More Than I Thought

7

I love winter, it's time for me to catch up. I read more, test out new lotions, rubs, and tonics, and for organization. Just do those things which I put off during the growing season. This year I am lacking my books, don't have my supplies or garden stores or recipes, and I've inventoried and organized everything in this little cabin within a millimeter of its life.

"OMG!!! If I see one more white flake." Poor Nell, she was such an outdoor person. It was so close to summer none of us had considered that we'd ever get a Blizzard. After a week all of us were more than a little stir crazy.

"Finish your tea, the snow has stopped so we're going to find that warm spring. We're getting ripe in here." I had to agree. Nothing could ruin a friendship like BO. Though everyone trying to "covertly" sniff themselves was entertaining. "Anyone else wanna come", Rom asks?

"I would love to come out and play in that cold, frozen, precipitation but alas, I have to listen for the outside world." D was NOT a winter person. I think it has a lot to do with his Caribbean gene pool. Give that youngin' a 100-degree day any time and he'd work grown men into the ground but drop the temp below 70 and watch hibernation at work. I heard the door to the dungeon slam as he and Nick retreated to their lair.

Craig reached for the ceiling his back cracking, he folded himself forward, then to each side. It sounded like a Gatling gun being fired. "Craig, I have some more of that muscle rub.

"Not now. We'll keep it for when we really need it." He rubs out a catch in his elbow. He hasn't let me examine him but he has spoken to Mark a time or two about the pain. Mark doesn't like being the go-between like this but until Craig is ready to be helped there's nothing we can do but play it his way.

As they tromp out of the cabin I join Mark at the table. "Got any thoughts or feelings about today?"

"What?" Mark is jumpier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers. "I... I don't feel anything."

"Calm down. Are you feeling alright?" I move to touch his neck and he shies away.

"Fine. Why?" He suddenly locks on to me. "What have you heard?" His tone is caught somewhere between panic and anger.

"Nothing, it's just. Well, you're never snappy with me, yet here you are acting like I'm going to put you through the Spanish Inquisition."

"What?" He was shocked as if he hadn't realized what he was doing. Rubbing his forehead, "Can we play Gin, it'll be a couple of hours before they find the entrance." I was confused by his statement but he was so rattled that I let it slip, filing it for a later, more private, Q&A.

I had been several hands of Gin before we heard Rommie laughing like a loon. The door opened and Nell hollered in, "We found something." There was a rush to the door.

Arriving outside to see Craig leaned over a pile of auto parts. The others were milling about as if waiting for something, Rom was missing. He was yelling into the pile, I assumed that the entrance was hidden there. Just then I heard Rom, clear as a bell, "CRAIG, you need to see this! Get everybody!"

How is that possible?

"Ho..ly..Shhhhh" Monica whispered. As she gazed out at the shelves full of stuff. Mark's jaw was on the ground.

"D, man. I thought your family was only a bit crazy. This is... WOW." Nan, once again said what we all were thinking. Nick could only shake his head.

"I don't care why it was here. I'm just grateful it is", I tell D, giving him a kiss on the cheek, "I can't thank the men who did this, so I'll do the next best thing. Thank you, D."