The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (85 page)

“
I’m not quite sure,” he
began, recalling what he had been thinking before the bear-dog had
joined him. “I was wondering earlier, what we could do about all of
the snow piling up here in this tiny crevasse.”

Kenai glanced around as
well, her brows furling at Mr. Patas quandary. “Well, it is not
likely we will be able to stop it from drifting, for it will
continue to deepen. There is just too much volume falling from the
heavens to make it otherwise.”

“
That’s it!” he exclaimed
of a sudden.

“
That’s what?” questioned
the bear-dog, her frown thickening the fur above her
eyes.

“
We do not have to contest
the snow, let us encourage its’ drifting and completely insulate
the cave from the storm.” He paused to demonstrate what he was
talking about. “We can pile the snow so it will block the whole
entrance of the cave and act an added layer of protection from the
elements outside. No matter how far the temperature plunges, we
should remain safe behind the barrier, snug and warm until the
tempest passes and we can, once more, walk freely about the
land.”

“
That is a great idea, Mr.
Patas! Let’s be about it, so we can get inside as quickly as
possible,” said Kenai excitedly.

With that, the two members
of the Fist began to gather the snow into large mounds and began to
build the wall of snow against the violent climate of the Melded
World.

~~~~~~~~<<<<<<{ ☼
}>>>>>>~~~~~~~~

Not all Things Stay the
Same

Day Two, Friday, 7:51
am…

She opened her eyes and
was a little surprised to find she was lying atop a pile of empty
fifty-gallon, burlap bags still reeking of onions and potatoes,
though the produce had long been emptied. She rubbed at the morning
residue about her eyes, clearing the annoying debris, realizing she
wasn’t at home. She wasn’t in her plush queen-sized bed, between
her one-thousand-thread-count, satin sheets, beneath the gossamer
canopy of brilliant rose silk. It was the over powering smell of
fish that gave it away. Her bedroom usually smelled of jasmine or
lavender, depending on her mood.

No, she wasn’t at home.
She wasn’t anywhere close to home. She was in the Fish Market that
dominated the lower, middle portion of the Eagle Rock Plaza. The
precise place where she’d fallen asleep the night before, after
she’d downed a couple of beers.

She and the others had
decided to drink them in hopes they’d render themselves unconscious
and allow their frantic minds a thin slice of rest. At the end of
what had to be deemed the worst day of her life, she needed
it.

They all had.

The beers had worked like
a charm.

She grinned at the memory
of them all tossing and turning upon the produce bags for more than
two hours, recalling it had been Kimberly Madison who’d sat up,
saying something about she’d had enough. The teenager had stomped
over to the refrigerated section of the market with their only
source of light, a large flashlight she had found in the storage
area of the store.

Kim had come back with a
six-pack of Modelo beers, saying, “We should each down two of them,
real fast, or we’re never gonna get to sleep.”

Hyun had stared at her
though the upturned beam of the portable light.

Derek Benson had looked
from her to Kimberly, repeating the gesture a few times, his head
on a swivel. His face displayed shock at Kimberly’s suggestion.
Being the youngest of them, it hadn’t surprised Hyun in the least.
He was only fourteen after all. He had probably hadn’t drunk
champagne at a family wedding yet. The very thought of drinking an
alcoholic beverage might very well have put the fear of God in
him.

She had smiled weakly at
him, those thoughts twinkling behind her eyes.

Then, she had turned to
look over at the other girl without expression. She had been so
tired and misused at that point of the day. She had no intention of
suggesting an alternative method for helping them sleep. She had
merely accepted Kimberly’s logic as sound and stuck out her
hand.

The black-haired girl
smiled briefly when Hyun remained silent and quickly gave her two
of the shout, blue-labeled bottles of Modelo. She placed two more
in front of Derek, leaving the last two for her.

“
Do you think we should?”
the boy had asked with a nervous quiver in his voice, his eyes
searching over Hyun’s broad face, searching for
approval.

Kimberly had rolled her
eyes and - out of nowhere - produced a bottle opener, and quickly
uncapped the beer she’d been holding. “Jeez, Derek, don’t go all
pussy on us now, we
have
to get some rest,” and with that she took a long
pull of the brew.

Hyun smiled to herself,
grabbed the opener and popped open one as well. She remembered
she’d tipped the bottle toward Derek, saying something lame like
“here’s mud in your eye” or “here’s to a good night’s sleep”, but
she couldn’t recall exactly. What did come to mind was she had
mouthed the opening of the bottle and leaned back, letting the cold
liquid drain down her throat. To her surprise, she had drunk nearly
half the beer in that first drought. When she had finally come up
for air, wiping at her mouth, she’d been thankful that, at times,
Kimberly could be brilliant.

She wasn’t a big beer
drinker. Actually, she didn’t drink much at all, but such truths
didn’t stop her from thinking, at the exact moment, the beer had
been
the
best
beer she had ever tasted. Within minutes, she’d felt the tension in
her shoulders ease a little and the stiff pain in her spine
dull.

She had watched through
slightly bleary eyes as Derek mumbled something about not being “a
pussy” and opened one of the Modelo’s before him. He took a
tentative drink, his face bunching up at the taste, which he
clearly had not expected.

“
Ugh, how can you guys
drink this crap!” he sputtered, shaking his head.

Both of the girls
exchanged knowing smiles.

