Heather glanced back at the caretaker's bungalow a couple of times, and
at the woods on both sides of it. She had a peculiar tingly feeling on
the back of her neck.
'Pretty cold for the beginning of November,' Jack said. The attorney
laughed.
'This isn't southern California, I'm afraid. Actually, it's been a
mild day.
Temperature's probably going to drop well below freezing tonight.'
'You get much snow up here?'
'Does hell get many sinners?'
'When can we expect the first snow--before Christmas?'
'Way before Christmas, Jack. If we had a big storm tomorrow, nobody'd
think it was an early season.'
'That's why we got the Explorer,' Heather said. 'Four-wheel drive.
That should get us around all winter, shouldn't it?'
'Mostly, yeah,' Paul said, pulling down on the brim of his hat, which
he had pushed up earlier to scratch his forehead.
Toby had reached the stable. Short legs pumping, he vanished around
the side before Heather could call out to him to wait. Paul said, 'But
every winter there's one or two times where you're going to be
snowbound a day or three, drifts half over the house sometimes.'
'Snowbound? Half over the house?' Jack said, sounding a little like a
kid himself. 'Really?'
'Get one of those blizzards coming down out of the Rockies, it can drop
two or three feet of snow in twenty-four hours. Winds like to peel
your skin off. County crews can't keep the roads open all at once.
You have chains for that Explorer?'
'A couple of sets,' Jack said.
Heather walked faster toward the stable, hoping the men would pick up
their pace to accompany her, which they did. Toby was still out of
sight. 'What you should also get,' Paul told them, 'soon as you can,
is a good plow for the front of it.
Even if county crews get the roads open, you have half a mile of
private lane to take care of.'
If the boy was just 'flying' around the stable, with his arms spread
like wings, he should have reappeared -by now. 'Lex Parker's garage,'
Paul continued, 'in town, can fit your truck with the armatures, attach
the plow, hydraulic arms to raise and lower it, a real fine rig. Just
- leave it on all winter, remove it in the spring, and you'll be ready
for however much butt kicking Mother Nature has in store for us.'
No sign of Toby. Heather's heart was pounding again. The sun was
about to set.
If Toby ... if he got lost or ... or something ... they would have a
harder time finding him at night. She restrained herself from breaking
into a run. 'Now, last winter,' Paul continued smoothly, unaware of
her trepidation, 'was on the dry side, which probably means we're going
to take a shellacking this year.'
As they reached the stable and as Heather was about to cry out for
Toby, he reappeared. He was no longer playing airplane. He sprinted
to her side through the unmown grass, grinning and excited. 'Mom, this
