Beauty and the beard

by Crowne, K. C.

We went outside, and I shoveled a walkway to the work shed. Inside, I barred the door and lit a fire inside the wood burning stove. The small building warmed up quickly.

  I put on the radio in hopes to catch the local news and weather. The newscaster was reporting on the missing man again.

  “Harvey Stewart from the Silverthorne, Colorado area is still missing. He’s about 5’ 8” and 175 pounds. His hair is brown and greying. He was last seen the day before yesterday. He was wearing a red flannel and dark pants when his neighbor last saw him. Since the break-in happened at about one a.m., it is thought that he might have been wearing pajamas or clothes to sleep in. Please, if you have any information on Mr. Stewart’s whereabouts, call 911 or the anonymous hotline listed on the screen. His family is worried sick about him.”

  Geeze, I thought. I couldn’t believe that they hadn’t found him yet. Everyone knew everyone in all of these small towns around here. It was hard to believe that nobody knew anything.

  As I was sanding the head of the rocking horse and listening to the local weather, Bella began barking loudly.

  “What is it, girl”? I asked her.

  She looked over at me and whined. “Is something out there?” Bella continued to bark.

  Figuring that it was probably one of my brothers who had pulled up to my house, I opened the wood shed door to check. Bella took the opportunity to bolt out of the door.

  “Bellaaa!” I called after her when she kept on running behind the shed. No one was around. “What is she doing now?” I asked myself, a bit annoyed that I had to go and chase her in the snow.

  I was only dressed in my heavy flannel and blue jeans, not expecting that I’d have to go trucking through the snow after my dog. Good thing I still had my boots on from work today.

  “Bella!” I called after her again when I turned the corner of the back of the work shed. I couldn’t see where she went but saw her footprints in the snow.

  “Bellaaa!” I called one more time. When she didn’t respond, I started to get worried. This was not like her at all.

  I could only see a few feet in front of me with all of the snow. I followed Bella’s tracks into the tree line behind the cabin. At first, I couldn’t see her, and I lost track of her prints.

  “Bella?” I called. I heard whining. I walked into the trees for about twenty feet before I finally saw her. “Bella, what are you doing?” I asked her, now totally annoyed that I had to chase her into the forests.

  She knows better than to do this.

  “Bella, what the hell?” I asked her, getting ready to grab her by the collar when I saw a figure dressed in all black laying in the snow. Bella was standing over them, whining and looking at me.

  I froze. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman, but who would be out here in a snowstorm?

  “Who’s there?” I called out.

  When the figure didn’t stir, I walked up and saw that it was a lady laying almost face down in the snow like she had passed out there. A trekking pole and coffee cup lay at her side.

  “Hello?” I repeated. I wasn’t sure what to do. Bella whimpered and nudged the fallen lady. She still didn’t move.

  Of course, I should help her. I didn’t recognize her face. Was she a new guest? I knew most of the guests, but we did get new people. And, who would be hiking out here in a snowstorm?

  I went to her and crouched down beside her. Her face was pale, and her lips were blue. I was afraid that she might have frozen to death out there.

  I felt her neck for a pulse, and thankfully, got one under my fingertips.

  I shook the lady gently and called out to her. “Hey, can you hear me?” Nothing.

  I looked around. No one else was around. Of course, there wasn’t. Why would anyone else be back here in a storm, I thought, again. I moved my arms underneath her stiff body and picked her up. She was frozen solid. I bet that she would have frozen to death in another couple of hours. She owed Bella a steak dinner.

  I carried her to my cabin and opened the door with my hand that was under her legs. Good thing that she was small in my bulky arms and it was nothing to carry her dead weight. I carried her to my couch and laid her upon it. I went to the fireplace and made the fire bigger to help warm her up. I pulled the quilt that was draped over the back of the couch and covered her with it.

  “Now what?” I asked Bella. Bella cocked her hears and tilted her head at me. If she had an answer, I didn’t know what it was.

