Cozy up with hot chocolate and your iPhone and enjoy...
Running:
Umm.....
Writing:
Uhhh.....
Please excuse me while you sip your hot chocolate and read--
I'm starving so I'm going to take a dinner break.
Secrets at Midnight
Leona Palmer Haag
Chapter 38
During the
blackness of night rain fell, interspersed with ragged lightning. Booming
thunder gave way to a monotonous drizzle. Jenn placed Katie next to her skin,
wrapping them both in her clothes, Katie's tiny blanket and the towel before
enclosing them inside the poncho.
When Katie stirred, Jenn emerged from a
half-frozen, half-dazed sleep. She viewed a forest cloaked in gray mist. Her
breath paused, white in the stillness. How they’d survived the night, she had
no clue. Perhaps bears didn’t hunt during nature’s fireworks. With half frozen
fingers she rummaged through the pack for breakfast. Katie hungrily ate. “My
baby girl is a fantastic little camper,” Jenn whispered as she changed her
diaper.
Katie laughed, sounding like a forest princess,
except this was no fairy tale with a happily ever after. Real danger
lurked—death—rather than dragons. “Although, a fire breathing dragon would be
welcome at this moment,” Jenn said. “We’d sip hot cocoa.” She packed up her
daughter to make her way to....
Jenn had no clue where she was going. She'd never
found the old logging road. Downhill was probably the only direction she'd been
heading for several days, and now she was lost.
Situating Katie in the pack, Jenn swung it to her
shoulders. It felt like her daughter had gained a hundred pounds overnight. She
walked—one step before the next. “Today would be a good day to keep quiet,”
Jenn whispered. Except for occasional chatter erupting from Katie, they walked
in silence.
As time passed Jenn thought about absurd things
like steamy chili dogs and cornbread smothered with black-eyed peas. “Katie,
there might be a KFC behind that pine tree,” she said, convincing herself to
move on.
“KFC,” Katie mimicked.
The mist dissipated, revealing snow frosting
distant peaks, reminding her of cakes. “It's my birthday,” Jenn said. “I'm
thirty-two today. What a birthday party, huh?”
Katie giggled.
“Life’s a real picnic now,” she grumbled. “Far from
any kind of celebration.”
A faint snap echoed across the hillside. Jenn
froze. Her birthday party had begun—an unwelcome guest had arrived. Soon she'd
know whether it was Matt or a bear, but which present would be worse?
End Chapter 38
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