Three

A million thoughts roared through Adelle’s head, none of which explained the baby.

He walked to the telephone, but didn’t begin to dial. “I have no idea where we are. Does this place have an address or something?”

“Address? I have no idea what the address would be. I don’t even know if the road has a name. It’s just an old logging road. I’ve come here all my life, so I know how to find it without asking directions.”

He silently studied the phone. “I wonder. Someone should be able to trace the address with the phone number.” He turned back to her. “I know the roads are impassable, but is there anywhere nearby with enough clearing to land a helicopter once the snow subsides? I need to be airlifted as soon as I can get out.”

Adelle could only stare. For someone who was in no rush to make a phone call, suddenly he was in an awful hurry to leave. She couldn’t even guess the cost of chartering a helicopter, nor could she guess his reasons for wanting one, but she pictured a ransom figure far above her total income for the next decade.

Adelle cleared her throat, and forced herself to speak normally. “I don’t know if there’s a clearing nearby. I’ve never thought about it.”

“I guess that will be up to the company who owns the helicopter to find out, then. I’ll reimburse you for the call.”

He dialed and waited.

“Hi, Joanna. It’s me.”

He winced at the other person’s response, which Adelle thought quite odd considering he said it was his fiancée he was calling.

“Yes, I’ve got him, and I know what you said, but this is the way it’s going to be. However, I’m not going to discuss that right now. I’m having a bit of a problem, and I need you to do something for me.”

This time, he held the phone away from his ear while the other person shouted.

His voice became low and stern, and although Adelle didn’t know him, she could tell he was angry. “Knock it off, Joanna. I’ve run into some trouble here and I need your help. I got caught in a blizzard and had an accident in the mountains. A very kind lady rescued me and I’m at her cabin right now. I have no idea where we are and there apparently isn’t an address, but I’ll give you the phone number. Someone should be able to have the location traced so you can send a chopper to pick Raymond and me up.”

Again he listened in obvious frustration. Briefly, he raised his eyes and made eye contact with her.

Adelle felt her cheeks flush, embarrassed at having been caught eavesdropping on his conversation. She turned and crossed the room to sit on the couch, but she could still hear every word he said.

“I told you before, I’m not abandoning Harv’s baby. He’s the only family I’ve got left.”

At his words, Adelle didn’t care whether she was caught watching him. She noticed he held the phone so tight his knuckles turned white.

“I can’t believe you’re being so self-centered. Can’t you put that aside and do this for me as a favor? We can deal with everything else later. The most important thing now is. . . Hello? Hello?”

He flicked the button on the phone a couple of times. “There’s no dial tone. The phone’s dead.”

“I guess it’s the storm. That’s really odd. The power goes out frequently here, but usually the phone line is okay.” In unison, they both looked up at the light fixture on the ceiling, which was shining brightly.

Dennis sighed. “Praise God for small miracles. Still, I need the phone more than I need the light. It’s really important that I get home because—”

The lights flickered once, and everything went black.

“Uh oh,” Adelle muttered. “I think I spoke too soon.”

The only light now came from the glow inside the woodstove. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out Dennis’s shape. He hadn’t moved.

“What now?” he asked.

“First I have to switch the fridge over to propane.”

“Is that difficult?”

Adelle shook her head. “No, it’s much the same as a camper, the kind that you can set to run on either electricity or propane. The only problem is, I have to go outside to do it.”

They both looked out the window at the same time.

“Is there anything I can do?”

Adelle shook her head. “Usually my Uncle Bob does it, but it’s not difficult. I can do it myself.”

If a blizzard weren’t raging outside, she would have asked him to hold the flashlight, but she didn’t want him going back out, as now it would be even colder than it had been during the daytime. “It’s just like lighting the fridge in a camper.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never lit a fridge in a camper.”

Adelle grinned. “I haven’t either. When my uncle showed me how to do it, that’s what he said.”

Again, Adelle donned her coat and boots. She found the flashlight and lighter, and braved the weather to light the pilot light from outside. The wind was blowing so hard it took her a number of tries, but once it was lit and the cover was back in place, it would stay lit until the electricity was restored and she turned off the propane supply.

Since she was already outside braving the elements she brought in a few more armloads of wood.

