Outcome

by Kim Pritekel

  "Holy shit! Look at this, Haley." She came up beside me.

  "Whoa." In the two hours we’d been downstairs, at least one and a half feet of snow had fallen, and it was still coming down. We looked at each other, then without a word, headed to the kitchen.

  I looked through the cabinets, praying that there would be some sort of baking thing in there. I really didn’t want to try and start something from scratch.

  "How about this?" I turned to see Haley kneeling in front of the Lazy Susan, reading the back of a Betty Crocker cake. Bingo!

  "Great. What will we need?"

  "Um," she turned the box over in her hand. "Looks like just three eggs, a cup and a third of water, and a half cup of vegetable oil."

  "Check, check, and check. Let’s do it."

  We worked together, getting all the ingredients we’d need, and a bowl, spoon, and measuring cups. I measured everything out as Haley stirred it all in. She stared into the mix, looking thoughtful.

  "Do you think that Robin was gay all along?" She looked at me.

  "From the movie?" She nodded, putting some muscle into her stirring as I had everything in that needed to be. "Well, I don’t know." I thought as I threw the egg shells into the trash, wiping my hands on my sweats. "I guess so. Maybe just a love, instead of a sexual thing, you know?"

  "So, you don’t think had things been different that she and Jane would have slept together." I shook my head.

  "No, not really."

  "Hmm."

  "What about you?" Haley put her spoon down, and grabbed the can of Pam spray to grease the cake pan. "I’m not sure. I don’t really see them together in that way, either, but I don’t see anything wrong with it." Pan generously greased, just as the box instructed, she poured the mixed batter into it, and then carried it over to the oven as I hopped up onto the counter and watched. I was surprised by the addition to the conversation, but went with it.

  "Neither do I. I mean, when that miniature golf chick was flirting with Whoopie Goldberg’s character, it didn’t bother me at all. I mean, go Jane." Haley hopped up on the counter next to the stove, and smiled at me.

  "No kidding. I really liked Jane, but Robin, I thought she was really interesting. I think she would have driven me nuts, all her little quirks, but she was cool. Pretty, too. Who played her?"

  "Mary-Louise Parker."

  "And how do you know that?" Haley cocked her head to the side, a smile on her face. I shrugged. "I thought you don’t really follow movies that much?"

  "I don’t, but I’ve liked her since I saw her in ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’."

  "So that’s where I’ve seen her. Huh. I wondered." She grabbed the spoon from the mixing bowl, began to lick the batter off it. I watched, nearly drooling. I loved raw cake batter. Just like cookie dough. Yum. "Want some?" I nodded, she smiled. "Come and get it."

  I hopped off the counter, my eyes on the spoon the entire time, watching as Haley’s tongue came out of her mouth, licking the tip of it until the metal was clean and shiny.

  "Here." She drug her finger along the inside of the bowl until her entire index finger was covered in the batter. She held her hand out to me. I just stared at it, not sure what to do. "Come on, my finger is clean, really." But my thoughts weren’t.

  I leaned in, and tentatively poked my tongue out, touching the very tip to the tip of Haley’s finger. She was grinning at me.

  "It won’t bite, there, stud." I pulled away, glaring up at her. "Come on, you know you want it." I looked into her eyes that were narrowed, challenging. What are you doing, Haley? I took a step closer, my eyes still on hers. I felt the need to meet the challenge, even though I’m sure it was only me who was playing the game.

  I opened my mouth and wrapped my lips around the offered finger, running my tongue up the full length, gathering the sweet, rich batter as it went. I took it slow, sure to get every single bit. Haley watched me, her eyes darting to my mouth, back to my eyes, and then back to her newly cleaned finger.

  "Well, I guess you did want some."

  * * *

  We laid in the dark, the electric blanket on nearly high as it seemed the snow was seeping through every single nook and cranny. Well, the cold, anyway. I was tremendously glad to have Haley’s body heat next to me; I basked in it.

  As I stared up into the dark ceiling, pulling the covers up closer around my chin.

  "What would you do for a million dollars?" I asked, turning to look at where I knew Haley was laying. I heard her yawn quietly.

