Читать книгу The Cabin at the End of Herrick Road - Derek Wachter - Страница 10

Chapter 5

First Night in the Cabin

Four Months Later

“Mom, I know it’s not normal for us, but I want to do this for myself, for Matt, and for us,” said Christina into her phone. Christina was standing in her kitchen with the kitchen sink water running, looking out the window that was above her sink into the traffic on the interstate. Her kitchen dishes, glasses, Tupperware, and silverware were completely packed into clean brown cardboard boxes resting comfortably on the kitchen countertops.

“Chris, you will be alone in the forest, in a cabin, with a man who is going to need your help with a lot, with no other resources around you. Not even a neighbor. Can you even pick up his body weight by yourself if you had to? How are you going to get any electricity out there?” asked her mom.

“We bought solar panels that we are going to attach to the roof of the cabin. It’s new technology, Mom. We won’t have to have electricity hooked up to the cabin. In fact, you and Dad should look into it for your place in Packwood. It would reduce your electricity bill too.”

“Your father isn’t going to go for something like that. Besides, we are surrounded by trees. We don’t see much of the sun around here. So what are you going to do for food then?”

“We’re going to grow a garden on the land by the cabin. And Port Angeles is only thirty miles away. They have stores. We aren’t going to be without food, Mom.”

“Well, what are you going to do for money? You have to have some sort of income coming in to live on.”

“I’m going to work privately and advertise in Port Angeles for accounting work with individuals and local small businesses. Someone out there must be looking for a certified and licensed public accountant. Even around that area.”

“Oh, Chris. I don’t know. I don’t like any of this,” said Christina’s mom. “Your dad and I have lived in Packwood for the last twenty years now. I know how hard it is to live in the woods. And Blanton’s Market is literally only a ten-minute drive away from us. How am I going to come visit you?”

“I’ll come visit you, Mom. Don’t worry about that. I’m going to be okay. Matt is going to be okay. We both want to do this.”

“It’s October too, Chris. Couldn’t you wait until spring where you aren’t dealing with the snow and cold in the mountains, or heavy rains? It’s up in the Olympics, Chris.”

“I know, Mom, we’ll be fine. The cabin has a nice wood fireplace, and there is a woodshed behind the cabin that is filled with chopped wood for us from the owners who were there last.”

“Is the woodshed covered?”

“Yes, Mom. The woodshed has a slanted roof, so it won’t even collapse under the snow in the winter. The snow will just slide off the side of it.”

“Well, will you have your cell phone?”

“Of course, and I’ll have it charged all the time too.”

“Well, you call me then, okay. When you get there.”

“Of course, I will.”

“All right, well, have a safe trip. I love you, honey. God, I still don’t like this idea.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

Christina hung up her phone and stuck it in the back pocket of her jeans. She was worried because she wasn’t really positive that her cell phone worked up in the Elwha Valley where she and Matt were moving to. Matt had spent nearly a full month in the hospital recovering from his surgery to stop the internal bleeding. After that, he was discharged to a skilled nursing facility where he spent extra two months doing rather well in working on rehab and developing whatever body strength he could get back from post-surgery and from his paralysis. It was during this time one evening when Christina was visiting Matt in his nursing home room. She had brought in another real estate guide for the Port Angeles area for her and Matt to look through again, but this time they had found a nice mountain cabin located in a small town called Elwha, southwest of Port Angeles. A small realtor company called Olympic Mountains Realtor had advertised a cabin in the deeper woods as being “rustic and off the grid.” A cabin really designed for hunters, but large enough for her and Matt to try living in. It was a one-level cabin with a kitchen and old kitchen appliances, a bedroom, a bathroom, a decent-sized living room with a nice wood fireplace. Matt and Christina decided that this was the cabin they wanted. It was deep in the woods of the Elwha Valley, near the Elwha River. Christina had called the realtor of the agency to check on its availability. It was still available when she called, so Christina checked Matt out from the rehab facility for the day and they drove up to Elwha and took a look at the place. They were astounded at how serene the cabin was and how quiet it was. A perfect day. The sun was out and shining brightly onto a field of tall grass, and without even going to have a look inside the cabin other than what they saw from pictures in the magazine, Matt and Christina trusted in fate and made an offer for the cabin that was accepted a few days later by the sellers. They were grandchildren to the older couple that used to live there, who seemed all too happy to sell the cabin to them and get out from under it. Matt had joked that they should have offered even lower than what they did, but nevertheless, they got their cabin that they wanted. Shortly after the offer was accepted, Christina called a local solar panel company in Olympia that drove their equipment out to the cabin and set up solar panel grids on the roof of the cabin, as well as hooked up the solar panels to an inverter in the cabin that would help to distribute the electricity throughout the rooms in the cabin. It was an expensive hook-up, but Christina felt it was well worth it. She was surprised at how well things were coming together, and it made Christina think maybe this was the right decision for her to make after all. Christina had turned in her notice to her job shortly after Matt had been discharged from the hospital and admitted to the rehab facility, giving the Klemmes ample time to find her replacement. When her last day with the company finally came, both the Klemmes held a nice going-away party for Christina, and the older Mr. Klemme gave her a hug goodbye, as well as welcoming her back any time she wanted a job at the agency. Matt had to give up his job shortly after he had learned he was paralyzed from the waist down. Shortly after that, he went on state disability, which would help to pay for the bills, along with what Christina would earn while working for individuals and small businesses and, maybe if she was just a little lucky, maybe a small business or two would pick her up to run the accounting and finances in the Port Angeles area.

