FROSTBITE (3 page)

After Alex dropped me off, I headed to Smith’s Market to pick up a few things. I bumped into Henry Adams and his granddaughter halfway down the cereal aisle. “Good afternoon doctor,” I said. Henry was about my age, but with a lot more weight and a lot less hair.

“Fred,” Henry smiled as he shook my hand. “How are you?”

“Fine,” I said. “And how are you, Stephanie?”

“Fine Mr. Harrison,” she replied, brushing her long, dirty blonde hair out of her eyes.

“No Mr. Harrison,” I smiled. “Just Fred.”

“Okay,” she said.

“Now how old are you?”

“Just turned seventeen,” she beamed with pride.

I gave Doctor Adams a knowing look. “Oh boy. You’d better watch out Henry. All the boys in town will be lining up for a date with this one.”

“They already are,” Henry winked.

“Oh they are not grand pop,” Stephanie said, blushing.

“I know a certain young man named Billy who seems to follow you all around town,” Henry said to her.

“Billy who?” I asked. “Wilson?”

“Yep,” Henry answered.

“Well,” Stephanie said, turning an even darker shade of red. “He is kinda cute.”

We all laughed. Then Henry said, “Stephanie, do me a favor and run up and get grandma’s favorite cereal. You know the one, right?”

“Of course,” she replied and hurried off to fetch it.

Henry leaned in close to me. “I guess you heard about poor Alice Saunders.”

“Yeah, I heard,” I replied.

“What a shame,” he said, shaking his head.

“Yeah,” I agreed. Henry obviously hadn’t heard about Norm Donaldson yet and I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. Besides, I wasn’t sure what information, if any, I was supposed to keep confidential. “Henry?”

“Yeah?”

“Make sure Stephanie doesn’t go near the recreation area for a while, okay?”

“The ball fields? She isn’t likely to do that anyway, especially in the middle of winter,” he said. “Why?”

“No particular reason. I just heard…there was some trouble out there.”

“What kind of trouble?” He asked.

“I don’t really know,” I lied. “Just pass that onto her parents, okay?”

“Will do,” he replied as Stephanie rejoined us. “Well, I’ll see you around, Fred. You’re overdue for your check-up.”

“Right,” I said. “I’ll see that I make an appointment soon.”

“Alright, take care,” he said as he and Stephanie continued up the aisle.

“Bye Mr. Harrison,” Stephanie called.

“Bye-bye,” I waved. Then I turned and continued my shopping.

***

After I left the store, I took a drive down Main Street. It was a quaint little road, with shops lined up on both sides, including a nostalgic eatery called Lovell’s Diner. Not surprisingly, the Saunders’ bakery was closed. I had to mail a few bills so I stopped off at the post office. The first thing I heard upon entering was Mary Stephens on the phone. She was a rather large woman, who always wore her hair up in a bun.

“Somebody did what?” She asked incredulously. “Are you sure? That’s a pretty mean thing to do.” Then she nodded her head. “I know, I know. He worked all day yesterday on it.” Then, she spotted me. “Alright Agnes, I gotta go. Tell Timmy I’ll be home later. Okay, bye.”

“Nothing wrong I hope,” I smiled.

“Oh, nothing really,” Mary sighed. “It’s just that somebody destroyed little Timmy’s snowman.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s such a shame too. He busted his little rear end all day yesterday working on it. You should have seen it.”

“That is a shame,” I agreed. “I guess even Parker Hills have its share of bad apples.”

“You bet it does,” Mary said bitterly. “My babysitter Agnes said that it looked as though something had plowed over it.”

That caught my attention. “Plowed?”

“Yeah,” she continued. “She said the snowman had pretty much been completely flattened.”

“Where was this?” I casually asked.

“In my backyard,” she answered. “By the way, what did you need?”

“Need?” I asked, deep in thought.

“Yeah, what can I do for you?”

“Oh,” I smiled. “Three stamps please.”

“Coming right up,”

After I mailed my bills, I said good-bye and left the post office. Getting into my car, I decided that I had another stop to make.

