Chapter 4

Andi woke to the smell of coffee and frying bacon. She didn’t dare open her eyes. What if she opened them and found she was in a generic motel room in a generic town and yesterday, the first day of warmth and security in ages, was just a dream? She then felt breathing, panting on her cheek and slowly opened her eyes in terror of seeing some kind of pervert closing in on her only to see Wonka ‘smiling’ at her in that open mouth way that all Labrador Retrievers have. “Good morning Wonka.”

Paul gently nudged Wonka out of the way and knelt, facing Andi. “Good morning Dr. Sleepyhead. Are kisses still authorized?”

She smiled. “Little ones, and not around the girls.” He gave her a sweet kiss on the lips to greet the morning, and she waggled her eyebrows. “We may have to change the prescription, Doctor. Maybe we can titrate up, but first your patient needs coffee – stat!”

Paul magically produced a steaming mug with real cream, a touch of sugar, and a hint of chocolate and peppermint. “This is my Christmas blend. I drink my coffee black most of the time, but during the holidays I add flavors.”

“Oh, this is so good,” said Andi as she rose, sipped her coffee and started fumbling around for her glasses. “I’ve got to get my toothbrush” she said as she pulled his gray robe around her and stumbled up the stairs followed by Wonka. As she worked her way up the stairs, the twins worked their way down, heading for the bathroom. As they passed each other, Wonka changed direction and headed downward to follow the twins.

“Good Morning girls!” said Paul cheerfully, but the girls walked past him, heads down as if they were concentrating on the patterns of the wood floor. “Are they always this grumpy in the morning?” he asked Andi, as she came back downstairs with a small case.

“They get it from their mother,” she muttered as she walked past Paul. Then she stopped, patted him on the chest, and arched her neck up for another kiss. “Just how old are you?”

“Forty Nine.”

“That’s a wonderful age, I like that age.”

“And how old are you?” asked Paul.

“Never ask a woman that question,” said Andi as she wagged her finger at him and headed into the ‘modern’ cabin to use the facilities.

Not long after they dressed, they gathered around the table for pancakes, bacon, and oatmeal. The girls were not overjoyed by the oatmeal, and they didn’t like the syrup. “It’s real maple syrup!” insisted Paul. “I made it myself!”

“You made the syrup?” asked Andi.

“Yeah, John and I, we tap our own trees and boil down the sap in a shed out back. Our sugar shack.”

“It’s yucky,” said the twins.

Paul got up and made a quick trip to the pantry in the newer cabin. He came back with two bottles. One was a cheap store brand imitation maple syrup, the other was a blood red favorite in western New York, loganberry. “Here, this is probably what you’re used to, and this one is fruit.”

As expected, the twins loved the loganberry.

Andi was curious about the source of the bacon; it was quite delicious. “Where did you get this? I normally don’t eat bacon, but this is incredible.”

“It’s local, trust me, I knew the hog personally,” said Paul.

“You knew the hog?” asked Andi, incredulous.

“Yep, Brad Clemmons up the road a piece raised her. He showed her off whenever I visited. When she met that great pork chop in the sky, Brad gave me some of her in exchange for a chunk of brisket I smoked from one of Gerry Hirsh’s cows.”

“You smoke your own meat?”

“Yes ma’am. I cured and smoked that bacon too. The land is bountiful, between the four farms here we raise cow, pig, chicken, sheep, goats and the occasional turkey. From the field and woods, we harvest turkey, deer, grouse, woodcock, squirrel, possum, pheasant, duck, dove, and geese. From our ponds and cricks we get sunfish, blue gill, perch, bass, trout, and walleye.

“He said crick,” giggled Madeline.

“It’s CREEEEEEEEK!” corrected Sandy.

“There’s a difference between a creek and a crick. A creek is a beautiful stream, maybe a little waterfalls here and there, birds and deer splashing and drinking.”

“So, what’s a crick?” demanded Sandy.

“A crick is a cow’s bathroom.”

