Chapter 15

Andi woke up feeling lost and alone. She had laid down with the twins for a little while, trying to settle them down, and fell fast asleep. Andi was nearly weeping from missing Paul so much. She had planned to spend the night with him on the couch again, but she slept right through it, and that hurt.

Then she smelled coffee. And bacon. She heard voices coming from downstairs. She looked around for the twins, but they were gone. Pulling on her sweats under her floppy flannel nightgown and she pulled on Paul’s bathrobe that dragged the ground when she walked, she then slowly crept down the stairs. There were two elderly couples seated at the table, which was pulled away from the wall to make room for them. Madeline was sitting on the oldest woman’s lap. Sandy was flitting around the table with a plastic cup in her hand, talking a mile a minute. Andi walked down the steps slowly taking in the whole scene, then Madeline saw her and raced towards her, a big white milk mustache adorning her face.

“Mommy! Grandma Hirsh brought me milk! From a cow! It’s sooooo good! Can I pet the cow?”

Andi scooped Sandy into her arms. “I see that snuggle bug! Are you going to introduce me to your friends?”

“Bug bug.”

“Honey, these are our neighbors Irma and Gerry Hirsh, and Dianne and Brad Clemmons. They gave me a hand getting your rental out of the ditch.” Paul gestured toward the window and there it was, parked facing the patio. Two snowmobiles sat next to it.

“Oh, thank you all so much!” cried Andi. Having the sedan out of the ditch made her feel very relieved. “It was buried, how did you get it out?”

Brad spoke up. “Yer man called us in the middle of the night...”

“It was 9:30,” his wife Dianne swatted him in the arm. The hog farmers were both slim as rails and in their late sixties.

“That’s the middle of my night,” continued Brad to chuckles around the table. “He asked us to show up at your car around sunrise with a shovel and he’d make us breakfast.”

“He darn near had the whole thing done by the time we got there,” said Gerry Hirsh.

“Yes, he did!” agreed his wife Irma. The dairy farmers were both a rotund and vital couple, clearly in their eighties.

Brad continued, “when Dianne and I headed out we found that your man had a lane plowed clear on Trevette road all the way to Route 39. When we got there, he had the car mostly dug out. We hooked up a chain, brushed off the snow, gave it a little tug and Irma there,” he said, gesturing to his neighbor, “drove it here to your doorstep.”

“We’ve been having coffee and eggs and bacon and chatting for an hour now waiting for you to wake up.” Laughed Irma.

“Mooo!” said Sandy after a long drink of fresh milk.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Andi, feeling the tears welling up. “The words ‘Thank You’ doesn’t say enough.”

“No, they don’t, but these eggs and this coffee sure do!” laughed Gerry and the whole table broke into laughter.

The damn broke and Andi broke down into tears at the thought of neighbors waking up at sunrise to help another neighbor in need. “I’m sorry for being silly, but where I’m from, all a neighbor seems to do is report you to the HOA for not cutting your lawn. You’re all so wonderful!”

“Oh, heck little one,” said Irma as Andi threw her arms around Gerry’s neck and wept tears of gratitude, “if your man there couldn’t cut your lawn, I’d make damn sure Dad here would.”

“I sure would,” said Gerry. “Now sit down and eat your breakfast and stop acting silly.”

Andi wiped her tears and pulled up a folding chair. Paul brought her a plate of scrambled eggs whites (actually 2 egg whites mixed with one yolk), a cup of coffee with farm fresh milk, and a cherry pop tart, her favorite flavor. While she ate, her neighbors regaled her with stories of blizzards past.

“Ok, folks, we love to have you, but we have to get dressed and head into church,” announced Paul.

“See you there,” said Dianne as she kissed Andi goodbye and headed out the door with Brad, who waved.

“Going to join us this Sunday Irma?” asked Paul.

“No, Gerry can’t be marked absent at St. Aloysius again or he’ll get put on a committee,” she laughed.

“Father Juan is a tough one,” Gerry said as he shrugged on his coat. And with a series of goodbyes and promises of milk for the ‘babies’ everyone headed out the door, mounted their snowmobiles and roared off to their respective farms.

Paul made quick work of the cleanup while Andi washed the girls’ faces, brushed their golden hair, then led them upstairs to get dressed for church. Once dressed in matching outfits, they came downstairs and found that Paul had the week’s garbage bagged and hauled outside, the kitchen spotless, the air vents on the wood stove closed and the fire slowly strangled to death.

They pulled their coats on and stepped outside into the bright morning sunshine. The sound of water dripping off the barn and cabin roofs filled the air. Paul walked over to the barn, opened a side door, and drove out a fairly new Ford Ranger. It was fire engine red with black fenders and enormous wheels.

Wonka jumped into the back seat and sat straight up in the middle while Sandy and Madeline’s car seats were buckled in on either side of him. The twins were able to pet Wonka all the way into town.

He started to get into the Ford when he noticed Andi standing in front of the cabin, taking a picture of it with her phone. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she said, “I just want a picture of the place where I first found refuge...” she paused for a moment then continued, “ ... and love.”

“Take a picture for me too,” Paul whispered, and their arms entangled, he leaned down and they kissed.

They must have kissed for a long time because they suddenly noticed that the twins were yelling “Come ON you two!” ... something the twins have been hearing their entire life.

Route 39 was opened from Morton’s Corners to Springville, so as they turned on to Rt 39, the truck climbing easily over snow left behind by the county plow, Andi was impressed by the huge piles of snow on the side of the road. “That’s really impressive,” she said.

“The snow may be gone in a matter of days, or it may be there all winter, it’s hard to tell up here,” said Paul.

Andi turned around to check on the girls. They were both holding on to Wonka’s collar with a tiny hand, and Wonka seemed to enjoy their attention. “Are you OK?” asked Paul.

“Why do you ask?”

“Scratching.”

“Oh,” said Andi sheepishly, “I haven’t worn a bra since Thursday afternoon. It kind of feels alien.”

“Was that for me?” grinned Paul.

“It was for both of us,” she whispered.

Paul had difficulty keeping his mind on the road. This was the first time he had driven with her seated next to him. The neckline of her dress wasn’t even close to daring, but the memory of the delights nestled in her bra cups surfaced, and her legs ... so beautiful. He hasn’t concentrated nearly enough on them. But right now, Route 39 demands his full attention. Even though plowed, the road remained snow covered and was slippery. This was a fairly new vehicle, and this was the first chance he had to try it in the snow.