The small cabin warmed quickly, but due to the nature of the only source of heat being in the living room, Adelle bundled herself in a sweater and her big fuzzy slippers. Then, with Dennis holding the flashlight over her shoulder, she searched the cupboards and drawers for candles.

Considering the storm and their remote location, Adelle feared the power could possibly be out for days. Therefore, she lit only one candle and set it on the coffee table to ration the supply. Since she didn’t know how much propane they had, she didn’t change the hot water tank over to propane, meaning they didn’t have an endless supply of warm water.

Adelle turned her attention to the kitchen. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and I’m really hungry. I’m going to start making supper.”

“Want some help?”

She shook her head and was about to begin when Raymond awoke. His crying also woke Rachel.

Ignoring the grumbling of her empty stomach, she laid a thick quilt on the floor near the fire and picked up her diaper bag.

Dennis stood next to the woodstove. “You’re going to change her diaper, aren’t you?”

She nodded as she laid Rachel down.

“I guess I’d better change Raymond, too.”

“Yes. You haven’t changed him since we arrived, have you?”

“No. And I didn’t change him in the car, either, because it was too cold.”

She didn’t want to think about how wet the baby was. Adelle almost suggested that Dennis bathe him in case his skin was irritated, but then remembered that they didn’t have hot water. It would take too long to heat enough water for a bath on the stove, and he needed to change Raymond now.

Dennis laid Raymond down on the quilt beside Rachel. “I’m not very good at this.”

Adelle wasn’t as frightened as before, now that she knew he had a fiancée and that somehow, the baby was family. Still, she distanced herself as much as she could without arousing suspicion.

While she changed Rachel, out of the corner of her eye she watched Dennis fumble with the tiny snaps on the sleeper. The diaper was so soaked it had leaked, so he removed the sleeper entirely, as well as the diaper-shirt. She’d never seen anyone so carefully pick the tape off the disposable diaper. Once the tape was loosened, he opened it very, very slowly, as if he was afraid of what he would find.

His relief that the diaper was only wet seemed almost tangible.

By this time, Adelle had Rachel completely changed. She picked her up, and continued to watch Dennis.

He tucked the diaper with the wrong end up under Raymond’s bottom, and then poufed out triple the amount of baby powder Adelle would have used. When he discovered the tape was at the bottom instead of the top, he delicately grasped both of Raymond’s ankles, and lifted him so his little bottom cleared the diaper enough to switch it around.

Because he’d used too much powder and got it everywhere, the tape wouldn’t stick. Rather than throwing the diaper away, he pulled a roll of duct tape out of the diaper bag, and taped the diaper shut by going all around Raymond, once again lifting the baby by the ankles so he could get some tape underneath.

Adelle struggled to keep quiet, first wondering how he was going to get the diaper off with all that tape sealing it together, and then wanting to tell him that if he was equipped with tape because of difficulty closing the diaper, he should simply use less powder. Instead, she continued to watch.

It took him four tries to align the snaps on the clean diaper-shirt. After the third try to align the snaps on the new sleeper, Adelle couldn’t stand it any more.

“It works better if you start from the feet and work your way up, instead of trying to go down.”

“Oh. Thanks,” he mumbled, unsnapped it again, and followed her instructions.

When Raymond was finally redressed, Dennis cradled his tiny head with one hand, wiggled his other hand under the baby’s back, and awkwardly picked up Raymond.

He smiled at Adelle once he had the infant resting against his chest. “That’s a new record for me, the fastest I’ve ever done it. I don’t know who invented those things, but there has to be a better way to dress a baby.”

“Not really.” If Dennis was this bad at changing Raymond, she was now glad she hadn’t suggested that he should have bathed Raymond before putting him in clean sleepers. They would have been there till midnight.

Adelle’s stomach growled, reminding her that they still hadn’t had supper.

She couldn’t decide if she should give Rachel to Dennis to hold while she started cooking, or if she should offer to take Raymond and let Dennis cook. Since they were stranded together for at least twenty-four hours, she hoped he was better in the kitchen than he was at caring for a baby.

Rather than make the choice, she propped Rachel up in the car seat. Since Rachel didn’t cry immediately Adelle quickly set to work to prepare supper. She was so hungry, she began to prepare the first thing she saw, which was a package of macaroni and cheese. She hoped Dennis wouldn’t be too picky, either.

