I is for Ian

Eventually, we got up and cleaned Dr. Sutton’s office up. I took care of the bedroom and bathroom, changing the sheets and gathering all the wet towels that were already getting stiff in the cold. I was planning on bringing them back to the hotel with me and giving them a wash and dryer run before bringing them back on my way out of town. Same with the sheets that were now balled up in a giant trash bag and sat outside Dr. Sutton’s suite door.

Meanwhile, Mina went into the kitchen and washed up the pans and pots and plates we used. I came back into the living room area just as she was shutting the sink off and putting the silverware in the drain.

“Just in time,” she said.

“For what?” I asked.

“I ran out of hot water.”

“Oh, good timing.”

“Yup,” she said. “I went ahead and put the meats we didn’t use in the freezer, and the stuff we cooked I put in your cooler by the door.”

I looked over to the door and saw the tiny lunch box cooler I had forgotten was even in the room.

“Thank you,” I said.

“I figured you were staying at a hotel, and no one will be delivering, so you could use it more than me. I have a house full of groceries in Ashford.”

“Ah, yeah.”

I could feel myself being distant, and I didn’t like it. But the closer the plow came to the building, the sadder I was getting and the more I wanted to just disassociate from the entire experience. Mina, for her part, seemed to recognize it but didn’t say anything about it. She was content to just keep on like normal until the bitter end, apparently.

“I guess we should head down,” she said. “The plow is at the end of the driveway now.”

“Yeah. Probably only an hour or so until they are at the door. Maybe less.”

“I’ll get the bag of laundry,” she said. “Could you get my duffel bag for me?”

“Sure,” I said, slipping it over my shoulder and adding my own to the other side. “Let’s go.”

“Oh, wait. We should leave a note to thank Dr. Sutton.”

She stopped and ran to the little desk at the entrance of the living room area and opened a drawer. There was a stack of blank paper there, and she pulled one out. A cup full of pens sat on the desk, and she got one out and took off the top, staring at the paper for a moment.

After a few moments of writing, she handed the pen over to me.

“If you want to read it, go ahead and then sign it at the bottom,” she said.

I didn’t bother to read it. I just signed it below her name and put the pen back.

“Ready?”

“I guess,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Nodding, I left for the door and held it open for her, grabbing my cooler at the last minute and following her down the hall toward the lobby.

As we reached it, I could see the plow was closer than I thought it would be. It only took a few minutes before it was at the door, ready to pick us up. I smiled at Mina as I opened the door, then followed her out. A man was sitting in the driver’s seat of the truck and rolled down the windows to the passenger’s side.

“Hey,” he said. “I’m Hawk. You guys need a ride?”

There was laughter in his voice, and his eyes were kind in that helpful country boy kind of way. He had a strong jaw and dark hair, and as I opened the door for Mina, I noticed he was also extremely tall. His seat was pushed back as far as he could go, and yet his legs were crunched up under the dash.

“Thank you so much for coming to get us,” Mina said.

“Yeah, we appreciate it,” I said. “I thought we were just going to be stuck there for a week or so.”

“Well, I like taking these kinds of challenges,” he said.

“You do this kind of thing often?” I asked.

“Not normally up here at the hospital,” he said. “Once or twice, but normally just down the mountains so the folks that live in them can get out and down into town. Usually the state takes care of making sure the hospital is accessible, but they are… occupied.”

“This storm was a bit worse than they were thinking it would be, wasn’t it?” Mina asked.

Hawk nodded.

“Just a bit,” he said. “So, where are we going?”

“I’m staying at the hotel right past the line to Ashford,” I said. “It’s technically in Five Corners.”

“Oh wow, yeah, I know which one you’re talking about. Just far enough to not be able to walk to it, just close enough to make it seem like you might ought to try,” he said.