Cain was exhausted. He had spent most of the night talking to his wife’s young cousin and taking her virginity. It had been a spectacular night for him, one that he would never forget. Up to this point, he had been faithful to his wife, Carolyn. What had come over him? Guilt settled like the snow still falling outside.
Still, he wouldn’t trade the night with the lovely young Ellie for anything. He hoped she felt the same way.
A winter storm had trapped the extended family at the church after their annual reunion. That morning, Aunt Rachel (Ellie’s grandmother) had supervised breakfast for the fifty or so people in the church. Her husband, Uncle Paul, had led them in prayer, thanking God for keeping them all safe through the storm, and asking blessings on everyone’s travels as they made their way home, hopefully, later that day.
Everyone took turns cleaning up in the restrooms since there were no showers. Most had brought toothbrushes and overnight bags.
Cain put his bag on a sink ledge in the men’s room. Someone else’s bag was on the sink to his left.
“Is my stuff in your way?” Uncle Paul called from inside the stall.
“No, it’s fine.”
He avoided knocking the bag to the floor while he dunked his head under the faucet and rinsed his hair and beard. As he was drying, he noticed a bottle of pills in his wife’s uncle’s bag. Curious, he picked it up and saw that it was a popular heart medicine.
The toilet flushed, and Uncle Paul came around the corner.
“Sorry.”
Cain held the pill bottle out to Uncle Paul.
“I didn’t know you had a heart problem.”
Paul, ordinarily jovial, shrugged and looked nervously from Cain to his bag.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to snoop, but the pills caught my eye.”
When Paul didn’t immediately reach out for the bottle, Cain reached to put it in the bag.
“Wait!”
Uncle Paul tried to grab the pill bottle.
Surprised, Cain pulled back and knocked the man’s bag to the floor.
“Sorry!”
He kneeled to gather the scattered toiletries.
There was another prescription bottle, this one filled with small blue pills.
“Oh.”
Cain glanced at the bottle and held it out to Uncle Paul.
The older man took the bottle, embarrassed.
“Thanks.”
“Do they work? I’ve always wondered.”
Uncle Paul chuckled, recovering some of his good nature.
“Do they put the lead back in the pencil? They do a good enough job for me. I didn’t mean to bring them. Just grabbed everything off the shelf. Not much use this weekend, eh?”
They laughed together, and Cain hoped he sounded hearty rather than guilty.
“Here, want to try some? For when you get home, I mean.”
Uncle Paul popped the bottle open and poured several into the cap, holding them out to Cain.
“Oh, well, I’ve never had much trouble, but I’ll save them for special occasions. Thank you!”
Uncle Paul gathered his things and headed out of the restroom.
Cain had wondered about the effects of those blue pills. He looked at them in his hand for a moment, then popped one in his mouth and swallowed, depositing the rest into his toiletry bag.
A family meeting was underway by the time he got back to the fellowship hall. They talked about what to do. Everyone had been checking the news all morning, watching weather reports, and evaluating road conditions. It was not looking promising. Forecasters were calling for more snow, high winds, and cold temperatures for the next two days, at least.
Cain wasn’t worried about his little family. He and his wife had brought extra clothes, lots of extra food, and even water. They hadn’t brought nearly enough for fifty people, though. There was a grocery store just a block away, but there was debate over whether it was safe to go even that far.
Uncle Paul had two snowmobiles at his house, about a mile away. With snowmobiles, a trip to the grocery, or even the hospital, God forbid, would be no problem.
“We should split up,” Will said. He was Uncle Paul’s stepson, his wife’s son from a previous marriage. “Those with boots and coats can hike to the grocery. We’re going to need food for sure. While we’re doing that, a couple of us can make the run to mom and dad’s getting the snowmobiles.”
“Who wants to get the snowmobiles with me?” Uncle Paul asked.
Most of the men and some of the women said “Me!”
One of those women was Sheri, Ellie’s mother. She had been young and pretty herself when Cain and his wife had dated twenty-five years ago. Now she had the seasoned beauty that came with age, softer face, laugh lines, and strands of gray in sandy blond hair.
“Oh, Dad! I haven’t ridden on a snowmobile in years!”
“Not much call for ‘em down in Georgia!” Don Jr. said. He was Cain’s brother-in-law and pronounced it ‘Jaw-Ja.’
Sheri put her fists on her hips in mock anger with her cousin.
“Just because I live in Georgia doesn’t mean I talk any differently than y’all!”
She pointed her finger at him.
Everyone laughed. Nobody from Iowa said ‘Y’all,’ and especially not in that lovely southern drawl Sheri was cultivating.
“Ok, so it’s Sheri and me getting the snowmobiles. Who’s staying to watch the kids?”
The discussion wound on for a while. Eventually, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Paul’s wife, spoke up.
“Your doctor would have something to say about you hiking a mile in snowdrifts and high winds, Paul. I think you need to have someone else go.”
Uncle Paul was indignant and argued long and hard about his ability to walk to his house and get his own property. In the end, though, his wife won, and he agreed to lead “The Hunting Expedition” as the grocery store party had taken to call itself.
“Cain, why don’t you go with Sheri,” Uncle Paul said.
Uncle Paul and Cain occasionally rode their snowmobiles together in the winter months, taking their cameras out to photograph wildlife near the river.
“That’s a good idea,” Carolyn said. “You can check the gas and oil, and do all that guy stuff.”
“I can do that,” Sheri said.
“You need to make them feel useful,” Carolyn said in a mock whisper.
