With the dense underbrush and her own miserable sense of direction, she could easily go around in circles. She'd have to be careful not to get lost. The heavy, crusted snow would have erased any path, but the snow also made it possible for her to try the search on cross-country skis. Even Clyde, who'd been the farm manager for 30 years, claimed he didn't know where the cabin was. The help on the farm was absolutely forbidden to go into the woods. "Every artist needs a place to be totally alone." That meant that for him the cabin was usually about a twenty-minute walk from the edge of the woods. Once he had forgotten his key when he went to the cabin and immediately returned to the house for it. "Hey, wait up for a city girl," she'd protest. His naturally long stride had always made him unconsciously walk too fast for her. In those sleepless hours she had devised a plan. Somewhere in that forest of maples and oaks and evergreens and Norwegian pines and overgrown brush it was there. If she froze to death in the search she would try to find the cabin. The windchill factor was twenty-four below zero. The winds were blowing at an average of twenty-five miles per hour. The weather report was unchanged for the area of Granite Place, Minnesota the temperature was twelve degrees Fahrenheit. She had turned on the radio at four o'clock. She got out of bed and began to dress, choosing the long underwear and nylon Windbreaker that she wore under her ski suit. The small cakes of pine soap that filled the bowl cast an eerie green tint on the antique silver mirror and brushes.
The room brightened and the leaded crystal bowl on the dresser top caught and reflected the light. Her breasts still filled, ready to welcome the tiny, eager lips.įinally she switched on the lamp at the bedside table. All night she had lain motionless in the massive four-poster bed, unable to sleep, the stillness of the house oppressive and clutching.Įven after weeks of knowing it would not come, her ears were still tuned for the baby's hungry cry. Jenny began looking for the cabin at dawn.
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