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SNOWFLAKE stretch road long private

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The following piece of fiction contains strong sexual

content and is meant to be read only by adults. If you

are not at least 18 years old, or if you are offended by

this type of material, please do not read any further.

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"Snow Flake"

by DG

Christmas Eve in the Adirondacks, and the snow was coming

down hard, big fat flakes that reflected the light from my

headlights into a sparkling display. The flakes were swirling

gently toward the ground, since the night was perfectly still,

but the motion of my truck made them stream past the windshield

in a mesmerizing rush, like that computer screensaver that was so

popular a few years back.

This thought reminded me of my own computer and monitor,

firmly belted into the back seats like a pair of precious

children, and from there my thoughts turned once again to my

thesis, and to the mountain of work that awaited me over the next

two weeks.

It had all happened so suddenly: I was a typical lazy grad

student, finishing up my Ph.D. research at a leisurely pace and

just starting to think about writing it all up, and then, out of

the blue, I get offered a great job. A dream job. Just one

catch: they need me report to work in less than a month, Ph.D.

certificate in hand. I had reluctantly decided that my only hope

of writing a 200 page dissertation in such a short time was to

seclude myself in my parent's cabin, away from the distractions

of the holiday season.

The truck shimmied and started to slide off to the right as

I hit a deeper snowdrift, and I reluctantly slowed down again.

For the first time, I admitted to myself that I was getting

nervous about the snow. I still had several miles to go, and the

last stretch of road, a long private driveway, was going to be

very hairy. I turned on the radio to search for a weather

report, twisting the dial several times before finding anything

but static.

"...power outages throughout the area have put police,

fire, and rescue services on full alert. Once again, the

National Weather Service predicts additional accumulations

of up to three feet by morning for most of the southern

Adirondack region. Police are cautioning people not to go

out onto the roads for any reason..."

That was just great. I turned the radio off in disgust,

deciding to concentrate fully on driving. As long as I didn't

slide off the road, I should be fine. My four-wheel-drive truck

was designed for just these sort of conditions, if you could

believe the commercials, and once I got to the cabin I would be

set for days. Surrounded by a cocoon of snow, there would be

nothing to distract me from pounding out my thesis.

Something caught my eye off the right, outside of the

bright cone of my headlights. A yellowish glow, apparently

coming from the ground near the treeline. I drove for another

few seconds while my brain processed what I had seen, and then I

swore out loud and carefully braked to a stop.

After grabbing the flashlight out of the glove compartment,

I hurriedly got out of the truck, feeling like I was wasting

precious time. It was well after sunset, and the combination of

the snowstorm and the distance from any civilization created a

suffocating blanket of darkness and silence that city dwellers

never experience. I swung the flashlight back and forth as I

jogged back along my own tire tracks, hearing my heart pound in

my ears.

Then I saw it: a diffuse yellow glow coming from under a

large, rounded drift of snow. The car had probably gone off the

road within the last few hours, and it was already completely

buried, only its headlights giving any clue as to its presence.

I scrambled down off the roadway and found myself wading

through chest-high drifts as I approached the eerie patch of

glowing snow. There was something sticking up a bit from the

rest of the shape, and when I brushed the snow away I saw it was

a tire. Wonderful: the car was upside down.

Working quickly, I dug down into the snow along the side of

the car with my hands and feet, exposing a door and then a window

of what appeared to be a late model sports-utility vehicle. I

lay on my stomach, leaned down into the hole I had just cleared,

and shone the flashlight into the window. An upside-down face,

as white as a sheet, was inches away on the other side of the

glass, and I was so startled that I let out a high-pitched

shriek.

It took me another five minutes to clear enough snow away

from the door to wedge it open. The person, whose age or gender

I hadn't yet determined, was hanging upside down, firmly belted

into the driver's seat. I wormed my way into the car, almost

losing my flashlight at one point, and determined that there was

only the one occupant.

"Are you all right?" I shouted, feeling like an idiot. No

response. 'Are you alive' was more to the point. The face

looked chalky and stiff, and the eyes were half open and staring

straight ahead unresponsively - the close resemblance to a corpse

couldn't be ignored. On the other hand, the car didn't appear to

badly damaged so it seemed likely that the belted-in person

hadn't been injured in the original accident.

I fumbled for the seatbelt release, and quickly discovered

what the situation was. The woman (yes, I had decided the person

was a young female) had fastened her belt with the release button

facing inward instead of outward. No big deal, unless you get

happen to get flipped upside down. The weight of her body

against the belt had made it impossible for her to press the

button, and so she had dangled here helplessly, like a side of

beef slowly cooling inside a meat locker, as the snow buried her

car.

