A Time in Heaven (14 page)

In the weeks to come, Jesse, Katie and Sadie were busy making Heaven their home.  Everyday involved getting the work done that would ensure their survival
over the coming winter
.  They gathered firewood
and piled it outside the lodge doors
until the top of the pile was too tall to stack anymore
.  They hadn’t been back
inside
the lodge, but they knew that day would come soon enough
.  A
substantial supply of wood was crucial to keeping warm when
winter came and
they finally moved there. 

Fishing became a daily activity.  The meat of the fat trout was a valuable source of protein and a welcome change from the canned meat they had found.  Sadie had even developed a taste for the fish. With winter around the corner, Jesse suggested that maybe they should dry some
of the
fish
they caught
.  He had seen native Alaskans do it on one of his trips.  It looked pretty easy.  Their first attempt was a disaster. The fish were cleaned and hung over
the clothes line near the farthest cabin
.  The
result was
a stinking slimy mess.
 

After they disposed of the rotten fish carcasses
, they decided to try again.  Jesse remembered a little more about the process this time
.  He and Katie
went to the pond and
caught a dozen or so fish.  They took off the heads and gutted them.
Cleaning the fish made them nervous so it was decided that it would all be done at the fishing-cleaning shed. Jesse thought this would help keep any bears that got the scent of fish from coming near the cabin. Still one of them would clean the fish while the other kept watch for unwelcome visitors. Jesse, however felt the need to find some sort of protection.

Jesse remember
ed that the natives had left
the skin
on the fish
.  He also remembered something about salt.  Katie, being the science teacher, knew that the salt would draw the moisture out of the fish, but she didn’t know how much it would take. Moisture seemed to be the problem, so they dried the fish with clean rags.  Then they coated the inside of the fish with salt.  They tried hanging the fish over the clothes line again.

The rain held off for several days, and the sun shone brightly.  This time, at least the fish dried without the smell and slime from the first time. To Katie’s surprise, they even tasted not too bad after the salt was scraped off. 

They continued to improve their technique and after a while they had what they thought was plenty of fish for the winter.
  They stored part of their catch in their cabin, and the rest in
the other cabin with the rest of their supplies
.

COMING OF WINTER

Early in October, Jesse and Katie woke to several inches of newly fallen snow.  Sadie was so excited when she was let out that morning.  She ran through the snow, jumping at the tufts of snow that fell from the trees.
  She stuck her snout
into the snow and came up with her nose covered with the white stuff.  To the lab, this was just fun.
Her a
ntics made Katie and Jesse want to join in on the fun
.
Before long
,
a snowball fight was in full swing.  When it was all done all three were
covered with snow from head to toe
.

As much as they enjoyed the
romping in the snow and its beauty, Katie and Jesse realized
it was something that could be life threatening for them. With winter came an urgency to survive for the couple.  Were they prepared?  They didn’t know for sure.  What they did know was that it was time to move to the lodge.

This snowfall was their signal that it was time to move to the lodge.  T
hey started packing up their belongin
gs.  It was decided to leave what
food
there was
in the cabin.  That way they would have three food caches. 

With arms full of their
paraphernalia
,
Jesse stood by the cabin door
looking Katie in the eyes
.
“Well, my dear, I guess we have to do this.  We’re grown up people.  Let’s just be brave and ge
t
these things
to the lodge,” Jesse said as he was trying to be brave himself.

He
had
gathered what he could carry.  “Can you get Sadie?  She should be on her leash until we see if there’s any dangerous wildlife out there.  I’ll come back to get the rest.” He went out the door and started down the path.  Sadie came charging at him and knocke
d him face down into the snow.
  Jesse started to get up when a snowball smacked him in the back of the head, causing his hat to fly off.

He spun around to see Katie grabbing another handful of snow.  “Don’t you dare!” He warned.  But, Katie let go another snowball that hit him in the crotch.

Jesse ran to Katie and threw her to the ground, stuffing snow down her shirt then down her pants.  They were both laughing so hard that they fell back into the snow trying to catch their breath.  Sadie came to them all excited and started licking their faces.  “Truce?” Jesse said.  “Truce,” Katie replied.

Each of them got up and brushed what snow they could from their clothes. 
They were still laughing when
Jesse gathered up what he had dropped.
Katie got hold of Sadie and snapped on
her le
ash. They continued their
giggling
as
they headed
off toward
s
the lodge.

As they walked up to the double doors of the lodge, there were wolf tracks everywhere
in the snow
, but the doors were still closed.  Jesse saw that as a good sign.  There would be no surprises inside.  He opened the door.  Everything looked like it did when they left a couple of weeks ago.  He turned and smiled at Katie.  “Wait here,” he told her.  He took what he had in his arms and put them inside.  He unsnapped Sadie’s leash before picking up Katie
in his arms
and carrying her across the threshold.

“Whoa!” Katie said.  “Jess what are you doing?”  Jesse
gently
put her down inside the door.

“I wanted to carry you across the threshold of our new place together.  We could be here a long time.  Don’t you see this as where we are starting our lives
together
?”

Katie took a long loving look into Jesse’s big brown eyes, and said softly, “I do.”