***

As I pulled up in front of Mary’s house, it suddenly hit me that I was acting like a pubescent, irrational weirdo. Why was I here, because some snotty kids destroyed little Timmy’s snowman? I told myself to put the car back in drive and go home. Get a nice cup of tea and sit in front of a roaring fire. So, I got out of the car.

As I made my way through the side yard of the house, I silently prayed that Timmy’s babysitter, old Agnes Humphrey, would not spy me. She would most likely tell me a thing or two, as she regularly did to Mr. Humphrey. Upon reaching the backyard, I quickly took in my surroundings.

The Stephens’ backyard was wide open and it stretched until it connected with the neighbor’s yard. A small pine tree stood way out by itself, as if indicating where the property lines met. To my left was a shoveled concrete patio with a small table set. The sliding glass door that led out to the patio had a long blue curtain going across it. That’s good, I thought. Maybe Agnes and Timmy wouldn’t spot me.

I quickly started across the yard, studying the knee-deep snow as I went. There were plenty of little footprints all around. Little Timmy must love to play in the snow. The snow was so deep, however, that his footprints never really did sink all the way to the grass.

About fifteen yards from the patio, I spotted what was left of the snowman. It was utterly smashed, as if a steamroller had ran over it. There were prints everywhere around it, so it was next to impossible to tell if they were Timmy’s or somebody else’s. I reached down and picked up an orange scarf and a pipe, obviously decorations Timmy had scrounged up for his creation.

As I looked at the scarf, I suddenly heard a loud bristling sound. Glancing up, I noticed that the small pine tree near the other yard was swaying ever so slightly. The wind was calm at that moment and I didn’t see any critters running about. Shrugging, I started to look back down at the ground and then abruptly froze. I started getting that same feeling in my gut that I had out in the woods the day before. Although I couldn’t hear or see anything, I
sensed
something.

Standing out in the Stephens’ backyard, in broad daylight, in the town that I have lived my entire life, I had the sudden feeling of fear.

As I stood there, I had an impulsive urge to flee. But there was no reason. I told myself to stop acting like an absentminded old fool. I was perfectly safe. Then, something moved. Or at least I thought it did. I essentially felt it more than I saw it. I tried to lift my feet, but they felt like they each weighed a hundred pounds.

Spinning around, I looked in all directions but saw nothing. But whatever I was feeling, it was intensifying. Suddenly my feet sprang to life and I trudged through the snow as fast as I could and practically leaped onto the concrete patio.

I stood there for a moment, catching my breath. For some reason I felt safer standing on the solid concrete than I did in the knee-deep snow. Then something grabbed my shoulder.

I yelped and spun around to see the face of Agnes Humphrey staring at me with skeptical eyes. “Fred?”

“Hi Agnes,” I managed to say.

“What in the world are you doing in Mrs. Stephens’ backyard?” She barked, her gray hair hanging down over her face like a shaggy dog.

“Oh,” I smiled as if she had just told a joke. “I, a…I was driving along and thought I saw some kids messing around in the yard.”

Agnes glanced over my shoulder at the empty yard. “Kids?”

“Yeah,” I stammered. “I must have scared them off. Everything seems fine now, though.”

She eyed me suspiciously. “There were some kids here earlier, took down Timmy’s wonderful snowman.”

“Really?” I sounded appalled. “Well, best keep Timmy inside for now.”

“I will,” Agnes said. “See ya, Fred.”

“Okay, bye-bye,” I said as she closed the sliding glass door. Then I stood there, not wanting to leave the patio and not knowing why. It was the first time ever that I actually considered the notion that I might have been cracking up. After all, I was getting up there in age, I thought.

I walked to the edge of the patio and, sighing, I stepped down into the deep snow. After I took a step, then I took another. And then another. Before I knew it, I was back at my little Honda. Then I was pulling into my driveway.

As I walked up to my front door, I heard my name called. Turning, I saw Larry Wallace. He wore a gray jumpsuit that bumped up and down against his large body as he jogged in place on the shoveled sidewalk. His pudgy fingers tightly gripped a blue dog leash. At the end of the leash was Larry’s Rottweiler, Spike.