It seemed that moving day had snuck up on them fast. The house was completely packed up and in the process of being moved up to the cabin by the moving agency. One large truck held all their furniture and property, along with three men who would help to unload the truck and pack all their things into the cabin. Christina walked into the living room that was now bare and void of their furniture, their bookshelf, TV, and recliner—all packed into the moving truck that was halfway to Elwha, Washington, now. Matt came around the corner of the kitchen and wheeled himself in his wheelchair into the living room. Christina was standing by the living room window, looking out toward the highway traffic on the interstate, while Matt wheeled his chair up to her.

“What are you looking at, babe?” asked Matt.

“The traffic and interstate. Hard to believe when I look out a window I won’t see traffic like this anymore,” replied Christina.

“What does it look like out there? I can’t see,” said Matt, straining to look up from his seated position.

“Heavy and congested. As always,” replied Christina. “You ready to go, honey?”

“Yes, I’ll meet you out at the car.”

Matt wheeled himself out through the front door and down the cement ramp that they had installed for him. Christina started toward the front door and turned around, taking one last look inside the condo home, before turning around and walking out the front door, shutting it behind her. Matt was patiently waiting by the passenger side door, looking at the condo from the outside. Christina walked over to him and helped him up. Matt maneuvered his legs in a way that would help Christina help him easier into the passenger seat of the car. Once he was inside the car, Christina folded up his wheelchair and stored it in the back seat. Matt’s car was totaled in the accident that landed him in the hospital and the condition he’s in now, so now they were down to only one car for the two of them. The couple used the insurance money from the settlement to pay off the remainder of Matt’s car, but also to put a down payment onto the cabin to get started. Christina decided to head back inside and walk around the condo home one more time, double-checking to make sure that they hadn’t left anything behind. Christina was glad that she did. In the bedroom she found her cell phone charger still plugged into the wall. She walked over, unplugged the charger, wrapped it up, and stuck it in her jeans pocket. After she had finished walking through the condo, she turned and took one last look at the entryway of the home, then slowly backed up and shut the door.

Christina made her way down the ramp toward the car, her husband, Matt, smiling at her from inside the car as she walked down the ramp. Christina opened the driver’s side door to the car.

“Ready to go, baby?” asked Christina with a smile.

“Ready when you are,” replied Matt.

Christina sat in the driver’s seat, then leaned over and gave Matt a kiss. Starting the car, she put the car in gear and started to go. Christina pulled out onto the road and made her way onto the highway, heading toward Highway 101, north to Port Angeles.

“Do you want me to GPS the cabin address in Elwha, honey?” asked Matt.

“Yeah, you better. I know we have to hit the 101 going north to Port Angeles, but from there I can’t remember exactly how to get myself to the cabin,” replied Christina.