They came together in a long passionate kiss.  Sadie started barking.  They parted quickly to see the big grizzly standing outside the doors.  She was only maybe ten feet away.  Jesse grabbed the doors and slammed them shut.  “Bear,” Katie said calmly.

“Ah, yeah, it’s the bear,” Jesse said sarcastically.

“No, no. I’m calling her Bear.  She’s had four chances to have us for lunch, but we are still here.  I don’t think she means us any harm.  So, I’m giving her a name.”

“You’re naming the bear, Bear?” Jesse asked not quite believing what Katie had said.  “Fine, Bear it is.  Just remember she is not a pet.
” He shook his head.
 
“
She's still a wild grizzly bear.”

They watched out the doors as the grizzly disappeared a
round the corner of the lodge
.  Jesse looked at Katie and said, “Bear, huh?”

Katie nodded and gathered the stuff that Jesse had carried from the cabin.  She headed for the stairs but stopped short of taking the first step.  She looked back at Jesse.  He was still standing over the remaining things.  “We have to do this,” he said.

He
picked up the remaining bags
. They
slowly
went up
the
stairs.  Katie went into the very first bedroom. “Is this one ok?”
She hoped that Jesse would say yes.  She didn’t want to have to sleep any closer to where the body had been.

“This one is fine,” Jesse told her with a little reassurance.  He was starting to be okay with moving into the lodge.  After all they had cleaned every inch of the place.  There was no evidence that a body had been here or that wolves had dragged it off into the woods.  “It’s the one closest to the bathroom.” Jesse said with a smile.
He hoped to make Katie more at ease.

Now that Jesse was more relaxed,
Katie found herself feeling better about being in the lodge, too. She had
come to rely on Jesse.  Being
on her own for so long, she had
considered herself totally independent.  She didn’t think that she needed anyone.
But with Jesse here to share
in making
decisions,
some
of the burden of doing everything herself had been lifted.  She liked having a man in her life.

They settled into the room.  Putting clothes in the dr
awers of the old dresser made the move here
seem
more
permanent
. It felt reassuring
to both of them to think of this place as their own
. For the first time since they had been abandoned, they felt secure in that they
just
might survive
.

“I wish I would have brought more heavy clothes. The camp’s website said that nights were cold and days were warm.  So, I brought some warm weather things and only a few cold wea
ther ones,” Katie said as she hung her heavy jacket on one of the nails on the wall near the dresser.

“That coat
of yours
looks pretty warm.  I
only
brought this
rain jacket.  It will keep me dry
, but it’s not that warm.”  Jesse hung his jacket on the nail next to Katie’s
coat
.

“But you have all those flannel shirts.  Layering them
with your down vest
will keep you warm,” Katie noticed as Jesse opened a duffle bag. She remembered seeing pictures of him wearing those
exact
flannel shirts and it made her smile.

Jesse leaned in to give her a quick kiss between her breasts. “I can think of a couple of activities to help with the heat issue.”

Katie’s thought
s
quickly came back to the present and she gently pushed him back.  “I’m serious.  Aren’t you afraid of what we will be facing in the next few months?  Do you think we have enough food
? Do we have enough firewood? And
I’m not sure if we have the right kind of clothes to get us through an Alaskan winter.”

Jesse confessed,
“I’m
not sure of any of those things either.”  He took Katie’s hand and sat her on the bed.  He sat down beside her. 
“I am sure that we are going to have to work real hard to survive. 
We are off to a good start with this place for shelter and warmth. The food situation seems good, but we’ll have to be careful how much we use.  I can’t tell you that we will be fine, but for every day we survive, it will be one m
ore day closer to being rescued when camp opens in the spring.

Katie kissed Jesse, “Thanks.  I love you, Jesse Danvers.”

“I love you too.
” He kissed her.
“
Now l
et’s get the rest of the
s
tuff from the cabin,” Jesse said as he got up.

After that first snow storm, October turned sunny and warmer for the rest of the month.  November turned markedly colder, but not much snow
fell
.  The good weather let the couple take care of survival business. Jesse chopped and gathered more wood to be burned in the lodge’s fireplace. Since the food was a major concern, Katie did an inventory of all three caches.  She tallied the food in their cabin and the next cabin toward the lodge.  She made sure that everything was locked up the best she could.  They couldn’t afford for mice and other critters to get into anything.  She figured the three of them would need it all.

It was late one
cold
af
ternoon when Katie decided to
inventory the
lodge pantry.  That was where most of the food was being stored and would
take the most time
. She walked from the dining room toward the door to the pantry.  She could swear she heard snoring coming from behind the door.  She stopped near the door and listened. 
She wasn’t hearing things. There
was snoring coming from the pantry!

Katie
wasn’t sure just where Jesse had gone
.  She looked out the window, but she didn’t see him anywhere. “OK, Katie, let’s find out what’s in there.”  She carefully turned the doorknob to the pantry.
Ever s
o slowly she opened the door an
inch or so.  There in the pantry was
Bear fast asleep.  Katie kept looking totally in awe of a grizzly bear maybe three feet away from the door.  Katie carefully closed the door.