2005-11-14 - 4:46 p.m.
What she next saw was the snow that filled a television screen.
�Is the snow moving, Joel?�
He looked from the clock and into the window. He saw what she meant right away. He wanted to tell her to change the channel but lacked the energy for such drivel.
They sat on their bed and in each other�s arms until both of their stomachs rumbled. Joel was falling to the point of hunger where he felt actual pain in his mid-section. Madeline felt the back of her neck begin to pound and knew that a migraine was looming. She forced herself to speak into the cold room.
�I need to eat.�
Madeline did not recognize her husband�s face when he spoke of his hunger. She was certain that the gait he used to walk from the bedroom was not his own either. She felt disoriented when she arose from the bed. She always thought of herself as graceful but the steps that took her from the bedroom and into the hall were foreign to her. She even bounced off of the side of the doorway before leaving the bedroom.
She was certain that a dark figure would be awaiting her arrival in the hall. So certain was she that she walked down the hall with her eyes staring at the floor. She saw designs in the running carpet which she had never noticed before. She saw sharpened tools that could be used as weapons hidden under delicate flower petals. She saw horrible men smiling interwoven into a montage of forest growth. She came to the waxed wood floor that led to the kitchen and saw the reflection of a stranger for an instant. She looked away from the ground and saw Joel, immersed in shadows, standing in the kitchen.
If he had been staring at her she would have screamed. Once she started screaming she might have never stopped.
Joel was fully aware of what he was doing. He wanted to get something in his stomach. He poured himself a bowl of cereal then remembered there was no milk. They did have dehydrated milk powder but he was not about to go through all of that. He decided to just put water onto his sugary fruit rings.
He panicked when standing in front of the sink. He saw a vision of no water running freely out of the faucet. He slowly reached for the elongated handle that swings to allow water to run.
Madeline watched Joel. She figured he was going to put water into the bowl in lieu of using that water to hydrate the milk in the cupboard. He was moving so slowly that she could no longer take it.
�Are you going to put water in the bowl or what?�
Joel pushed the handle straight back.
Water rushed into the bowl. He stopped the water flow as quickly as he could.
�How long have you been standing there?�
Madeline giggled. She kept telling herself not to look at the water in the cereal bowl but her eyes went to it over and over. Joel thought of a great pop culture witticism.
�They�re magically delicious.�
Joel chuckled. He wanted her to laugh with him but she was quiet. Madeline could not place it but Joel made an incorrect correlation.
Then it came to her.
�You�re thinking of Lucky Charms.�
Joel looked down at the bowl full of crunchy fruit rings soaking in water.
�You�re right. That was odd.�
He took a few spoonfuls and realized there was no way he could finish the bowl. He tossed it into the sink. He watched fruit rings and water fly out of the bowl. The result was an askew tapestry of silver background with clear bubbles and the colors of the rainbow in small holed circles interspersed.
Madeline did not see any such montage. She saw the cereal melt to blood in the bowl, turning the water red. She saw the bowl drop into the sink and the blood splatter from it like it wanted away from itself. She knew what she saw was not real so she looked away from the sink to see Joel digging into the box of cereal and eating the sweet rings out of his hand.
With his belly occupied, Joel turned toward his wife. He felt the weight of the avalanche on top of them and it cleared his mind.
�It appears that our facilities are still functioning and that is very fortunate. We did choose this cottage out of so many nice ones-�
�Because of the seclusion, I know that.�
�Okay, okay. I did get the firewood right away so we will have heat. In fact...�
He went to the sitting room and piled wood onto the heavy steel rack. He pushed kindling under the rack and lit it with a match. He was pleased to see there were plenty of matches still in the box. He watched the kindling slowly take and knew it was only a matter of time before heat would emanate through the cottage.
�Joel?�
He turned to see her standing behind him, staring at the fireplace.
�Did you want to talk about the bad news?�
He knew the bad news. Nobody knew they had come here. Nobody even knew they bought it. It was their secret pocket in the world. When they went there, they joked the first two times, they really got away.
�We just have to hope a few more people got snowed in Madeline. I am sure that happened.�
She still held a forlorn expression. He tried to soothe his voice even more.
�The rangers will have to investigate. This was a big one. I wonder how high it went, you know, hw deep we are.�
�Would you want to tunnel out?�
He thought about it. He had no personal experience doing something like that. He had a memory of MacGuyver getting trapped in an avalanche. The way he got rescued, making a parachute that he spit out of the hollow ski pole to alert the rangers of his situation, was of no use.
Joel finally shook his head.
He too dejected to speak his answer.
Suddenly Madeline raised her expression. The elation swept through the room until it collided with the heat from the fireplace. Joel was in the center of the collision. He never felt such bliss before in his life. He felt sadness when he knew he probably never would feel it again. It was wonderful for a moment though, no doubt in his mind about that. She walked from the sitting room. Joel did a slow pirouette, basking in the aura left from the earlier collision of entities. Soon, he only felt the heat.
Madeline went right to her purse. It was in the doorway of their bedroom on the table which resides against the wall. She felt the cell phone in her hand and had a horrible image of the phone not working. She feared that if she tried to use it by herself there would be no signal. She thought of Joel at the sink earlier. He was afraid the water would not come out.
But it did.
She walked through the hall, this time staring straight ahead. She saw Joel finishing a graceful spin when she returned.
�Hey Cinderella, wanna take a break to call the rangers?�
Joel blushed for the first time in years. She remembered the last time he blushed for some reason. They were parked in the car. She was giving him what he liked when a police officer knocked on the window of the car. He was so red as the cop spoke to him and she sat next to him but still kept busy. She felt aroused, forgetting about the cell phone that was not working in the hands of her husband.
Joel was completely focused on the cell phone now, forgetting about his earlier bit of fancy. It turned on fine. He could dial fine. It seemed to send fine. But there was no one on the other line. Joel felt his anger rise in a spike.
Something popped in his head.
�Worthless piece of shit! This overpriced, tumor causing adult toy is a fucking mockery! Get a cell phone, they say. I mean, God forbid something happens-like a fucking avalanche!�
His head throbbed. Madeline remembered all of the times she saw Joel rubbing his head after throwing a tantrum.
Her arousal was a distant memory.
