Chapter 3

When I awoke the next morning, it was nice and warm under the blankets next to Owen, but he had developed a problem overnight. Having five Brothers, it was one that I was familiar with. Under the blankets, I carefully pulled up his night shirt to reveal his manhood. It was long, thick, and as hard as an iron bar. Being familiar with my Brother's equipment, I knew instantly that his was much larger than the average, and larger than what those who had abused me in the city had possessed.

I also knew what was needed and began to stroke that hard mighty bar that was never-the-less soft-to-the-touch. Owen's eyes flew open in a few seconds, and he moaned.

"Just lie still," I told him, as I continued my work, and added a bit of spit to my hand to reduce the friction some. In what seemed like no time, Owen erupted like a volcano, but I was prepared for that having brought a wash cloth to bed with me last night in preparation for just such an event.

"I had to deal with similar situations with my Brothers until they either married or found a girl friend to take care of them," I told him with a little giggle before he reached down and pulled me up to kiss me very passionately, but that was not the major surprise that greeted me once part of me was out from under the blankets.

It was COLD in the cabin. Actually it was very cold in the cabin, plus I could see the sun was up already and shining into our front window. It appeared that the storm was over, at least for the present.

Owen's kiss was both long and passionate, and I found myself rubbing my lower body against him in need. When we finally came up for air, I was all flustered, but did notice a book on the pillows just before it vanished. I thought that I was just seeing things because of the passionate kiss and his nearness.

"We need to get up," I told him in a determined voice when I regained control of myself.

"Yes, let's get dressed. We have a lot to do today, and it's best done quickly in case the storm returns later," he agreed. I allowed him to dress first, since he was the one to deal with the stove and rebuild the fire.

By the time I had slipped out of bed and changed clothes behind the screen, Owen had brought in the last of the coal. It wasn't more than a half bucket. He worked the stove grate until a few live embers fell into the ash-pan, before opening the front door of the stove and dumping in the coal. He used the small shovel to distribute it, and soon the blue flames of a starting fire appeared. He closed the front door then and opened the dampers on the stove to admit more air under the fire and readjusted the damper in the chimney pipe which he had opened before starting. Soon we could hear the fire as it picked up in intensity, and once it was well started Owen closed the dampers a bit to control it.

While Owen was attending to all of that, I started peeling the now very cold potatoes and then cutting them up. I would fry them for breakfast, and we would have them and some fried ham plus bread and butter along with some tea when the water was hot. It would still be a short time before the stove was hot enough for cooking, and a much longer time before the cabin had warmed up enough to be comfortable.

Breakfast was eventually ready, even the tea, and we ate at the table. Owen had cleaned and refilled the lamp in addition to checking on conditions outside. That was the main topic of discussion at breakfast.

"How does it look outside?" I asked.

"The snow isn't as deep as I had feared, but there is still a lot of it. It's even piled up on the front porch. We'll need to go out the back door and use the shovel to clear away the snow at the various houses. This won't be a quick trip," he assured me.

"What about footwear? My shoes aren't suitable for adventures in deep snow," I asked.

"I saw some boots in the back and after we finish eating, I'll bring them inside to warm them up some. It's probably in the low teens outside. We'll need to bundle up and may even need to use the blankets to stay warm," he told me, which wasn't all that welcome to hear.

"Are there any gloves? Mine are very thin," I asked.

"We'll need to look. I haven't checked all of the drawers in the chest," he told me, as we finished our tea.

A check of the drawers didn't find any gloves, but Owen had found leather work gloves in the back with the boots. The boots were a little large for me, but fit better with two pairs of stockings on. The leather gloves were also large and not noted for warmth, but I could wear them over my other gloves which made them a better fit and somewhat warmer. We were soon ready to proceed outside.

There was a shovel, a square ended coal shovel, in the area at the back of the cabin where the coal bin was located. On looking around, we also found a rake, a hoe, and a garden shovel. It wouldn't be as good as the coal shovel for moving snow but would have to do. I took it and also the hoe which was good for chopping ground ice.

While it had been cold in the back area of the cabin, outside it was even colder, as there was still the wind to deal with although it was much less than yesterday's wind. We trudged through the snow to the next house.

"I'll take the back areas and look for coal and firewood, if you want to take the front doors to see if anyone is home," Owen told me, and I agreed. We parted then, and I went toward the front of the next cabin.

The snow was about eighteen inches deep, and I sank down into it with each step. It was fortunate that I had boots on and had found some long wool pants to wear under my dress. I had tucked the pants legs into the top of the boots. The bottom of my dress was soon full of snow.

