“You ever find yourself flicking through channels, and then stopping on a show you know your son watches? And when the show is just starting, do you find yourself singing along to the theme song?” Kevin asked his cousin as he continued surfing through the channels, yet to have found one show or movie they’d like to watch.
“Yeah, I think there was even nights where I’d be caught singing the damn song in my sleep.” Brian laughed.
“Oh really? What song?”
“Spongebob Squarepants.”
“Ahh, the lovely sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea.”
“I did tell you the story of AJ linking us to the Spongebob characters, right?”
Kevin shook his head as he changed the channel to Nickelodeon, sighing in disappointment when he found that “The Fairly Oddparents” was on instead of “Spongebob Squarepants”. “Nope… I think the question is do I even want to know the story?”
“To simply put it, AJ said he’s Spongebob, Nick is Patrick, I’m Sandy Cheeks, Howie is Mr. Krabs and you’re… Squidward. You can figure out the rest on why or even how he made those connections.”
Kevin rolled his eyes, “He would say I’m the dude with the freaking penis-looking nose.”
Before another word was said, the front door busted open, causing both Brian and Kevin to immediately snap their attention over towards the entry of the lodge. They both quickly rose from where they sat when they saw AJ walk in an exhausted woman.
“What’s going on AJ?” Kevin asked as both he and Brian made their way over towards AJ and the woman, helping him to walk her into the living room.
“I was smoking a cigarette outside when I noticed her struggling towards our lodge. From what she’s told me, her car broke down and she had no cell phone to make a call, so she set out to look for assistance.”
When they sat her on the couch, Brian kneeled down in front of her and tilted her head up to look into her eyes. “She’s been out in the cold for quite some time, though fortunately no physical signs of hypothermia. I’ll go get her some blankets and something warm to drink.”
Kevin glanced AJ over, noticing that he was quivering as much as the woman was, “Jay, maybe you should go change your clothes and get into something warmer. The last thing we need is you getting sick.”
“I’m fine.” AJ lied, feeling the adrenaline quickly dissipate, leaving him to feel how cold he really was.
Brian quickly returned with a stack of folded up blankets. Tossing them on the couch, he grabbed one and unfolded it, wrapping it around her trembling form. “Here you go. I’ll go ahead and make you something warm to drink. Are you hungry or anything?”
Adrianna shook her head, “No, but thank you.”
Brian nodded as he disappeared off into the kitchen. Kevin continued to unfold the blankets, “AJ, I mean it. Go get into something warmer.” he said as he wrapped the blanket around Adrianna.
Deciding not to fight back, AJ turned and began his trek upstairs, rubbing his two hands together and blowing into them all the while. Instead of going into his room to change into something warmer though, he walked over towards Nick’s room and knocked on the closed door.
“If it’s Kevin, Brian or Howie, I’m not opening it.” he heard a voice say from the other side.
AJ couldn’t help than to chuckle, “It’s me man, open up.”
A few seconds later, Nick opened his door a crack. “Please don’t tell me they sent you up here to tell me to do something.”
AJ shook his head, “No, just wanted to know if you have something warm I could possible wear, like a sweatshirt or something.”
Nick noticed for the first time how bad AJ was shaking, “What in the hell happened to you?” he asked as he opened the door wider, allowing AJ to walk in.
“Long story short… was outside smoking my cigarette, seen a woman off in the distance, ran to help her and found out that she was experiencing car troubles and had no cell phone to call for help, so she went looking for help instead.”
Nick’s eyes widened a bit upon hearing the new information, “Are you serious? Is she okay?”
AJ nodded, “She’s fine, was just really cold because it’s cold as fuck outside. So, can I get that sweatshirt?”
“Oh yeah, hold on.” Nick said as he walked over to his suitcase and began to rummage through it. Pulling a black hooded sweatshirt out, he handed it to AJ. “There ya go. She doesn’t need any clothes to change into, does she?”
“Nah man, Brian had grabbed some blankets for her. Can you believe there’s already a few inches of snow that’s accumulated?”
“I believe it, the guy did say we’ll be experiencing hard snowfall and a few good feet of snow. A bit surprised that the storm is moving in this quickly though.” Nick said as he glanced down at his watch, seeing that it was almost noon.