“Oh, hi Larry,” I responded. “How are you?”

“Fantastic,” he replied as he adjusted his blue headband. “Ten pounds and counting!”

“Great,” I said with false enthusiasm. “Keep up the good work.” In addition, lose another three hundred pounds fatty, I thought sourly.

“Will do, see ya!” He said and shuffled along.

I felt guilty about the thought I just had about Larry; that wasn’t like me. But I was going through my own problems at that moment. For no reason whatsoever, I had suddenly become frightened of the snow. I thought about calling Doctor Adams and actually making an appointment. Maybe it was my blood pressure. It also could have been a half dozen other physical ailments, some of which I might not even have been aware existed. Sighing, I went inside.

***

News of Norm’s disappearance broke out the following day. The front page of The Parker Hills Herald had his face plastered all over it. The headline read: VICTIM OR KIDNAPPER?

The lousy jerks at the newspaper office didn’t care that Norm Donaldson was a great man with a wife and infant at home. No, they were just interested in an angle, any angle no matter how ludicrous it was. It was bad enough that Norm was gone, but then to slander his name…it just burned me up something fierce. I’d decided right then that I would write a letter to the editor. Jack Mercer wrote that particular column and he should have known better, he knew Norm.

The whole town was in an uproar. Even the almighty Mayor Willis got involved, saying he was determined to ‘find the underlying cause of the case.’ That was an absolute joke. Everyone in town knew that he had his eye on the governor’s seat, not to mention, his wife. He couldn’t care less about us little people.

The people that did care were folks like Alex Jones. If only Alex’s father were still alive…But that’s not necessarily true. Alex was doing all he could considering the circumstances.

As I sat in my chair sipping my tea, I turned to the weather section of the paper and grunted. It read: BIGGEST BLIZZARD IN RECENT HISTORY ON ITS WAY. As if we didn’t have enough snow already. It said there was a twenty percent chance that it would skip Parker Hills, which were not very good odds.

After a while, I started feeling restless. I decided to take a drive to the police station and see if I could give Alex or John a hand. As I headed out to my driveway, I spotted Dr. Adams’ granddaughter, Stephanie, walking up the street. Accompanying her was a tall, good looking young man whom I recognized as Billy Wilson.

“Hi Mr. Harrison!” She called.

“Hi Stephanie,” I said and walked over to them. “How are you?”

“Good,” she replied. “You know Billy, right?”

“Of course,” I said. “Good to see you young man.”

“Likewise sir,” he said and shook my hand.

“Where are you two off to?”

“Just out for a walk,” Stephanie answered. “Ain’t anything else to do around here?”

“Ain’t anything else, huh?” I laughed. “Well, you could read a book on the English language.”

Stephanie smiled. “I probably could do that. Hey, you hear about the blizzard?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Just read about it.”

“I hope it passes us,” Billy said. “My old man will make me shovel everything all over again.”

“You’re young,” I chuckled.

“Yeah,” Billy smiled. “He keeps saying that he’s gonna buy a snow blower someday. I hope that someday is today.”

“Considering how much snow we get, that may not be a bad idea,” I concurred. “Well, you two have fun and be safe. I’m sure you’ve heard that we’ve had a spout of trouble recently.” They both nodded.

“Well, stay together,” I said, the smile vanishing from my face. “Stay out of the woods. Billy?”

“Yes sir?”

“Take care of the young lady.”

“I will sir,” Billy said, his face just as serious as my own. “You can count on it.”

“Alright,” I said. “Take care kids.”

“Bye Mr. Harrison,” Stephanie said and they continued down the sidewalk.

I stood and watched them for a short while. It did my heart good to see such a nice young couple. Their whole lives ahead of them, free to be whatever they wanted to be. Unexpectedly, I was suddenly over flooded with memories. I had visions of romantic dinners, a wedding, laughter and…a funeral. Feeling my throat tighten up on me, I got into my car and backed out of the driveway.