Chapter 2

Wow, that doesn't sound good at all. Except for my stint in Marines, I have lived in Iowa a good portion of my life. This storm while large and potentially dangerous was not something that most Iowans had not seem sometime in the past. Just because you have seen it, doesn't mean you want to see one again, any time soon.

As I pulled down the lane, the house was all lit up. I pulled into the garage and shut the car down. I went over and made sure that the tractor's heater was plugged in. It kept the engine crankcase oil warm so the tractor was easy to start no matter how cold it was. Storing the tractor in the garage helped a lot, too.

As I stepped out of the garage light snow was starting to come down. I walked toward the house and the back door opened and Emma was framed by the light behind her from the kitchen ceiling. I don't know if she knew the view she was giving me or not. The light was streaming through her white night gown. Her silhouette was sharply defined through the white fabric. I could see the flare of her slim hips and her legs. As I came up the stairs, she pushed the door open and took my arm and led me inside and helped me off with my coat.

"I am so glad you are home. I have been worried about you getting home all evening. I just hate these storms. A normal snow fall is one thing. A blizzard is a completely different story. We haven't had one as bad as this one is being predicted to be, in quite a few years."

She drew me into the warm kitchen from the pantry area where coats were kept and hugged me and asked me if I wanted something warm to drink. She didn't seem to be up set with me at all.

"Yes, I would love some hot cocoa if we have it," I told her.

"It will just take a minute. Sit down at the table and I will get the milk on the stove to warm. Did you get all your studies and papers done, tonight?" she asked.

"Yes. I'm all caught up. Even if we get snowed in, it will be okay. I will have a winter vacation for a day or two. I have been busy almost from the first day I got to town. This will be the first break I have had."

As I sat there, I realized that my Mom's birthday was coming up in two weeks, I laughed to myself. I never forget hers, as hers is one day after mine. Emma gave me a kind of quizzical look. I explained about my Mom's birthday.

"Oh? What day is yours?" Emma asked me.

"December seventh," I told her. "What day is yours?" I asked.

"December first. I knew she had been born in 1909, so she was just going to be sixty, next week. I was going to be twenty-four.

The really strange thing was Emma didn't look much over thirty-five to forty years old. She was so slender and tall and her skin was so flawless. She had none of the 'old lady wrinkles' or 'turkey wattles' under her chin like so many old people do. Her breasts seemed to be an 'A' cup in size from what I could see of them through her nightgown.

As I sat and watched her, I had a raging erection that I had to keep covered with the table edge. It was so hard, I could have driven spikes into oak plank with it if I had tried. Watching her move around the kitchen was not helping matters at all.

Finally the milk was warm and she made the Cocoa and brought it over to the table and sat down next to me. As we sat and sipped the Cocoa, I felt her hand slip on to my leg and take my hand that I had resting there. She held my hand and we sat and drank and didn't speak for a minute or two. Once the Cocoa was done, I leaned over and kissed her cheek and told her thank you for the cocoa.

"I think I am going to head for bed, do you need me to do anything before I head up?" I asked her.

She stood up from her chair and took her cup to the sink and turned to me and said.

"Just give me a hug, before you go off to bed."

I stepped toward her and enfolded her in my arms and pressed my cheek to hers. I hugged her for a minute or so and nothing was said. We were so close to being the same height. She had to be six-two to my six-five. Her legs are just a little longer than mine so everything lined up just right. I forced myself to step back and bid her good night once again.

"Good night, sweetheart," she told me as I left the kitchen.

It took me a long time to finally settle down and get some sleep. I woke around 0200 hrs with a desperate need to use the head. When I swung my feet out of bed and got up, I could feel the cold seeping through the walls. The temperature was very cold in the house. This was not normal. Emma, kept the house a comfortable seventy-two at night. The cold bothered her and so she kept it warm. It had to be down in the fifties, already.

