Andi's Dream - A Blizzard in Buffalo

"Oh Kay!" said Madeline.

"Yeah," said Sandy crossing her arms in defiance.

After breakfast clean-up, the girls were ready to go get their tree, but Paul reminded them that they wanted to learn how to make bread. "Is it hard?" asked Sandy.

"The old fashion way is hard," said Paul, but he tapped a finger to his temple, "we have a machine to make it easy." He placed a bread machine on the counter, and when he saw that neither child could see over the edge of the counter, he placed his assistants on the counter too.

Andi came down from the loft expecting the girls to at least have their snow pants on, but they were nowhere to be seen, but she heard Paul emit a loud belch from the kitchen followed by the sound of the twins giggling. She approached quietly and heard Madeline squeal uproariously, "That's not true!"

"It really is true," said Paul, "these little yeasty guys burp and that's what makes the bread fluffy."

"Do it again!" demanded Sandy.

Paul swallowed air a few times then released a highly impressive belch, which caused Madeline and Sandy to break out in laughter again. They laughed so hard that Andi thought the girls would wet their pants. "Ok, who wants to put the yeasty guys into the machine?"

"I do!"

"I do!"

"It's Madeline's turn, Sandy, you've put in the salt."

Andi was amazed that the girls didn't squabble as they normally did with someone other than Andi watching them. Paul seemed to naturally put the right amount of steel in his words to keep them in line but kept his expression soft enough to keep them smiling. Andi peeked around the corner and saw that both girls were on the counter crouched on either side of the bread machine. Madeline was pouring the yeast out of a teaspoon into the bread machine hopper, her little tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on pouring the yeast. Andi wondered why such a simple job required so much concentration, but finally Madeline cried out "I did it Doctor Paul! And I didn't get any yeasty guys on the salt!"

"Good job! Give me five!" Paul held his hand up and Madeline slapped his palm.

"Salt kills yeasty guys!" chanted Sandy, and Paul gave her a high five too.

"Ok, let's get this bread going!" said Paul. "Your turn Sandy." And with that he handed her a measuring cup containing water that she carefully poured into the hopper. He pressed a few buttons, then suddenly the machine sprang to life. The girls watched in awe as the paddles mixed the ingredients together, then Paul closed the lid and announced, "Good job troops!" and held his hand up for another high five.

"Should we get a Christmas tree?" called Andi and with a pair of yays, the twins hopped down from the countertop and began to get dressed up in their winter garb. While Andi was buckling them into their snow pants, boots, coats, and mittens, Paul pulled on his parka and went out to the big barn and got his sled ready.

When the girls came out of the cabin, he pulled up to them on a Yamaha VK-450 utility snowmobile towing a Snowcoach trailer. The Snowcoach trailer is an egg-shaped trailer on a large pair of skis with side by side seating for two adults and a utility box behind the seats for storage. All of that is removeable making the Snowcoach a pure utility trailer which Paul normally used to haul firewood.

Andi and Paul lifted the girls into the Snowcoach and buckled them to the seats while putting bicycling helmets on over their knit hats, then Andi and Paul put on snowmobile helmets and climbed aboard the Yamaha. Paul added a little throttle and off they went, keeping to his promise to Andi that he could choose the route, but she could determine the speed.

Ignoring Sandy and Madeline's shouts to "Go faster," Paul drove along the driveway and gave Andi a tour of the 'front end' of his property. There was a low hill built between the cabin and the road to ensure privacy and the drive curved around the base of the hill. The land was all open between the hill and the road except for a couple of tree lines that were just starting to come into their maturity. "It looks like you enjoy privacy," Andi said over the purr of the Yamaha.

"Well, yeah. Sauna you know, we don't need spectators."

Andi put her arms around him and snuggled closer. She has known him for less than 20 hours and in that short time she's drawn closer to him than any man in years. 'Probably just puppy love, crushing, infatuation,' she scolded herself. "Just what do you wear when you sauna?" she asked Paul, she had no idea why she asked.

"A smile."

Normally Andi would have laughed at the joke, or grimaced depending on the time and company, but this time his answer put her in the mood to sauna. She shook her head - 'Puppy love!' her conscience screamed. 'Shut up conscience,' something else inside of her whispered.

