Wilderness Resort

The secondary lines to my section were buried four feet deep so I had water. Within an hour I discovered that we had lost the main portion of the lodge so I shut down that section also. I made a mental note to fix that so it could never happen again. We had never frozen up before, but then it had never been so bitter cold for such a long time before, either. The outside thermometer read 10 degrees during the daytime, I couldn't see it at night.

I went out and checked the generator shack, it was still chugging away, the main well pump running. With the exhaust pipe from the engine routed around several feet inside before venting outside, the generator shack was staying well above freezing.

The 500 gallon tank of diesel was still over half full, I knew we had at least another week before we were in serious trouble. Topping off my concerns, I discovered that the phone lines were down.

Sharon had a cell phone, I didn't. We were now cut off completely from the outside world.

"What are we going to do, Danny?" Karen asked me when I came back inside, shaking my hands that were hurting from the cold.

"All that is left is my section. It will hold, we have to move you in there." I told her.

She nodded, went and gathered a few things. There was nothing else to do.

Over the next two days Karen lived with me, she took the bedroom and I took the couch in the living section where I could tend the fires.

Provisions weren't a problem, we had enough stores in the kitchen to last until Spring and beyond. I was glad that the old man who built the lodge had the wisdom to split the water lines, even if some froze up the others would stay open. I knew the problem we had was one I had created when I added the additions. I had cleverly ran the water lines down the base of the walls where they wouldn't show, it was my mistake.

There were eleven days in a row of daytime temperatures below 10 degrees, the night time was easily well below zero.

The snow just kept coming, it was over the windows.

I woke up to see Karen loading firewood in the furnace.

"It's clearing outside I think." She looked at me with a smile. I glanced at her and looked away, she had on a white T-shirt and flannel short pajama bottoms that didn't do much to hide her figure. I rolled out of bed, grabbed a Levi shirt and pulled it on.

I looked out the window, I could see the thermometer I had hanging on a post. It was 20 degrees, practically hot outside compared to what we had been through.

"I had better go see about Carlos and Maria while I have a chance." I said. Karen nodded.

"I am going to catch a shower while you are gone, OK?" I nodded, went over and turned the valve that ran our water lines through a wood fired small heater tank. The main generator could handle lighting, all of the simple 110v power but the water heater was 220V and just too much for the unit we had.

Karen set a small fire, she knew what to do so I got out my heavy winter gear, found my snowshoes and headed out. The going was rough, the snow was very fluffy, soft and even with the snowshoes each step was a major effort. It took me a solid half hour to get to the upper cabin.

I found it almost buried in snow, waves of heat shimmered from the big stainless steel chimney. The snow shovel was right there by the doorway, I had it clear in a few minutes. All of the doors opened inward for obvious reasons, Carlos opened it and peeked out when he heard me outside.

"Quite a storm, huh? You guys OK?" He stood aside to let me in.

"Yes, fine, I just came over to check on the two of you."

Maria sat there on the couch by the fire, it must have been close to 80 degrees inside. She smiled and hopped up, going into the kitchen and bringing us both steaming cups of coffee.

I sat and explained to Carlos about the water lines and what I wanted done to fix that so it couldn't happen again. Maria smiled at me several times but said nothing, I felt myself blush as the memory of her naked body in my arms popped into my mind.

Finishing the coffee, I stood up to head back to the lodge. As soon as I opened the door, I knew it would be difficult.

Heavy snow was coming down, the temperature had dropped again.

"Be careful!" Carlos said as he closed the door.

It was actually easier getting back, I had broken a trail coming over. I made the 200 yards to the lodge, but I was exhausted by the time I got there. I realized I was soaked with sweat so I stripped off the heavy winter gear, got a dry T-shirt and pulled it on. I could hear water running in the bathroom.

I sat down in my chair to rest, just as Karen stepped out. She had one of the big bath towels wrapped around herself. She walked over to the stove, turned her back to it and began to use the towel to dry herself.

Once again she was completely naked in front of me, with that same totally unconcerned attitude about it. I just sat there and watched her as she rubbed her hair, those soft breasts jiggling slightly, the pink nipples swollen and flattened out from the heat in the room. My eyes dropped down to the now grown in soft fine hairs at her loins, I could see just a hint of the soft outer lips of her sex.