The steps at the front of the house were covered with snow, and I used the shovel to clear a path to walk up them, but needed the hoe to break up the ice under the snow. All of this work came to no avail, as when I reached the porch, I could go no farther. Something stopped me from going more than two feet onto the porch, though there was no physical barrier visible, and I soon found myself at the bottom of the steps again with no memory of how I reached there. I tried again with the same result before giving up in frustration and moving on to the next house.

The same thing occurred there, and I continued on, but no longer took the time and effort to clear the snow from the steps. It was the same at each house. I was unable to move more than two steps onto any of the porches and always found myself at the bottom of the steps. I finally gave up and went to look for Owen at the rear of the houses. I found him just approaching the back of the last house in this row.

"Did you have any luck?" I asked, as he approached.

"No, none, all of the back doors are locked and when I tried them, I found myself several feet from the house and the door, but had no memory of moving there," he told me.

"Yes, about the same thing happened to me on the porches. Should we try those in the next row?" I asked.

"I already have, with the same result," he told me. "That's why I'm just getting here,"

"Was there no firewood either?" I asked since firewood is usually kept outside.

"No, nothing. I don't know what else to do. We'll just have to leave here when the coal is gone. I don't know where we'll go, but at least it isn't snowing now," he told me.

"Certainly not back to New York," I told him in a determined voice.

"New York?" he asked in a questioning voice.

"Certainly, that's where I was before finding this house," I answered.

"You're mistaken," he told me. "This has to be just outside of Pittsburgh. I was working in a Blacksmithing shop there," he insisted.

"But I went to New York looking for a job, and I was in New York when I moved to the three brownstones," I stated with just as an insistent a voice.

"But that's ... that's impossible, Pittsburgh and New York are several hundred miles apart."

"Yes, they're about 400 miles apart," I agreed, but had a different question, "Where are we then?"

"I don't know or how we got here, wherever here is," he told me in a confused voice.

"How will we leave then?" I asked beginning to panic.

"I have no idea, but let's get back to the house and warm up before all of the coal burns up," he suggested. We picked up our tools and trudged back to the cabin in a discouraged mood using the path that Owen had made on his way there.

The Surprise:

We left the back door open on entering the rear of the cabin so we could see to put the tools away. The first thing that we noticed on entering was that the coal bin was now nearly full of coal ... bright shiny new coal!! We both stared at it in stunned silence for many seconds.

"But it was empty before. It wasn't my imagination, it was empty!" Owen uttered in surprise before reaching out and grabbing a hand full of the coal and looking at it closely.

"I'm not imagining this either, this is coal ... good anthracite coal. Where did it come from?" he asked in amazement and confusion.

"I don't know. There weren't any footprints outside but ours, and surely a horse and wagon would have left tracks in the snow. Whoever delivered it would have also wanted money for the coal," I told him.

"Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. I'll bring the bucket out here and fill it, if you'll start on some food for us. We expended a lot of energy out there, and I for one am ready to eat again," he told me. We quickly entered the cabin after closing the back door securely. Even though it wasn't overly warm in there, it felt quite hot to us after being outside as long as we had been.

While I changed clothes behind the screen, Owen returned to the back to fill the coal bucket. He changed when I had finished, and he went to hang our wet things to dry while I started on the meal. He would also add the new coal to the stove.

On opening the doors to the food storage area, I received another shock. The bins had been only partly full when I arrived, but now they were all full. Additionally, on checking I found that there was now not only ham in its bin, but also cut up chicken parts, bacon, and eggs. I just stared at all of this in shock for several minutes while cold crept into the cabin. I had seen how the food storage area was cooled on returning to the cabin. The light from the open back door had revealed a series of holes drilled in the wall where the food storage was on its other side.

"Owen, come look at this," I requested upon recovering some.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he finished removing his boots. He came over to me after donning his house shoes.

"Look at this!" I told him as he neared me. "Where did all of this food come from? It wasn't here earlier this morning." Owen was as shocked as I had been and just stared at it for a time.

"I have absolutely no idea," he said in a shocked voice after that. We both just stared at the bins for a time.

"What do you want to eat?" I finally asked as my feet were getting cold from the cold draft coming out of the food storage area.

"Bacon and eggs with bread and some good hot tea," he replied with enthusiasm, as he turned to continue changing clothes. I removed the bacon and retrieved a bowl to put five eggs in plus added some green onions. As I turned to start preparing the food, Owen had opened the front door of the stove and was adding the new coal to the fire. He had already opened the dampers and the fire quickly responded.