Chapter 12

Here in Lancaster, they barely got an inch of snow in the storm that trapped Josh and Veronica in their building for four days, and most of that was gone. He turned on a station that was playing classical music and pulled into Tim Horton’s and ordered two extra-large double-doubles before heading back to Springville.

They cruised slowly through the neighborhoods to look at the remaining Christmas lights. Many of the houses that were built in the pre-civil war 1800s were lit up with flood lights and huge evergreen wreaths were hanging on the houses between windows. Many houses had a single electric candle in each window, a beautiful and simple display.

Eventually he got on the expressway, but as they got to Orchard Park, the halfway point, he got off the expressway at US 391, the Boston State Road. “Where are we going?” Veronica asked. She was hoping to hurry home and celebrate their mutual confession of love.

“One more surprise,” he said as he took her hand. “I couldn’t pass up taking the grand tour.” It turned out that the grand tour followed US 391 through a long glacier carved valley south through the hamlets of North Boston and Boston, New York. Houses and businesses in both were decorated with white lights outlining their windows. By now they were back in snow country and the snow made the scenery even more festive. “My folks would have loved seeing this so much,” he said softly. “ Ma was such a nut about Christmas, and snow! Every level surface in our house was covered with white cotton with glitter to look like snow. She never saw real snow in her entire life.” He shook his head sadly. “That was before I was born.

After passing through Boston, he turned onto Trevette road and followed that up out of the valley and through the countryside. “I know where we are ... I think,” said Veronica. “At the other end of Trevette Road is the Zoar Valley. It’s where I go fly fishing!” she said brightly.

“We’re not going quite that far,” he said as they looked at the little farmsteads illuminated by bright yard lights. As they traveled southward, it started to snow gently, and as they crossed US39, he began to show off his favorite part of the earth. “Ok, this first farm here is Gerry and Irma Hirsh’s dairy farm,” said Josh as he pointed to a big, beautiful farmhouse and dairy barn on their right. “That’s where Andi went off the road in the early December blizzard and Paul rescued her.”

“We got cows,” said Veronica as she looked out the window at the Hirsh’s modest dairy herd illuminated by their yard light.

“If you like whole milk, we’ll swing by and pick up a gallon of fresh in the morning if you’d like.”

“That sounds wonderful.”

Josh continued to play tour guide as they drove along the narrow road. The snowbanks built up by plows were over five feet high in some areas. “This plot is owned by a couple of cousins; it was left to them by their grandpa ... this plot here is where my buddy Paul holes up when he’s not counting his money ... over there is Brad and Dianna Clemmon’s hog farm ... and right across from Paul is my Scout Camp. Andi dug out my driveway for me and she left the gate open for us.”

He turned left off the road into a driveway that stretched back about 100 yards. A double line of pine trees blocked the view of Josh’s land from the road, as they passed the trees Veronica saw the main cabin, a large garage, and down by what must be a lake a smaller building, then out by the edge of the woods another log cabin.

“How big was the scout camp?” Veronica asked.

“The land is fifty acres and was a Scout Camp back in the 40’s, with my cabin there were about twelve cabins. We think that mine used to be the camp office and leadership cabin. Back in the trees are three cabins still standing of the original twelve, the lake is that flat area over there if you can see it, and the small building is a boat house and changing house.”

“It’s beautiful!” gasped Veronica as the moon shone through a break in the clouds and illuminated the scenery. Tall pine trees in a stately forest beckoned, a huge weeping willow hanging over the edge of the lake with a rope swing waited patiently for summer. “We need to get cross country skis! I want to explore every inch of the land. And this cabin! It’s yours?” Veronica gushed at the sight of the large single story log cabin with a bright blue steel roof. It was perfectly rectangular. The long side facing the pond to the northeast was shaded by a full-width patio roof that was lined by Christmas lights which were glowing faintly in the night.

“Yes ma’am, nothing special or splashy, probably made from untreated telephone poles and chinked with actual mud, but it’s holding up, no signs of rot or decay.”

“Can we do that?” asked Veronica. “Can we get skis or snowshoes and explore the forest?”

“Sure, and I have several sets of snowshoes. I’ve walked the perimeter once, right after I bought it, I have fifty acres, it would be interesting to do it on snowshoes,” he said. Then he scooped Veronica up in his arms, ignoring her warnings about his back, and carried her across the threshold. “Welcome home Nica,” he said, echoing her sentiment from very early that morning. Then, inside the cabin, he lowered her feet to the ground.

As they broke their kiss, Veronica rubbed her snow-covered mittens on Josh’s face playfully. “The next time you do that it better be for real mister!” He released her, and she looked around at the cabin. “It’s beautiful!” she gasped. The cabin was dominated by a large common room with an enormous stone fireplace where a fire crackled merrily and had the cabin warmed up nicely. “When did you start this fire?” she asked.

