Chapter 9
Sheila sat down on the first object handy-the far end of the folding lounge chair, which folded. Danny was there to stand her up, while Jed straightened out the chair and picked up the cushions.
"Don't tell me you've never met her," he said.
"I haven't. I knew Andy had a sister, but she's been away and he's never talked about her much."
"I know. Seems she and her dad kept up a correspondence, though. Shook him quite a bit when he couldn't get word to her; his office was closed in time to stop the mail from being forwarded home. Seems Mama had cut off friendly relations until daughter 'came to her senses.' "
"She didn't approve of Caroline joining the marines," Danny offered. "Women's division, of course. She thought she should stay home and-"
"Get married," supplied Jed. "Caroline said she'd never met a man worth cooking for and went out to find one."
"Did she?" asked Sheila.
"She didn't say, but she wasn't wearing an engagement ring. Ah, this is fine." And he took the straight chair, lifting wet shoes to the edge of the stove, balancing the cup of reheated coffee neatly.
Sheila brought out oatmeal cookies and opened the box of candy Andy had sent up by his father. Politely Danny took one; Jed merely curled his lip.
"Sure take a load off our minds having her there. Just a bit worried about anyone coming up this time of the year without some knowledge of what he's facing."
"And she has?"
"I doubt anything would faze her much," Jed said, thoughtfully.
As though someone had handed her a photograph, Sheila saw herself huddled beside the smoking car, completely helpless. This Caroline would have picked it up with one hand, run down the bank, poured in water and carried it back up, she thought indignantly. At least that was what Jed's voice implied.
"It will be nice for you to have such a handy sister-in-law," observed Danny wistfully.
"Capable," yawned Jed. "Well, come on, Danny. Let's get out of here while we can. Coming with us?"
Sheila looked bewildered.
"We're staying with your folks; couldn't make it up to our place now without chains. Caroline wanted the chains for something. Besides, it's a shame to waste all that good food your mother's cooked."
"Now, Jed," groaned Danny, "don't let Sheila think we're mooching. We brought-"
"I know you're not." Sheila became wistful. She wished she might go down and join the fun. But how would they sleep her, with one more than they expected already there?
"We'll dig you out in the morning if we can make the climb," Jed tossed over his shoulder as they left.
"How about the Carters?"
"Old boy has a built-in snow shovel," Jed called back.
Danny lingered, as Sheila shivered at the door.
"Doesn't seem quite right to go off and leave you alone in a storm," he said, "you being so little and all."
Sheila, a vision of the capable Caroline in mind, tossed her head. "Think nothing of it. In a pinch I can call in a nice friendly bear. You'd better start before you need chains, Danny."
Later she was ashamed. By then she had paced the floor, barked her shins on everything within reach of them, eaten too much candy and belatedly admitted she was jealous of a girl she'd never met.
She went to bed early to conserve light, set her alarm clock but didn't need it. A wind whipped up from far-away places and moaned.
It whipped a section of celloglass loose, and she had quite a time nailing her denim curtains over the plastic tablecloth she substituted for the celloglass.
To think she'd left steam heat and electricity for this.
Eventually she dressed to keep warm, then stretched out on the folding chair and promptly went to sleep to indulge in a most horrible dream. The bear she'd literally thrown at poor Danny was at her window, knocking.
Sheila came out of her dream with such a start, she jumped and the chair folded. Grayest daylight out-lined the bear at the window, but the voice issuing from it was speaking English of sorts.
Paws that were not hairy, but gloved, pushed snow from the outside of the pane, and this time the face was almost recognizable.
"Will you unbar that door and let me in out of this?" howled Jed.
Once it was unbarred, Jed looked not at Sheila but at the celloglassed chicken wire to say bitterly, "I might have known it. Here the four of us sat around all night waiting for enough light for me to scrape my way up, and-"
"I did it with my little tack hammer," said Sheila brightly, "and me not a lady marine, either. I can make coffee, too. Oh, for goodness sake, sit down. Not there!" she cried, but not in time.
Getting up in a small space does not show a manly figure at its best. Diplomatically, Sheila turned her back, her pullover sweater only half hiding her quivering shoulders.
"Turn on the radio," she stuttered. "Let's find out about this storm."
"Had your Dad's on. It's a lollapalooza, and just getting under way. I'm to take you down there if I have to hog-tie you."
"That would be a nice, easy way," Sheila said happily. Not that she wasn't willing to go. The moaning of the wind in the small, dark hours had undermined her courage.
Jed addressed himself to the folding chair, the flapping celloglass, the tightly tacked plastic tablecloth and people who had to have claims of their own.
"Your mother worried all night."
"You mean my dad. Here, you'll feel better after a drink of this. It boiled most of the night; fresh coming up in a few minutes. Wonder how the Carters fared."
"All right."
"You haven't been over there?"
"Do I look airborne?" he snapped.
"Now, now." She laughed. "But how else would you know?"
"In the first place, they have a log cabin, on rock foundations. In the second, it's stooc up to worse storms than this because it's sheltered by three sides of the cliff. In the third, if they weren't too dog-tired to sleep through it, I'll miss my guess."