Matt searched the GPS coordinates of the cabin from his cell phone while Christina got on the interstate to go north until she reached the Highway 101 exit. There she exited I-5 onto the 101 to go north toward Port Angeles. Christina looked back in the rearview mirror to see the tall capital buildings of Olympia fading into the distance behind tall and lush pine trees along the sides of the highway. There was nowhere to go now but forward, toward a new life together. It took them nearly three hours driving the Highway 101 to make it to Port Angeles with all the traffic on the highway. The couple finally reached Port Angeles and decided to take a break and gas up their car. They found a gas station near Port Angeles, along the side of the road along Highway 101, and pulled into the station to park and gas up. It had rained the moment they had left Olympia and the whole way to Port Angeles. Christina got out of the car, opened an umbrella she kept under the seat of her car for such rainy days as this, and walked into the gas station market. She folded her umbrella up and walked up to the attendant at the counter and told him thirty dollars on pump one, handing the man a twenty-dollar and two five-dollar bills. The attendant took the money, rang up thirty dollars dollars’ worth of gas on pump one. The attendant told Christina that the pump was ready for operation and Christina turned around to leave and go pump the gas into her car. While she was walking out the door, four old men were jabbering away over their cups of coffee while sitting by the window at the long bar table that ran the length of the front window. Just before she walked out the front door of the station, she overheard the men talking about a man that went missing up by the Elwha River. One man told the story that he had read in the local newspaper, and the other men laughed at the end of each sentence the man told them. Christina heard the man talking about the newspaper story, speaking about the location of where the man had originally went missing. If she remembered right, the location sounded like it wasn’t too far away from the cabin where the man was last seen. Nevertheless though, Christina walked out the door, opening her umbrella back up, and went to pump gas into the car. She thought to herself that it was rather rude for grown older men to be having a good laugh about someone getting lost and going missing in the forest.

While walking through the parking lot and gas pumps back to her car, Christina thought to herself that the movers ought to be at the cabin by now. Hopefully by the time she and Matt got to the cabin they would be nearly finished in unloading the truck and ready to help move furniture. They had left before Matt and she did after all. They also had a key to the front door of the cabin so that when they got there they could immediately begin unloading and not waste any time waiting for Christian and Matt to arrive. Christina opened the gas cover to her gas tank, took the gas nozzle from the pump, and pumped gas into her Subaru. The thirty dollars filled her gas tank nearly to the top where Christina didn’t have to go back into the market to get change. She took the nozzle out of the gas tank, careful not to get any gas on the side of her car, and replaced the nozzle on the pump. She ran around the side of the car and got into the driver’s side, folding her umbrella up as she was getting into the driver’s seat and quickly shutting the door.

“Boy, it’s really coming down out there, huh?” asked Matt.

“Yes, it is. But what did we expect? This is the west side of Washington,” replied Christina. “Plus, we’re up closer to the mountain range and near the waterfront too. We’re bound to get something other than sunshine, honey.”

“That’s true. Remember the last time we came up this way?” asked Matt.

“Yes, I do.” Christina smiled. “We had driven over to Forks for vacation for a weekend to your family’s vacation home in the mountains. That was a fun weekend. How crazy it is we got away from doing that. So busy with our careers and our own lives. I miss the times where we would just get out of Olympia and just spend time together, you and me.”

“Well, we’re going to change that from now on. Love you, Chris.”

“Love you too, Matt.”

Christina leaned over and gave Matt a kiss. She then turned the keys in the ignition of her car and drove back onto Highway 101, heading west on the Olympic highway toward their road that would take them to the cabin—their new home. They reached a small road called Herrick Road just off the Olympic highway that took them straight through the small town of Elwha. If they blinked for just a moment, they would have missed the whole town. The town of Elwha, Washington, was a small, unincorporated town at the foothills of the Olympic mountain range on the northside of the range. Elwha had a decent-sized RV park for vacationing trailers and campers in the summer months, along with a couple small ma-and-pa run grocery stores in the area that sold a gallon of whole milk for $5.99. Christina continued to drive through the small town until she came up to the end of paved road on Herrick Road, at the end of the paved road, the road continued on but was dirt and gravel the rest of the way as it cut through the heavily wooded pacific northwestern forest. Matt’s GPS had now started to fail as his cellular phone started to lose service the farther Christina drove through the town.

“Shit,” said Matt. “Oh well, who needs cellular service anyway. Not like I will be needing it up here.”

“Right, let me check my phone,” said Christina.

