Looking out the window, I see that the snow has only covered it halfway, so I can still see out. A sliver of light appears on the horizon as the sun begins to finally make its presence known. The storm seems to be over, at least for now. I crank up the weather radio, but I can’t get a signal. Solo isn’t pleased with my distraction and reaches up to dig tiny claws into my forearm.
I pick him up and place him up on my shoulder, only tensing slightly as I have to walk past Seri to sit by the fire and feed the kitten. He sucks ravenously at the bottle, and I wonder how long it will be before he wants something more substantial. I doubt cow’s milk is really the best thing for him, but I don’t have any other options, and he’s at least filling out and not looking quite so scraggly now.
“Look,” Seri says but then stops speaking for a moment. She eventually squares her shoulders and glances at me. “I know this is your place, and I didn’t mean to react so strongly, but I wasn’t expecting that. I’m sure you’re used to just doing whatever you like in your own home, and I respect that, but…well, when I woke up…all I could think about were those guys who left me on the side of the road.”
Add guilt to the list of conflicting emotions.
“I’m sorry I freaked out,” she says.
“I wasn’t trying to upset you.” I rub Solo’s belly as he sucks milk from the bottle. “We were both a little oxygen deprived anyway. That can make people act strangely.”
“Like stripping naked?” Seri mumbles the words, and I choose to ignore them.
It occurs to me that Seri may be embarrassed about how she acted last night. She has a lot less body mass than I do, and if snow had already covered much of the cabin, she could have been feeling the effects of lowered oxygen levels before I even noticed.
The idea was bullshit, and I knew it, but I didn’t have a better explanation for her behavior. Her reaction to my nakedness made zero sense, and blaming it on the atmosphere is the best excuse I have. I’m not one to engage in conflict when I don’t have to, so I’m not about to question her on it. It would just lead to a fight, and I don’t want to argue with her.
If she can act like we didn’t have sex, then so can I.
Chapter 9
Seri sits on the bed in silence as I finish feeding the kitten and then asks if she can get breakfast together. I shr
ug in response, which she apparently takes as a yes since she heads to the kitchen and starts preparing coffee and eggs.
I’m starting to wonder if this woman is bipolar. I had a cellmate who was, and that made for some tense moments. He’d go from taking a swing at some idiot in the prison yard to crying on his bunk five minutes later. If the dude decided not to take his meds, he’d completely lose his shit and end up in solitary.
I wonder if Seri’s lost backpack contained any medication.
“Is the storm over?” she asks as she hands me a cup of coffee and a plate of eggs.
“I think so. For now, at least.”
“How long will it be before we can get to town?”
“It’s going to be a while. There’s a lot of snow piled up, and I didn’t even look for the Jeep. It’s probably buried. I’ll have to dig it out to get anywhere. When it’s this late in the season, I normally stay put. It’s also still insanely cold. There’s no way the Jeep will start. I don’t even bother with driving over the winter. Once it warms up, I’ll have to jump start the thing to get it running again.”
“Wow. I guess I never realized just how cold cold can be!”
“This is below average, that’s for sure, but it often falls to twenty below Fahrenheit.”
“Wow,” she says again. “I thought it was cold back home during the winter, but even the worst days didn’t have temperatures that cold.”
“Welcome to the Northwest Territories.” I rearrange the coals with the poker to make it easier for Seri to cook on them.
“There are only four eggs left after these,” Seri says as hands me a cup of coffee and starts to fry up breakfast. “Do you have more somewhere?”
“Nope.” I take a sip of coffee. “Once they’re gone, they’re gone. I don’t run into Whatì every time I run out of something. It’s just too cold. That’s why I don’t usually plan on going anywhere during the winter months. I have everything I need here, and any time spent outside is risky. If I were to go to Whatì every time I ran out of something, I’d just move back.”
“You used to live there?”
“Yeah.”
“With your family?”
“No.”
“By yourself?”