Ray Gorham - Daunting Days of Winter

Jennifer heard laughter off in the distance that reminded her of Spencer, her pure, loving, little ray of sunshine whose enthusiastic hugs at bedtime melted all the troubles of the world away. Then she thought of Emma, and how much Emma mimicked her mother in wanting to be grown up and in charge, but how much she still craved her mother’s love and approval. David flashed before her, with his broad shoulders, his courage, and the emotional rock he had been for her through so many challenges. How can I do this to them? She shook her head, trying to clear it, to think straight. What am I doing, she asked herself.

“I’m not done yet,” she gasped, her jaw tight from the cold. She moved back towards the bank, her legs numb and unsteady. She stepped in a hole in the rocks, sinking up to her waist in the water. Shrieking from the cold, she grabbed at the ice ledge lining the side of the river to steady herself, but her fingers slipped off, causing her to lose her balance. The current nudged her, and she teetered back and forth as she fought to regain some stability. As she felt her foot slipping deeper into the water, she lunged forward and grabbed ahold of a large, exposed root on the bank of the river, clasping it tightly with both hands.

The root was thick, dry, and secure, and she clung to it while she caught her breath and regained her footing, then slowly pulled herself out of the water, her legs weakly pushing her body forward. Slowly climbing up the bank, Jennifer flopped over the top edge with a gasp of relief. She rolled onto her back and closed her eyes, letting out a breath and shaking her head slowly from side to side. In the distance she heard a horse approaching at a gallop, its hooves beating hard on the dirt path. Jennifer sat up to get out of the way, shielding the sun from her eyes to see who was approaching.

“Jennifer!”

Still numb and out of breath, she watched the horse come to a stop. Rose dismounted and rushed towards her. Jennifer wondered briefly if Rose had a gun and had come to eliminate the competition permanently.

“Jennifer, are you okay?”

Jennifer nodded, avoiding eye contact. “I’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry about me. Kyle isn’t here, you know. The community…”

“Jennifer, stop, please. You weren’t there when I came out of the bathroom, so I waited for you. When you didn’t come back, I began to think and realized what this must seem like. I was so tired from traveling and too excited to have made it that I didn’t explain things the way I should have. And, I forgot to tell you the most important thing.”

“Are you pregnant?”

Rose laughed. “No, I’m not pregnant. I haven’t had sex in almost a year, though heaven knows I tried with your husband. I’m embarrassed by what I did, but Kyle loves you. You need to know that. He refused to cheat on you even though I gave him the opportunity. That’s why I came here, because he’s one person I know I can trust. I just knew he was a decent man and thought he might help me.”

“You had nowhere else to go?”

Rose shook her head. “It’s pitiful, but true. My kids are too far away, my parents are dead, and my husband is gone, plus it was over with him anyway. I needed somewhere to go where I could be safe, or at least where I could trust the people around me.”

“So you’re saying you came here because Kyle wouldn’t sleep with you?” Jennifer blinked, fighting back tears that were a little freer in coming than they had been earlier.

Rose wavered a little. “I guess so, though that sounds bizarre. I came here because I wanted to be somewhere I felt safe. With what I knew of Kyle and what he told me of the community, I thought I’d find that here. I’m so sorry. I should have explained that first thing.”

Jennifer closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. “Thank you for clearing that up. I’ve been teetering near the edge emotionally for a while, and this nearly pushed me over. It feels good to be pulled a few feet back away from the brink.”

Rose reached out and grabbed Jennifer’s hands. “I truly am sorry. I wish there was something I could do for you.”

A thought came to Jennifer and she looked at Rose. “Would you be a character witness for Kyle?”

“Of course. Whatever you need.”

“Come with me.”

They returned to the house, where Jennifer put on dry clothes. Then the two women hurried across town, with Jennifer explaining to Rose what had happened to Kyle. When they reached their destination, Jennifer knocked sharply on the door. A young boy of about twelve answered. “Is Sean here?” Jennifer asked.

The boy nodded and turned. “Uncle Sean,” he called out. “There’s someone here for you.”

Jennifer waited for Sean to appear, bouncing with nervous energy. It was only a few seconds before she heard his voice.

“Hi, Jennifer. What brings you by?”

Jennifer smiled more fully than she had since the day Kyle had first arrived home. “Sean, I have someone here you have to talk to. Someone who will swear that Kyle would never do what he was convicted of. I want you to meet Rose Duncan.”

Thursday, February 23 rd

Moyie Springs, ID

The wooden door was old, with its green paint faded and peeling in long, thin strips. It rattled on its hinges and seemed like it might fall into the house when Kyle knocked on it. He took a step back, cleared his throat, waited, and listened. Thanks to bad directions, a slow horse, and the remote location, it had taken him three days to find this house, which could have been longer if not for Garfield’s patient service. The resilience of his loyal steed, even though Garfield had seen better days, was a blessing.

Kyle couldn’t hear anything from inside the house, so he stepped forward and knocked firmly on the door again. Having spent so much energy locating it, he refused to give up and go away.

The last few days in Moyie Springs had been most interesting. Collin had finally begun talking and, once Gene had gained the boy’s trust, had opened up about everything.

Collin’s story had come out in drips and drabs over the course of a few days, to a point where Kyle and Gene had been able to put together enough pieces to make sense of it. Though there were still lots of holes to be filled in, they had learned, firstly, that Collin was from Seattle, where he had lived with his mother.

Collin related how the lights in their apartment building went out one day and never come on again. They stayed in their apartment for a week, never going outside, just living on what little food they had, until the stench from the toilets forced them out, at which point they walked across the city to where his sister, Stacy, lived.

While staying with his sister, increasing local violence forced the three of them to abandon her duplex and travel out of the city and seek out Christopher, an old boyfriend of Stacy’s. After they had been there for a while, Collin’s mother disappeared and Christopher became more violent towards Collin, hitting the boy if he asked for food or water, and forcing Stacy to protect him.

The three of them, Stacy, Collin, and Christopher, eventually moved further out of town, to where Andre, a friend of Christopher, lived. There they had hunted and fished and eaten things they could scavenge. At some point, Andre acquired a working vehicle, and they had driven further away from the city, ending up at the cabin where Kyle had found them, surviving on deer meat, tree bark, and food taken from strangers. Collin recalled that Stacy hated how mean Christopher had become, and that she spent more and more time with Andre, who seemed to like her a lot.

Collin didn’t know how long they had been at the cabin when Kyle found him. He had just said they were there a long time, that they were hungry a lot, and that Andre and Chris fought about him and Stacy, and sometimes Christopher would hit them both, at least until Kyle had shown up.