Chapter 14
“Why should I be more like Angie? She’s a frumpy housewife who works her fingers to the bone in her house adding and subtracting numbers for all the businesses in town.
She cleans her own home, washes her own clothes, cooks for herself and her two boys, she will never get out of this town for the rest of her life!
Why should I aspire to be like her? I want more in life than to be like that…
I want to leave this town and these people.
I want to go and live in a big house with servants, so that I don’t have to work so hard.
I want someone else to clean, cook, wash, and do all the work in my home.
I just want to shop and spend money. My husband will want to make me happy and spend money on me.
I will live a lavish lifestyle and be happy all the time. ” Lydia told Mavis and her two cousins.
“Wake up Lydia, even that won’t make you happy.
You’ll be miserable in no time. The biggest thing will be that you won’t love your husband.
I’m not sure you’re capable of loving anyone but yourself.
And unless someone drops a ton of money on you that you can spend on yourself, you will never be happy.
” Mavis told her and left her standing there.
Her patience was about used up on her niece, and she was tired of trying to understand her and her selfish ways.
Lydia just turned around and went back to painting in her room. Here she was content and nobody told her what to do. She could continue to live in her little dream world.
Angie was so happy getting ready to marry Travis.
She loved him and loved how happy they were with the boys.
They loved doing things with him. He was helping them build a doghouse.
And hoped to get a puppy in the spring. They loved their kittens, or rather cats.
It really kept the mouse population under control, but they loved the idea of a dog.
The Buchanan kids had a beagle, and he barked and chased them all over the yard. That’s what they wanted, too.
In Travis’s spare time he was putting a rail across the loft, so that when the boys played up there this winter they wouldn’t fall and get hurt.
The boys loved the extra room to run and play.
They also liked helping Travis hammer the nails in with the small hammers he had brought with him for them to use.
They were ball peen hammers that Sam had suggested.
She had Chris and Cam use them when she had made the fence around the play yard and the doghouse several years ago.
They did a good job with them. Travis took her up on the idea.
The boys loved helping him and loved hammering the nails in.
They weren’t all that good about hitting the nails straight, but it didn’t seem to matter.
The rail was getting built and they were feeling good about helping their new father.
Angie was making them hot tea and cookies for making the rail for them all.
It was a good feeling. She loved Travis and loved the way he made her feel.
She couldn’t wait to marry him this spring.
She also couldn’t wait for his friend to come to Angel Falls.
She knew how much it meant to him to help him recover.
Abe and Logan had helped save his leg when he was hurt, he just wished he had been able to do the same for him.
The boys loved the sleds that Angie had given them for Christmas.
Travis showed them where to slide down the small hills and take them back up and slide back down.
The Buchanan boys joined them, and they were having a great time with Travis supervising them all.
It’s also when it started snowing again.
Travis had them slide down one more time and then head for home.
Travis was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to stop snowing this winter.
He had named the wolf cub Zeus, and he was running after the sleds. He scooped him up and they all headed for home.
He made sure Chris and Cam made it home safely and gave them Zeus to take care of and then took Will and Bobby home.
The snow was coming faster and faster. Travis was afraid that they were in for a Nor’easter.
He had the boys help him stack wood inside the kitchen wall and on the back porch for Angie to keep the home nice and warm.
He kissed her soundly and headed to the jail house to see what Red wanted him to do for the town.
Red was already bundled up to walk up and down the boardwalk to make sure that the older citizens were ready for the snowstorm with lots of wood stacked on their porches.
Travis nodded and the two men took off to see it done.
Already the snow was coming down harder than it had been.
Red took the east side of town, and Travis took the west side of town. They had no time to lose.
They seemed to be fighting a losing battle against the snow. They shoveled out wood and stacked it for the older citizens. Other neighbors helped, older boys helped. Nobody stood idly by. They all knew what a Nor’easter could do to anybody left outside in the cold and the snow.
Some even people put the shutters closed to help keep as much of the warmth from the fireplaces and cookstoves inside as much as possible.
Red and Travis finally got back to the jailhouse, and they both headed for home to get warm and to get to safety.
Tate was glad he was done for the day. He didn’t like it when he was out in weather like this.
He knew he was a grown man and didn’t take any chances, but he also had had to dig out grown men who had fallen in this snow and died because they couldn’t get up.
Travis was glad that Angie was taken care of and worried about them without him there to take care of them.
The blizzard lasted for five days. They didn’t think that it would ever stop snowing.
Then they had to worry about the weight on the roofs of all that snow.
Travis and Red started knocking the snow off the roofs of every roof in town before they collapsed.
Cal Long helped them and every one of his crew.
Travis was using skis to get from place to place.
Red wasn’t that good on skis; he walked on snowshoes.
It took him longer, but he got the job done.
Travis used a hook and threw it up onto the roof and caused the snow to fall by making an ‘avalanche’.
It was very basic, but it worked and everyone was glad that their roofs didn’t collapse.
Once they had all the town taken care of, they headed out to take care of the farms and ranches.
Cal volunteered to go with Travis on skis.
He was thrilled. He didn’t want to go alone.
He bundled up with extra warm clothes and carried a backpack with food, extra clothes, and extra blankets, just to be on the safe side.