“Ewwww!”

Andi calmed the girls down easily enough. She was grateful that they didn’t ask about eating squirrels and dove, both of which she had eaten thanks to her father and her grandpa Ole. “When do you get time to rest up here?”

“We do all kind of things up here, you just caught us on a bad day...” He said gesturing to the window, then he looked out of the window, “ ... make that week.” The snow was swirling around as the wind picked up. Andi noticed Paul had cleared the driveway again while she slept this morning.

“How much longer is this storm going to last?” she asked. It was now Thursday morning; with luck, it will blow itself out and the conference can start as scheduled on Tuesday.

“The storm is moving north today, so we get a break while the city and the suburbs get hit, but it will be back tonight, and tomorrow, and Saturday. That’s life in the snowbelt. Hey - while I was in the big barn this morning, I found a Christmas tree stand and some lights and ornaments, what do you say we go back in the forest and get a Christmas tree for the cabin when we get a break in the weather?”

“Yeah!”

“Can we mom? Can we?”

“I don’t know,” Andi looked at Paul, “can we?”

“Sure, I got just the machine to get us back in the woods.”

“How much do they cost?” asked Madeline suspiciously.

“Yeah,” said Sandy with her fists on the table.

“We’ll go into the forest and find a tree that will fit in that corner over there, cut it down, and bring it home...”

“That’s stealing!” demanded Madeline.

“Yeah,” said Sandy and she thumped her fists on the table.

“She’s got you there,” said Andi with a smile.

With a mock defeated sigh Paul said, “Ok, when we find a tree your mom will call the guy who owns the trees and ask him how much he wants, Ok?”

“Oh Kay!” said Madeline.

“Yeah,” said Sandy, crossing her arms in defiance.

After breakfast clean-up, the girls were ready to go get their tree, but Paul reminded them they wanted to learn how to make bread. “Is it hard?” asked Sandy.

“The old fashion way is hard,” said Paul, but he tapped a finger to his temple, “we have a machine to make it easy.” He placed a bread machine on the counter, and when he saw neither child could see over the edge of the counter, he placed his assistants on the counter too.

Andi came down from the loft expecting the girls to at least have their snow pants on, but they were nowhere to be seen, but she heard Paul emit a loud belch from the kitchen followed by the sound of the twins giggling. She approached quietly and heard Madeline squeal uproariously, “That’s not true!”

“It really is true,” said Paul, “these little yeasty guys burp and that’s what makes the bread fluffy.”

“Do it again!” demanded Sandy.

Paul swallowed air a few times, then released a highly impressive belch, which caused Madeline and Sandy to break out into laughter again. They laughed so hard that Andi thought the girls would wet their pants. “Ok, who wants to put the yeasty guys into the machine?”

“I do!”

“I do!”

“It’s Madeline’s turn, Sandy, you’ve put in the salt.”

Andi was amazed that the girls didn’t squabble as they normally did with someone other than Andi watching them. Paul seemed to naturally infuse the right amount of steel in his words to keep them in line, but kept his expression soft enough to keep them smiling. Andi peeked around the corner and saw that both girls were on the counter, crouched on either side of the bread machine. Madeline was pouring the yeast out of a teaspoon into the bread machine hopper, her little tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on pouring the yeast. Andi wondered why such a simple job required so much concentration, but finally Madeline cried out, “I did it Doctor Paul! And I didn’t get any yeasty guys on the salt!”

“Good job! Give me five!” Paul held his hand up and Madeline slapped his palm.

“Salt kills yeasty guys!” chanted Sandy, and Paul gave her a high five, too.

“Ok, let’s get this bread going!” said Paul. “Your turn Sandy.” And with that, he handed her a measuring cup containing water that she carefully poured into the hopper. He pressed a few buttons, then suddenly the machine sprang to life. The girls watched in awe as the paddles mixed the ingredients together, then Paul closed the lid and announced, “Good job troops!” and held his hand up for another high five. “When we get back the bread will be ready for us.”