Hyun took another smaller
swig.

Kimberly had said: “Dude,
this is the good stuff! What’s up with you?!” She had paused to
huff a few times, then added softly almost as an afterthought. “It
tastes better the more you drink.” After, she had busted with
laughter, which in turn made Hyun giggle, though her mouth was
still full. She had gulped the last of it down as quickly as she
could manage before she began to laugh as well.

Before them, Derek just
stared back at them like they were insane or something. But, being
the trooper he was, he took a second much larger drink. He still
grimaced hugely, shaking his shoulders and chest at the sour
flavors coursing over his taste buds.

That had made the girls
laugh some more.

A few minutes later, all
three of them had finished their respective stouts. They had lain
back on the same burlap bags Derek had found hours earlier. They
placed their heads together, so their feet radiated out of the
center in a rudimentary triangular. Hyun was already feeling
exhaustion begin to overtake her as the buzz from the beer began to
work its magic. Finally, her mind was distracted from the events of
the day.

In the first moments of
silence a rather tipsy Derek had said, “Hay, K-him, ha-cum you
never stook up for me wh-when it came to your boh-oy friend,
huh-auh?” He’d hiccupped loudly.

Hyun bunched her shoulders
and tiny gurgles of laughter made her bounce on the coarse material
under her back.
Leave it to alcohol to
bring out someone’s true thoughts,
she had
thought trying to keep as quiet as possible.

Kimberly had puffed
noisily. She always did so when she was exasperated, but rather
than mouth-off, she fell silent, wrapped in thought. “I wish I had,
Derek, but… well, shit, I just… it was just better to leave things
as they were, ok?”

“
Betah fo who... yooo?”
asked the inebriated boy, a trace of anger in his tone.

“
You just… you all, just
didn’t know… what it was. Ah shit, man, go to sleep,” Hyun
remembered her saying, but Derek said nothing, only silence
followed.

Kimberly rolled over and
shut off the flashlight. After she’d finally settled, Hyun heard
snores coming from the teenage boy. She knew immediately why he
hadn’t answered, he had passed out.

She had felt sleep
creeping up on her quickly, so she managed, in the dark, before she
lost consciousness, “It
was
hard for him, Kim. Sonny really tormented him in
a bad way, for a long, long time.”

She had felt Kimberly
stiffen through their ramshackle bedding. “You don’t think I
fucking know that, Hyun?” she had rasped through what sounded like
a clenched jaw.

“
I had to make sure you
did,” she had replied, feeling very groggy at the time. Her head
was underwater.

The last thing she
remembered was Kimberly’s terse, but simple response.

“
Bitch.”

Hyun shrugged off the
memory, her mouth slightly dry from the beers as she looked down at
the two sleeping forms of Derek and Kimberly, who, through the
night, had turned to face one another.

I need some water… and a
toothbrush
, she thought as she looked
around, realizing she could see. The light from the huge skylight
in the center of the mall was letting in enough daylight through
the lower portions of the building. Though the light itself was
weak, or diffused at best, she could still make out her
surroundings. It wasn’t direct sunlight, but it was sunlight all
the same.
Morning time!
She gained her feet, glancing about. She was
looking for the “bathroom” section of the store, hoping it had one.
She found a sign marked “Toiletries” three isles down and began to
make her way toward it.

She peered down the aisle
and immediately saw a myriad of toothbrushes – pegged, covering
nearly a five-foot area of the wall sectional. She made her way to
them, looking for any medium-firm ones, grabbed a brightly pink
one. She scooped up box of Colgate, snagged a few other items and
headed for the bottled water section of them store.

Once there, she pulled a
half gallon of water from one of the shelves, tucked it under her
arm, and walked over to the “baking” portion of the market. She
selected a large pot, in which she placed all the items she was
carrying. She trudged her way to the front of the store, holding
the big pot with both hands, sat down, and quickly set about
washing-up. It marked the first time she had done so in almost two
days.

Well, more like a day and
a half, but still… there’s no excuse!

After she wiped the grime
from her face with water, she dried it with a hand towel she had
pulled from one of the wall sections when she walked by it. Then,
she brushed her teeth. She followed that by brushing out all of the
tangles that had settled into her shoulder length, thick mane of
hair over the course of her “adventure” in this odd
place.

When she was finished, she
stood up and looked down at her clothes. She was still wearing her
waist-length, powder-blue, goose down jacket over a darker blue
cashmere sweater and a pair of stone-washed, azure-colored, Lucky
Brand jeans. She still had on her black Prada double-buckle, short
boots on her feet.

She went rigid, an errant
thought striking her. Quickly, she felt into her jacket pocket and
pulled out the beanie matching her sweater in both color and
material. For some reason, she wanted to make sure she had
everything she had with her from
that
night. To her, it was a silent
way of reassurance.
I’m ok, really… I
am.

Overall, her clothes were
clean and were suitable for now. What she really wanted, was a
change of underwear. Having to walk around in the same pair of
panties for nearly forty-eight hours didn’t make feel all that
happy, or clean.

Maybe I can grab some from
Macy’s or something. Might be worth a shot, right? I certainly need
to retire the ones I am wearing now
, she
surmised, trying to ignore the icky feeling rising in her
mind.