As they reached the main road Andi realized that there was over 3 feet of snow built up on the road, and according to the radio weather reports there's another three feet at a minimum on its way. At least it's not cold, she thought. So far, the coldest has been 18 degrees, and that was last night. Paul turned the sled off the driveway, and up on to the snow in the field, pulled up next to a tall mound he had built with the tractor while plowing and stopped. He climbed off the Yamaha and onto the mound and held his hand out to Andi who took it and climbed to the top of the snow pile with Paul.

At the top Paul showed Andi the points of interest as the sun weakly shown through the cloud cover. A mile or so east was Brad Clemmons's place where he got the hog belly for the bacon, a couple of miles west was Gerry Hirsh's dairy farm. Across the road was Josh Gravely who purchased an old scout camp.

Re-boarding the sled, Paul headed straight toward the hill and Andi noticed the difference between the snowmobile's ride on the lightly snow-covered driveway and on the deep snow. Here on the deep snow the ride was so much softer, even though the speedometer showed the same speed, the ride seemed so much slower and smoother. When they reached the top of the hill Paul stopped the sled again but didn't get off. He wasn't in the mood to sink into 3 feet of snow.

"Over there you can see where the dirt for this hill came from. There was a cow pond dug on this land, I dug it out a bit larger. It's fed by a spring like our cistern."

Andi could easily see the pond, it wasn't quite frozen over yet, so the shape was quite discernable. "A kidney shaped pond?"

"I tried to do a heart but couldn't get the ventricles quite right."

Andi slugged him. "Smartass!" she said with a grin, then she suddenly panicked realizing what she had done. She let go of Paul's waist and leaned back "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

Paul turned and saw the starting of panic in her eyes and was shocked, he realized that she was probably panicking from the treatment she received in the past, maybe from her husband. He must have really worked this girl over. Paul stood up on the sled and jumped off into the snow where he sank in up to his waist. He waded through the deep snow until he was about 10 feet away. Andi stopped cowering and leaned forward to hear what he was saying.

"Andi, you're completely safe here. If you ever want to poke, hit, or slap me in jest or in anger, it's ok. I'm not going to respond in kind, I'm not going to punish you for having feelings, I'm not going to hurt you for touching me."

Her mouth opened and closed a few times in confusion then she shouted, "You can say that, but do you mean it?"

"If you don't think I mean it, then go. You're on a fully fueled up sled with your two babies, you can be over there at Gerry's farm asking for help in a matter of minutes. Or, when you get to Gerry's farm you can turn on to Route 39 and be in Springville in a half hour, and I can't do anything about it but wallow through this deep snow. I care for you, and I need you to feel safe."

"I didn't mean to..." she stopped and demanded, "how do I know you're not like the others?"

'Oh crap,' thought Paul, 'she's been abused multiple times.' "You can hit me again if you want."

Andi thought for a few moments then said, "Get back up here..."

Paul backed up and held his hands out wide. "Not until you hit me. You have 120 acres of white wet ammo at your fingertips."

Andi realized that he wasn't going to move until she hit him with something just to make a point, so she scooped up a hand full of snow, compressed it into a ball and threw it at him. She missed and he didn't move. So, she threw another ball in a gentle arc that splatted on his shoulder. "Are you going to get back on this snowmobile?

"Again," he replied, "this time with feeling."

She made another snowball and really got behind this one, it struck his stomach area hard.

"Better. Again."

She threw another, and another, and another. The pain of being small and being hurt and abused simply because she was small and a woman welled to the surface, from being picked on in grade school to being slapped around in her own home by her own husband who promised to love, honor, and protect her. She vented her anger in over a dozen snowballs. The twins realized something big was happening, yet they remained quiet until Andi threw her last snowball and sat on the saddle of the Yamaha trying to catch her breath.

"Yay mommy!"

"Mommy wins!"

Andi jumped off the snowmobile crying and waded over to Paul who finally lowered his arms and wrapped them around her. "If I say another wise-ass thing I need you to give me a smack, or a poke, or something."

"Why?" she sighed as her arms wrapped around this tall man who decided to be her white knight.

"So that I know you get it. So that you know you can. So that we know that we're communicating."

"Where's our tree?" shouted Madeline, then she and Sandy started stomping their feet chanting "Tree, tree, tree, tree..."