AJ slipped the large sweatshirt over his body, sighing in relief as warmth immediately came to him. “Much better.”
“Does Howie know what’s going on?”
“Not sure… he wasn’t downstairs, which I assume he really meant it when he said he was gonna crawl into bed and go back to sleep.”
Nick nodded as he watched AJ make his way out of his room, “Wait, where you going?”
“Back downstairs. Why?”
“Wait for me!” he said as he quickly followed AJ out of his room and downstairs. He was greeted by the sight of Kevin sitting beside lumped form under a pile of blankets.
Kevin turned when he heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs, “Glad you decided to listen to me.” he said as he looked AJ over.
AJ rolled his eyes as he flounced down on the leather chair situated across from the couch. “Yes daddy.”
Nick took a seat in the other open chair, “Is she okay?” he mouthed to Kevin.
Kevin nodded, “We’re just trying to get her warmed up before we start bombarding her with questions.” he said in a light tone.
Brian walked out from the kitchen, mug in hand. “Here you go.” he said as he handed Adrianna the steaming cup.
Weakly, Adrianna reached out for the cup and grabbed it, “Thank you.” she barely whispered before she took a small sip of the hot chocolate, sighing at the feeling of heat coursing through her body, warming her flesh.
Brian took a seat on the other side of Adrianna, and they remained in silence as they tried not to watch her drink her hot cocoa. “I’m really sorry…” she said, breaking the silence. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“You’re not an intrusion.” Kevin reassured.
Adrianna gave a small smile, “Thank you. I swear, I just feel like I’m having the worse day ever. I was actually on my way to work, but before that my boyfriend and I had gotten into an argument about something so stupid, I can’t even remember really, and he tried to tell me not to drive my piece of junk car out in this weather. And what did I do? I did just that, jumped in my car and left to work because I don’t like to stick around after an argument anyway. On top of that, I was running late for work, and before you know it, my car comes to a sputtering stop. So, here I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone to call for help, and it was beginning to snow harder outside, so me, being the dumb person I am, decided to take it upon myself and go out there to look for help, and as you can imagine, it only resulted me in getting lost.”
“So, how did you find this place?” Nick asked.
“I actually came across tire tracks in the snow that led me up here. I didn’t exactly find this place, because I was just about ready to give up. Your friend here,” she looked at AJ, “kinda found me and brought me back to your place. And I’m just so thankful because…” she began to tear up a bit, “I don’t even wanna imagine what would’ve happened if you hadn’t found me.”
AJ glanced over to Nick, who seemed unaffected by her story. “It’s okay,” Brian said soothingly, “We’re just glad that AJ got to you in time and we’re more than happy to help you. But for now, why don’t you get some rest, and when you wake up, we’ll figure out what to do from there.”
Adrianna nodded as she placed her half filled cup down on the coffee table. “My name’s Adrianna by the way.”
“I’m Brian, the one on the other side of you is Kevin, this is Nick and of course you already know AJ.” Brian introduced. “But, we’ll go ahead and let you get some sleep, okay?”
They all rose from where they sat and began to walk towards the kitchen as Brian set up the couch for Adrianna to sleep on.
“Well, this trip took a sudden interesting turn.” Kevin said as he sat down on the barstool at the kitchen island.
“Tell me about it… it’s not everyday you go outside to smoke a cigarette and find a person that‘s lost.” AJ replied as he opened the refrigerator to grab himself a drink.
Nick remained quiet, thinking about Adrianna and her story. He felt like he was the only one that was wondering about this mysterious woman. Her story seemed simple enough, but… there was just something about her Nick couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“Kiddo.” Kevin spoke loudly, breaking Nick from his trance. “I can see you’re thinking… seems dangerous.”
Nick gave his older friend a look, “Shutup Kev. I’m just thinking about… what we’re gonna do about her, yanno?”
“Well, didn’t take long for her to knock out.” Brian said as he walked into the kitchen.
“So, what do you guys suggest we do?” Nick questioned no one in particular.
“We let her use our phone to call for a tow truck or something.” AJ replied matter-of-factly.