Christina picked up her phone from the cup holder between the seats where she would keep it while driving. Looking at her phone she noticed that she still had a couple bars indicating she still had service on her phone. Christina continued to drive the dirt road, winding her way through trees, bushes, and past large potholes in the dirt road. Christina only hoped that the moving trucks didn’t have any problems on the way up to the cabin. It seemed to not take too long until Christina finally came into an open clearing on the road. The clearing was officially the end of Herrick Road, and there at the end of Herrick Road, the Carters’ cabin sat in peace, surrounded all around by a dense field of tall grass and beyond that a thick forest of Douglas fir and hemlock pine trees. The tree line to the grass clearing was maybe a good one hundred yards in each direction. In the center of this grassy knoll sat the single level-built log cabin with solar panels attached to the roof on the sunny side of the cabin. The front door of the cabin faced the old dirt road, and a long wooden ramp was built in place of the steps at the front door so that Matt could easily access the cabin.

“Oh good, that contractor made it out here and built the ramp for us,” said Christina.

“Was there a possibility he wouldn’t make it this last week?” asked Matt.

“Oh yeah, he wasn’t too sure if he would make it out here or not, but hey, he did,” said Christina, smiling back at Matt.

Matt sat in the passenger seat with an expressionless look on his face. “Yeah, I suppose it is a good thing he made it out this week,” replied Matt.

The movers had already arrived at the cabin. Their large yellow truck parked in the front of the home with the back door opened and over half the truck already emptied and taken into the cabin. Christina parked behind the movers, but not close enough to block them from getting to their work of unloading the truck into the cabin. Christina opened the door and got out of the car. Matt opened the door and swung the lower half of his body out the passenger side of the car, using his arms and hands to drag his legs out of the car. Matt sat for a moment in the passenger seat and simply admired the view of the Elwha Valley and the grass, the forest, and the mountains in the area. He listened intently for a moment and noticed that he could not hear anything—no traffic, no car horns, no neighbor’s yelling or playing music too loudly, no sounds of lawnmowers or weed whackers—just eerie silence. Matt had also noticed on the way up to this location that there were no other houses or log cabins on this dirt road. The rest of the houses kept to the paved road of Herrick, back toward the town of Elwha. They were as far away from civilization as possible, truly in a cabin at the end of civilization—the cabin at the end of Herrick Road. Matt closed his eyes and enjoyed the peace and silence of the forest as his wife talked to the movers who had come out onto the ramp after loading furniture into the home. The cool crisp breeze of the autumn air brought a sense of peace to Matt that he hadn’t felt since he was a young child. The sensation was truly overwhelming.

“Matt?” said Christina.

Matt opened his eyes to see his wife standing in front of him.

“I got your chair from the back seat, you want to come in and see the cabin?” asked Christina.

“Oh sure, that sounds great. Thank you, babe.” Matt smiled, not even realizing Christina had the wheelchair out of the car and ready for him to use.

Christina helped Matt by the arm to stand up and get into his wheelchair. Using the car door with one hand and Christina to help brace his weight, Matt swung his body toward the seat of the wheelchair and sat down all in one motion. Once in the chair, Christina helped push him up the steady incline and toward the long wooden ramp where Matt helped to propel himself up the ramp with his hands insisting to Christina that “he’s got it.” Christina stood by just in case Matt needed the extra support of a push up the ramp and into the cabin. He never did. Matt pushed himself the whole way up the ramp and onto the front deck and eventually into the cabin. Christina walked the rest of the way up the ramp and walked onto the surrounding deck of the cabin. She walked over and stood by an old rickety rocking chair and turned her back to the cabin to look out into the field. There was a gentle breeze that gracefully bent the blades of the tall brown grass stalks in the field. Christina listened carefully, and she could hear the wind whistling through the pine trees in the forest just beyond the grass field from where she was standing on the deck. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath of air, curious, not to take in the smell of cars or whatever the neighbor was cooking next door as well.

“How about that view? Hmm…hmm! And that fresh air.”

Christina heard the voice come from behind her. She had thought it was possibly one of the movers. It couldn’t have been Matt, it was too feminine to be him, but it wasn’t one of the movers at all. Christina opened her eyes and turned around to see a short, pudgy black woman sitting in the wooden rocking chair behind her rocking back and forth. She instantly recognized the woman and her eyes grew wide.

“Charolette?”

“Ha ha, yeah, it’s me suga’.”

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Oh, baby, you need me here. Right now I’m in your mind. In your thoughts. I’m here to help you.”

