Warmth called to me from a small door around the corner. I climbed cumbersomely off the seat. I knew I’d made a mistake trying to make it on my own to my employer’s home. My only hope at that point, as I struggled to make the few steps in the deep snow to the door I prayed would open, was that there were supplies enough inside the building to see me through until the blizzardlightened.
I put my hand on the door to discover it was cracked open with a damaged handle. I was too cold to care what danger I could be walking into. My self-defense training had taught me never to enter a building that had a damaged front door, but it was enter the building or hello Linda-sicle.
The door creaked ominously when I opened it—in my imagination. In real life all I could hear was the howling wind. I stepped inside and slammed the door shut. If anyone was there, they surely heardthat.
I pulled the goggles off and stared around the room. I was in a converted barn. From the looks of it, it belonged to the mightyGriffin.
Four wheelers, motorcycles, SUVs, cars, row after row of totes containing who knew what. The barn was full of toys for grown littleboys.
I ventured in, hoping to find a storage area for excess food. If there was any food there I could survive until the storm passed. If not, well, I’d not think about thatyet.
I was in the middle of the barn, eyeballing the loft area when it dawned on me that there were lights. Electricity. And they’d already been on in a barn with a damaged door. I twirled around quickly, looking for any signs that someone else shared the barn with me. I could see most of the loft but not enough to be sure nobody was upthere.
My ears strained and I stood completely still, trying to hear any noise to betray a trespasser. “I suppose you’re the trespasser, Linda. Chill out. The door was probably broken ages ago, and they haven’t gotten around to fixing it.” My words echoed across the space, sending a shiver of loneliness down my spine. How I wished I’d never left the house. “You’re a spoiled brat, Linda Beaumont.” I walked the perimeter of the barn, searching for a refrigerator tucked into a corner, but I had no suchluck.
The ladder loomed ever upward. I stood at the base, staring straight up. I gave the wood an experimental tug. Though I wouldn’t call myself obese, I was a little overweight and wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to pull loose from the wall and dump me onto the hard concrete floor. “This is a lot of damn trouble to find blankets or food. Not like they’d have food up thereanyway.”
The red wood held tight. I pressed my forehead against my hands, gripped the wooden rung, and whispered a little prayer for sure-footedness. One rung at a time, I climbed, talking to myself the wholeway.
Once I reached the top, what felt like three or four hours later, I wrapped my arms around one side of the ladder and slowly turned my body until both feet were firmly on the loft floor. Then inch by inch, I straightened and pushed myself off of the ladder. Once upright, I scuffled backwards so I could walk around the loft without being anywhere near the edge. Just because the edge had a well-built wooden railing was no indication of how safe it was. My feet could slip out from under me and leave me toppling over the edge to die a bloody, messydeath.
My anxiety settled when I turned my back on the expanse of the barn and studied the contents of the loft area. It took up roughly a fourth of the total barn space and held more tote boxes. With nothing else to do, I started peeking inside them, looking for anything that might help me survive for a few hourslonger.
With no wind in the barn, it was considerably warmer than outside, but it was still about fifteen degrees in Alaska. I wouldn’t last long at thattemperature.
The first few totes I opened contained old tax records. Some of the numbers I saw just on the top page were staggering. If Griffin was really worth that kind of cheese, it was no wonder he was careful who he let in his life. I’d be prone to running people off, too. That kind of money brought outvultures.
I skipped prying into his financial records any further and moved to the next row. The top tote contained antique kitchen utensils—an old butter press and biscuit cutters. They probably belonged to a deceased relative like a grandmother. I wished Griffin wouldn’t be so quick to hide a sensitive side that would store his grandmother’s beloved kitchentools.
I peeked behind the row of totes and almost keeled over in relief. In the very corner of the loft, several space heaters gathered dust. I skipped over to them, clapping my hands with glee. I had heat, just had to find anoutlet.
The totes scraped the floor when I tugged them away from the walls. I ignored the pain in my rib cage. The physical exertion irritated my still sorebody.
I hoped to be able to turn on the heaters in the top of the loft. I rationalized that heat rises, and it’d be easier to build a tote wall in the corner and get a small area good and warm. My main fear, though, was how would I get the heaters to the bottom floor if there were no outlets at thetop?
I combed every inch of the small loft and nearly cried. No outlets. I'd have to figure out a way to get the heaters lowered. The smallest one was still big enough to require my entire arm to carry it, leaving only one arm to hold onto theladder.
The smallest one would be the easiest, so I started with it. Forcing myself to walk as close to the edge as I could, once I could go no farther I dropped to my knees and crawled, one handed, until I couldn’t make myself continue at all. I turned and sat on my butt, facing the edge. Knowing I was ruining the butt of my fancy snow pants, I began to scoot closer and closer to theedge.
Finally, I was close enough. I rolled over and lay on my belly, peeking over the edge. My vision blurred, and my stomach swam. I clenched my eyes closed and demanded my stomach keep its contents intact. I hadn’t eaten since my sort-of dinner hours before, but I suddenly felt like there was a four course meal in mygut.
I used the toes of my boots to inch closer to the edge, until my head was hanging over. Clenching my teeth against the pain in my ribs, I dragged my arms around, left arm cradling the small heater, until I was holding it out over open space. Grabbing the cord, I carefully lowered it toward the ground below. Once I was out of cord, I opened my eyes to see how close to the ground the heaterwas.
It still had a few feet to go. I willed my arm to lower, altering my balance fully pointing it downward. I still needed about two feet. I didn’t want to drop that heater; it was probably the only one small enough to lower to theground.
I scooted to my right, toward one of the rail’s posts. Wrapping my free arm around it, I leaned as far as I could. The heater touched ground. I shrieked in delight, dropped the cord, and practically flipped backward away from theledge.
I rolled over onto my belly again and scooted feet first toward the top of the ladder. Once I felt my feet run out of loft floor, I shimmied until I could bend at the waist and put my feet on the rungs. Tears fell, no matter that I didn’t want them to. My ribs ached so bad that I couldn’t stopthem.
Inch by painful inch, I lowered myself down the ladder. By the time I made it to the blessed, beautiful floor, my cheeks were soaked. It didn’t matter by then, though, because I’d made it. I let out a little cheer and searched out a place to tuck in and getwarm.
The hushed chill of the barn was getting to me, though it was preferable to the wind I could hear howling against the grain of the building. I tried to minimize exposure to the cold by the door, sliding a few totes over to make sure it stayed shut. I didn’t want to risk the wind blowing the broken dooropen.
As soon as the door was secure, I inspected the bay doors. Wind seeped in from underneath them, so I knew I wanted to set up my little heater party as far from them as Icould.
Cars lined one wall the way horses probably had in another time, in wooden stalls. I considered taking the time to search the vehicles for anything useful, but I wanted to get warm more than anything else. I grabbed the heater and traipsed over to the back corner beside some storage cabinets. There was a huge SUV to one side of me and a small cabinet on the other. I found an outlet and plugged the heater in, praying I didn’t trip anybreakers.
Once I had it going, I dragged totes from the middle of the floor until I had a chest-high wall stretching from Hummer to storagecabinet.