"Everyone is fine over there I guess?" She said finally, turning to look at me.

She must have seen the expression on my face, because her eyes widened.

"Oh." She dropped the towel on the floor and came towards me, sliding into my lap. I had no way to resist.

"About time!" She murmured.

Everything was a haze after that. The only time we stopped that first day was to reload the fire, then we went right back to the bed.

Forgotten was Sharon, my life, everything was lost in a whirl of crazy sex and fantasy. That former life all seemed to be far away, another time.

By the end of the week the weather began to warm, Carlos and I got busy digging out, replacing broken water lines and doing the repairs. We had to shovel a lot of snow out of the way. The damage was nowhere near as bad as I had expected, we soon had everything operational again.

Nothing was said about Maria, we worked together like everything was normal. Each night I settled in with Karen. I knew that part of it was wrong but I somehow just couldn't help myself. Then we had phones again, Sharon called and told me they had everything handled with her Mother, moving her to a long term care facility.

She would be home by weekend.

Karen's face fell when I explained, I was not sure what she had been thinking. But she moved back up to her unit. The next day, she told me she was leaving. I really didn't want her to go but at the same time I knew that was for the best.

Sharon arrived, looking wonderful like always. I told her about how we had survived the bad storm, explaining that we needed to do some major changes to some things, since we had lost water to nearly everything.

"So where did you all stay?" She asked.

"Carlos and Maria stayed in the big cabin, Karen and I...we stayed here."

"Oh. Yes, that probably was for the best..." Sharon looked at me, I guess I don't hide things well. She realized, she knew right then.

"Oh, Danny, you...didn't? Where is she?"

"Gone. She left yesterday."

"Damn you! I trusted you." Her expression was anger, hurt. I went and sat down.

"Honey, I am sorry. It just...happened."

"How long have you been fucking her? You bastard! I suppose there have been others?"

"It was just...I don't know." My face turned red.

"Who else? Don't you lie to me!"

"Maria. She came over. I don't know why."

Sharon stared at me, I couldn't meet her eyes.

"In our bed? In MY bed?" She said, with an expression I had never seen before. There were more tears, more yelling. She went in and gathered up some of her things, stormed out and went upstairs to one of the rental units, slammed the door and locked it.

The next afternoon she was gone, back to be with her mother. No amount of talking, no amount of begging had any effect.

It was just a week later when a station wagon arrived to pick up Carlos and Maria. I watched them load the machine, I didn't go out to say goodbye and they didn't bother to come in.

I tried over and over to call Sharon, she wouldn't take my calls or even discuss anything. Finally there was no point, I quit calling.

I sat down and cried like a baby when the papers arrived. She completely refused to talk to me, instead I had to talk to her lawyer. Sharon didn't want any part of the lodge or the resort, she got the savings, the capital we had carefully saved up in retirement accounts. I didn't even protest.

It was quite a lot, the stock funds had done very well.She did leave me enough assets to operate on.

Karen did call, just one time. I told her that Sharon had left me, she said she was sorry. Then she told me that she loved Sharon, but loved me even more. When I didn't respond to that, she said her goodbyes. That was about it, she never mentioned coming back and I didn't ask.

A very long Spring and Summer went by, I managed to hire help but nothing was the same. Forcing myself to work helped some, the nights alone in bed were very hard.

Then one of those offers arrived, we got those all the time, ignored them. I called the broker, made an appointment. It was getting to be late in the season, the year had been a bad one. It was like there was no point.

The offer was quite a lot of money. I told the broker to go ahead and draw up the papers, still hesitant I explained that I would take a look at the entire offer and if I decided to take it, he would get the deal.

The few days later I woke up late, fixed my breakfast. There was no guests in the lodge but I went down to open it up anyway.

About an hour or so later a car pulled up outside. It was one of those big Dodge cars, like the cops on TV all seem to drive. A young couple got out. It was warming up quickly, going to be a nice early Fall day.

They came in and looked around, they seemed to be studying everything. The woman had on shorts and a halter top, her belly bare. I just stood behind the bar and waited.