"Hm," murmured Sheila thoughtfully. "Jed, if the Carters have such a good shelter and there's prospect of getting something worthwhile out of the claim, how did it happen you and Danny overlooked it?"
"Too far away." He broke off abruptly. "All right. Remember that when the bunch of us decided to come up, we planned to locate in such a way we could check on each other?"
Sheila nodded and almost asked another question.
"We wouldn't have suggested it for Carter, but that's the last known shelter any place around, and he had to have something right now. Come on; we'd better get going. I'll put out the fire while you wrap up."
Sheila looked at him pensively. Then she began pouting exaggeratedly like a little girl.
"Don't you think we could stay here just a little while longer?" she said quietly. "I mean, you know, we're all alone and everything...."
"I don't know, Sheila. We've got a lot to do."
"But, Jed! It's so nice here right now. The fire's going and it's so clean and quiet. And we've got each other. What more could we ask for?"
Sheila asked that last question as if to imply something. And Jed knew exactly what she was getting at.
"I guess we could stay a little longer," he said, "and enjoy the fire."
They sat close together in silence, listening to the crackle of the burning logs and the sounds of their slow breathing. Jed put his arm around her and drew her close, leaning down to rub his head against hers. He breathed deeply, enjoying the fresh scent of her hair, squeezing her tighter.
"You know, Jed," she said, toying with a button on his shirt. "I think I'm falling in love with you."
"You want to know a secret?" he asked, grinning. "I think I fell in love with you back out on the highway, that day we first met. I thought you were never going to make it, but sure enough, here you are."
Sheila looked up at him and smiled. "You know I would never have made it without you, Jed."
He answered her by leaning down and kissing her full on the lips. She clung to his neck, pulling him closer. And then she leaned back all the way, pulling him down on top of her. She thrilled to the feel of his hard-muscled body covering her completely. And when she felt his cock beginning to grow against her thigh, she moaned out her pleasure.
Jed clawed at her blouse and managed to bare her breasts after fumbling with her bra for a few moments. He tossed the flimsy white garment aside and then buried his face in her smooth tit-flesh. Rubbing his chin up and down between her tits, his rough skin electrified the sensitive flesh of her cleavage.
"Oh, Jed," she sighed, running her fingers through his hair. "Oh, Jed ... ohhhh...."
Then he raised up a bit so he could lick all around her nipples. Running his tongue across her soft brown areola, he then sucked her firm tit-bud into his mouth. He did this to both her breasts until her nipples were standing up hard.
When he had removed enough of her clothes, Jed reared back to enjoy the sight of her naked body. The fire cast a sensuous warm glow across her skin which excited him thoroughly. Her belly undulated gently and her tits jiggled while she squirmed under his gaze. He had never seen a woman quite so beautiful. And knowing that she was totally his, to please him and to be pleased by him, he realized that he couldn't ask for much more.
While he stared at her luscious curves, she reached out to grasp his penis. It was fully hard and twitched in her grip. She ran her fingers up and down the shaft and then rolled the tip of her forefinger across his rosy prick-tip. A tiny droplet of presemin fluid appeared in his piss-slit, and she smear it around the slick flesh of his red cockhead.
Then she moved her hands down and gent! hefted his testicles. As she squeezed his fragile sperm-filled balls, they retreated into the wrinkled folds of his scrotum. She gasped deeply, thinking about all the warm semen stored in his testicles, and she could hardly wait to feel it spewing out of his cock into her vaginal depths.
"Now!" she hissed. "Put it in me now, Jed. Make me feel good. Ohhh, you feel so good, Jed ... ohhhhh...."
She was so aroused and desperate to fuck, that her voice had an almost tearful pleading edge to it. Spreading her legs wide, she exposed the juicy flesh of her pussy, showing Jed just how badly she wanted and needed him.
With one smooth motion, so smooth it seemed as if Jed and Sheila had been fucking for a long, long time, he entered her. He gasped out loud as he felt the entire shaft of his penis surrounded by a soothing sheath of hot vaginal flesh. Within seconds, he was pumping furiously. And then he could hold back no longer, unleashing his hot jism.
When they had recovered from their in tense lovemaking, they prepared for their journey. Sheila wrapped up woolen socks, some slippers and waders for the creek, should she slip, a parka and a back pack, and a few other necessities.
Sheila didn't appreciate the climb Jed had made until they started down. At first, she thought he was going at the wrong angle to reach the first step off the cliff, then found he was following a rope.
"Don't take a step down until I okay it!" he shouted at her.
It looked easy enough, but Jed used the upper end of the shovel he carried until he'd located the firm base of the step, ran it along to the cliff, cleared a step, then reached out a hand to her.
"Ran out of rope," he said once, and soon she saw an outcrop and on it a loop like a shadow.
They made easier progress then. Danny and Nate were at the bottom to take over.
Danny said, "This way." Nate said, "Here, Sheila." Jed simply picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, walked across the creek, twice slipping dangerously, then all but tossed her down.
