S Ison - Russian Doomsday

They got into his truck and headed to her apartment. When they got there, they stood looking at all the boxes and containers and started laughing.

“I think if we’d stayed her another week, we would have had to sleep in our vehicles,” she grinned.

“Yeah. I think we’ve about filled this place up as much as possible. I’ll start getting everything out of my room and packing it into the truck.”

Within an hour, both of their vehicles were packed. Pike led the way to the cabin, the keys burning a hole in his pocket. He had a grin on his face, and felt as light as a feather. They had done it. They had found and bought a safe haven.

It only took twenty minutes to get to the cabin, and Margo jumped out of her car when they got there. He grinned as she whooped and hollered in the yard.

“Let’s take this lot in and head back for more stuff,” he suggested.

“Sounds like a plan. I don’t want to sleep in the apartment tonight, I want to sleep in our home.”

He felt his heart flip. She’d said our home . He couldn’t help but smile as she unlocked the door and went in. He carried boxes and containers in behind her.

The scent of wood and leather pooled around them, drawing them in like a welcoming, invisible fog. It smells like home . It was as though the house wrapped itself around them in a protective hug. There was no buyer’s remorse here.

For the next while, they emptied out some to take back and reload.

“I still can’t believe this is ours,” she cooed.

“Me neither. We did it, Margo, we did it! Whatever comes or doesn’t come, this is a damn fine cabin.” He grinned at her. She stepped over and put her arms around his waist and gave him a hard hug. He held her for a moment and inhaled the scent of her. He wanted to freeze time for a decade.

“Yeah, we sure did,” she said softly, looking at him.

He came within a hair of kissing her, but pulled back and smiled instead. “Come on. Let’s get this stuff unpacked and get back for more stuff. I’m glad we had everything pretty much packed before today.”

“Well, I figured that once we closed, we’d want to get the hell out of the apartment and into this cabin,” she laughed.

They spent the rest of the day making trips back and forth from her apartment to their cabin. By the late afternoon, they had everything stuffed into the cabin, helter-skelter. Binx wasn’t sure about the cabin, but went about sniffing every corner. When he was outside, he marked every bush and tree.

“You’d think he’d run out of pee at some point,” Pike said as they sat on the steps of the cabin. They watched the dog sniff around, then disappear into the dense bush.

“You’d think, but you’d be wrong,” she sniggered.

“I’m so glad the owners left most of the furniture. It isn’t in bad shape, and if we want to replace it later, we can. But for now, it’s one less thing we have to buy.”

“I like that a lot of it is rustic. It suits the cabin. And yes, it is in good condition. That couch is comfy too.”

“Yeah, I tried it out. But I wanted to lie down and take a nap. That leather is good leather. They don’t make them like that anymore,” Pike said, taking a swig of his soft drink.

They’d stopped for the day and were relaxing, enjoying the quiet on the lake. Pike meant it about the couch being comfortable. It was buttery-soft and very inviting.

“I saw that you put my pink zebra blanket on the couch,” Margo said, breaking into his thoughts.

He grinned at her and winked. “Figured it would look good there and add some color to all the browns and wood tones.”

“It does.”

The four bedrooms of moderate size. The six-inch logs had a synthetic chinking that expanded and contracted with the log’s movement. It also kept the cabin weather-tight and didn’t need repairing any time soon. The cabin was well built and sturdy, and the kitchen was a good size with a large farmhouse table. In the basement was plenty of room for storage, as well as the cast iron pots they had coveted.

Beneath the leather couch was a woven rag rug, its bright colors faded with time. The trim around the doors was pine and faded too. There were a few squeaky boards, but that only added to the charm of the place. The cabin was redolent of wood, leather, and ageless beauty.

“I just love the floors, that wide oak planking, and the fact the cabin was a hunting lodge at the turn of the century. How cool is that? Lots of history,” Pike said.

“I know, and yet they have the solar panels to make it work just right. I mean, they’ve upgraded and improved, but it still looks like you’ve stepped back in history. I love that about it.”

Over the years it had clearly been modernized, but had remained off grid, thus retaining its timeless beauty. The improvements, like the gas stove and hot water heater, as well as the solar panels and small wind turbine, helped to bring the cabin into the twenty-first century.

“I still feel like crying, all because I love this place so much. Does that sound stupid?” Pike asked.

“No, because I’m about on the verge of crying now, and have been all day. I guess we’ve been stressing so much that, now that we’re here, it almost doesn’t seem real.”

“Yeah. Can you hear the loon?”

They both sat quietly for a few moments. In the distance, the lonesome call of the loon echoed off the water. It sent a shiver down Pike’s back. The warmth of the rays of the sun spread from his face through his body, relaxing him. The wind blew around them, and something caught his attention.

“I think we have jasmine around somewhere, I can smell it,” he said.

“I smell it too. I think it’s the bushes around the house, you know, the ones Binx has been peeing all over.” She laughed. Both he and Margo looked at Binx who was now lying on his back in the sun, his legs sticking up much like a dead cockroach’s would.

It had been a long struggle from the day Margo had sent the article to him. Now they were in their home, and though there was much to be done, they could now relax. They’d made it. They’d walked around the cabin, their hands touching everything, when they’d first arrived.

The windows were fairly recent and double-paned and the casements were pine as well.

“The double panes will really keep the warm in, and I’m glad they updated the chinking. With the flexibility of it, we won’t have to worry about re-chinking it for years,” Pike said, his hand caressing the log wall to his side.

“I almost want to hug the cabin,” Margo laughed, her eyes crinkling up prettily.

“Yeah, and I really like the rafters, they are nice and tall. What should we do with the open loft space? It isn’t very big… I think it was used as an office by the previous owners.”

“I don’t know? Maybe put our projects and books up there for now? Storage, so it isn’t laying all over the place. I really like the heavy railing along its edge. I think it was honed from large branches of oak,”

“Yeah, this house has a lot of history and is just plain neat.” The railings were satiny smooth from age. They also adorned the heavy stairs that came down into the living room.

“You want to go down and look around in the basement some more?”

“Heck yeah. I don’t think I will ever get tired of exploring this place,” Pike said.

They went down to the basement and looked around. There were plenty of heavy wooden shelves set into the walls on all sides. There was a pressure canner sitting on one of the shelves, along with empty canning jars.

“Yeah, I’m going to have to learn how to use this thing,” Margo said touching the pressure canner.

“I think if you watch some Youtube videos you can learn, Margo. And I’ll help.”