“Wow. Maybe I have had a little too much fresh air at once. So what you’re saying is that you’re a ghost.”

Charolette laughed and smacked her lips together. “Suga’, don’t say that. I ain’t no ghost. I’m your conscience. You still got some doubts in your mind about all this too, don’t cha?”

“Well, I would be lying if I said I didn’t.”

“This is good for you, suga’. Good for your husband. Good for your relationship.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Well. This really was a very hard decision to make. We had a pretty good life back in Olympia still. I mean I was working, and we could have stayed there. There was a Safeway store just down the road from us. Now I’m going to have to drive to Port Angeles to get to a Safeway.”

“But you still decided to come out here, huh?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did. We did.”

“So, why’d ya do it?”

Christina thought about the question for a moment.

“I guess I did it for my husband.”

“Nah, that not all the reason why you moved out here.”

“You’re right. I did this for our marriage too.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“You lyin’ to yourself, baby. You did this for yourself too. Was it worth it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. To me personally I would never have done this. I remember growing up in the town of Packwood. I know what it’s like to live out in the woods. Trust me, the city life is better than living the rural life. It’s easier.”

Christina turned her back to Charolette. She looked out into the field onto a beautiful and warm autumn day. The cool breeze caused the blades of grass to dance in unison with the forest just beyond the grass field. For a moment, Christina remembered her youth and what it was like back on her parents’ property in Packwood and she remembered how much she did enjoy it.

“You know what, yeah, maybe a little of this was for me too,” she said.

“Suga’, that’s what a marriage is all about, baby. When you feel comfortable and good makin’ those sacrifices, baby, then you know you doin’ it right.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. So what are you, locked and stuck in my imagination now? Every time I have a moment of bliss you just show up or something, is that how this works?” said Christina, turning around to look at Charolette in the wooden rocking chair. But she was gone. Christina looked around herself, but the short older black woman was nowhere to be seen. All that was left behind was a wooden rocking chair, slowly rocking back and forth in the autumn breeze, creaking while it moved.

“Wow. Maybe I should get to bed early tonight,” Christina said to herself. Christina walked toward the entrance to the cabin as she could hear her husband speaking with the movers.

The cabin had a large living room area that was set up with the couch over in the corner where the TV and TV stand were already set near a window. Matt and Christina moved out of the way while the movers continued to bring more furniture into the home from the moving truck—a nice rocking recliner followed by their bedroom set with a king-sized bed. Matt and Christina remembered moving into their last place in Olympia and were relieved that they weren’t the ones moving all their things again. It really was a great help having the movers helping to move their belongings into the cabin, not that Christina would have been able to do it all on her own. And they worked quickly too in setting things up and helping get Matt and Christina situated in their new cabin. The cabin had a spacious kitchen area that was in the northwest corner of the home. The living room, on the south east corner of the home, was quite large, and behind the living room in the southwest corner was a nice and simple dining room area, where movers were moving an old armoire set against the wall that housed some fine china and depression glass that Christina had collected over the years. On the east side of the home was a bedroom built for two, along with a bathroom and shower sitting between the bedroom and a small utility room with a back door to the cabin. In the utility room was room for a stand-up freezer (or refrigerator depending what you wanted), along with a washer and dryer unit that was already brought in by the moving crew and set up. Christina would just have to hook up the hoses and water and plug them into power, and they’d have their washer and dryer up and running. All in all, including the bedroom, bathroom, utility room, and the wide open living area, the cabin was nearly one thousand seven hundred square feet. In the dining room by the window was where the electrical inverter was located for the solar panels of the house. From here, power was run to all locations of the cabin, inside and out, and to each room.

“So what do you think?” asked Christina.

“It is beautiful. Just like you,” said Matt.

Christina smiled and leaned down to give Matt a hug.

“This is going to be an amazing restart to our lives. I love it already,” said Matt.

“You know what, I do too. I’m glad we did this.” Christina smiled.

“Ma’am, would you like to tell us how you and your husband would like to have the bedroom arranged? I believe you have options there, as well as how you want the living room arranged, especially that it’s an open concept design out here. As far as the dining room here goes, it’s a small space and we went ahead and arranged it how we think it would look best, but if you guys have a better idea, it’s your home, you can arrange it however you want,” said the mover.