He stood to the side and watched. “I wish I could help, but I don’t think I should put him down.”

“It’s okay,” she mumbled as she flicked the ignition over the propane element, then turned it to full when it flamed. “I understand.”

“I haven’t had macaroni and cheese in years. Probably not since I was a kid.”

“It’s become a staple for me in the last month. It’s amazing how having a baby changes your life, even down to eating habits.”

He looked down to the top of Raymond’s head, then back to Adelle. “Yeah. I guess.”

They stood in silence. When the water boiled, she dumped in the raw macaroni, waited for it to boil again, then checked her wristwatch so she could time it.

“I think I have a lot to learn about babies. I’ve only had him for a couple of days. It’s nothing like I thought it would be.”

Adelle wanted to ask a million questions, but didn’t know where to start. Before she could formulate her first question, he continued.

“Raymond is my brother’s baby.” He squeezed his eyes shut, swallowed hard, then opened them again. “Was my brother’s baby. A week ago I got a call that Harv and Katie were badly injured in an automobile accident. They both lived for twenty-four hours, never regained consciousness, and died.” He paused to swallow hard again before he continued. “And now I’m Raymond’s legal guardian. I started the wheels in motion to care for their estate, and I was taking him home when the storm hit.”

Adelle didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.

“And if you’re wondering why I was doing something so stupid like driving in conditions like that, well, I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to get home for Christmas, to something familiar.”

“Maybe you can still be home in time for Christmas. And even if you’re not, I’m sure your fiancée will at least be happy that you and the baby are safe.” She knew it wasn’t likely anyone would be able to move his car for a while, nor was it likely a helicopter would come unless it was for an emergency, which didn’t include getting someone home for Christmas.

Despite the argument she’d overheard, Adelle envied Dennis’s fiancée. She wished she had someone who loved her enough to go through such extremes to be with her. Not that she would allow someone she loved to do something foolish to risk their safety, but the knowledge that someone would have wanted to would have been a great comfort.

He stared down at the floor. “Actually, I don’t know what she thinks. I’m not sure I even care. We just split up.”

Adelle almost dropped the spoon into the pot. “I’m so sorry!”

He shrugged his shoulders, and stroked Raymond’s tiny back as he spoke. “Don’t be. I’m seeing her in an entirely new light since this happened, and it’s been a rude awakening. I guess I’ve been ignoring the truth until now. When I left to be with my brother and his wife, Joanna plainly told me she wanted me to stay home, to be with her for Christmas. But how could I not go? He’s my brother, and he was going to die. I couldn’t abandon him. So, I went. I basically threw what I could into one suitcase and drove away because I couldn’t get a flight sooner than it would have taken me to drive there.”

Raymond had fallen asleep in Dennis’s arms, soothed by having his back stroked, but Dennis didn’t put him down, which impressed Adelle.

“She was really mad that I didn’t stay to be with her for Christmas, but that’s not all. When Harv died that left me as Raymond’s legal guardian. Joanna told me she refused to raise someone else’s kid. The only children she wants will be her own, and she doesn’t want to start a family for five more years. She said she doesn’t want to be tied down by kids underfoot. Now that I think about it, I really don’t think she wants kids at all. When five years comes around she still wouldn’t want kids, and then it will be too late. She told me I had to make the choice between her and Raymond. So that means the wedding is off.”

He cradled Raymond’s head in his large hand, lowered his own head, and softly brushed his cheek to Raymond’s soft crown of baby hair. “I may not know exactly what to do with babies, but I do like kids.” He raised his head and smiled at her. Adelle thought it was the saddest smile she’d ever seen. “Even kids that aren’t mine. But Raymond is my nephew, so he’s kinda mine.”

“Really, you are good with him. You just need more practice.”

He gently kissed the top of Raymond’s head. “I guess. However, I must say I like him best when he’s sleeping like this. He’s quiet.”

Adelle smiled.

“So what about your husband? I guess he’s having fits that he probably won’t be spending Christmas with you and Rachel. But at least your aunt and uncle can pass on the message that both of you are safe.”

Adelle lost her smile. “I’m not married. And her father really doesn’t care where either Rachel or I am at any given moment. You see, he’s in jail.”