Chapter 9

Horace reclined in the lazy boy chair with several blankets but it was so cold outside, he felt the chill on his legs even though he had long johns and jeans on. Nicole was asleep in the bed. She claimed that in a week or so she’d be good as new. Horace had weaned her off the morphine that the government handed out to all of its outposts in case they could not get to his station if he became ill or had an accident.

Many things raced through his mind as he lay there in the dark as he listened to the gust of winds whistling through the pine trees and the raging blizzard taking place just outside the door.

This was his tenth year at this isolated lonely job which paid him well and supplied him with almost all his needs. There were mostly husband and wife teams plus a few like himself. Not married, no girl friend, no prospects of having anyone in the future. He knew that he would die alone either here or in some small apartment back in Milwaukee where he was born and raised.

Horace was thirty years old. Always the object of ridicule because of his dwarf like image. Only he was not a dwarf or a midget. He had few friends growing up and none of them were close to him. Almost every weekend of his life he spent alone in his room reading, or watching television, or listening to his classical music. He felt lonely at first.

After high school, where he was put to shame almost daily by someone, mostly girls. He had grown used to it. Jeannie Douglas and Lynn Erikson were the two main persons who made his life miserable. Every time they saw him they’d point and laugh at him.

In his senior year his mind and heart changed. It had practically turned to stone and nothing hurt him any longer. He was quite content with this aspect of his life. He never had a date, never kissed a girl, stopped hoping that somehow he might magically change into a normal man.

His legs were overly short, his arms were overly long but very strong, his face was the same today as it was when he was a teenager. He wore his hair very short and taught how to give himself haircuts. He had a big mouth which broadened even more if he smiled which was not too often. Horace was a neat freak. Everything had to have its place. It was the hump on his back that embarrassed him the most.

He scooped some wooden pellets into the stove and before closing it shut, he gazed at the redhead in her sexy nightgown sleeping taking small even breaths. He almost couldn’t hear her with the winds blowing so loudly. He thought he heard a wolf howl. Perhaps the pack found a deer or an elk. They had free reign now that their fiercest foe, the grizzly was hibernating in their lairs.

He thought back to the night of Nicole’s near fatal crash. He heard the motor fighting to keep moving then the hitting in the snow. He dressed quickly to see if there were any survivors. He didn’t have to use his snowmobile but he did. He reached the wreckage in a matter of one minute. He found the pilot’s door open and a long mane of red hair hanging half in, half out of the craft.

Being strong in his arms, she was easy to pull out. Slice the safety harness and carry her long but light frame to the snowmobile. He got her in the cabin and returned to get her belongings. She had two suit cases and a makeup kit in strong metal luggage. He had more problems with those things than he did with her. He managed to get her undressed and put a flannel gown over her nudity. It didn’t occur to him at that moment that he had seen a naked woman in the flesh for the first time in his life. It was only after everything had settled down for him that he realized he saw a real pussy. He hadn’t taken a good look at it but later it was seared in his mind. He wanted so much to see it again and for a longer time than the brief glance from before.

Over the next two months Nicole was in and out of consciousness. She moaned in pain when she was coming to. He gave her a shot of the drug which put her right back into the twilight zone where she could sleep. He often opened an eyelid to see the beautiful green eyes Nicole had.

When she finally awoke ten days ago, she couldn’t walk and still complained of a terrible headache along with the agony she endured from the accident. Knowing that eventually there would be another mouth to feed, he went outside to the store room to get extra things to eat. He had frozen eggs, milk, orange juice, beef, pork, and a variety of frozen vegetables including potatoes.

Feeling a bit colder, Horace decided that when summer came and he got his two month vacation that he would buy a sleeping bag.

He knew that an event like this one was a one time happening but it would be nice to get it. Eventually his tired mind shut down and he fell asleep.