Paul scooped Andi up in his arms and waded back to the snowmobile. Andi whooped and demanded to be put down, but she wrapped her arms around his neck. Tears filling her eyes she relaxed in his arms and allowed a warmth to fill her heart. For his part Paul was shocked at how light this tiny fireball felt in his arms, and how right it felt holding her like this. He struggled back to the snowmobile and sat Andi on the back seat, then he pulled himself up out of the snow and on to the seat of the Yamaha. The motor fired up and they were headed back down the hill while the twins whooped and yelled "FASTER!" Andi wrapped her arms around his waist, then drew back her right arm, balled up her tiny fist and gave him a shot to the ribs.

"What was that for?" he gasped. She had some power in that little arm.

"Next time."

Soon they were in the large forest that covers over two thirds of the land. After much driving up and down they found a tree that they liked near a stand of needleless Larch trees. For no apparent reason there stood a group of balsam saplings, and the twins selected one of these.

"This one?" asked Paul. "It's not very big."

"It's a Charlie Brown tree," said Andi, laughing into her mitten.

"That's the one!" nodded Sandy firmly.

As Paul started to dig the snow away from the base of the tree with the folding shovel, Madeline demanded that her mom call the owner to make sure it was ok to cut it down. "Call him!" she demanded.

Andi rolled her eyes and pulled her cell phone out of a zippered pocket, pulled off her helmet, and made the call. She waited with her phone to her ear, eyes rolled skyward when suddenly Paul's cell phone began to ring. He stopped shoveling and answered the phone. "Doctor Jarecki, how may I help you?"

"Doctor Jarecki, this is Doctor Roberts, we're in your forest and we were wondering how much you would charge for a sapling."

"A sapling? With tax that comes to 25 cents. Just leave the money on the table in the cabin."

"Thank you, goodbye."

"Goodbye."

The twins watched the exchange and realized they were being had. "Hey!" they cried.

"This was your idea," said Andi, "They're doctor Paul's trees."

"Be that way!" pouted Sandy.

It took a minute with a folding saw to fell the sapling, which Paul wrapped in a blue plastic tarp and tied behind the Snowcoach to tow back to the cabin. Andi looked up at the tall, ramrod straight Larch trees, easily 100 feet tall. "I heard of pine trees that lose their needles in the fall, but I have never saw it before."

"You should see it when they grow back - super bright neon green, just beautiful," said Paul as they re-mounted the snowmobile and headed back to the cabin. "I'd love it if live oak trees would grow up here," he said wistfully.

"What's a live oak?" asked Andi.

"It's a tree with acorns like an oak, but it's an evergreen, it doesn't drop its leaves until the new leaves are in place. They grow down south."

There were hints of snow back in the woods, flakes drifting down between the snow-covered trees, but as they rode along the snow returned in force. By the time they reached the cabin area they couldn't see the cabin through the falling snow until they were practically upon it. Paul dropped Andi and the girls under the patio roof where Wonka excitedly greeted them, untied the tree, then circled off to park the sled and the Snowcoach in the big barn.

When he returned to the cabin, he found it quite chilly, the fire in the stove had burned out while they were tree hunting. He cleaned the wood stove of ash, and then rekindled the fire and soon the hiss and snap of burning wood and the radiant warmth of the fire filled the cabin.

"Do you mind if I check emails and make a few calls?" Andi asked Paul. He had just brought in the tree and mounted it in the base.

"No, go right ahead, we'll be busy with the tree." He had shown her how to connect to the Wi-Fi earlier, so soon she had her emails brought up. This was the first chance Andi had to check her emails and make a few calls since they left home so long ago... wait! It was only about 30 hours ago. Had she grown so in love with this place that fast?

An hour into her catching up with work, she looked up and saw that the tree was in the back corner of the cabin, far to the right of the wood stove at the foot of the stairs. Paul had strung lights and was now lifting each girl to hang the ornaments that Paul brought in from the big barn. She dialed the cell phone number of her top Nurse Practitioner.

"Katrina Mays," answered her nurse.

"Kit, it's Andi."

"Andi! Oh my God! I didn't look at the number when the phone rang. We heard about the blizzard, and no one's heard from you. Even your hotel called looking for you. How are you? What's going on?"

"Yes there is a blizzard, we got over three feet yesterday and we're expecting another three feet by tomorrow. The girls and I got lost 'way out in the boonies at the height of the storm and we went off the road. We were stuck, but the cops asked a local to help us out."

"And...?" Kit Mays was practically gasping for news.

