The Dealer Takes Three
an excerpt

There was a challenge made to the Saskatchewan writers to put a blizzard in their story as we had, had one last January. This is my answer to that challenge.

Chapter Six

There was only two days left in the two weeks they were going to be staying at the cabin. Milloe was surprised at how comfortable he was in the outdoors now. He and the captain had been on several hikes out in the woods. He wasn’t very good at hunting, he had gotten the hang of cooking, what surprised him even more was that he liked to cook and was getting better at it all the time. Still for whatever reason the captain took him along when he went hunting, mostly it seemed because the man liked to have sex outside. Which Milloe couldn’t not understand at all, but he went along with it seeing as he didn’t really have a choice. One thing Milloe had noticed this afternoon was that it was getting colder, there had even been a few inches of snow fall. That was an experience to Milloe. He had never seen snow before. When the snow ball hit him he had no idea what to do, for about thirty seconds. Then a snow ball fight started, which ended in both of them covered in snow. A hot shower later all was good. What was happening now was different, it seemed off to Milloe. Milloe had been out in one of the sheds, looking for something to tinker with, there had been a sudden drop in temperature and the wind had picked up. He looked toward where the captain had gone of earlier. He said he would be back in couple of hours, that was almost four hours ago. With one last look at where the captain should have been coming from Milloe went back into the cabin to make sure there was hot meal ready for him when he got back.

Rhade looked up from the carcass of the animal he had just killed. There would be enough time to bleed, skin and butcher before the shuttle came for him and his boy. He could bring fresh meat back to Cora just like he always did. That was the plan before he looked up and saw the sky. The weather had taken a turn for the worse in the last couple of hours. Right now what he had thought would be a small snow storm was starting to look like it would be a blizzard. That wasn’t good. He would be alright. This wasn’t the first blizzard he had been in. But it would be the first for his boy. While he was doing much better and had shelter, food and other supplies, he didn’t have the experience or the knowledge as to how best to use them. If had just been him up here Rhade would have found a place to dig in and wait the storm out. It wasn’t so he hide the carcass as best as he could, there was slight chance it would still be there when he came back for it, and headed back toward the cabin as fast as he could. Which was not faster than the storm.

Milloe walked toward the window for what had to be the hundredth time, he could look out. The snow fall had been nice at first, heavier than before and pretty in it’s own way. Then it had gotten heavier and the wind stronger. So strong it was making the cabin shake and causing noises that Milloe didn’t understand and they scared him. He didn’t know why, but Milloe had carried in all the wood the captain had cut in the last few days. It was stacked all over the cabin, in a strange way made him feel better. He did fight the urge to stoke the fires up as high as he could, that would just burn the wood faster. He had long since taken the food off the stove, even eaten some of it. Now he was starting to worry. He didn’t know what to do, so he did the only thing he could do. He banked the fires as he had been taught and found as many blankets as he could and crawled under them on the bed and waited.

And waited. He keep drifting off and waking up with a jerk. Finally the room got to cold and he forced himself out of the bed and stoked up the fires a bit. Dug around the kitchen and found something that would hold liquid, boiled some water and made a hot water bottle to take back to bed with him. This time he did look out the window and could the snow was almost to the ledge. Taking his hot water bottle he went back to the bed. For the first time since he had woken up in the slave pen in the captain’s quaters he was really afraid. Afraid he would die here alone, afraid he wouldn’t die but the captain would. He had no idea what would happen to him then. As afraid as he was for himself he was even more afraid for the captain. He didn’t think freezing to death was a very good way to die not to mention starving. How could there be anything to eat out there in all that snow. As hard as he tried to stay awake, Milloe found himself drifting off again.

Milloe groaned as a blast of cold air came in to the cabin. He didn’t want to get out of the bed. He didn’t think the fires should have died down so fast. Then came a banging sound. Milloe poked his head further out the covers to see a large white thing moving into the cabin. It turned to close the door. It had trouble as a lot of snow was blowing in behind it. Finally the door was closed and enough snow was brushed off for Milloe to see is was the captain. He jumped out of the bed and went over to the walking snow pile.

“Are you alright?”

”CCCOOOOLLLDDD.” Was the word that finally came out.

“Right.” Milloe looked around. “What can I do?” He had no idea how to handle this kind of thing.

As Milloe was talking Rhade was shaking the snow off, trying to keep it in as small an area as possible. He looked up to see a concerned look on his boy’s face. “First, start the shower, keep the temperature cool for now. Have to warm up slowly, to fast it could cause a problem.” Rhade started to take his outer clothes off. “Once I’m in the shower, gather up all the snow you can in to containers. It is possible the pipes might freeze and this could be our only water for a few days.”

Milloe just nodded as he went to do what Rhade said. At the mention of the pipes freezing, he wondered if they even had water now. With a little trepidation he turned the faucets on first the cold and then very slowly the hot. The water was just lukewarm, he hoped it was right. When he got back out into the main room, he found Rhade wrapped in a blanket, with what looked like everything that could be used to hold snow out.

“Water’s running.”

“Good, good. Start gathering up the snow. I shouldn’t be long. Come check on me just in case.”

“Yes. Captain.” Rhade was almost to the door. “Captain.”

There was grunt that Milloe took as a yea. “What do I do with your clothes?”