“No, we like how you set the dining room table up in that corner. That’s perfect. I’m going to go to the bedroom, honey. Is there a specific way you want the bedroom set up?” asked Christina.

“Well, if I had it my way, I would like for the headrest of the bed to be against the wall that’s between the bedroom and bathroom,” said Matt. “That way we can enjoy looking out the window if we want to.”

“So when you’re in bed you want to be facing toward the window?” asked Christina.

“Yes, that’s right. What do you think, honey?”

“That sounds good to me. Then in the mornings we can lay in bed and open the blinds to the window and watch rain or snow or even a sunrise over the trees. Maybe we might even get some deer to graze by in the grass by the window?”

“You never know.”

“Okay, that sounds good to me too.”

Christina walked into the bedroom with a couple of the movers who went to work in rearranging the bedroom for the couple. Matt stayed behind in the living room in his wheelchair, looking through some of the packed boxes in the kitchen.

“Sir?” said one of the movers.

Matt turned around in his chair to face one of the movers. “Yes?” asked Matt.

“Sir, we’re going to rearrange your living room, but only if you want it to be done. We stuck the TV and stand against the wall over by the fireplace, and we put the couch and recliner chair in the corner with it. Are you okay with how it’s all set up?” asked the mover.

“So long as my wife is okay with it, then I’m good,” replied Matt. “If it’s up to me, this looks great. I love how you guys have the furniture set up and the bookshelves and curio cabinet where they are. You guys did great with this move, thank you.”

The mover thanked Matt and went back to unloading boxes from the moving truck into the living room and kitchen area. Matt couldn’t believe how many boxes were being unloaded from the truck into the cabin. Matt wondered if they really had accumulated this much while living together over the last few years. Finally, the movers had brought the last of the boxes in and shut the back door to their moving truck. Christina had since come back from the bedroom after movers helped reorganize the bedroom for the couple. She had spent some time unpacking bedroom items and clothing boxes and putting things away. Two more movers came in and moved a large dresser into the bedroom. After the dresser was moved into the bedroom, the movers were finished with their work. On the way out, Matt had attempted to give the men an extra hundred-dollar tip, but the men would have nothing of it. The lead mover told Matt that their pay can only come from the company, but he thanked Matt for the generous offer. Matt thanked the men and shook each one of their hands, Christina in turn shook their hands as well. Finally, the men left the cabin and the last man out shut the door behind him, leaving Christina and Matt alone in their newly purchased cabin home.

“Chris,” said Matt.

“Yes?” replied Christina.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Nothing. I hear nothing. Remember when we were living back in the city, we would hear our neighbors from next door, hear the sounds of the traffic on the interstate and the roads…emergency vehicles. Even lying in bed at night asleep I would hear the sound of the lamp posts along the city streets. But out here, I hear nothing.”

Christina quietly paused for a minute to listen. The silence was eerie. Christina had never heard the sound of nothing before. Even in Packwood, growing up she still heard the sounds of traffic along the Skate Creek Road where her parents’ home was located, but never quiet like this. There was almost an internal fear of why things were so quiet around her, as if there would be an unexpected jump scare, waiting around the corner like in a scary movie. Christina walked toward the front door and opened the door to take a step out onto the covered wrap around deck of the cabin home. While outside she listened for any sound, wondering if she had gone deaf at some point during the trip to the cabin today. Finally, Christina’s ears picked up the faint sounds of the Elwha River flowing not too far away from the home and the sounds of the wind blowing through the blades of grass in the field and the trees out in the forest that caused a whistling sound.

“Okay, so I haven’t lost my hearing. That’s good,” said Christina.

Matt smiled and laughed. “It is beautiful up here. Well, should we get to unpacking these boxes, babe?”

“Yeah, I suppose we should. They certainly won’t unpack themselves.”

For the next six hours into the evening hours, both Matt and Christina unpacked cardboard box after cardboard box. Matt would help unpack the boxes and organize what was in them for what room they belonged in while Christina would put the things away. They unpacked the chilled storage boxes that contained all their food, both perishable and nonperishable. They put the refrigerated items quickly in the refrigerator in the kitchen. The refrigerator in the kitchen was an old fridge left behind from the owners of the cabin before—a four-legged orange fridge that looked like it could stop a cannon ball from penetrating it.