"Ask Dad to give you a receipt," flashed Sheila, and ploughed on toward where she thought she'd find the Norris cabin.
They let her flounder and she, finding them going in another direction, swallowed her pride and returned to take advantage of their footsteps.
The inside of the Norris cabin was bright with light from Coleman lamps and lanterns and savory with frying ham and potatoes and coffee.
"Wash up, boys," Mrs. Norris called, and obediently they stomped back out.
"You saved the day," she went on cheerfully. "Gave them something to do. Talk about caged animals."
Sheila relaxed. Then Jed hadn't been risking his precious life to rescue her; he'd been working off surplus energy.
"I talked them into building a lean-to after breakfast. How did you fare?"
"It wasn't too bad except for the wind. I mean the way it talked, the things it said."
"Celloglass hold?"
"No, one blast brought something loose along and tore it. I reinforced it with a plastic tablecloth."
"I knew you'd make out. Call the boys before they rub their skin off."
Sheila went out to the long rear porch, which would be walled in before another nightfall, to find the three arguing about the location of a small drum stove.
They trooped in eagerly enough and at the table forgot the Norris stove to talk about the one at the Carter cabin and, naturally, the new neighbors.
"What I liked about Caroline," observed Jed, "was the way she handled her father. She knew what to buy and he didn't, but she made him feel he was a great man getting his girl what she'd always wanted, instead of an old fogey with no brains."
"Is he?" asked Sheila.
"Just starry-eyed," mused her father. "He'll , get over it. Trouble with living in dreams, a man can choose what he puts into them. He gets himself all settled before a storm strikes. Weather doesn't wait for a dream. Told me his son got a weather report."
Sheila sat up to listen.
"Storm six hundred miles off our southern coast, moving south; wouldn't strike here. What he didn't know, not even a woman can change her mind as fast as a storm center. Oh, that reminds me: letter for you, couple of them. Rose, what did you do with Sheila's mail?"
"Let her finish her breakfast," chided Mrs. Norris.
After the men had gone back to work, she brought out Sheila's mail. "Didn't think you'd want to read them with the boys staring at you."
All but a lamp over the makeshift sink had been turned off. Sheila took her mail to the best window, the only one not reinforced by a canvas flap outside.
Cautiously she opened Andy's letter.
"You don't know what a relief it is to me for you to have Dad. He acted so strangely before he left, as though he had some guilty secret. If it hadn't been for the cost of it at a time like this, mother would have gone right along with him."
Sheila tried to fit Mrs. Carter and Jed into the same picture, shivered, then realized that, had Mrs. Carter come along, they would never have left town. She would have seen to that.
She read on.
"Please see that Dad files for unemployment benefits on the 28th. He'll have to ask for work there in the nearest town, you know.
"We didn't tell him, but I have word his company has been bought out and he won't be rehired by the new one; they're bringing their own office staff to handle the merger.
"Mother would close up the house, but she can't have the utilities shut off without losing all the food she has stored in the freezer. I'm too far from home to commute. Believe me, it is a problem to know what to do."
Sheila held the letter, looking across to where her mother was setting sponge for bread. Suppose Mr. Carter never did find employment. He had fifteen years to go to be eligible for Social Security. By that time, if Andy proposed to take care of them, she would be thirty-five.
"We are hoping Dad can make something out of the claim; enough to build a decent house, anyway. When he does, Mother will sell the cottage and move up."
"My goodness, Sheila," cried her mother. "Why are you groaning?"
Sheila read that portion of the letter and said, "Mother, surely, I let him know what to expect up here. How can he think his father will do better than Dad, who knows this country?"
"Because he doesn't. Know the country, I mean. From what the boys said, the Carters read of new strikes at the mouths of creeks, and nuggets the size of tennis balls brought up by skin divers."
"So he accepts a claim on top of a ridge?"
"Well, according to the Carter logic, the nuggets had to come down from some place. And don't go blaming them, daughter; your father and I have had dreams just as outlandish about things we didn't know."
"Mother, what do you think the Carters should do?"
"Get this dream out of their system first, then gear their living to the type of locale they know. They'll survive. We all do, somehow, so we might as well make a game of it."
Sheila was serving the noon meal when a shocking thought struck. Andy had said nothing about his sister. The fact his father seemed to have a "guilty secret" meant they had no intention of telling.
And where did that place her, his fiancee?
Well, bless the snowstorm; all she need do would be to send a straight wire, "Dad and everything fine," when someone went to town.
The "lollapalooza" veered off as though belatedly remembering it was supposed to be covering the Sierras, not the Sisklyous.
A Chinook wind came in with its warm breath, and Sheila found she could climb the cliff the next afternoon without help from anyone.
It wasn't help she wanted, but company.
The men merely sat around playing pinochle, after the lean-to was finished.
She slept well that night, had her cabin spotless and was wondering how to fill the hours when a shadow passed the window.
In another moment she had opened the door to a strikingly beautiful blonde in skiing clothes.
"I'm Caroline Carter," said the vision.