Over the River and Through the Woods

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

The day had passed blissfully. True to his word, Micah had been practicing his ping pong, but that still didn't stop me from destroying him, twelve games to six. For the most part, he was a good sport about it, fake crying only a little and accusing me of continuing to beat up on the injured guy, which only made me laugh even more.

"You're heartless, I tell you. Completely heartless," he muttered.

"Okay. If I'm that heartless, you don't have to kiss me anymore."

"What?" he asked, looking shocked. "Well, if that's the case, then I officially declare you the Ping Pong Champion of all time." I couldn't stop giggling at him as he grabbed me and planted his lips firmly against mine. "Nothing is allowed to get in the way of kissing you. That would be a crime." It seemed as if I'd spent most of the morning giggling like a sixteen year old, now that I thought about it, but I loved every second of it.

After the Ping Pong Wars, we headed upstairs and foraged for lunch, digging up a pen and notepad to write a letter to the homeowners with a list of everything we owed them. Once we were finished, we decided to sit down with our iPads and do a little afternoon reading, while they still had a charge. My story was good, but I felt my eyelids growing heavier, the more time that passed. I jumped in surprise when Micah suddenly elbowed me.

"Hey! Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" I asked, sitting up to listen. The sound of a motor grew closer and we both jumped up and ran toward the front door. Micah threw it open, running onto the porch in his bare feet as he waved his arms wildly over his head. "Hey!" he shouted. "Over here!"

I wasn't sure if they heard him or not, but it didn't matter. Two snowmobiles were coming down the lane straight toward us. As they got closer, I could see it was two men with big orange vests marked Search and Rescue on them.

"They found us!" I said, hugging Micah as I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you Micah Nickolaus and Felicity North?" the one on the left asked as they came to a halt.

"Yes, we are." Micah gripped me tighter. "Boy, are we happy to see you."

"We're glad you're all right. You have some mighty worried family members who are anxious for some news about you today. We were concerned that you might not have made it to shelter in the storm."

Both men climbed the snow covered steps and shook hands with us, introducing themselves as Officer Lance, and Officer Huffman with the Sheriff's Department, before following us inside.

"I'm afraid we broke in and made ourselves at home here in this cabin," Micah admitted, truthfully. "We've been keeping a list of things we need to reimburse the owners for. Thankfully, they keep the place well stocked."

"I'll make a report of everything before we leave," Officer Lance said. "That way you'll have something official if you need it. We can look up who owns this property on the county register and try to get in touch with them. Are both of you doing okay? Any medical needs to be taken care of?"

"I think we're doing fine. Mostly bumps and bruises," Micah replied.

"Except for the gash on his head," I interjected. "I'm pretty sure he needs a couple of stitches."

"And Felicity fell into the river on the way here and got pretty chilled, but she's seemed well enough since we got her warmed up."

"All right. I think we should take you both to the hospital, just to be checked out. I'm going to assume that you're both healthy enough to ride with us on the snowmobiles to the main Highway? They've been clearing it today and there's a vehicle waiting at the end of the road that can take you the rest of the way into town. We can call in a helicopter though, if you think it's necessary."