“Should we get a Christmas tree?” called Andi and with a pair of yays, the twins hopped down from the countertop and got dressed up in their winter garb. While Andi was buckling them into their snow pants, boots, coats, and mittens, Paul pulled on his parka and went out to the big barn and got his sled ready.

When the girls came out of the cabin, he pulled up to them on a Yamaha VK-450 utility snowmobile towing a Snowcoach trailer. The Snowcoach trailer is an egg-shaped trailer on a large pair of skis, with side by side seating for two adults and a utility box behind the seats for storage. All of that is removable, making the Snowcoach a pure utility trailer which Paul normally used to haul firewood.

Andi and Paul lifted the girls into the Snowcoach and buckled them to the seats while putting bicycling helmets on over their knit hats, then Andi and Paul put on snowmobile helmets and climbed aboard the Yamaha. Paul added a little throttle and off they went, keeping to his promise to Andi that he could choose the route, but she could determine the speed.

Ignoring Sandy and Madeline’s shouts to “Go faster,” Paul drove along the driveway and gave Andi a tour of the ‘front end’ of his property. There was a low hill built between the cabin and the road to ensure privacy, and the drive curved around the base of the hill. The land was all open between the hill and the road except for a couple of tree lines that were just coming into their maturity. “It looks like you enjoy privacy,” Andi said over the purr of the Yamaha.

“Well, yeah. Sauna you know, we don’t need spectators.”

Andi put her arms around him and snuggled closer. She has known him for less than 20 hours and in that short time, she’s drawn closer to him than any man in years. ‘Probably just puppy love, crushing, infatuation,’ she scolded herself. “Just what do you wear when you sauna?” she asked Paul. She didn’t know why she asked.

“A smile.”

Normally Andi would have laughed at the joke, or grimaced depending on the time and company, but this time his answer put her in the mood to sauna. She shook her head. ‘Puppy love!’ her conscience screamed. ‘Shut up conscience,’ something else inside of her whispered.

As they reached the main road, Andi realized that there was over 3 feet of snow built up on the road, and according to the radio weather reports, there’s another three feet at a minimum on its way. At least it’s not cold, she thought. So far, the coldest has been 18 degrees, and that was last night. Paul turned the sled off the driveway, and up on to the snow in the field, pulled up next to a tall mound he had built with the tractor while plowing and stopped. He climbed off the Yamaha and onto the mound and held his hand out to Andi, who took it and climbed to the top of the snow pile with Paul.

At the top, Paul showed Andi the points of interest as the sun weakly shone through the cloud cover. A mile or so east was Brad Clemmons’s place, where he got the hog belly for the bacon. A couple of miles west was Gerry Hirsh’s dairy farm. Across the road was Josh Gravely, who purchased an old scout camp, and he pointed out the old scout cabins in the woods. “That open area in front of the cabin, that’s our vegetable garden, and back there, that’s the pond.”

Re-boarding the sled, Paul headed straight toward the hill and Andi noticed the difference between the snowmobile’s ride on the light snow-covered driveway and on the deep snow. Here on the deep snow, the ride was so much softer, even though the speedometer showed the same speed, the ride seemed so much slower and smoother. When they reached the top of the hill, Paul stopped the sled again but didn’t get off. He wasn’t in the mood to sink into 3 feet of snow.

“Over there you can see where the dirt for this hill came from. There was a cow pond dug on this land, I dug it out a bit larger. It’s fed by a spring like our cistern.”

Andi could easily see the pond. It wasn’t quite frozen over yet, so the shape was quite discernable. “A kidney shaped pond?”

“I tried to do a heart but couldn’t get the ventricles quite right.”

Andi slugged him. “Smartass!” she grinned, then she suddenly panicked, realizing what she had done. She let go of Paul’s waist and leaned back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...”