  I supposed that I should get her help. But how? The road was closed until tomorrow. I guessed that I could call Harley who had basic first aid training. I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and dialed his number.

  “Hiya,” Harley answered on the third ring.

  “Hey, are you busy? Can you stop over my place?” I asked him, seriously so that he knew I wasn’t in the mood for his jokes.

  “Okay,” he answered.

  “Just get here as soon as you can. It’s a long story,” I told him.

  “On my way,” he replied and hung up.

  While I waited for my younger brother to get here, I thought that I should take off the girl’s boots and gloves which were probably frozen to her feet and hands.

  I untied each boot and pulled them off along with a double layer of wool socks. Then, I pulled off each glove. I didn’t see any frostbite. Only redness. She was extremely lucky.

  I took off her cap and saw a long ponytail of dark brown hair fall from it. The girl was very beautiful, with well-defined features and high cheekbones. Full red lips that were parted slightly as she slept.

  She seemed to be breathing steadily, so I decided to just wait for Harley before doing anything else. A moment later, there was a rap at my door.

  “Come on in,” I yelled out.

  “What’s going on?” Harley blurted out as he walked inside. When he saw the girl on the couch, he froze in his tracks.

  “Bella found her in the woods behind the cabin,” I told him. “She’s breathing but passed out and hasn’t moved.”

  Harley came over and felt her pulse. He counted to his watch then informed me that her heart rate was normal. He looked at her toes and fingers and massaged them for a moment, trying to get the circulation back.

  “Let’s take off her coat,” he suggested. “Better for her to get out of these wet clothes as much as possible for now.”

  I held her up while Harley unzipped and pulled off her thick coat, one arm at a time. I laid her back down and positioned a pillow under her head. She stirred briefly and moaned, then went silent again.

  Harley saw the wound on her forehead and told me to go and get something to clean it out with and a bandage. I returned with the requested items that I retrieved from my upstairs bathroom and he cleaned out the wound and taped a bandage to it.

  “Doesn’t look infected,” he observed. “Might need stitches. We can call an ambulance first thing tomorrow. I think she’s okay for the night. Probably just exhausted and passed out from walking in the storm. Wonder where she came from?” he mused.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, more to myself. Where did she come from?

  “Call me if her condition changes. If she wakes up, give her some broth or something easy to digest at first.”

  “Okay, thanks, Harley. Talk to you later.”

  Harley left me alone with the girl and Bella. Bella licked the girl’s hand and she stirred slightly. I went to open a beer and sat on the armchair to sip on it and keep watch over her.

  At some point, I ended up passing out in the chair. Bella on the rug in front of the fireplace. A movement woke me up.

  I opened my eyes to see the lady standing over me with my empty beer bottle in her hands, poised to bring it down on my head.

  I put up my hands and said “Wait! I was only trying to help you. I found you in the woods, passed out in the snow.”

  Bella was standing on the rug, looking from me to her. I shook my head at Bella, telling her to not react. She
understood and sat down.

  I saw the lady look from Bella, back to me. She dropped the bottle but kept it positioned between the both of us, just in case either of us made a move. Her bright green eyes were shining with fear.

  “We won’t hurt you,” I promised her, trying to speak in a calm voice. I know my deep voice could come across as intimidating if you didn’t know me. “I was working in my work shed behind the house and Bella must have heard you. Or sensed you. She ran off and I followed to find you laying face-first in the snow. I carried you here and had my brother take a look at you and bandage your forehead.”

  The lady moved her free hand to her forehead and felt the bandage. The fear subsided from her eyes, but she continued to hold the glass bottle pointed toward me between the two of us.

  “Please, put down the bottle,” I asked her. “Let’s talk. Are you hungry? I can heat up some broth? Or whatever you like.”

  She paused to think about what I was saying and slowly lowered the bottle. She looked from me to Bella. Bella wagged her tail and the lady smiled slightly. How could you not smile at Bella?

  “I’m starving,” she finally said, facing me now.

