The Winter People by Bret Tallent Read Free Book Online Page A

something more than an
accident.
    Hayden sat there
silent for a moment, taking it all in.  No, it didn't sound good at all.  His
stomach had suddenly turned sour and he had a very bad feeling about this.  If
you could have seen his face in the darkness, set in it along with the wrinkles
below his cheeks, there was a scowl.  A look that would have told you he knew
it was going to be a bad one.  Johnny had pretty much answered his questions
without him having to ask any.  Hayden decided that if there were anything
else, he could wait until he saw them face to face.
    Damn, he didn't
want to go out in this cold, "All right Johnny, I'll be right there, then
we can go out to the wreck.  Tell those two to stay put until I get there! 
I'll want to talk to them."
    "One more
thing Hayden, there's a blizzard movin' in.  It'll probably be here in a few
hours.  Anything you gotta do out there, you'd better do it quick.  Bye
Hayden."
    "Yeah, bye
Johnny."  That was just great, Hayden thought.  He now knew this was going
to be a bad one.  This had already been their coldest winter in decades.  They
had been hit with blizzard after blizzard and were already buried under seven
feet of snow.  A warm day would be anything above zero, and at night, it was
forty below.  Twice already this winter it had hit minus sixty.
    Hayden remembered
the blizzard of '78, although he was just a kid then.  It had reached sixty
below one night down in the flats around Delta and Grand Junction.  The next
morning when they went to drop hay off the sled to the cattle, they had found
them all frozen to death.  Standing there with their eyes opened and glazed
over, staring stupidly off at nothing.  Hayden had never seen anything like
it.  He shivered at the brief memory.
    He recalled other
times when it had snowed this hard up here.  There would always be an avalanche
in the pass and they would be cut off for weeks at a time.  But he had never
remembered it ever being this cold, and never for this long.  Even the blizzard
of '78 seemed warm by comparison.
    There was a double
click followed by a warbling monotone buzz to his right.  He looked down
stupidly and realized that he still had the receiver in his hand.  He sat it
back in the saddle and turned on the small bedside lamp.  The glow of the sixty
watt bulb exploded on his retinas and caused him to squint in pain.  Slowly,
his eyes adjusted to the light and he looked over at his wife.
    She was still
sleeping.  Used to him he guessed.  She pulled the covers up tighter around her
face so that all he could see was the back of her head, one eye, and the side
of her nose.  Beneath the blankets the rest of her was a nondescript blob
except for her buttocks which he could make out clearly, protruding toward him
in a nice round arch.  How nice it would be he thought to climb back under the
covers and snuggle up to her warmth.  Forget the outside or what he had to do. 
Just start caressing her body, gently wake her up, and make love to her.
    Hayden sighed and
swung his feet over the side of the bed.  His Hanes briefs were pulled askew
and he righted them.  As he stood up from the bed, the bones and joints of his
legs and feet creaked and popped.  Each step he took towards the bathroom was
announced by the same noises, though slightly muffled in the carpet upon which
he walked.  He reached the bathroom quickly as it was a part of their bedroom
and closed the door before he turned on the light.  He knew the light was much
brighter in here and might just wake up Barbara.
    Hayden looked at
himself in the mirror, his once jet black hair was now paled with flecks of
grey.  Although it was predominately at the temples, which Barbara said made
him look distinguished, he felt that it made him look old.  In truth he only
looked to be thirty nine or forty, but he had recently begun to feel old.  His arms were still stout and well defined, and his chest still blocky
and hard.  As he stood