“It’s pretty close.” Sam glanced over her shoulder at me before walking around the outside of the cabin. “I could live here.”
The house itself was rather small. Without the wooden logs and stone chimney, it could’ve passed as a large playhouse. On the inside, however, it had a living room with a foldout couch,
a small kitchenette, a backroom for storing wood, and a fireplace for warmth. It wasn’t quite livable as there was no running water, but it was a great step for me and my sister.
“What’s the shack over there for?” Sam gestured at a smaller building not too far from the house.
“That would be the outhouse. There aren’t any bathrooms inside, and if we want to wash our hands, we’ll have to run the pump from one of the nearby streams.”
Her eyes went wide as a bit of color drained from her face.
“Oh.”
“Would you like to take a look?”
“At the toilet?”
I laughed. “No silly, at the inside of the house.”
Relief washed over her face. “Definitely.”
She paused as I rolled back the front mat to retrieve the key from underneath.
“You do realize anyone could’ve found that out here,” she said as I got to my feet.
“Yeah?” I shoved the key in the lock and turned the knob, opening the door before gesturing for her to go inside. “And with so many houses around too.”
“Okay, so maybe no one would find it in the woods, but still, under the mat?”
“Better than under a rock somewhere with all of the snow.”
At least the mat was safe and dry under the roof.
“Oh wow.” Sam’s voice was barely audible as she stopped inside the door. Her posture stiffened as she looked from one corner of the cabin to the other, her smile brightening as she did. “There’s almost an entire house in here.”
“Forgot about the outhouse already, huh?”
“No biggie.” She shrugged it off, but it obviously worried her. Probably because of the bear.
“Even with the bear?” I asked.
She whipped around. “Oh god. Do you think he was out there one night when you were camping out?”
“If he was, he didn’t seem to mind.”
She nodded and forced a smile.
“Relax,” I said in a soothing voice. “We didn’t see a single animal on our way in. If all else fails and we ever do get trapped in here, there’s always the phone.”
“So it’s a cabin without any running water but it still has electricity?”
“It’s a little backwards,” I admitted, “but it works. Of course, the gas has been turned off, which means we’ll have to use the fireplace for heat.”
“Sounds like a great place to bring a first date. Romantic, you know?”
“I tried that once, actually.” I stepped into the backroom to gather some of the wood before dumping it in front of the fireplace.
“Oh? And how did that work out for you?”