“Let me reiterate the fact that I said this trip has taken a sudden interesting turn.”
They all looked over at Kevin, “Why do you say that?”
“Because even if she was to call for help, no one would be able to come out here to help her. From the looks of things, the storm has already moved in.”
“So, what are you getting at Kev?”
“Looks like she’ll be stuck with us and will have to wait the storm out.”
Nick looked over at his two friends, who both remained quiet. He really didn’t like the fact that no one else appeared worried enough to inquire about this woman.
~*~*~*~
Howie emerged from his master bathroom, having awoke from the nap he had taken right after breakfast. He was shocked to realize that he had slept practically the whole day away, for it was quarter to six in the afternoon, but figured it didn’t matter, it’s not like they could go out and do anything anyway.
Wanting to know what the rest of the fellas were up to, he walked out of his room and began to walk downstairs, a look of puzzlement flashing across his face when he saw a woman sitting on the couch, watching TV.
Hearing the sound of someone coming down the stairs, Adrianna quickly turned to face Howie, “You must be Howie.” she said with a smile. “I’m Adrianna.”
Howie forced a warm smile, “Nice to meet you.”
“If you’re wondering where your friends are, I believe AJ had gone upstairs to take a shower, and Nick, Brian and Kevin are somewhere in this lodge. I swear, I’d get so lost in this place if I was staying here.” Adrianna laughed.
Howie gave a slight chuckle, not meaning to come across rude or unwelcoming, he was just taken aback by what was going on.
“Okay, so we’ll set you up to stay in one of the extra guest bedrooms.” Kevin said to Adrianna as he walked into the living room. He smiled when he saw Howie at the foot of the stairs, “Hey D., how’d you sleep man?”
Howie gave a slight nod, still seemingly in a phase. “It was good.”
“Have you met Adri-”
“Adrianna?” Howie cut him off. “Yes, I have.”
“Okay… well, why don’t we get you set up in that extra room.” Kevin said as he began to walk upstairs, prompting Adrianna to follow.
Shaking himself out of his phase, Howie walked over towards the leather chair and plunked down on it, looking up when he heard Nick and Brian walk into the living room.
“Well, good morning Sleeping Beauty!” Brian joked as he sat down on the other chair, “That breakfast really did you in, huh?”
Howie immediately cracked a genuine smile at seeing his two younger friends, “Yeah, I meant business when I said that I wanted to crawl back into bed. Eating like that is sure to put anyone to sleep.”
“We should hurry up and go get that wood for the fire.” Kevin voiced out as he walked downstairs and into the living room, sitting down next to Nick on the couch. “Before it gets any colder and snows any harder.”
Silence had befallen them, all of them looking around at each other to see who would volunteer to do it. “Well, since no one is volunteering, I guess I’ll go ahead and do it, because I’ll only get told to do it anyway.” Nick grumbled as he pushed himself up from the couch and began to march upstairs to grab something warmer to wear.
“Well, I was gonna send Brian, but thanks Nick!” Kevin joked.
Nick ignored Kevin as he reached the top of the stairs and walked into his room. He rummaged through his suitcase in search for another hooded sweatshirt he knew he had packed away. He finally found his dark gray sweatshirt and pulled it out from his pile of clothes, messing it up all the while. He rose to his feet and slipped the sweatshirt over his body, checking himself over before slipping on his Timberland boots and making his way back downstairs.
Bypassing the parlor, where Kevin, Howie and Brian remained sitting, he walked straight towards the door and opened it, being greeted by the extremely cold and dry wind that blew past him, causing the flesh of his face to prickle. Shivering, he closed the door behind him and began his trek out towards the backside of the lodge; Brian had told him earlier where he would find the shed, which housed the already chopped wood.
After a few minutes of searching for the shed, he finally found it. “Bingo.” he said to himself as he walked over towards the shed and opened the two double doors. He saw nothing but stacks of neatly cut wood, a wheel barrel, and other numerous items, such as gas cans, tools, etc. He smiled triumphantly as he reached out to grab the first wooden cylinder block, but when he suddenly heard a noise come from behind him, the only thing he could remember was pain exploding through his head.