They took off at dawn. It took them all day to ski to every farm and ranch near Angel Falls.
They knocked snow off of every house and barn they came to.
The farmers and ranchers were thrilled to have it knocked off.
They had several that had already tried and had fallen off.
Luckily they had fallen into the snow that softened the fall.
No serious injury had befallen them. Just some swollen ankles and injured pride.
Cal and Travis made it back after dark so tired they could hardly lift their skis to make it in the doors.
“Cal, I can’t tell you how much I appreciated you going with me. I couldn’t have made it without you. You ever need me for anything…you just tell me, and I’ll be there.” Travis told him and shook his hand.
“No problem. I couldn’t let you go out on your own.
I knew what a huge job it was going to be.
I wouldn’t be able to sleep with myself if I let you go alone.
You are a good deputy. I’m also glad that Angie is marrying a good man.
I just wish it could be me.” Cal told him and then they both left to go home and fall into bed.
They both slept more than ten hours. Their bodies needed the rest after what they had put them through the two days before.
Lydia hated the winter. Lydia hated all the snow.
Lydia hated the cold. But most of all she hated Angel Falls.
She was a very unhappy woman. She hadn’t made a single friend here in town, nor had she tried to.
She was lonely, she was miserable, and she was feeling sorry for herself.
She put on her coat, her boots, her scarf, hat, and gloves.
The snow didn’t scare her at all. All this talk about falling and not being able to get up was a joke.
Who ever heard of snow weighing so much that your roof would cave in on you?
They were just trying to scare all of them.
She’d show them all. She was going to go for a walk and get a drink at one of the saloons.
Women did it all the time in New Orleans.
The hell with what they thought of her. Nobody liked her anyway.
She walked out the door quietly without anyone hearing her leave.
The cold almost made her change her mind, but she was determined to get that drink.
Walking in the snow was harder than she thought.
It also tired her out. She was only halfway down the street when she looked back and saw how far she had gone.
Was that only how far she had walked? She thought she had walked farther…
much farther! She just put her head down and kept walking.
She didn’t notice her breath coming quicker and quicker or her steps getting shorter and shorter.
She was barely making any headway at all now.
She was so tired. She was just going to take a little break, and then she’d go the rest of the way to the saloon.
She knew that it would be nice and warm with all the people and the fireplaces and the wine would make her feel warm inside too.
She smiled just thinking about the drink she would order, and everyone would look at her and think how pretty she would be.
The men would be gentlemen in the saloon and there would be music to dance.
They would all want to dance with her. She would only dance with the handsomest men, and she would find out which ones were rich.
By the time she walked back home, she wouldn’t be so tired anymore.
She thought she only closed her eyes for a few minutes.
But the cold, and the tiredness from walking in the snow took over.
Hyperthermia set in…in thirty minutes, Lydia was so cold she couldn’t even talk or walk.
She fell into a dreamless sleep that she would never wake up from.
She got her wish; she would no longer be living in Angel Falls.
They didn’t discover her gone until they went to wake her up the next morning and discovered that she had never slept in her bed the night before. They searched the entire house, shop, and her room where she painted. It was Martha who discovered that her coat, boots, scarf, and gloves were gone.
“Surely, even Lydia isn’t stupid enough to go out in this frigid weather?
” Mavis asked her two girls. They all looked at their mother.
“Good Lord!” Mavis took her shotgun and shot it into the air to get the attention of the sheriff and his deputy.
They came immediately, but they found the body of Lydia in the snow on the way.
Travis thought it was the first time he had ever seen her with a smile on her face. He picked up the frozen body that was laying in the snow. He took it to the undertaker while Red went to tell Mavis the bad news. They both knew why she had shot the shotgun into the air.
“Red, I’m so glad you came. We can’t find Lydia…
we can’t believe that she would be so stupid as to go out in this frigid weather, but we need to find her before she freezes to death…
” Mavis stopped talking as Red was shaking his head.
“Why are you shaking your head? We don’t need to look for her… you already know where she is.”
“Mavis, honey, we found Lydia’s body on our way here.
She was frozen in the snow. It looks like she was walking away from the shop and your home.
Why, I don’t know, but she stopped to get her breath and never started up again.
We both know how quickly anyone can freeze to death up here in all this snow and the frigid air.
Travis took her to the undertaker. We can’t bury her in all his snow and the frozen ground.
We can put her in a casket and have a funeral if you want or we can wait till spring when it’s warmer.
That’s your call. I’m real sorry about this.
” Red told her and put his arm around her to comfort her. They had been friends for a long time.
“Oh, Red. We argued last night and I told her that she only loved herself and that she would never be happy with anyone unless they just gave her a chunk of money and she could spend it on herself. I feel so awful that those were the last words I spoke to her, they were the truth, but I still feel bad about it.” Mavis told him and leaned against his solid form.
“She wasn’t happy living here and having to do for herself.
But I didn’t want her to die. I don’t know what to do.
I don’t want anyone to go out in this weather to come to her funeral.
We’ll put her in a casket and wait till it gets warmer for her funeral. ”
“I think that’s best, Mavis. You let me know what I can do to help. You did your best with her and so did your girls. I’m real sorry that it ended like this, but in a way, she’s happy now.” Red told her and left to go back to being a sheriff.