I went to the bathroom window, and looked across the river. I couldn't see any lights. I went to the light switch, flipped it and realized we had no power. The snow was coming down heavily and the wind was starting to pick up.

I went down stairs to see if a fuse had been blown. I wasn't thinking too fast, but I soon realized that power was out all over the neighborhood. I went back to my room and got dressed. I went to Emma's room, knocked, and opened the door a couple of inches.

"Emma, we don't have any power, and the furnace is off. Are you all right?" I faintly heard her call me to come in.

"I am so cold, could you get me another quilt out of the closet over there."

She reached a long arm out and pointed in the direction of the closet. I retrieved a quilt and spread it over her.

"There is that better?" I asked her.

"A little." She replied.

"I am going to go down and go out to the car and turn on the radio. I want to listen to the weather report and see when we might be getting the power back on. I will also check the outside thermometer on my way back," I told her.

"Please, be careful."

I ran down the stairs and grabbed my coat and pulled it on. I didn't bother with boots or gloves. The garage was only or so from the house. I went down the stairs and into a deep drift. I slogged my way through the drift and forced the garage side door open and got inside. I jumped in my car and turned the radio on. The weather was the main topic on all the channels.

Finally, I heard a report dealing with the power outage. It looked like a major substation was knocked out, over a 100 miles away. Everyone in western Iowa was with out power, and would be for possibly up to a day or more. I shut off the key and headed back to the house.

I had forgotten to close the door and snow had blown into the garage and now I couldn't get the door closed. I got a shovel and started to clean it out, so I could get the door shut. Finally, it was done. I closed the door and took the shovel with me so we would have one in the house to shovel off the back stoop and steps in the morning. As I went up the stairs, I got the blade tangled in my legs. It tripped me, and down I went. I banged my head on the top step, and sat down heavily. I was a little dizzy.

I don't know how long I sat there, but the next thing I knew, Emma was trying to get me up and into the house. We finally got the job done and we were both in and the door was shut.

"Tom, what happened? Why were you just sitting there?"

I told her about the shovel tripping me and hitting my head. By now the cut on my forehead was starting to bleed to lend truth to my story. She went to get a cloth to press against it. It wasn't a very big cut and the blood soon stopped flowing. By this time I was starting to shiver from the cold. I asked her how long I had been gone. She told me just over a half an hour. That scared me. I could have easily died out there. The temperature was twenty-one degrees by the thermometer, with a wind chill well below zero.

"Come on. Let's get you into bed."

We made it up the stairs and into her room. Her room was on the leeward side of the house and the wind was not hitting the windows directly.

"Come on get out of those wet clothes. You will warm up faster in bed with nothing on. Come on hurry up, get in bed."

I let her undress me and push me toward the bed. I climbed in and she got in next to me and reached her arms around me and pressed my head to her shoulder and I lay in her arms and shivered next to her.

As I started to warm up, she turned and faced away from me and backed up against my chest. We were like two long spoons. Nested together. She pulled my arm over her and clasped my hand to her chest. I let out a contented sigh and let sleep claim me. I was worn out.

I don't know how long I slept, but when I woke up, the dawn light was just coming through the windows. It was obvious that the temperature in the house had continued to go down. I had to use the bathroom and then I went to my room and got some dry clothes. I went down stairs and since we had a gas stove I put water on for tea and turned the oven on to warm up the kitchen. I went around pulling all the curtains closed in an effort to keep the warm air in the kitchen.

Emma came down a few minutes later and walked up to me and hugged me tightly and told me that I had scared her half to death, with my stunt out on the steps. I assured her that I hadn't done it on purpose or to get just get her into bed with me. I laughed. She swatted my behind, and turned to start making breakfast.

"How would you like biscuits-and-gravy, and eggs?" she asked me.

"Hey, that is my all time favorite breakfast!" I said.

I put a large kettle of water on the stove to heat so I could shave. I have never liked feeling like a porcupine.