"Wow, this place is really neat!" The young woman said. I looked at her, she couldn't be a day over 20.

"Got any cold beer?" The young man asked. I popped two bottles, sat them on the bar. They sat down grinning at each other, each of them taking a sip.

"We didn't even know this place was here." The young man said.

"Been here close to 60 years now, I guess. Selling out now, it's time for me to retire."

"Really?" The young woman asked. I saw the glint of interest in her eyes. My mind flashed back to so many years before, when Sharon and I had walked in that same door at about the same time of year.

"Yea, some rich people. Probably going to take the place private, I will hate that but what can I do?"

"We would love to have a place like this, wouldn't we, Johnny? We got the money from my grandpa's estate, something like this could be a neat investment."

The man got a dubious look on his face. I grinned to myself.

"Say, how is this held together?" He asked, looking at the well worn bar rail in fascination.

"I just fall a tree, whittle a peg. Then smear it with pitch and drive it in. I cover up the pitch with clay and cover that with some stain. Got me a five gallon bucket of it out back. It's real easy."

"Wow, I could do that." He said.

"Yep, if I can, anybody can." I looked at the young gal, she had one elbow on the bar rail, a large expanse of her left breast was showing. She just smiled when she caught me looking.

"Come on, honey. Let me show you around." I told her.

Less than a couple of months later, I shook hands with the young couple and wished them luck. The old 1964 Impala fired right up, it always did. I looked down at the odometer, it read just over 9000 miles.

Three days later, I pulled up in front of Sharon's house in California. It was December the 5th, her birthday. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw me.

"Danny? What?..."

"I wanted to see you, see how you are doing."

"I am doing fine, Mom lives here now, I take care of her."

"That's good." I felt completely uncomfortable, so many things had been in my mind, the words were in my head for many miles of driving.

"Well, come on in. Who is running the resort?" She stepped aside to let me in.

"I sold it." She got a surprised look at that.

"I would have thought you would never do that?"

"Me, neither, but running it by myself just didn't make any sense."

"How much did you get?" She asked.

"Just under two million, they put down almost half and I have them on a 30 year note."

"Wow! That turned out to be a pretty good investment way back, didn't it?"

"Yes. The other offer was higher, some big outfit. You know how I feel about that. But these two kids came in and...remember that day when we...?"

"Yep, I sure do!" She smiled, I could see her thinking about it.

"You sure looked naughty that day, it's a wonder the old guy didn't have a heart attack!"

Sharon laughed, for just a moment there we were just us again, sharing our memories.

I sat down, she asked me if I would like some Tea, then went into the kitchen to make some. I watched her leave the room, at nearly 46, she still looked just about the same.

We sat and sipped the tea, as we caught up with the last year and a half. The conversation finally turned to Maria and then Karen, and I apologized, explaining I would do anything to take that back.

Sharon didn't show any anger now like she had before. They say that time heals all wounds, it gave me some hope.

"I want to be back with you!" I blurted out.

She just looked at me.

"It's all I can think of, I know I did you wrong."

"Danny, you were the first and only man I ever was with while we were together, you know that?"

"Yes, I know." I went quiet as she hesitated, thinking.

"You were enough for me, more than enough in fact."

"I felt the same way."

"Some of the things that were happening, we were asking for it, weren't we?"

"Yes, I think so too."

"Did you know that Carlos made a pass at me?"

"I didn't, but I thought he might."

"I slapped his face."

"You should have told me."

"There was nothing to tell, some nights when we were working, men would make suggestions, ask."

"I figured that probably happened, we were asking for it I guess with all the naughtiness."

"Since we split up, I have been dating a few men." She blurted out.

"Oh."

"I have been seeing one man now, his name is Carl. He wants to marry me."

I felt my heart sink.

"I...we....I let him make love to me."

"That's OK. I didn't really expect..."

"Shut up! I am trying to tell you something!" She snapped.

I waited, nodding.

"That was different, it wasn't the same. All I could think of was that I was doing something wrong. He...Carl...he wanted me and I thought I wanted him, realized too late that I didn't want him to."

I nodded.

"But I let him anyway. I wanted him to but then I didn't."

