“Late winter storms are always the worst,” Jeff told Elaine over the phone. “It’s warm enough to melt, but cold enough to freeze. Makes the roads icy. And the snow is really pouring down.”
“We’ll be fine,” Elaine said.
“Really, it’s not that I want to stay here,” Jeff said, for the third time.
Elaine laughed. “It’s okay.”
“I have to go. Jed’s already on the ice for our nine o’clock game.”
“Have fun.”
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“I was hoping you’d say that. Jed’s got rye.”
Jeff was curling with friends in the last bonspiel of the season, two towns away. In this weather, Elaine was glad he was spending the night. He didn’t have a lot of time to spend with friends, and she had some reading to do before her Monday meeting.
Elaine had already put Connor and two-year-old Jenny to bed, so she picked up her thick document about Canadian trade policy and settled back into her favourite chair.
She’d just found her place on page 32 when the lights went out, the fridge stopped humming, and the radio stopped playing.
Elaine didn’t panic. She just waited. The power had gone out a few times since she’d moved to the farm. Jeff and his father had set up a generator in the shop. It always flipped on after a few minutes, turning the power back on automatically.
Elaine waited. And waited.
She started to worry.
There must be something wrong. Elaine remembered Jeff complaining about the generator, the last time the power was out. If he was home, he’d know how to fix it. She considered going out to take a look, but she couldn’t leave her sleeping kids alone. What if one woke up? Besides, she didn’t have the first clue what to look for in a not-working generator. She didn’t even know what to call it. Was it “stalled?” “Dead?”
She considered calling Jeff. But what could he do about it from 60 miles away on an icy road? And if he was already drinking rye he couldn’t drive anyway.
Jeff’s parents lived on the farm, but they weren’t home either. Dale and Donna had gone to Yorkton to spend a couple of days with Donna’s sister, and they wouldn’t be back until Sunday.
Elaine considered calling the nearest neighbours. But they were probably in the dark too. Besides, she didn’t think they had a generator. Would they know more about fixing one than she did?
Then she thought of Mark Edwards. He’d been working for the Hansons for almost a year now, and Jeff said Mark could fix anything. But was it fair to ask him to drive over on a Friday night?
Elaine decided not to call anyone. It wasn’t much below freezing. The house would stay warm enough for the night. She could pull out a few extra blankets and call Jeff in the morning.
But what would she do now? It was too early to go to bed.
They had some candles, but where were they? If she could find the matches, would candles even give her enough light to read?
There was a noise in the hall. Elaine jumped. She hadn’t grown up on a farm, and she wasn’t used to being alone — especially not when she was the only person for miles, not just the only person in a house on a street filled with other people.
“Mommy? I’m thirsty.” Elaine laughed at herself. It was just Connor. “Why is it so quiet? And why are all the lights off?”
“Don’t worry,” Elaine said, taking him to the kitchen for a drink. “We’re having an adventure. The power’s off, but it will be just fine.”
“We could use the flashlight on my backpack,” he said.
Elaine grinned at him and went to find it. Connor was proud of the LED light he’d been given at the last farm show. He used it on the school bus when he was on before the sun came up.
Soon Connor was back in bed and Elaine was on her own again, this time armed with the LED light. She remembered she had an electronic version of the document she was reading stored on her iPad. She could read that without WiFi or power, at least until her battery wound down.
By 11, both kids were still sound asleep and Elaine had learned more than she’d thought she’d ever want to know about trade policy. She almost hoped someone would ask her some hard questions about it during the Monday conference call.
Elaine shut off her iPad and found her way to the charger in the corner to plug it in. Then she smacked her forehead with her fist. “Duh.” She couldn’t charge an iPad with the power off.
Soon she had brushed her teeth, found the extra blankets, covered the kids and put on her pyjamas. She’d crawled under the covers and moved into the middle of the bed for a change when there was a knock on the door.
Well, not a knock, she thought. More like a thump.
Who would pound on the door at 11 o’clock?
Should she answer it?
It could be someone with car trouble. If Jeff was home he’d answer, in case someone needed help. But she had two small kids with her.
When Elaine was growing up in the city, her mother had told her hundreds of times not to answer the door to strangers. But did that rule apply here? In this kind of weather? If it was someone in trouble, they’d have to walk miles to the next house.
But maybe things had changed in rural Saskatchewan since someone had been shot on a farm on the other side of the province last fall. Maybe things weren’t as safe as they used to be.
Should she call Jeff? What could he do? The police?
She heard more pounding.
If someone who shouldn’t be here wanted in badly enough, they’d find a way in somehow.
Elaine compromised. She held her phone, ready to dial 911, and headed for the door.
The window in the door was coated with a layer of frost. Anything could be on the other side. She took a deep breath, twisted the lock, then opened the door just enough to shine Connor’s LED light out through the crack.
There was a tall, thickset man on the step. And, dear God, his face was covered with a balaclava.
Elaine slammed the door, fumbled with the lock, and swiped at her phone. Just as she hit the “9”, her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. Mark Edwards. He’d be as helpful as the 911 operator, and he was probably closer than the police. “Hello?”
“Elaine? Sorry I scared you.”
Elaine heard the voice coming through her phone, but also from the other side of the door. Suddenly the porch light came on, and the radio started playing.
She opened the door again to find Mark pulling off his balaclava.
“I was driving by on my way home when I noticed the power was off. I knew Jeff and Dale were both away, so I thought I’d take a quick look at that generator.