The couple took a break from unpacking and putting things away for dinner. They made a quick and simple dinner of macaroni and cheese, nothing extravagant. After dinner they both cleaned up the dishes together and went back to putting things away in the cabin. Slowly the living room of the cabin emptied of filled cardboard boxes into broken-down cardboard boxes. Their possessions were nearly completely organized throughout the home. Darkness started to settle in the mountains, and the sun set behind the trees nearly an hour ago. Christina flipped the lights on in the home. The home came to life with bright light throughout the living room, along with an elk horn chandelier that had lights in the tips of the horns. Christina knew she would have to try and give this chandelier a chance if it was going to be in this cabin. After what seemed like an eternity of unpacking and manual labor, the last of the boxes were finally put away—a box filled with toiletry items for the bathroom. It was finally time now for Matt and Christina to relax. Matt made his way to the couch first, taking the corner edge of the couch, followed by Christina who sat next to him and leaned up against his right side.

“Hey, you want me to build a fire in the fireplace?” asked Christina.

“You know what? That sounds great,” said Matt.

“Christina opened the firewood storage box and grabbed some pre-stored pieces of firewood. She placed them in the fireplace and organized some kindling around them. She grabbed the matches from the mantle of the fireplace, and in a small aluminum garbage can next to the wood storage box were previously rolled up pieces of newspaper from the previous owners. Christina grabbed some newspaper along with the kindling and stuffed it between the cracks of the firewood. She lit the newspaper and kindling on fire first and the fireplace roared to life. After building the fire, Christina stood up and walked over to the light switch on the wall. She flipped the switch and turned the lights off in the living room. The only light in the cabin now was coming from the fire in the fireplace. Christina walked back to the couch and sat by Matt’s side, and the couple snuggled together on the couch while watching the fire begin to consume the logs in the fireplace.

“I can’t believe we haven’t done this before. This is so nice. I’m happy we did this,” said Christina.

“I don’t want to be the one to say I told you so, but I told you so,” said Matt with a smile on his face.

Christina looked at him and chuckled while she buried her head into Matt’s chest. His arm draped around her shoulder. Nothing could stop the peace of the moment but one thing. In that moment Christina heard a sound—not the crackling of the fireplace, but the sound of scratching on wood. Christina raised her head up to listen closer.

“Matt, do you hear that?” asked Christina.

“Hear what?” replied Matt.

“That sound.”

“Are you messing with me? There’s a sound coming from the fireplace from the fire?”

“No, it’s not the fire. It’s almost like a scratching sound.”

“Maybe it’s mice?”

The couple listened quietly for the sound when they heard it again.

“Is…is that coming from the front door?” asked Christina

“Is it? What the hell could it be?” replied Matt.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, stay here I’ll go check it out.”

“No, no, it’s fine I can go check it out. It’s probably a raccoon or squirrel or something.”

Christina got up from the couch and walked toward the front door of the cabin. She could still hear the faint sounds of scratching coming from the opposite side of the door. The scratching was coming from the bottom of the door though, not near the door knob or above the door knob. Christina finally was face-to-face with the front door, only a few feet away.

“Chris, I’d feel better if you grabbed a knife before you open the door. Just in case,” said Matt.

Christina gave Matt a weird look for recommending such a thing. Finally, Christina grabbed the door knob and slowly unlocked the deadbolt in the door and then the door knob. She turned the knob and slightly pulled the door open toward her and looked out. There on the front porch she saw a dog—a border collie with black and white coloring. The dog was completely filthy, dirty from mud and debris, and looked skinny and frail. The border collie saw her and walked toward her, panting, shivering from the cold autumn night air.

“Oh my god,” exclaimed Christina as she swung the door wide open.

“What is it?” asked Matt.

“It’s…it’s a dog.”

“A dog?”

“Yeah, a dog…the poor thing…he looks lost and near death. He’s just skin and bones.”

“Well, bring it inside. Does it have a collar or chain on it?”

“Yeah, it does.”

“Well, does it say anything about his owner? What does it say?”

“It just says ‘Max.’”

“Max?”

“Yeah, Max. That must be his name.”

Christina brought the dog in to warm up, shutting the door behind her. She took the dog to the bathroom.

“What are you going to do with it?” asked Matt.

“Well, first I’m going to give it a warm bath. This poor thing looks like he’s been living out here for a while now. He’s so docile.”