“I asked Paul to light it for me. I texted him when we left Tim Hortons,” said Josh as he led Veronica around the cabin. “To the right is the kitchen area, it’s where I will prepare your breakfast,” he said as he placed the package of muffins that they bought that morning at Sally Ann’s on the counter and the leftovers from dinner in the small refrigerator. He noticed a half dozen eggs, and some bacon wrapped in wax paper. Each egg had today’s date on them. “Sandy and Madeline brought us eggs,” he said.

The kitchen area had a few assorted cabinets scrounged from random rebuilds, a three-burner electric stove and oven, sink, microwave and air fryer.

“Mmmmm, I can’t wait to eat,” she said, licking her lips. She wasn’t talking about leftovers or muffins.

“Here is where I prefer to cook,” he said as he showed her the huge fireplace with a heat exchanger that gets heated by the fire, it pulls in cold air from the cabin and blows it through the exchanger which heats the air and returns it to the cabin. “When you close the glass doors like this ... it makes magic.” The accordion fold doors closed and soon the flames changed from a merry crackle to a slow, magical dance, waving like seaweed in the ocean currents.

“They do that because they’re oxygen starved. I’m getting starved for something too,” she grinned as she grabbed his crotch and kneaded his cock and balls. It’s been almost 24 hours since they last made love, the longest period they spent celibate since they first touched.

“I’m a bit peckish myself,” he said and gave her a forceful kiss that left her panting. “But I need to check the plumbing and make sure it didn’t freeze, you don’t want to use the exterior facilities in this weather.”

“No sir!” and Veronica responded with a kiss that left Josh gasping. “You just do what needs to be done, and I’ll look around some.”

“Yes ma’am!” and he crossed over to the sink and stuck his head under the cabinet. Indoor plumbing in a building that’s not heated for much of the winter has its own hardships. All water lines are protected by heat tape, but they need to be routinely checked for failure. While Josh inspected the plumbing for cracked and broken pipes, Veronica inspected the cabin for everything else.

Veronica was mostly looking for mementos of his past, there were mostly objects that Josh thought were interesting on the walls, things like antique snowshoes, a couple of black powder rifles, leg traps, antique fishing poles, a woven trout creel, and the like. There were several pictures on the walls of Josh hunting and fishing. Several of those were with Paul and John Jarecki. On the same wall she found a display case showing a properly folded American Flag, several silver badges he wore on his uniform, one looked like a rocket, there was a set of wings, several medals one of which looked like George Washington’s profile on the medal, and a rack of ribbons with lots and lots of ribbons. “You have a lot of ribbons,” she mentioned, not expecting an explanation but hoping she might get something from him. He stepped up next to her and held her close.

“When you fly special ops, you tend to get a lot of ribbons.” He didn’t mention there were quite a few more ribbons from classified missions that will probably never see the light of day.

She couldn’t help but notice that bit of disdain in his voice. “You probably got boxes of stuff at your apartment, plaques and awards and photos, why don’t you put them up?”

He took the blond beauty in his arms and looked deep into her eyes. “I don’t need a wall to remind me of that part of my life anymore, that’s over. Uncle Sam told me that he don’t want me no more, so I’m done being GI Joe. I want a wall dedicated to us.”

“Ohhh,” she whined as tears came to her eyes. He’s shown more genuine love, affection, and respect for her in a week than all the men in her past who promised her so much had ever shown her in her life. A simple serenade in a small bar, playing in the snow, dancing the bumpety bump with his buddies ... She held him tight, trying to keep from crying. He kissed her tenderly, then returned to his plumbing inspection, and she returned to snooping.

That folded flag was probably Josh’s retirement flag. Next to it was a framed document, just a normal, everyday looking government document. She looked closer; it was his DD214, his certificate of honorable discharge. “Only my Josh would frame something innocuous as that...” she thought, and it felt good to think, “my Josh.” She took a picture of those ribbons. She wanted to look them up online, because she was sure that Josh wasn’t going to tell her what they stood for.

Next Veronica explored the bedroom which was bare but for a queen-size bed, an electric heater, and a dresser which had several changes of clothes, and nothing else, no pictures, no memorabilia, just a couple of robes hanging from hooks on the inside of the door. She noticed that one pillow on the bed was askew, but otherwise, that was it. The main room had all sorts of decorations one would find in a cabin, even a hornet’s nest hanging on the wall, but nothing in the bedroom. The only thing on the walls was a window, still shuttered closed from the inside. It is almost sad; she felt that his inner sanctum had no reminders of his life outside the walls. She turned on the electric heater, then took a red terrycloth robe from the door and exchanged all of her clothing for the robe. Before returning to the main room, she straightened up that pillow and found something underneath that made her smile.