  “Okay, let me go and get a plate for you,” I said, slowly standing up. I didn’t trust that she wouldn’t try to smack me with that bottle that she was still holding. I let her hold on to it as it obviously made her feel better. I realized that I was a huge man who towered over her; a total stranger who brought her to his house while she was passed out. I could only imagine what she must have been thinking. For all she knew, I was a serial killer and she was my next victim.

  I went to the kitchen and opened a can of chicken broth. I poured it into a bowl and threw it in the microwave. I thought that maybe she would want a roll to go with her broth, so I put a couple of fresh ones from the restaurant on the tray. I put a spoon and napkin on the tray, as well as a bottle of water that I retrieved from the fridge.

  The microwave beeped, and I took the hot broth and tray over to her. She was sitting on the couch, watching the fire.

  “Here you go,” I said, leaning down to hand her the tray.

  “Thank you,” she answered. She looked extremely tired still. “And thank you for bringing me here. I would have frozen to death out there. You saved my life,” she said, trying to smile. She cringed with pain.

  “You’re welcome,” I told her and sat back down to let her eat.

  When she finished, I offered to take the tray from her. As I lifted it, I asked her if she wanted anything else.

  “No, thanks. I’m so tired though.”

  I took the tray to the kitchen and returned to my chair. She was laying back down, under the quilt.

  “Is it okay if I stay here for the night?” she asked.

  “Of course,” I told her. “Nowhere to go anyhow. The road up here is closed until tomorrow from all of the snow.”

  She just nodded.

  “My name is Cole Hunter. What’s your name?” I asked her.

  Her eyes got wide for a moment. Then she said, “I don’t know.”

  Her eyelids fluttered and closed and she passed back out.

  6

  Lindsay

  It seemed like forever, but eventually, the sunlight broke through the trees. I got up and made one more cup of pine needle tea with the hot ashes of the fire. I drank the tea quickly then heated up one more cup of snow in the cup and put the lid on it. I would try to carry it so that I had some water to drink while hiking.

  I tried to remember which direction I had seen the smoke last evening. As the sun got higher in the sky, I found that I had lost my sense of direction. I tried to remember which way I was traveling on the road. The sun was in front of me until the road turned up the mountainside. Then, I had hiked straight, or so I’d thought. To go in the right direction this morning, I should keep the rising sun to my back.

  I put the fire out by kicking snow over it and began to hike with the sun behind my back. I walked and walked. My body was even sorer this morning from crouching in the den all night. I tried to stop and do some stretching. That helped a little with the stiffness in my muscles.

  I walked for some time before I saw what appeared to be the same set of boulders that I had used last night for my shelter.

  As I got closer, I realized that they were, indeed, the same boulders. There was the small den that I had slept in and the put-out fire. I could see some of the ashes seeping through the wet snow that I had kicked upon it earlier.

  I wanted to cry. How could this have happened? I was keeping an eye on the sun and trying to go in the same direction. How could of I have gone in a full 180-degree circle to end back in the same place that I had started?

  I wiped at the tears that were burning my frozen cheekbones. Then, I got angry. I am not going to die out here, I told myself. At this point, the sun was past mid-day. I still had time to find who made that fire.

  I took a good look at the sky and then tried to position myself in the correct direction. I picked a point in the distance that I would be able to see as I walked and planned on finding it if I got discombobulated.

  As I walked, I got more and more tired. I told myself to keep going. And I did. At one time, I heard an engine startup. A snowmobile? I couldn’t tell where it was coming from exactly, but it wasn’t too far away. I kept going.

  I was so tired. The wind was blowing hard, ripping at my clothes, burning my face. The snow was making it hard to see just a few feet in front of me. I kept hearing small noises and that’s the only thing that kept me going. I hoped that I wasn’t imagining them.

  Finally, I saw what I thought was a clearing up ahead. Only fifty more feet, I told myself.

  Woof. Woof. Was that a dog?

