Wild Winter

by Amelia Wilson

  “I just, you’re new,” the man said. He laughed then as if there was some sort of joke in what he said, one that Sasha wasn’t privy to.

  “Yeah?” she asked, her voice going up at the end, so the single word was a question.

  “Sorry, you probably think I’m a lunatic or something,” the man said. Sasha just looked at him.

  “We don’t get many strangers here,” he went on. “So it surprised me, and I decided I had to find out who you were, and why in the hell you would come to Tall Tree, Alaska.

  “It’s beautiful here,” Sasha said.

  “You came because it’s beautiful?” the man asked her.

  It was Sasha’s turn to laugh while he stared at her.

  “No,” she said. “I just mean, you made it sound like no one should come here, but it’s so pretty. But no, I came because my grandfather is sick and he wanted help.

  “Mr. Fray,” the young man said. “You’re his granddaughter?”

  “Yeah,” Sarah said, surprised. “You know him?”

  “We are all aware Mr. Fray,” the man said with a shrug. “He… well, he’s a… man of great upstanding in Tall Tree.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “He didn’t tell anyone you were coming, we sort of didn’t know he had any family. No one has ever come up before.”

  “Yeah, my mother died when I was really young, I sort of lost contact with her side of the family. Well, I guess there’s only been just grandpa for so long, but yeah, we didn’t see each other much. Or at all, really.”

  “That’s a shame, but I bet he’s thrilled that you’re here now.”

  “We both are,” Sasha said.

  The man held his hand out, and Sasha took it. “I’m Hunter by the way. I have to get going, but I hope I see you around,” he said.

  “Sasha,” she said with a smile. “Yeah, maybe I’ll see you around.”

  “Well, actually, I mean, we can make sure we see each other around, if you wanted. I could take you out to dinner. How long are you staying?”

  Sasha was surprised by his directness, asking her out within minutes of meeting her, but she wasn’t disappointed. Dinner with a guy who looked as amazing as Hunter did was just the thing she needed to destress a little bit from everything that had been going on.

  “I’m here for a while,” she said. “I kind of moved here.”

  “Oh, that’s cool,” Hunter said. “Well, how about tonight?”

  Sasha laughed. “Tonight?”

  “You have anything going on?”

  The girl shook her head. The man watched her, grinning, his eyes on her swaying blonde hair. He bit his lip softly. As instantly attracted as Sasha had been to him, he felt the same way. He had seen the girl, and his breath had caught in his chest. She was petite but curvy, her face soft and delicate, her blue eyes as pretty as any he had ever seen before.

  “No,” Sasha shook her head, and then she hastened to add: “I don’t have anything going on, tonight will be great.”

  “Are you staying with your grandfather?” Hunter asked. She nodded, and he went on, “Great, I’ll pick you up at eight, is that alright?”

  She nodded again, and then she realized they were still holding hands, not shaking anymore, but their hands simply in one another, held between their bodies. She pulled her hand away. “I’ll see you then,” she said.

  “Okay Sasha,” the young man smiled, the smile as dazzling as the others, and then he turned back to his cart and pushed it away, whistling a merry tune as he did so.

  Chapter Three

  Sasha was a nervous wreck that evening, waiting for the time to slowly tick by, waiting for eight o'clock to come. When she had returned home with the groceries, she had told her grandfather about the boy she’d met who had asked her to dinner.

  “Who was it?” the old man asked gruffly. He was sitting at the kitchen table, doing a crossword puzzle from that morning's newspaper while Sasha bustled here and there, putting the food away.

  “His name is Hunter, he knows you,” she said.

  “Hunter? No, you won’t be going out with him.”

  Sasha spun, a box of macaroni and cheese in her hand. “Grandpa, I’m an adult.”

  “Hunter is no good for you, he’s an idiot. Strong, but an idiot. You don’t need any of that sort of stuff,” the old man said.

  “Grandpa. I don’t know anyone here, it will be nice to make a friend.”

  “Making friends isn’t what that boy has on his mind, believe me when I tell you that,” Connor said.