As I shaved and preformed my ablutions, Emma got breakfast ready. She put the biscuits in the oven to bake and I got a pot of water for her to use. I took it into the back bath just off the kitchen. I took over meal preparations while she preformed her own morning ritual. When she came out, Her hair was brushed and glowing and she looked bright and ready to meet the day.

We sat to table next to each other and ate, as we sat there, she reached over and took my right hand in hers as I lifted a cup of tea to my lips. I wrapped my hand around hers and we continued to eat one handed. She finished first and rose to take her plate to the sink. I had another bite or two.

As I shifted my chair away from the table in preparation to getting up, she stepped over to me and sat down on my knees. She pressed her hand on the back of my head, and pulled my head against her breast. I wrapped my arms around her and we just sat there in silence listening to wind howl outside. Finally, she stood up and took my hand. She led me up the stairs to her room.

She had changed the sheets and made the bed, there were extra quilts piled high on it. She led me to the bed, turned to me, stepped in close and wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled my head to her lips.

As our kiss deepened I felt one of her hands tugging at my belt. I moved back slightly to give her easier access. We continued to kiss as we helped each other undress. Finally there was nothing between us but goose bumps on our skin.

"I thought this was a good idea, when I dreamed of doing it this morning after you got up," she said with a giggle. "Quick, get in bed. I have wanted this for so long."

Power finally came back at noon, on Friday. We spent most of the time in bed learning about each other. Emma's perspective never failed to fascinate me when she would take time to tell me about growing up in the early part of the century. She had lived through it all, from the horse and buggy to the moon landing. What an amazing time to have lived through. I, like most young people took most of it for granted. We hardly noticed the lights coming back on as we stayed in bed most of the time just to keep warm.

When the furnace kicked on, and the house started to warm, we decided to get up and look outside to see the aftermath of the storm, we went to my bed room so we could see out over the river. Evidently after the wind died down, it had continued to snow in large soft flakes and there were mounds of snow every where. The trees were covered and the evergreens were weighted down from the snow clinging on their boughs. It was absolutely beautiful.

Goodbye My Love...

I continued to live with Emma for the next year and a half. Toward the end of my school, she seemed to weaken and loose her strength. Just before my graduation, she was taken to the Hospital one day while I was at school and I didn't know until I came home, that she was gone. I saw John the neighbor come driving up the lane. He jumped out of the car and ran to the back door and told me that the ambulance came and took her to the Hospital. I ran to my car and drove like a mad man to get too her.

When they stopped me in the hall and asked if I was family, I said yes, I am her Grandson. They let me in to see her. She was pale and seemed so frail.

"What is the matter Honey?" I asked her.

I had noticed over the past few weeks that she seemed to be getting thinner. When I asked her about it she said that she just didn't have any appetite. We still continued to make love, just not as much.

"I have an inoperable tumor in my brain. I have known about it for only a few weeks. The Doctor told me that I didn't have long. I didn't want to burden you with it. I knew you were working so hard to graduate at the top of your class. I know you will make it. I had hoped to be able to come to your graduation. Come lay beside me on the bed and hold me. The Doctor wanted to give me pain medication so I could sleep. I told him no, because I wanted to be awake when you came."

I lay next to her and held her in my arms. I kissed her and stroked her beautiful silver hair. She dropped off to sleep for a few minutes and awakened again. She looked into my eyes and said.

"Thank you for loving me. These past months have been the happiest of my life. I love you." She closed her eyes, then opened them one last time and said.

"Goodbye my Love..." and closed her eyes for the last time and died in my arms. I lay there holding her as the tears flowed freely down my cheeks. She had been the love of my life. I couldn't believe she was gone so suddenly.

Requiem...

When I left the hospital, I didn't speak to anyone. I was so stunned by the suddenness of her death, all I wanted to do was be alone. I didn't know what to do. I drove back to her house and went in and just sat. I knew that I would have to start making arrangements to move to somewhere for the short time that I had left in school.

