Snowed In

“I don’t think we should put mud on it,” I told him.

“No?”

“No way. This is a first degree burn,” I said, wincing. “I think it needs to be exposed to air. At least for now.”

I wasn’t a hundred-percent sure, but the thought of his wound getting infected seemed worse than leaving it exposed.

“Alright. No worries.”

I smiled at him. Fact was, I was worried. But I was also grateful. If he hadn’t grabbed that log out of the fire, who knows what would’ve happened? It was brave. Beyond brave.

“Thanks for saving us,” I said.

Shane smiled and draped one big arm around me. It felt reassuringly wonderful, like it did back in the snow shelter.

“Actually it was Jeremy who saved you,” he said. “If he hadn’t shoved you out of the way, you’d be bear-food.”

“And if you hadn’t set the bear on fire, we’d both be bear-food,” I countered.

Shane chuckled. “Oh yeah.”

Behind me, Boone and Jeremy were getting dressed. Shane looked over at his own clothes, but I took him gently by the chin and turned him back in my direction.

“Hey…” I said. “What happened out there?”

Shane reached down and cupped some water into his good hand before splashing it over his face. I could see the exhaustion in his eyes now. He was wasted, head to toe.

“We tried skirting around the base of the mountain,” he said. “Visibility was better than normal, at least at first. We could see well enough to realize it was more than a single day’s hike. I—”

He stopped for a moment, then lowered his head.

“I convinced Jeremy to do it anyway. That we could always dig in if it got too cold.”

“Jeremy wanted to go back?”

He nodded. “Yes. And I should’ve listened to him.”

You should’ve listened to Boone and never went in the first place, I wanted to say but didn’t.

“Anyway, we got pinned against some cliff face. It wasn’t high, but it was steep. Worse than that, it was covered in ice.” He let out a weak laugh. “You ever try climbing an icy cliff in ski boots?”

I shook my head. Blew into his hand some more.

“Well it sucks.”

His eyes drooped at the edges. He needed sleep. That much was obvious.

“We almost didn’t make it back. When we finally decided to turn around, visibility was limited. The weather had picked up again.” He sighed heavily. “Just like Boone said it would.”

“Yeah, but you did make it back,” I consoled him. “So don’t worry about it.”

Shane shook his head. “It was my fault, Morgan. I almost fucked us. Jeremy wanted to turn back earlier but I wouldn’t listen to him. He wanted to dig in when it got dark, and I forced him to continue on. We almost—”

“Hey, hey…” I told him. “Stop it. It’s alright. You’re here now.”

He smiled weakly. “When we found the opening again, it was like winning the lottery. We started screaming and hugging. But then we got inside, and the fire was almost out. The lobby was dim. You weren’t there.”

His eyes went dark and I felt pang of sorrow, somewhere near my heart.