  "Hmm. Let me think." She paused. "I’d blow the president."

  "Haley!" She chuckled, reaching over under the covers to slap my leg.

  "I’m only kidding. I guess I’d run naked through New York City."

  "Really?" I turned so I was facing her, holding myself up on my elbow.

  "Well, I guess I’d have to give that one more thought. I mean, a million bucks would certainly be nice, but, you know."

  "Where would you stop?"

  "I wouldn’t do anything that cost me or my family their dignity. You know? I wouldn’t sleep with anyone, or anything."

  "So I take it any likelihood of a future career as a high-priced hooker is out, huh?" I asked, grinning.

  "Why? Looking for some fun, big boy?" I could feel her eyes on me, though I couldn’t see any part of her. I had closed my blinds and curtains on the windows to keep as much cold out as possible.

  "Ha ha." I could hear her low chuckle. "So you wouldn’t even kiss someone for that much money?"

  "No. You?"

  "Oh, God, no. I think it would take a lot more than money to make me kiss anyone after my experience."

  "Did he hurt you, Andi? I mean, it was consensual, right?"

  "Oh, yeah. He may have been a jerk, but he wasn’t a rapist."

  "Oh, good. I would have had to go and cut off his dick, and I really didn’t want to go back out in the cold." I smiled, touched.

  "You’d do that for me?"

  "Oh, yeah. If anyone hurt you? Sure."

  "So would I."

  Again, I felt her eyes on me. "I know you would, Andi." We were quiet for a bit, listening to the snow outside. Such a strange sound. I don’t think people often realize that snow makes any sound, like rain is known for it. You always hear that in song lyrics, rain beating on the roof, or whatever. I liked the sound of snow, and knowing it was out there. It always made me feel safe, like I was blanketed in.

  "If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you go?" I asked, rubbing my feet together, trying to warm them up.

  "Where would I go. That’s a good question. I really haven’t been many places outside the US, other than Mexico and Spain."

  "You’ve been to Spain?"

  "Yup. Family trip when I was fifteen. I guess I’d have to say Australia or France."

  "Why?"

  "Well, Australia is beautiful, and I love the French language." I chuckled.

  "That’s certainly an interesting reason to want to live in a country."

  "Well, fine, then. What about you?"

  "Canada sounds nice. I’d want to stay somewhere with this kind of weather."

  "The cold and snow?" I nodded, then realized Haley couldn’t see me.

  "Yup."

  "Huh. Interesting." Another yawn filled the room, this one loud, meaning business.

  "Tired?"

  "Yeah."

  "Me, too. Goodnight, Haley."

  "Night, Andi."

  * * *

  I winced as I felt something crawling up my arm, but was too deeply entrenched in my world of darkness to really care. There it was again getting further up, now it was on my upper arm. My mind showed me this picture of a massive, hairy spider, come in from the cold. Its little eyes, all hundred of them, looking for a nice place on my skin to bite into, or to lay eggs.

  With that thought, my eyes popped open, and my hand began to frantically swipe at the Jaws of spiders. Instead all I felt was rubber, and all I saw was a laughing Haley.

 
; My hand on my chest as I got myself back under control, I glared at her.

  "That was fucked up."

  "I’m sorry." She laughed, trying to keep it in, but to absolutely no success whatsoever. "What was the deal? It’s was only this." She held up her Koosh. I looked at it, imagining the little, limp spines on my skin, and I glared up into Haley’s eyes again.

  "That was still fucked up. I hate spiders."

  Haley looked at her beloved Koosh, then at me. "You thought Frank, here, was a spider?" I didn’t answer. "Oh, Andi, I’m sorry. I was only playing with you. I wanted to wake you up." I didn’t dare want her to know that I was deathly afraid of the eight-legged little bastards. I would just have to shake this off. She grabbed me in a one armed hug. "I’m sorry."

  "It’s okay." I smiled at her, then looked toward the window to see that the blinds and curtains had been opened.

  "Oh, you will never believe this." She jumped off the bed, and pulled my by the hand to the window. I looked out to see a veritable North Pole. Everything was covered, and I do mean everything. The neighbors car across the street? No. There was only a radio antenna left of the little Honda.

