Chapter 39

At the cabin, Andi was having some problems. First, the lock on the gate across the driveway was frozen, so it took a while of jimmying with the key to get it open. Then she couldn’t get the gate open because of the snow, but she remembered Paul had thrown a shovel in the trunk, so she dug until she could get the gate open most of the way. Then Wonka hopped out of the car and ran off up the driveway, which made the twins cry.

“He’s going to get lost!” wailed Sandy.

“Ok, you two, he’s older than you are, and he’s been coming up here almost every week of his life. He knows where he can go.”

“You sure?” asked a skeptical Madeline.

“I’m sure,” said Andi, as she navigated up the snow-covered drive. “Look, there he is on the picnic table waiting for us.” And sure enough, Wonka was standing proudly on the picnic table, under the patio roof of the cabin. The look on his face clearly said, “Glad you could make it. What took you so long?”

Her last problem was the worst of all. Opening the cabin, they found it cold and dusty. There was still plenty of that wonderful smelling birch in the woodbox, so Andi packed a few sheets of newsprint in the stove, added a few logs, then set fire to the paper and closed the door and went into the kitchen to see what needed to be done in there. A few moments later, Madeline came into the kitchen and announced that they couldn’t play with their toys because it was too foggy.

“Foggy? It’s not foggy, it’s a little cloudy...” then the smell hit her. Looking past the twins, she saw the main cabin was filling up with smoke. “Out! Everybody out!”

“I need my coat,” complained Sandy.

“I’ll get your coat, now get out!” She herded the girls out and grabbed their coats off of the coat hooks.

“I don’t have my boots!” said Madeline. Andi hoisted the girls onto the picnic table and handed them their coats and headed back into the cabin. A few moments later, Wonka emerged from the smoke and joined the girls on the table.

Inside, Andi grabbed the fire extinguisher and began a teary-eyed search for the source of the smoke, which turned out to be the wood stove. The stove was still cool to the touch and smoke was oozing out of the air intakes into the room. Then she noticed that the ornate knob halfway up the chimney pipe was horizontal, telling her that the flue was closed. She had forgotten to open the flue. Andi reached up, turned the knob ninety degrees and immediately the smoke stopped pouring out of the intakes, and soon flames could be seen inside the firebox which told her that the smoke was now escaping out of the chimney and fresh air was being drawn into the firebox. She sighed and opened all the cabin doors and windows, including the windows up in the loft.

When Paul and Yi pulled up in the Ranger, they found the twins still sitting on the picnic table. They were eating blueberry pop-tarts and were feeding the corners without frosting to Wonka. Every cabin window was wide open, even though the breeze had freshened up and there was a hint of snow in the air. “Hi poppa!” they called as Paul got out of the truck.

“What’s up kiddos? Why are you out here in the cold?” asked Paul.

“It’s foggy inside,” said Sandy around a mouthful of Pop Tart.

“Yeah, and stinky too,” agreed Madeline.

“I’ll go see if the coast is clear. Why don’t you two pull your boots on and show Yi your chickens?”

“OK!” they scrambled to pull their boots on. Sandy was going to hop down with her boots on the wrong feet, but Paul shook his head and pulled her boots off her feet and handed them back to her. She got it right on a second attempt.

“Come on, Yi!” called Madeline, “I’ll show you my unfavorite chicken, Pecky. You can pet her, but you have to be quick.”

As she was being pulled to the barn by the twins, Yi looked over her shoulder toward Paul and mouthed the words “Help me!”

Inside the cabin, Paul found Andi upstairs in the loft, sitting on the full-size bed, looking completely frazzled. She looked up at Paul and almost burst into tears. In a wavering voice, she finally said, “I almost burned down your cabin.”