she’s been hiding ever since they raided the lodge. She now wished that she had wrapped it up. It would have been more thoughtful of her to have remembered to make a real gift out of it.

Matt’s eyes lit up at the brandy. “Oh, Sid. I’m going to forgive you for not letting me drink this up sooner. You know me.” He smiled as he opened the top and savored the amber liquid.

“Okay, now you open your present.”

She carefully removed the wrapping paper, which she now recognized as some old birthday paper left over from a long gone celebration. He must have found it in the closet. She smiled to herself. He was such a sweet guy. It was a lumpy present, about the size of a laptop, but heavy. It was a piece of wood, sanded smooth, and varnished. She realized she was looking at the backside of it. It must be a picture of some sort because there was a length of wire stretched across it. She slowly turned it over.

It was carved on the reverse, like a fresco. She could make out two bears carved into the wood, sitting as though at a picnic, with vaguely outlined trees behind them and a small likeness of their cabin tucked into the forest. Below the bears he had carved out the words “Snowbound at Goose Lake”. She was so touched by his beautiful gift that it once again brought tears to her eyes.

“Oh, Matt, this is lovely. I didn’t know you could do wood carving.”

“I didn’t know either until I found the old carving set in the cellar. It took me quite a while to get the hang of it. I’ve been practicing for weeks. This is my best attempt so far. I traced the bears from a picture in one of those nature books.” He smiled, clearly pleased with himself. “Now you know what I’ve been doing down there all this time.”

There was also a handmade card underneath the picture. When she picked it up, there was something else for her. She squealed in delight. The last item in the lumpy package was a huge Hershey bar, one of those really big, heavy ones that she would never think of buying in her real life. She was beside herself with joy.

“Chocolate too! Oh my god, it must be Christmas. Matt, you devil. You must have found this at the lodge when we were going through all those plastic bins.”

“Yup, that’s right. I decided to save a little something for later. I know that you are just like me and brandy when it comes to chocolate. I figured that there would be a time when a big chocolate bar would be just the thing you needed. What better time than Christmas, right?”

Her hands were shaking as she pulled the card from its makeshift envelope. He had glued some images from old magazines onto the front of a piece of folded paper. It looked like maybe he used an old paper sack for the card. Even the words “Merry Christmas” were cut from old magazines. Inside was his handwritten message to her: “There’s nobody I’d rather be snowbound with than you. Merry Christmas, Sidney. We’re going to get through this, just you wait and see. Your loving husband, Matt.”

To be continued…

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