“Oh, you’re right. Mistuh Cain, won’t you please come along and keep this little ol’ southern gal from gettin’ lost and makin’ a mess of things?” She stepped over to Cain, took one of his hands in hers, clasped it to her chest, and made doe eyes at him.
Everyone laughed but Cain, who could feel his face blushing. Sheri’s heartbeat pounded through her sternum and into his hand. He felt the brush of her breasts on either side of his hand. Pressure began building in his groin. He glanced at Ellie, who was laughing with the others.
Finally, manhood swelling and taking courage in hand, Cain went along with the joke, saying, “Madam, I shall embark on this journey with you, and keep you from endangerin’ both yourself and the mission.”
The men cheered while the women jeered.
And so, the teams were set. They made grocery lists and divided them up between the families. Some of the younger mothers and older kids arranged games and activities for the younger kids, and Cain and Sheri geared up.
The fresh snow was being blown into drifts by the high winds. Cain found a length of nylon rope and tied it around both himself and Sheri. There wasn’t much chance of them getting separated, but better safe than sorry.
With extra socks, boots, coats, hats, gloves, and scarves, they set out on their hike. Carolyn had hugged and kissed Cain before they left.
“Be careful! I need you back.”
“No worries,” he said, feigning a macho attitude to make her smile. “We’ll be back before you know it!”
Ellie was hugging her mother goodbye and telling her to be careful. She was going to stay and watch the children with her sister and Carolyn. When she disengaged from her mother, she turned and put a hand briefly on Cain’s shoulder, but said nothing. She turned away quickly.
The two stepped outside, leaving the warmth of the church behind. Thankful for the extra layers, Cain could feel the wind trying to knife its way inside his clothing. He knew the windchill was dangerously low, but the sensation still took him by surprise.
“This is going to suck. Isn’t it?” Sheri said.
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
Sheri and Cain began walking. There was no traffic. Not even snow plows were out yet. They tried to pick their way around the larger drifts, but within minutes, snow and ice had camouflaged them both. Cain watched Sheri gamely struggling through the smaller drifts and thought that it would be fun watching her body move if she had been wearing fewer clothes. As it was, he couldn’t even tell she was female.
Well, that wasn’t precisely true. Sheri’s boots were purple with fuzzy tops, which kind of gave it away at first. Now everything was white.
They trekked along for over twenty minutes. Everything looked different in the blowing snow, but Cain thought they must be getting close. They were walking through a neighborhood that Cain didn’t recognize. He leaned in and yelled over the wind.
“How much farther?”
“Two blocks!” she called back, keeping her face forward, watching something.
Cain followed her gaze and saw a geyser spraying from the side of a house. He thought it might be a snowblower, but there was no sound.
A few steps on they saw a man struggling with a broken hose, trying to work the shut-off valve. Cain glanced at Sheri, who nodded, and they ran to help.
Water had soaked his clothes and was freezing in his hair and beard. Cain was horrified at the man’s blue hands and frozen clothing.
“Crimp the hose!” Cain yelled to Sheri.
He removed his glove and took a Leatherman tool from his pocket. Opening it in a flash, he worked the post of the broken valve until, almost a minute later, he finally got it closed.
“Th...thanks,” the man said.
“Is someone inside that can help you?” Cain shouted, concerned for the man’s safety.
“M...m...my w...w...wife,” he stuttered. “I w...was t...trying t...to thaw....”
“I don’t care,” Cain barked. “Get inside and get warmed up.”
He watched the man stumble up the steps, his frozen coat hanging from his shoulders like cardboard. The man’s wife pulled him inside, waved quickly to Cain and Sheri, and closed the door.
Sheri was wet, too. Not yet turning blue, she was shivering and clutching her arms to her chest.
“I didn’t get it crimped in time,” she said, teeth chattering.
Should they risk the two-block trip or try to get her warm here? Cain froze in momentary indecision.
“Come on,” she pulled on his arm. “I’ll b...be all right. If w...we hurry!”
They began jogging through the snow and wind.
Two blocks, Cain told himself. Piece of cake.
With half a block left, Sheri stumbled and fell. The quick tug on the rope connecting them pulled Cain from his feet. He hit the ground hard on his back.
He shook his head and rolled over to his hands and knees to see Sheri feebly trying to struggle to her feet. She wouldn’t make it on her own.
He climbed to his feet and pulled Sheri to hers. Immediately, her knees buckled, and she fell, shivering violently. Cain unceremoniously slung her over his shoulder and trudged the remaining distance to the house. Wind clawing at his face, he went through her pockets for the keys, and opened the door.
Getting out of the wind was blissful, entering the warmth of the house, heavenly. Sheri was trying to take her frozen coat off, but couldn’t make her fingers work. Cain couldn’t even untie the rope since ice had coated the knots.
The Leatherman handled the rope. Cain then helped Sheri off with her coat. Her clothes were wet and freezing, too. He saw desperate pleading in her eyes.
“I...I...c...c...can’t do i...it.…”
“Great.”
He removed her hat and scarf. Her hair was frozen and stiff, much like his own. He shrugged off his own coat, hat, and gloves so that he could move better.
Sheri was sitting in a kitchen chair, shivering violently. Quickly, he began removing her boots and socks, then her sweater and outer layer of jeans.
The inner layers weren’t as wet, but Sheri was still too cold to undress herself.
“Can you walk?”
She just looked at him and shook her head. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the master bedroom. He draped a blanket over her like a shawl and reached inside to undress her and attempt to maintain at least some modesty.
“Th...thank y...y...you.”
Cain struggled with the fastenings. He had both hands inside the blanket, and finally got her blouse and t-shirt off, then her last pair of jeans. Here he paused and looked at her with the obvious question in his eyes.