  Sasha laughed. “I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself.”

  The old man saw that he wasn’t going to win the battle, so he merely shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, alright?”

  At seven Sasha took a shower, and then she had a half hour to kill as she stood in her room, a few outfits spread out on the bed as she tried to decide what to wear.

  She was at a disadvantage, not knowing where they would be going to dinner, and not knowing whether the young man had anything else up his sleeve when it came to a date. Was the restaurant formal or casual? Would they go for a walk somewhere, a park? If so heels wouldn’t do. If not, she wanted to look her best. In the end, she dressed in tight form fitting jeans with a breezy cream colored blouse and heels. She’d also decided to put her hair up. She grabbed a coat too, hoping the restaurant was hot enough to take it off, she was having a great cleavage day and didn’t want it to go to waste.

  When eight o’clock finally rolled around, there was a knock at the door, and Sasha went to answer it. Her grandfather was sitting in the living room, watching a program on TV. “Be careful,” he said, glancing at her.

  “I’ll be fine grandpa,” she said, and she bent and kissed his forehead before going on to answer the door.

  Hunter was even better looking all decked out for a date, wearing nice slacks and a button up shirt. “Wow,” he said when he saw her. She had yet to put her coat on, she wanted him to get a good look before she did so. “You look amazing,” the man told her.

  “You do too,” she said truthfully, pulling her coat on and zipping it up.

  “Mr. Fray, how are you?” Hunter asked, looking over Sasha’s head to the old man on the couch.

  “Fine,” Connor said, and he left it at that. Sasha couldn’t help but grin as she looked up to Hunter, he was obviously nervous, her grandfather must have a real standing in town, and the young man obviously didn’t want to offend him.

  “Shall we?” Hunter asked, and Sasha nodded, stepping out into the chilly night and closing the door behind her.

  Hunter drove an old pickup remarkably like her grandfather’s, except this one was red. “Does everyone drive a truck like this here?” she asked, making her date laugh as he pulled open her door for her.

  “Sure, we buy them in bulk and just hand them out when anyone turns sixteen,” Hunter said with a laugh. “Really though,” he continued, “a truck just makes sense out here. Lots of snow, lots of rain in the summer, things can get muddy. What’s the matter? You’re not a truck girl?”

  “They don’t make sense in the city,” came Sasha’s reply.

  “Ah, a city girl,” Hunter said. He got his big truck out onto the road which was covered in a dusty light layer of powdery snow, which was falling slowly from the night sky.

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Sasha said.

  “No, not at all. We can use some city folk up here. Us rednecks could use the culture.”

  Sasha laughed. “You don’t seem like a redneck to me,” she said.

  “Yeah, I guess I’m not, not really.”

  “Did you grow up here?” she asked the young man. He nodded as he pulled the truck from one lonely road to another.

  “Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “It’s kind of nice to be honest, but I’m sure my upbringing wasn’t anything near as exciting as yours.”

  It was Sasha’s turn to shrug. “I didn’t grow up in a big city, I moved to Chicag
o for college. So no, I didn’t have anything too exciting going on when I was a kid. Same old stuff really. School, not school, dull really.”

  “Boys?” Hunter asked, quirking a brow high upon his forehead as he glanced over at her. She smiled.

  “A few,” she said. “Come on, there’s got to be girls here just as bored as you were as a teenager.”

  Hunter laughed. “A few,” he admitted.

  “So your parents live here?” she asked.

  “Not anymore, they moved a couple years ago. Went down to Florida like a couple of old people or something.”

  “I’m sure they’re enjoying the sun,” Sasha said.

  “Sure,” Hunter agreed. “Me? I’m a night guy anyways, so I don’t much care one way or the other. I like the woods, I like being away from it all. Life is quiet here. Well, most of the time.”

  “I like quiet. I didn’t know I needed it until I got here, but it is kind of nice. I don’t hear any honking, or trains going by at night.”

  “It must be a little stressful with your grandpa though, I know he’s going through a lot.”

