Walk in the Snow

Chapter one

So how are we going to get out of here?

The first snow of the season was a real blizzard that piled snow high on all sides of the cabin and covered the windows. There was no worry about avalanche since the mountain behind the cabin wasn’t much more than a gentle sloping hill, but it hadn’t quit snowing for five days. Randall and his youngest son Lonny had to dig a path from the door of the cabin to the outhouse. That wasn’t too bad, since they were digging the path several times a day, but the roads in and out of the little mining camp were closed and provisions were running low.

Randall and his oldest son Ben were the last of a twelve man mining crew that had decided to stick it out until the end of next month (October). The extra month’s pay would have given them all enough money to stay in town until spring when they would re-open the mine again. They had not been expecting bad weather for another two months, but the snow had come too soon. The rest of the crew left camp the day after the snow began, but Randall, Mona, and Lonny remained behind because Ben had gone out hunting and hadn’t yet returned. It took Ben two days to find his way back through the blizzard and by that time they were snowed in.

Nine year old Lonny was working on a jigsaw puzzle, while Ben’s wife Mona was washing the dishes. He studied the puzzle intently, but his mind wasn’t really on the tiny pieces spread out on the table. Earlier, during dinner, Randall had told them he would be starting out first thing in the morning to see if he could make it to the main road. Once on the main road, he said there would be no trouble getting to town, since it was well traveled and they were sure to have men working around the clock to keep it open. Then he would get someone to help open the road to the mining camp so Randall could bring his family out to safety.

Young Lonny was sure that if his dad were to leave them here, while he tried to plod through the snow alone, something would happen to him, and they would all sit here waiting until they either froze or starved to death. He couldn’t think of anything else. His stomach felt like the dinner had turned into stones, his head was beginning to ache, and the back of his neck was so tight it made his jaws hurt. He looked at Mona, wondering why she had allowed Ben to bring her to a place like this so soon after she and Ben were married.

Mona turned and smiled at Lonny, almost as if she had heard his thoughts. Then she dried her hands on her apron and walked across the room to sit on Ben’s lap. From the safety of her new husband’s arms, she spoke to Randall. “I’m not sure you should try to make that trip alone. What if you were to have an accident or something?”

Randall turned his gaze toward the pretty seventeen year old daughter-in-law and thought to himself, “Now just what would a little snippet like you know about anything?” Explaining himself had never been easy for Randall, and he knew now, more than ever, that he was in a fix, but he sure didn’t want to defend his decision to a child.

Knowing his father’s feelings about being in charge, but also agreeing with Mona about the wisdom of this decision, Ben was quick to join the conversation. “She’s right, dad. We should all go together and then we’d be able to help each other, and there’d be no need to come back and clear the roads.”

Lonny sat there watching the three of them and felt a twinge of gratitude that his brother and sister-in-law were on the same track with him, hoping they would be able to persuade his dad to take them along. All he said was “Yeah, dad.”

Randall leaned back and lit a cigarette, studied the flame of the match before shaking it out, and then cleared his throat. He felt outnumbered, and deep inside he suspected they might be right. “It won’t be easy, kids. We’ll be wading through snow three or four feet deep, not able to see the trails, and taking only the bare necessities - just what you can put in your pockets. And,” he added emphasis to the next statement, “We won’t be able to stop, we’ll have to keep going till we reach help, and there’s no telling how long that might take – maybe days.”

Ben interjected “All the more reason to stay together, dad.”

“Okay,” replied Randall, with a sigh of resignation (or was it relief?) “Gather up what things you really need, set out your warmest clothes and let’s get some sleep. We need to get an early start so we will have as much daylight as possible.”


(to be continued)