Paul turned and saw the starting of panic in her eyes and was shocked. He realized she was probably panicking from the treatment she received in the past, maybe from her husband. He must have really worked this girl over. Paul stood up on the sled and jumped off into the snow, where he sank in up to his waist. He waded through the deep snow until he was about 10 feet away. Andi stopped cowering and leaned forward to hear what he was saying.

“Andi, you’re completely safe here. If you ever want to poke, hit, or slap me in jest or in anger, it’s ok. I’m not going to punish you for having feelings, I’m not going to hurt you for touching me.”

Her mouth opened and closed a few times in confusion, then she shouted, “You can say that, but do you mean it?”

“If you don’t think I mean it, then go. You’re on a fully fueled up sled with your two babies, you can be over there at Gerry’s farm asking for help in a matter of minutes. Or, when you get to Gerry’s farm you can turn on to Route 39 and be in Springville in a half hour, and I can’t do anything about it but wallow through this deep snow. I care for you, and I need you to feel safe.”

“I didn’t mean to...” she stopped and demanded, “how do I know you’re not like the others?”

‘Oh crap,’ thought Paul, ‘she’s been abused multiple times.’ “You can hit me again if you want.”

Andi thought for a few moments then said, “Get back up here...”

Paul backed up and held his hands out wide. “Not until you hit me. You have 120 acres of white wet ammo at your fingertips.”

Andi realized he wouldn’t move until she hit him with something just to make a point, so she scooped up a hand full of snow, compressed it into a ball and threw it at him. She missed, and he didn’t move. So, she threw another ball in a gentle arc that splatted on his shoulder. “Are you going to get back on this snow mobile?”

“Again,” he replied, “this time with feeling.”

She made another snowball and really got behind this one. It struck his stomach area hard.

“Better. Again.”

She threw another, and another, and another. The pain of being small and being hurt and abused simply because she was small and a woman welled to the surface, from being picked on in grade school to being slapped around in her own home by her own husband who promised to love, honor, and protect her. She vented her anger in over a dozen snowballs. The twins realized something big was happening, yet they remained quiet until Andi threw her last snowball and sat on the saddle of the Yamaha, trying to catch her breath.

“Yea mommy!”

“Mommy wins!”

Andi jumped off the snowmobile, crying, and waded over to Paul, who finally lowered his arms and wrapped them around her. “If I say another wise-ass thing I need you to give me a smack, or a poke, or something.”

“Why?” she sighed as her arms wrapped around this tall man who became her white knight.

“So that I know you get it. So that you know you can. So that we know that we’re communicating.”

“Where’s our tree?” shouted Madeline, then she and Sandy started stomping their feet chanting “Tree, tree, tree, tree...”

Paul scooped Andi up in his arms and waded back to the snowmobile. Andi whooped and demanded to be put down, but she wrapped her arms around his neck. Tears filling her eyes, she relaxed in his arms and allowed a warmth to fill her heart. For his part, Paul was shocked at how light this tiny fireball felt in his arms, and how right it felt holding her like this. He struggled back to the snowmobile and sat Andi on the back seat, then he pulled himself up out of the snow and on to the seat of the Yamaha. The motor fired up, and they were headed back down the hill while the twins whooped and yelled “FASTER!” Andi wrapped her arms around his waist, then drew back her right arm, balled up her tiny fist and gave him a shot to the ribs.

“What was that for?” he gasped. She had some power in that little arm.

“Next time.”

Soon they were in the large forest that covered over two-thirds of Paul’s land. The trees grew in rows and row after row was dizzying. Occasionally one of the forest residents was seen, squirrel, deer, and even turkey. “Want to see my sister-in-law Macy’s camping hut?” Paul suggested they stop to warm up and have a snack, an idea that the twins loved, so they traveled again through the woods, which up until now had been primarily pine trees. The greenery of the pines gave way to the bare boughs of leafed trees. He pulled the Yamaha up to what looked like a snow-covered pile of interwoven twigs topped with an old umbrella canopy. “Here it is. Stay on the sled while I find the entrance.”