  “Yeah. He’s a great man though, and it’s not too bad. It’s been great getting to know him.”

  “Connor is a great man,” Hunter agreed.

  “How do you know him?” Sasha asked.

  “He’s sort of, well, a lot of the guys here, we’re in a club I guess you could call it.”

  “Like the Fraternal Order of Eagles?” Sasha asked. Her father had been a member of that organization while she was growing up. Basically, it just meant that once a week he would go play cards and have dinner with other middle-aged guys who just sat and listened to even older guys tell stories about how great America had been once.

  “Something like that,” Hunter said. “Not quite.”

  “What's it called?”

  “It doesn’t really have a name,” he said.

  “Oh, very secret,” Sasha said with a grin. “Hush hush I guess.”

  Hunter laughed. “Anyways, your grandfather is the head of the organization.”

  That took Sasha by surprise. There had been no indication from her grandfather that he headed up some sort of secret club. He hadn't gone to a meeting or talked about missing one or anything. Granted, Sasha hadn’t even been there a week, and of course, there was the chance that her grandfather was taking it easy from weekly meetings as well.

  “Wow, it is a hush hush sort of thing, huh?”

  Hunter laughed and shrugged. “I guess so. It’s also just sort of disorganized.”

  It didn’t seem like Sasha was going to get any more than that out of the young man, so she let it drop, though she was certainly intrigued by it all, and she resolved to ask her grandfather about it later. Hunter seemed keen to change the subject, and he did so quickly.

  “So, the problem with a small town like Tall Tree is there are not that many places to impress a girl here. We don’t have any fancy restaurants or anything, but Mabel does make some of the best apple pie you’ll ever have in your life, and I thought we could grab some of that, and some dinner, and then take it somewhere to eat.”

  Sasha felt the corners of her mouth tug upwards, and she nodded. “I’m in your hands tonight,” she said, and that made Hunter laugh nervously, and she realized how it sounded then, and she laughed too.

  The young man had driven them back into the town proper, and he pulled his red truck down a side street, and then he turned into a long driveway, unpaved, which led to a small white house with a crooked front porch that looked as though it might tip over at any moment.

  There were three other cars in the driveway, and Hunter pulled his truck among them and climbed out, hurrying around the truck to open Sasha’s door, but she had already pushed it open and was climbing out.

  “I’m not the kind of girl that needs that,” she said with a soft smile, and then she placed her hand on Hunter’s arm. “But that’s very sweet and appreciated.”

  Hunter smiled and nodded and offered his arm, and Sasha slid hers through his, the crook of their elbows resting together. Sasha was expecting to go up the rickety porch, but instead, Hunter led her along the side of the house and around to the back. There was a cement stoop leading up to the back door, which was open, a piece of lumber on struts stretched across the opening, acting as a counter. A small group of people stood in the backyard, and through the open door, Sasha caught a glimpse of a stooped old woman cooking at an oven. A small hand painted sign was nailed to the house next to the back door, and it read simply: Mabel’s Kitchen

  “I called ahead, or else we would be waiting a while, I hope you like meatloaf, it’s Mabel's specialty. She only does good comfort food.”

  “I can always use some comfort,” Sasha said with a grin, and Hunter laughed. He stepped up the concrete stairs to the back door counter. The old woman turned.

  “Hello sweetie,” she said to Hunter.

  “Hey Mabel,” Hunter replied.

  The old woman went to him and then pushed past him. “Come on, come on, let me see the girl you bought this meal for. I’ve never known you to buy a nice meal for a girl, so I need to see this girl that got you to spend more than four dollars on McDonald's down the highway.”

  Hunter blushed, and Sasha found she somewhat enjoyed seeing him embarrassed, and she also enjoyed hearing the old woman speak of her in such a way. She had already guessed that Hunter certainly had been with more than a few guys, he was just too good looking for that not to be the case, but if he was treating her like something special… well, Sasha liked that just fine.