My plan had always been to spend the summer there with her and then go on to the University of Miami and work toward my degree in Marine Biology. We had discussed the idea of her coming with me and living with me while I continued to pursue my degree. Now it was not to be. I really didn't feel like even going ahead and going to class the final two weeks. I laid in our bed and continued to grieve and mourn for her. I felt so lost.

I heard the back door bell, I went down the stairs to the kitchen and saw a man that I didn't know waiting on the stoop.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

"Are you Tom?" the man asked me.

I nodded and asked who he was.

"I am Emma's attorney, may I come in?"

I held the screen door open, and stepped aside so he could enter.

"Come in, please take a seat here at the kitchen table," I said.

I was still so shell shocked, that my normal good manners were not coming forth. I sat down and looked at him and waited.

"Tom, my name is Kevin Peters. Emma has had all her legal matters handled by our firm, it started back with her Father and my Father. Recently, Emma came to see me and asked that a few changes be made to her will, and some additional bequest be made on her behalf after her death. Were you aware of any of this?" he asked me.

I sat there in silence mulling all this over in my head. Why would her legal matters have anything to do with me, in the strictest sense, I was just a boarder here in her house. Nothing more. I finally answered him.

"No, I have no knowledge of anything about her business dealings," I said.

I was getting tired, there was something about him that I didn't like. I asked him if he knew who was handling Emma's final arrangements. He told me that he was and that the services were to be held in three days at one in the afternoon. They were being held in the Funeral Home and internment would be immediately thereafter.

I really didn't want him there any longer, so I stood up and walked toward the back door. I turned to him and told him. "Thanks for coming," And stood there with the door open waiting for him to get up and leave.

I think my demeanor and abruptness unsettled him. He got up and as he was going out the door, he gave me his card and asked that I call on him after the funeral. I told him I would think about it.

After he was gone, I realized that I was angry. I didn't really know who or what I was angry at, but I was just furious. I locked up the house and got in the car and headed to a Bar. I have never been a drinker, but for some reason the idea of getting drunk was very appealing.

When I got to the bar, it was still before 1700 hrs, and there was almost no one inside except a pair of old barflies. I sat down in a dark booth in a back corner and ordered up a beer when the waitress came. When the beer came, I drank it down in almost one long pull. Ordered two more. When they came I stared at them, then I realized that this was stupid. I left them sitting on the table and went home.

When I got home, I went out on the back patio and sat there in the shade of the house. The rays of the sun were coming over the top of the house and shining east and tinging the tops of the trees across the river that same golden hue that I had seen so long ago on that first morning when Emma and I sat outside and watched the sun come up. That sunrise was our beginning and this sunset was the end.

I sat there and wept.

The Funeral...

The next three days passed in a blur. I functioned at a minimal level. I went to school. I was counted present, if in body alone. Mentally and emotionally, I was in Hell and Limbo at the same time. I felt like I couldn't go forward and it was impossible to go back. I didn't know what to expect at the funeral. I showed up early, and sat in the back of the room. When I was alone, I went forward and saw my beloved Emma.

I knew that she was not there, none the less, I felt drawn to kiss her one last time. I withdrew to my seat and waited for the people to assemble. Most of those who showed up were other elderly ladies who belonged to the garden club where Emma was a member. No one acknowledged me or spoke to me. I am sure many wondered at my presence.

The service was mercifully brief. The trip to the Cemetery was an endurance test. Fifteen miles per hour. It seemed to take an eternity to get there. The Minister conducted a very tasteful service, and it was finally over. I stood to one side as the other people left. Once everyone had left, I moved to the grave side, and stood looking down at the coffin.

I had worn my Marine Dress Blues, with full ribbons and badges. I had my sword and my NCO's red stripe down the leg of my trousers. The employees of the Cemetery came up with shovels to fill in the grave.