“Dump them in the washer.”

“Yes, captain.”

It didn’t take long to collect what he could of the snow. It had already started melting. He did his best. After what had to have been his hundredth trip into the kitchen he stopped to look at the pump. Checking to see if there was more snow he could gather up, finding none he headed toward the bathroom.

“Captain?”

“Yes.”

“Do you need anything?”

“A towel would be good now. Is there anything to eat?”

“Nothing hot.”

“What ever we have it fine.”

“First a towel.” Milloe handed the captain a towel.

“There’s a hot water bottle in the bed.”

”That sounds good. See you there.”

“Yes, captain.” Milloe followed him out watched him get in to the bed and went to find some food. Looking at the containers of snow, he took a couple and put them on the stove. It would make them melt faster and boiling would make it safe to drink. He then stoked the stove and the fireplace before joining the captain in the bed. As soon as he was under the covers he was pulled in to a what had become of late his normal sleeping position.

“Your cold.”

“Yes, and your hot.” Milloe was pulled closer and he felt Rhade fall asleep.

Milloe tried to go to sleep he was sure there would be a lot to do when the captain woke up. He couldn’t the body behind him was so cold despite the warm shower. He could the warmth from his body being leached from him. Poking his head out of the covers he looked at the fireplace, it had burned down to where more wood should be put on, he didn’t want to go out in the cold. Then the captain shuddered in a full body shiver and Milloe knew he had to. So he got and stoked the fires on more time. This time when he got back to the warm bed he fell asleep.

Hours later Rhade woke up feeling warm and hungry. He turned over and found the food his boy had brought for him. He ate some while looking around the cabin. It was dark. That didn’t mean it was night. It was very possible the snow was so high now as to cover the windows, with the fires burned down and the lanterns either not lit or run out of oil it could noon and still as dark in the cabin as it was. Rhade could see a few embers in the fireplace. As warm as he was, and as cold as it felt outside the bed he had to get up. If they weren’t careful they could freeze to death. Before moving Rhade looked and felt around finding the extra blankets on the bed. Taking one of them, he was able to leave Reina under enough to keep him warm.

Rhade put his foot on the floor and pulled it back, the floor was very cold. Dropping a blanket on the floor he used it move to the end of the bed, grabbed his bag and pulled on some clothes before wrapping a blanket around him. Since he was up Rhade decided to check the pipes in the bathroom and kitchen as well find something to eat. He found the pots of water on the stove and smiled. He knew he hadn’t put them there. Finding some dehydrated soup mix he waited for the water to boil, once it was he added the mix, stirred it a couple of times then headed back to bed. He found a head poking out of the nest of blankets.

“Hey there my little Reina. How are you?”

“I’m fine. How are you?” He sat up. Looking around. “What is going on out there.”

“It’s called a blizzard. It’s a weather condition the can happen quite quickly. It can also last for several days. It’s a good thing you brought the wood in. It is easy to get lost even going a short distance to the side of the cabin.”

“Really?”

“Yes. So we are here until it ends.”

Milloe looked at the captain, thinking he was joking. The look on his face was very serious. “So how long will this one last.” Milloe looked around a the one window he could see.

“I don’t know we will just have to wait. We are fine, we are inside, we have food, water and wood. We have nothing to worry about.” Rhade decided it was time to get his boys mind off the weather. “The soup should be ready by now, once we eat.” He leaned over and whispered in his boys ear. He chuckled at the blush that came over the boys face. Picking up the spare blanket he had been using before he wrapped himself up and headed to the kitchen. The smell was right. The soup was done.
They each got a bowl and went back to the bed. They were going to spending a lot of time there.

It was hard to tell time. Not knowing how long they would trapped here, they had been conserving the wood, oil for the lanterns as well food and water. That was all they were conserving as far as Milloe could tell. But if nothing else by the time the snow stopped they not only knew each other bodies very well they also knew each other. As much as Rhade might have wanted to do nothing but have sex all the time, his body and his boys body keep telling him no. So he used the time to get his boy to tell him awake what he had said when he was asleep. In a way he hated it when the storm ended and they needed to start figuring out how to get out of the cabin. One of the few times they had ventured out of the bed and in to the cabin proper, he had opened the door and the snow was almost to the roof, the widows were covered as well. Now when they opened the door it was over the top of the door, it was like a white wall. They had both stood there looking at with out speaking.

“Captain.”

“Yea?”

“How are we getting out?”

“Well that depends. This could just be a foot or two deep, all depends on the way the wind was blowing. Then there is the window and if that fails there is the ceiling.”

“Ceiling?” Rhade pointed up. For the first time Milloe looked up. It took a moment for him to see it, there was what looked like a trap door up there. “How do we get up there?”

“Let’s try to get out this way first. Ok.”

”Ok. So now what?”

“Now we try to dig out. Before we do that. I want to eat and put on more clothes.”

“I’ll make something.” Milloe went to the kitchen and started to make something to eat.

It had taken almost a whole day to dig out from the storm. When they did they still had to wait for the shuttle to arrive. When it did the pilot apologized over and over. They had only caught the edge of the storm. Other parts of the captain’s property were harder hit. Once he was back he set to fixing things right. Without really noticing his boy was right there helping him.