Hybrids

Chapter 6

I wake up the next morning with two things on my mind.

1. My head feels like someone is poking my brain with a screwdriver.

2. My toes feel colder than they should be.

Fortunately, the freezing cold temperature in my room won over the headache, so I throw my legs over the side of the bed and immediately feel my feet touch the cold wood floor. I jump up like it was lava and pull open one of the under-bed drawers and take out a pair of my slippers. I forgot gloves but remembered 3 pairs of slippers. I don't even know how I got that many pairs of slippers.

Now thoroughly protected from the freezing hot floor, I head to the thermostat and see that it is -10 degrees Celsius (which I believe is 14 degrees Fahrenheit in America. In American only may I point out).

I turn the heat up and go to the kitchen to grab some Advil from the cabinet.

As I swallow the pills, I hear a low cough. I turn to see Sigjon sitting up, stretching with his arms over his head with dramatic flair.

"Good morning Sleeping Beauty," I say groggily.

Sigjon gives a huffed laugh and says, "Can I get some of that Advil too? My head feels like a bass drum."

I hand two pills to Sigjon who took them with a full glass of water.

"Um, Ren? Did you take my shoes and scarf off?" Sigjon inquires.

I cleared my throat and say, "Yeah I did. When we got here you immediately passed out on the couch. I figured you would be more comfortable without shoes on."

Sigjon nods his head in agreement, "Thank you. Wouldn't want to commit a party foul."

"No problem."

The atmosphere gets slightly tense now, which made sense since we were both hung-over. I decide to make a pot of coffee and get another glass of water.

"Hey, can you pour me some more water too?" Sigjon asks. I take the glass from him as he continues, "Is it just me, or is it really cold in here?"

"It's not just you. I woke up and I felt the sweat on my body freeze. I turned the heat up just before you woke up."

"Have you looked outside yet?" Sigjon asked.

"No, I haven't yet. You think it is snowing or something?"

"Well let's find out," Sigjon says. He gets up from the couch and goes over to the sliding glass door. He pushes the blinds apart and we find that it certainly did snow last night; almost, five-feet worth. I turn away from the sliding door to go to the front door. I open the door and peer outside where I see Sigjon's car half submerged in the snow.

"Well, Sig, it looks like you might be here awhile," I chuckle.

Sigjon comes up behind me and looks over my shoulder. His breath is warm against my neck.

"Looks like it. Normally, I would walk home, but it's too deep and I am too far away. It isn't a problem for you, right? I would hate to impose," Sigjon says.

"It's okay, but maybe we should watch the weather on T.V. to see how long it will take for the roads to clear."

We plop ourselves on the couch and turn on the T.V. I realize that the weather channel here is in Icelandic so I can only rely on the visuals. I need to figure out how to get subtitles. According to Sigjon, the man was saying that the snow started at 3 a.m. and has been coming down heavily since then. This snow isn't supposed to stop until early Monday morning. Sigjon says that the plow trucks will be coming through the streets every few hours to make clearing the snow from the roads easier on Monday, but no one else is allowed out in their car. This is a common occurrence in this part of Iceland, apparently. Good thing I just went food shopping.