  I was dizzy, and blackness was taking over my sight. I knew that I was going to pass out at any second. I tried to fight it but couldn’t.

  I grabbed on to a tree trunk to try and steady myself. It did no good and I started to see stars. Beautiful butterflies, I thought. The last thing I remembered was seeing an angel’s face telling me to not give up. “Keep on going,” the lovely face said.

  “I can’t,” I answered and tried to reach out to her. “Sophie,” I called out. She reached out but before our hands touched, everything went black.

  ***

  I opened my eyes with a start.

  I panicked and sat upright. I saw a big dog sleeping by the fireplace on the rug in front of me. Turning my head, I saw a huge man with a shaggy beard snoring in the armchair that was facing the fire. An empty beer bottle lay on the floor beside the couch, at my feet.

  I stayed quiet as to not wake him up. Should I run? How did I get here? I reached up and felt the bandage on my forehead. Then, the night before started to come back to me. This man and his dog had found me in the woods. He brought me here. He fed me. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for him.

  I calmed down and took a better look at the man who had saved my life. If you could get past that shaggy, beard with the light-brown head of hair to match, there was a handsome face under there. I noticed long, dark eyelashes under his closed eyelids. He looked tall. About 6’2” I judged from his sitting position. I smiled as I noticed how he hardly fit in that armchair. He was a big, burly man. Wow look at those muscles.

  One thing was for certain, I couldn’t have asked for a hotter man to rescue me.

  Cole stirred and opened his hazel-colored eyes. He saw me watching him and I felt my cheeks get hot. I’d been caught staring. I smiled at him to try and cover it up. His German Shepard sensed that her master was awake and got up to greet him.

  “Morning, Bella.” He rubbed behind her ears and she licked his hand in return.

  Looking at me, he said, “Morning to you, as well. Did you sleep okay?”

  “Yes, I feel rested. Thank you for your hospitality,” I told him. “I really mean it. I know I’m a stranger and all.”

  “Sure. It’s no problem. Just glad that we found yo
u when we did. Well, Bella is the one who really found you,” I confided in her.

  I looked at Bella and said, “Thank you, Bella. I owe you one.” She said “woof” in return and I giggled. Cole chucked too.

  “Do you want some coffee?” Cole asked me.

  “I’d love some.”

  He got up and went over to the kitchen to make a pot. “How about some eggs? Scrambled is all I am good at.”

  “Sure, sounds great,” I answered. “Can I help you?”

  “No, stay there. I got this I think,” he answered, grinning.

  That grin. It was super sexy.

  I tried to get up anyway. My body was sore from sleeping in one position all night and I needed to stretch out some. I slowly walked over to the kitchen island and pulled up a stool. I grimaced as I sat my butt down on it.

  “That bad, huh?” Cole asked me, looking concerned.

  “Yeah, my whole body hurts. I was in a car accident.” I told him.

  “A car accident?” he blurted out in surprise. “Geeze. Where? Do you know where you crashed at? You weren’t trying to come up to the resort, where you?” he asked me.

  “The resort?” I repeated. “No. I don’t think so anyway. Really, I don’t know where I was going. I think that I was out hiking because all I had was a trekking pole.”

  “You are at Hunter’s Mountain Resort,” he told me, worriedly. “I really hope you weren’t trying to navigate the mountain road leading up here in that snow storm. They closed the road two nights ago,” Cole said.

  “No, I crashed on some side road. Like an off-road type of trail,” I told him.

  “Oh,” he replied. “There are a lot of those up here in the mountains, used for hunting and quad riding and stuff when the weather is nice.”

  I felt tears well up in my eyes. “I wish that I could remember,” I said, trying not to cry in front of him. It was impossibly hard to not remember your own name.

  “You will be okay,” he told me, spooning scrambled eggs onto my plate. The toaster popped, and he quickly lathered four pieces of toast with butter and put two on my plate and two on his. He gave me a fork and napkin then poured us both a glass of OJ.