  "My god. Where did this come from?"

  "I have no idea. I got up earlier to go to the bathroom, and this is what I saw. I bet you there’s over four feet out there."

  "Oh, easily. Wow." The entire neighborhood was white, no color anywhere. I hadn’t seen anything like it in quite a few years.

  "Maybe we should turn on a radio or TV. It’s still snowing."

  "Shit, my mom." I hurried over to my phone, and dialed up the hospital. "Can I speak with Theresa Littman, please? Thanks." The receptionist put me on hold, where I got to listen to cheesy elevator music, warped versions of classics or pop hits. Haley began to get dressed, pulling on the warmest clothes she had.

  "This is Theresa."

  "Hey, mom."

  "Hi, honey." She sounded so tired.

  "Have you looked outside?"

  "I haven’t had time. We’ve had car accidents coming in all morning, one guy has already died from freezing in his car. Honey, I have no idea how long I’ll be here, but I can’t imagine I’ll be home today, or maybe even tomorrow. Christine quitting really messed us up here."

  "Okay. Well, I’d say you’re better off to just stay put, anyway. There’s like four feet out there, and it’s still coming down."

  "Oh, jeez. Where’s Chris? Is he still at Brian’s?"

  "Yeah. He left last night."

  "Okay, honey. Do me a favor and call over there, tell him to stay there, please?" I could hear her being paged in the background. "Oh, I have to go. I love you, and you guys stay inside."

  "Okay, mom. I love you, too. Be safe."

  "I will. Bye." Before I even got a chance to tell her goodbye, the phone was dead.

  "Is everything okay?" Haley asked, brushing out her hair. I hung the phone up.

  "Yeah. They’re just really busy in the ER today. Some chick quit last week, so she’s probably stuck there for the weekend."

  "Oh, wow."

  "Well, I don’t know about you, but I am starving." I found a thick pair of sweats and sweatshirt, and pulled them on, freezing in the tank and shorts I had slept in. "Do you like eggs?"

  "Oh, yeah." Haley said, following me downstairs. I searched until I found the eggs, a block of cheddar, and a package of turkey breast lunch meat. "Um, didn’t you say eggs?" she asked, leaning against the counter, watching me.

  "Yup." Grabbing a knife from knife block, and began to cut up the meat, and shave off pieces of cheese. "How many?" I held up an egg.

  "Three."

  I turned back to my cutting board.

  "So, what do you want to do today?" Haley asked, coming over to stand by me, watching me.

  "I’m not sure. I wouldn’t mind getting out into that stuff." I pointed toward the window above the sink with the knife.

  "The snow?" I nodded with a silly grin. "You like to play in the snow?" Again the grin. "Oh, Andi, my hero! I love to play in the snow. I’m so excited." She clapped her hands together, walking over to the sliding glass door that led to the backyard, pushing the vertical blinds aside to look out. "Wow." She breathed. "I can’t believe we got so much."

  "Hey, there’s a radio on top of the fridge. Switch it on, will you?"

  "Sure." Haley turned it on, and all we got was static. "Hmm." She turned the tuner around, trying to find any station that would work. "Oh, here’s one."

  "Yeah, if you understand Spanish."

  "True." She continued to try and find something, anything. "Shit, Andi. Everything must be out."

  "Try AM."

  "Nada."

  I looked at her, just as she turned to look at me. "Crap. We’re a bit isolated." She grinned at me, nodding.

  "Yeah, I’d say so. Cool by me." She walked back over to me as I began to pour my creation into the skillet that I’d already put on the burner of the stove. "Oh, that smells good."

  "It is good. Reach into the cabinet above the Lazy Susan, and grab two plates, will you?" She did as I asked, and I began to dish up breakfast.

  * * *

  "Are you sure we’re not going to freeze our asses off?"

  "No, I’m not sure. But we’ll have fun doing it," Haley said, zipping her coat, which clashed mightily with the flannel pants she wore, and tennis shoes. Her feet were much too large for any hiking boots I might own, so we had to make due. "Ready?"

  "Yup." We both pushed together to open the screen door against the massive weight of the built-up snow. "Damn. It’s not budging."