Matt pushed himself from the couch and back into his wheelchair. He wheeled himself toward the bathroom where Christina was drawing up some water for the dog. The dog jumped into the tub and began to drink from the water.”

“Poor thing, I wonder if he’s been living on his own for a while now,” said Christina.

“He doesn’t look too clean. I wonder if he’s had his shots.”

“Well, there’s no telling. The only tag on his collar just has his name on it.”

“I’m going to go see if we have something for him to eat. We can just give him some luncheon meat until we can get back to Port Angeles and get some dog food I guess.”

“You’re right. I don’t know what else we can feed him. I wasn’t planning for there to be a random dog running around out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“I wonder if one of the summer campers had lost a dog, back down there toward the town from that RV park?”

“Maybe?”

The bathwater eventually filled up enough warm water in the tub for Max. The dog continued to drink from the tub water.

“Poor thing must have been thirsty,” said Christina.

“Well, good thing we have wood floors. Probably piss all over the cabin tonight,” said Matt as he wheeled himself toward the kitchen to find something for the dog to eat.

Christina began to splash water onto the dog’s back. She stood up and grabbed a hand towel from the bathroom cabinet and began to wash the caked-on mud off Max. Matt had come back with a large mug from the kitchen and handed it to Christina. She began to collect water from the tub and pour the water over the back of the dog, washing the mud off the dog’s body. Matt wheeled himself back to the kitchen to look for food for the dog. Finally, Max was completely clean and free of mud and debris of small twigs matted in his hair. The water in the tub was now a murky brown color. Christina pulled the plug in the tub and ran some more water in the tub to clean the mud out of it. She continued to draw warm water from the bathtub faucet and collect it into the large mug, pouring warm water over the back of the dog, getting the last of the dirt and gravel particles out of his coat. Christina set the mug down on the edge of the bathtub and turned the bathtub’s water faucet off. She stood up to grab a towel from the linen closet when the dog shook vigorously, splashing water all around the bathroom and onto the mirror by the bathroom sink.

Christina came back and wrapped the dog in a large soft towel and proceeded to dry him off. Once he was as dry as she could get him, she set the dog down on the floor and the dog left the bathroom and went back out into the living room. There Matt was sitting in his wheelchair with some ham luncheon meat he had brought out from the kitchen. The dog walked up to Matt who began to feed him slices of ham one at a time. The dog graciously took the meat and ate it right there by Matt’s side. Christina walked back into the living room area. The living room was warm from the fire in the fireplace.

“What should we do?” asked Christina.

“Well, I guess we can ask around town or if there are any campers left if they may have lost or know someone who lost a border collie this summer?” replied Matt.

“That’s the only thing I can think of doing too. So if no one comes to claim him, Matt, then what?”

“Well, then we just made a new member of the family I think. Are you okay with that, Chris?”

“I am. I’m certainly not going to kick him out of the cabin, especially this time of year. It’s too cold and wet out.”

“Well, when you go back into town tomorrow, you can ask around and see.”

After Matt had finished giving all the ham to the dog, Matt pushed himself off the wheelchair again and back onto the couch. Christina sat by his side. The dog, however, also jumped up on the couch and laid next to Christina on the other side of Matt. The dog spun around twice and laid down, laying his head on Christina’s lap.

“I suppose this is our dog now then,” said Christina.

“If no one comes to claim him, it sure will be,” said Matt.

“I almost don’t feel like asking anybody in town about him. It’s like this dog was meant to be our dog.”

“Hey, this could be our child.”

“Oh no.” Christina laughed.

“What?” Matt laughed in reply.

“I am not one of those people who consider their pets a child. You want a child, you have a human child,” said Christina.

Matt laughed. “Fair enough,” he said.

The couple lay silent on the couch for the next few hours, talking with one another, listening to the sounds of the fireplace crackling. Christina had got up for a moment to put a couple more pieces of wood on the fire to keep it going, then sat back down again. Max, the dog, was looking frustrated at her that she had stood up and disturbed his slumber. Eventually the couple fell asleep there on the couch in the living room with the warmth of the fire lighting the cabin.

The winds outside the cabin were picking up, whipping and howling through the grass field and pine trees causing an eerie whistling sound. However, off in the distance in the dense northwestern forest, there was another kind of howling that no one had heard in the home—something heavier than just the howl of the wind, something more menacing.