Outnumbered

Regardless of what Miss Manners would say, I’ll be returning Seri to the outside world at some point. If she tells people about the crazy guy in the cabin outside of Whatì, threatening her, someone might just come out to pay me a visit. Someone might decide to do a little investigating and figure out who I am. Extradition from Canada to the United States is pretty straightforward as such things go, and I’d probably end up back in prison.

Seri moves quickly, and when I glance up at her, I see she’s grabbed a knife off the counter. Her eyes fill with fire and fury as she brandishes it at me.

“Don’t you fucking threaten me, you asshole!” she screams, and it’s my turn to drop my mouth open in shock. “I’ll fucking gut you!”

My heart starts to beat a little faster. Seri’s not a big girl, and I’m confident I can disarm her without a lot of difficulty, but damn if she isn’t scary looking anyway. Her words aren’t like anything she has said to me before. In fact, I don’t recall her using a single cuss word.

No…wait. She did call me an asshole outside the gas station the first day I met her. She even had the same look in her eyes as she pointed a finger in my direction rather than a knife.

“You dragged me out here, fucker! Keep talkin’ to me like that, and I’ll kill ya and live off all the shit you’ve hoarded out here!”

I raise my eyebrows, trying to figure out if she’s serious or not. I watched plenty of guys lose their shit in lockup, and they typically had that same look in their eyes. Their actions were often followed by a month in solitary, and I wonder if this woman has spent any time behind bars.

I’m not going to ask, certainly not now.

I take a few breaths to calm myself down. The last thing either of us needs is for both of us to freak out. If I have to disarm her, I’m not sure what I’ll do with the knife once it’s in my own hand. I need to keep myself together long enough for the storm to pass and then get rid of her. It will be worth the dangers of the ice-road drive to Fort Providence or wherever she wanted to go. Then I can settle in for the rest of the winter without all this bullshit drama.

But first, I need to de-escalate the current situation.

“Look…” I start to speak—to apologize—but I don’t know what I should say. I take a deep breath. “I’m not a social person, okay? I don’t like people in general, and I definitely don’t like people in my place.”

“I got that idea.” She’s still glaring at me and holding the knife tightly.

“The storm should let up soon,” I say. “Once it does, I’ll take you to Fort Providence or Yellowknife or wherever you want to go.”

“Suits me, asshole.”

“You can put that down now.” I ignore the insult and try to sound calm as I motion toward the knife.

I sit down on the floor, and Solo immediately climbs back in my lap. I can only assume I look less threatening with a tiny kitten sitting on me.

“How about I don’t?” Seri squares her shoulders like she’s about to stand off against a grizzly. “Maybe you should just stay the fuck away from me!”

“Whatever.” I take several deep breaths as I watch her from the corner of my eye. She seems content to just stand there holding the knife and doesn’t move any closer as if she were going to use it. I decide to ignore her.

Time passes, and we say nothing to one another. I keep my eyes on the fire, the cat, and the floor—anything to keep from looking at her. At some point, I hear her turn the water back on, followed by the clink of dishes. When I do glance at her briefly, her back is to me, and she’s humming.

I shake my head at the odd woman and light another cigarette. Smoking is doing nothing to alleviate my tension, so when Seri finishes the dishes and politely excuses herself to the bathroom, sans knife, I toss the half-smoked cigarette into the fire and stand up. Solo whines at the closed bathroom door as I go to look out the window. I’m hoping the snow has subsided enough to allow me to head outside and chop wood but no such luck.

In fact, the storm seems to be getting worse. I grab the weather radio, spin the crank on the side for a minute to give it some juice, and begin to listen to the mechanical voice just as Seri comes back into the main room.

“This hazardous weather outlook is for the Canadian Northwest Territories, Tlicho Lands, Whatì, and Lac La Martre areas. Temperatures dropping rapidly and heavy snowfall predicted overnight and into tomorrow. Expected totals ranging from eighteen to twenty-four inches…”

“Fuck me.” I grumble to myself as I switch the radio off.

“Don’t you want to hear the rest of the forecast?” Seri asks. “It sounds pretty bad.”

The bathroom break must have done her some good because she’s back to her usual, nervous energy. She looks at me intently with her head slightly bent to one side—a natural and unconscious sign of deference. I watch her fingers twist around each other as she sways slightly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

Thankfully, she seems to have dropped the repetitive F-bombs.

“I heard enough.” I lick my lips and take in a deep breath. “Like it or not, we’re going to be stuck with each other for a while.”

Chapter 7

“The snow is really piling up out there.” Seri turns away from the window as I toss my third cigarette into the fire.

The previous night’s sleep had been awkward though we still shared the bed for warmth. Throughout the night, I was pissed and tense, and Seri acted like nothing had happened at all, which was even more annoying. I didn’t feel calm again until daybreak.