  "Yeah. We may have to go out through the garage door."

  "One more push; we’ll have to open this door at some point, anyway."

  "Okay. On three. One, two, push!" We put all we had into it, our feet digging into the rug that covered the tile of the entryway, the material bunching up under us, making us slide.

  "Yeah, no. This isn’t going to cut it."

  "Garage?"

  "Garage."

  The garage opened with much protest, as the mechanical parts were near frozen.

  "My god, look at that." There was a wall of snow all along where the door had once been, five feet high and higher in some places. "Hey, I could make a tunnel through that." As I spoke, the parts began to crumble, falling in large chunks onto the garage floor.

  "Or not."

  "Ready?" I looked at Haley to see that adorable smile on her face, a smile like I imagined she looked at five years old. I nodded, and with a scream, we ran, plowing into the wall of snow, falling onto the driveway, disappearing face first into four feet of snow, which thank god was frozen on the lower layers so we only actually fell in a couple feet.

  I scrambled to get out of my self-made snow grave, but trying to not disturb the shape of it. As I stood, I realized Haley was doing the same. I laughed as I looked at her, her face covered in a thin layer of white powder, stuck in her dark eyebrows, her bangs stuck to her forehead.

  She also laughed at me, as I figured I looked exactly the same. I looked down at myself to see that the entire front of my jacket was caked with snow, and my pants were already soaked in front. Yeah, this would be a short play time. I figured it wouldn’t do well to end up my mother’s next patient, suffering from frostbite and hypothermia.

  I reached down to brush off my coat when SMACK! Suddenly the world turned white in my left eye.

  Looking over at my laughing friend, I saw the evidence of the white dusting on her right glove. She was trying to look innocent, but of course had about as much success as Clinton.

  "You want a piece of me, Corregan?" Hands on my hips, I looked at, well, hand on my hip as the other one picked snow out of my eyelashes.

  "Is that a threat?"

  "You want it to be one?"

  "You got it, Littman. Or should I say, Littleman." I glared.

  "Okay, that was lame."

  "It was, wasn’t it?"

  I didn’t answer, instead I began to form my own snowbal
ls. "Start making ‘em, Corregan. I used to be the pitcher in our neighborhood softball tournaments, so be warned." Haley looked at me, looking impressed.

  "Very nice." She gathered a huge mound of snow, began to pack it between her palms, making it rounder and rounder. "Well you know what?"

  "What’s that?" I started on my fourth snowball. Since the snow was nearly to my waist, it was quite handy to just set my ammo right next to me.

  "I still play softball."

  SPLAT!

  "Pleh!" I spit the snow out that had landed square in my mouth, the coldness stinging against my reddened skin. "Oh, you are not a nice person." Grabbed the largest of my bombs, and got a nice, solid hold on it. I looked at her, me the picture of determination.

  "Okay, Andi. I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair." She held her hands in front of her.

  "Nope, no it wasn’t."

  "I don’t have anymore snowballs ready." She gestured to the empty snow in front of her.

  "Nope, no you don’t." I lifted my leg over the snow to take a step forward. Haley began to move, too. This would probably be the slowest chase in history, like running under water. I grabbed the rest of my snowballs, putting them in the crook of my left arm, and began to fire. Haley tried to get away from me, even with much longer legs, she was having a hell of a time. Score! The largest of the snowballs smacked her right in the neck.

  "Oh man, that’s cold!" she cried as she grabbed the shrapnel, trying to get it off her bare skin. Fire number two!

  SPLAT!

  Only got an arm, but that’s okay.

  We continued on our slow but sure chase around my driveway and front yard, each of us taking our well-placed, yet extremely high, steps through the snow. No one was really getting anywhere of consequence, though Haley did have some space on me because of her longer legs. But that was okay, I still had snowballs.

  "Ah!" Before I knew it, Haley disappeared completely from sight as she fell. Phoof! Nothing but an outline of her sprawled body.

  "Haley?" I hurried over there, well, if one can hurry in four feet of snow, and saw her laying face-up, staring into the gray sky above, then her eyes traveled to me.

  "Wow. Snow is so soft. Just like a bed of feathers."