give up.
“We’ll have to knock and yell to get out of here,” she said,
tossing the now useless paper clip into a wastebasket made
of woven branches. “I hope they can hear us.”
Renie began pounding on the door and shouting. Nothing
happened. “I don’t hear any hurrying feet,” she said.
The cousins suddenly heard something else.
The library telephone was ringing.
Judith snatched up the receiver. “Hello? Hello?” she virtually yelled into the mouthpiece.
“Goodness!” exclaimed Arlene Rankers. “Why are you
shouting, Judith? You practically broke my eardrum!”
“Arlene!” Judith collapsed into one of the armchairs.
“What’s wrong, Arlene?”
Renie hovered over Judith, who held the phone away from
her ear just enough so that her cousin could hear, too.
“I’ve been paging you for two days,” Arlene said in an irritated voice. “I found your pager number on the bulletin board
in the kitchen. I didn’t even know you
“Ah…Neither did I. I mean, I forgot. But the phones have
been out up here at the lodge and…Never mind, what’s the
problem? Is it Mother?”
“Your mother?” Arlene laughed. “Of course not! Your
mother is wonderful, as always. She had such a nice time
going to Mass and out to breakfast with us. She said you
never took her for rides in the snow any more.”
Judith’s head was spinning. Gertrude hadn’t attended Mass
for almost three years, claiming that she was too feeble. She
managed, however, to get to her bridge club meetings around
the hill and occasionally, to the church itself for a bingo
session. Judith considered her mother a fraud.
“It’s snowing at home?” Judith inquired. “I don’t usually
drive in the snow.”
“It doesn’t bother Carl,” Arlene declared. “But of course
we’re midwesterners and know how to handle it. Now tell
me, Judith, how do I get into your computer program for
future reservations? I’ve been doing them all by hand.”
“The computer!” Judith felt giddy. “That’s all?”
what with this bad weather and people being so timid about
getting around in it. Honestly, you’d think that just because
the planes have been grounded and some of the roads are
closed and the metro buses have been taken off their runs…”
Judith and Renie exchanged startled looks. “How much
snow is there, Arlene?” Judith interrupted.
“Mm…Two feet? Your statue of St. Francis in the backyard
is completely covered. The poor birds have nowhere to land.”
“Oh, my. That’s quite a lot of snow for us in town,”