  The old woman smiled and waved Sasha forward. Sasha stepped up onto the stoop next to Hunter and the old woman reached for both of her hands, and the younger girl let her take them.

  “You are a beauty,” Mabel said.

  “Thank you,” Sasha said, not sure of what else to say. She was a beautiful woman, and it wasn’t as though it always came up, but it did often enough that the young woman always felt awkward and unsure of how to respond. She didn’t think she was a knockout, she was just her.

  “This is a good one, not like the other boys here in Tall Tree. He’ll take care of you.”

  Sasha grinned. “It’s just dinner,” she reminded the old woman.

  The woman laughed and waved her hand in the air after letting go of Sasha’s. “It’s always just dinner,” she said with a wink and then she turned and went to the counter inside her kitchen and grabbed a large paper bag. “You must save the pie for dessert, it isn’t proper to eat first, yes?” she asked Hunter. He took the bag.

  “Yes ma'am,” he said, and then he handed her money, thanked her, and told her to keep the change. Hunter carried the bag, and they returned to his truck, taking to the road once more.

  “Where to now?” Sasha asked.

  “I thought I would show you my favorite part of the whole town,” Hunter said.

  “I would like to see that,” Sasha said with a smile. They drove on for a brief time, leaving the center of town behind them, and following the snowy road as it cut through the dense forest. Before long, as the two filled the time with small talk designed to get to know one another better, they were pulling off the highway and onto a small road that seemed to be made out of dirt which was little more than a narrow scar slicing through the green trees.

  It was nighttime, and the sky was a deep black above their heads. Wwhere the trees broke up enough for Sasha to tilt her head back and look out the window and up, she could see shining stars in the sky. A million stars glittered from above, the view so clear and impressive in a way the night sky never was in Chicago, or even Cincinnati for that matter.

  The evergreen trees were dusted with snow, white and green sentinels in the dark, and again they thinned for a moment, and that’s when Hunter slowed his truck and pulled off to the side of the road onto an even smaller path, this one just two ruts in the ground weaving around trees. They rode along that bumpy road for only a few minutes, and then they turned around a curve and Sa
sha gasped as Hunter stopped the truck.

  They were atop a rise, right at the edge, and spread before them, surrounded of course by the evergreen trees, was a large lake, the surface still and as reflective as a mirror, dark but with enough light from the stars and the moon above to make it shimmer in a ghostly silver.

  “Wow,” Sasha said.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Hunter asked.

  “Yes,” she agreed. Hunter doled out the meal from the paper bag, and they ate with Styrofoam trays balanced on their laps in the truck cab, the engine on and the heater blasting full tilt to stave off the chill from the winter air.

  When they were done eating, including the pieces of pie, which was indeed the best apple pie Sasha had ever tasted, they left the truck and walked down towards the lake. Their footsteps made tracks in the snow. Hunter held Sasha’s arm as they made their way down the hill, so she wouldn’t fall. He seemed much steadier on his feet than she did.

  When they were to the lake they stood side by side, watching the water, Hunter stopping and grabbing some small stones to plunk into the still surface.

  “I can’t believe it’s not frozen over,” Sasha said.

  “It’s actually a hot spring,” Hunter said. “There’s a vent right near the center that blasts hot air into the lake year round. We could swim in it if we wanted to.”

  “Okay,” Sasha said with a grin, and she unzipped her coat.

  “What?” Hunter asked.

  “Okay, let’s swim,” the girl said. She was pulling off her shirt then, leaving Hunter to watch, smiling when she saw he was admiring her body, clad as she was only in her jeans, heels, and a bra.

  “Are you serious?” Hunter asked her. “It’s cold.”

  “Not in the lake, right? It will be like a hot tub,” Sasha said, and she kicked off her heels and then dipped a toe into the water at the edge of the bank. It was indeed warm, pleasingly so, and Sasha hurried to pull her jeans down and step out of them as well. Then she was just in a bra and panties, and she grinned over to Hunter, who was still dressed, and she did a little shimmy for him and then began to wade into the water in her underwear.