"Let's just say he's helping the girls trim the tree right now and he told me in secret that he plans to watch Rudolph with them tonight."

"Awww," Kit's heart melted, "that's so sweet, what's he like?" Kit was clearly expecting an old farmer, his grey-haired farmwife making gingerbread for the girls while they trimmed the tree in the parlor. Maybe there's a spinet. There always has to be a spinet.

"Six foot two and H. O. T." whispered Andi.

"What?" squeaked Kit, "Talk girl!"

Andi told of the rescue, of riding in the hay wagon through the dark snow, warming by the fire...

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. Now tell me the Important part."

"Ok," sighed Andi. "Cardiologist with a fellowship in pulmonology, widowed, 53, about six foot two, maybe 190, black hair, gray at the temple, groomed salt and pepper beard, blue eyes, sweet smile."

"And...?"

"Maybe. I don't know..." sighed Andi. Kit was clearly talking about the opportunity for sex.

"Don't know? Girl go for it! Who is this Prince Charming?"

"It's Paul Jarecki."

"That name's familiar, hang on..." Kit furiously did an internet search on him, "yeah, cardiologist. It says here that he punched out a squadron commander and got thrown out of the Air Force."

"Thrown out? No, he said he retired..." Andi suddenly felt her heart sink, she knew better than to listen to internet rumor, but Paul was too good to be true, he even figured out how to handle her freak-out like he did with the snowballs. She turned and looked at his "I Love Me" wall to see his awards and plaques from the military and medical career. Amid the fancy documents was a very plain military form, framed in an overly expensive frame. His DDform214, his discharge order. "I found his discharge, he retired honorably," she said feeling relief pour back into her heart.

"Well, anyhow, that's what it says. His doctor reviews are all five stars, they say he's nice but really reserved."

"Yeah, he is reserved, he lives on his hobby farm and plants trees and works remotely when he can," said Andi.

"Then he's perfect for you," said Kit. "You're the same way, just without the barn and the dog. You leave work and hide in that condo of yours never coming up for daylight. He's got his farm to love, you have your girls. You should propose before the blizzard stops."

They spoke about a few patients that were a concern, that sweet Mr. Divorak has pneumonia again and Kit was wondering if he should be admitted. "Run a CT on his lungs and check the lobes, if he coughs up any blood like last time get him to the ER."

"Got it," said Kit. "How bad is that blizzard? It's making the news here."

"Like I said, we got about three feet yesterday, and we're expecting another three to four feet by dinner time tomorrow."

"And what are you expecting for tonight?" asked Kit with a sly tone to her voice.

Andi thought of their night on the couch last night, it was so good to be so close to a man who just wanted to cuddle and not beat or rape her. Will it repeat? Will it go further? She thought of his hands, those hands which never seem to tire from work, which cuddle the twins so gently but hold her so firmly. Big hands too. "I'm thinking six to eight inches here tonight. Bye!" She hung up quickly not believing she said that out loud.

Her next call was to her friend Lucy Kocis, who didn't answer the phone. She left a voice mail telling her that she and the girls were fine, holed up in a cabin, and would see her when they got back on the road.

She stuck her nose back into the emails, then bringing up the University VPN she started looking at patient records, then she peeked over her monitor at the kids. What she saw caused her to quietly get up, move to the front of the cabin and set her phone to camera mode. She made sure she got the cheery fire, the couch with the Scotch plaid blanket, and the tree in the shot. When did Paul string lights on the staircase handrails?

A few minutes later Nurse Practitioner Katrina Mays received an email with a photo attached that simply said, "My Merry Christmas." She opened the attached picture to see a very cozy cabin with rustic Christmas decorations and centered was a scraggly "Charlie Brown" tree covered in lights, ornaments and construction paper chain garlands. The photo showed Paul helping the twins hang tinsel, beneath them a chocolate lab lapped merrily away at the tree's water trough.

Not long later Andi placed a hot steaming pot of chicken noodle soup and a plate of sandwiches on the table for her famished tree crew. They ate with gusto, the twins more so because if they ate up their entire supper, they would be allowed to watch TV for the first time in two days. When they were finished and everything put away, Paul placed a small flat screen monitor on the table and ran a cable to it from his router, so he could stream cartoons for the twins. He also provided them with construction paper, crayons, safety scissors, and glue sticks that Andi had packed for them. He was hoping they would be inspired by the cartoons to create decorations for the cabin.