"Sharon, I...That doesn't matter."

"There were others...before him, right after we broke up I wanted to find someone, move on."

"Sharon, it really doesn't...."

"Shut up! I am not done yet. There were quite a few others. Five, six I think? I can't even remember them. It was like I did that to..get revenge? It made me miserable, like I was cheating, but there was no one to even cheat on."

She looked over at me to see what my reaction would be, I just sat and waited.

"Then I met Carl, he is handsome and kind to me, I thought maybe? He is a lot of fun to be with, too. I didn't jump into bed with him. Then finally..he told me he loved me. After Carl and I had...sex...I wanted to call you right then and would have, but Carl was here, he stayed the night that first time. He is the only one that I let stay with me all night. The next morning, he...I let him do it again. It felt the same way, like I was doing something wrong. But since then, every time we went out we ended up in bed. I don't know why. Maybe because he was the only one that could make me...climax? Even that part felt like I was doing something wrong."

Sharon fell silent, thinking. Her face went red, this was hard for her to talk about.

"Carl asked me to marry him. I told him I would. I thought I would get over that bad feeling."

That statement came like a shot to the stomach.

"You called so much at first, I wanted to answer but I just couldn't. I was too angry, too stubborn. But then you stopped calling. I sat and waited many nights, wanting to hear your voice, even if just on the answering machine. But then you stopped, I knew you had given up."

"I never gave up, but I wanted to give you some space."

"So tell me, what was it like for you? Sex, I mean...with someone else?"

"I felt...guilty."

"So did I. But you did it anyway?" She looked at me, her eyes were wet.

"Yes."

"So did I." She said again, a tear drifting down her cheek.

I reached for her, it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world. She let me hold her, but made no move to respond. Finally I let her go.

"So? Why did you come all this way?"

"To see you, I want you to be with me! It's always been you, from clear back when we were just kids!" Now I had tears in my eyes.

"We can't go back, you know." She said, finally.

"I know. But we can go forward."

"Do you think so? Or will all of this always be there? Will you always be bothered because other men have..?"

"Probably. Just like you will be. We both know, there are no secrets."

"I suppose. Tell me, have you been with anyone else...since I left?"

"No."

"Have there ever been any others, except that Maria and...Karen?"

"No."

She watched me carefully, she knew I was telling the truth.

"All right then." She said finally, reaching out to take my hand.

We sat like that for a long time, just holding hands. Then her phone rang, she got up to answer it. I heard her half of the conversation.

"I can't tonight."

"Because Danny is here, we are talking about trying again." There was a long pause as she listened.

"I'm sorry, Carl. Really. I have to do this, I have to find out if we still...."

She again listened for a moment.

"No! I'm not. He just got here."

"Please don't be that way, Carl." She hung up, turned to look at me.

"Carl told me he won't stand for that, if I go back with you he won't see me again even if I change my mind."

"I guess I understand that."

"I can't give up on almost 30 years, I thought I could but I can't." She came over and sat down again, leaned her head against my shoulder.

"I thought I loved Carl too, but with him it feels..wrong?"

The phone rang again, she made no move to answer. It stopped after a dozen rings.

"I am all mixed up, can we take it slow? I want to fall in love with you again, I want to be able to trust you." She said, finally.

"I am already completely in love with you. You can trust me, I will never touch another woman again the rest of my life, even if we don't work things out." I told her.

We sat on the couch, my arm around her shoulders. She was there, with me, where she belonged.

A very long time went by, there was a stiffness, tension in her body. I felt it when she began to relax. Then she turned her head, lifted her lips for a kiss.

Familiar, soft. The touch of our lips was just like it always was.

Sharon was in my arms.

It was all I needed.

Hours later, I got up to leave.

"Stay here. Please?"

"OK. I would love to."

"You sleep there on the spare bedroom, OK?"

"OK. If that is what you want."

"That's what I want, good night." She went into her room, shut the door.

I went into the other room, settled in. I could hear the shower running, it ran for what seemed like an hour. Finally I dozed.

A sound woke me up, I glanced at the clock, it was after 3 in the morning. It took me a moment to realize Sharon was standing by the doorway.