My fingers quickly grew numb as I tried unsuccessfully to

reach the button, and a wave of panic and claustrophobia started

building inside me. Finally I stopped, took a few deep breaths,

and realized what I had to do. I put my hand on her stomach and

pushed upward, taking enough of the load off the belt so that

finally, with a feeling of triumph, I was able to pop open the

release. The body then fell on top of me, flattening me against

the roof of the car and knocking the wind out of me.

Under much different circumstances it might have been funny:

my moment of success immediately followed by an easily

foreseeable pratfall. I wasn't laughing, though. I rolled the

body off me and inched my way back out the partly-open door,

dragging the victim along feet-first behind me.

By the time I staggered back to my own truck with the woman

awkwardly slung over my shoulder there was six inches of snow on

it. Using the surge of strength that desperation conveniently

provides, I opened the passenger door and positioned the woman

inside. Then I ran around to the driver's side, started the

engine, and turned the heater on full blast.

Driving slowly, I made it to the turnoff leading up to my

parent's cabin without incident.

"Here goes nothing," I said out loud. I aimed the truck at

the narrow opening and gunned the engine to plow through the

large drift left by an earlier snowplow. Once I made it onto the

winding driveway, I found the traction better than I had

expected. Concentrating fiercely, I swung the truck along the

path, anticipating each turn as much as possible so as not to

lose valuable momentum. If I had to stop, it was unlikely I

would be able to start up again.

Just when I was starting to feel optimistic, I felt the

truck sink into a patch of softer snow. My speed dropped, until

I was just crawling along, and then there was the sickening whine

of tires spinning with no traction.

"Fuck!" I pounded the steering wheel in frustration. The

inside of the car was sweltering now, and I felt a bead of sweat

run down the side of my face.

"N-N-N-ow what?" Despite the chattering teeth, the voice

was calm, with a hint of humor in it. Normally I would have been

intrigued.

"Jesus! That's twice you've startled me. How long have you

been awake?"

"I-I-I'm n-not sure. A few minutes, I g-guess. Y-You

seemed so int...intent on d-driving, I d-didn't want to bother

you."

I took a closer look at my passenger: a small white face,

with pink spots of color just appearing on her cheeks. Short

brown hair, brown eyes. Probably very pretty, when she was above

room temperature.

"Well, this is the end of the line," I said. "We won't get

out of this drift without a shovel and some daylight to see what

we're doing."

"W-Where are we? A-Are we going to die?"

"Die? No, I don't think so." I took a closer look out the

window, and realized we were closer to the cabin than I had

thought. "It's only about a quarter of a mile farther. I think

I can carry you from here."

"M-m-my hero." Her smile was sweet, and unexpectedly wide,

like Julia Roberts. Then her eyes closed, and her small body

seemed to slump down into the seat. I summoned to mind what I

knew about hypothermia, and realized she wasn't out of the woods.

Literally or figuratively.

******

The cabin was originally built by my great-grandfather in

the 1920s, and it has been a work in progress ever since. What

started as a rustic two-room shack has been expanded and updated

by each succeeding generation, and the current version is a

comfortable four-room structure with indoor plumbing and

electricity. I carried the unconscious woman (who's name I

hadn't yet gleaned) up to the porch and managed to unlock and

open the door, causing a huge drift of snow collapse into the

kitchen. To my relief, the electricity was working.

After laying the cold, limp body on the couch, I quickly

built a fire in the Franklin stove, filling it up with prime, dry

oak. I waited until it was roaring and crackling cheerfully, and

then I adjusted the flues to let the stove heat up and went into

the bathroom to find a thermometer.

Before I even finished taking her temperature, the bluish

tinge to her lips told me all I needed to know. Ninety-one

degrees, about eight degrees below normal, and well into the

range for hypothermia. When the human body temperature falls

below a certain level, natural responses like an increased heart

rate and shivering no longer work, and piling on blankets is

ineffective. More aggressive measures are needed, or the person

could die. Yes, I was a boy Scout.

"I hope I can explain this to you later," I said. I sat her

up and took off her sweater, and then her shoes. She was wearing

jeans and a loose white t-shirt underneath. Feeling like a

criminal, I unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down, making sure

to leave her panties in place. She opened her eyes and stared at

me dully, but didn't say anything.

I quickly took off my own clothes, leaving just my

underwear, and then I lifted off her t-shirt. She wasn't wearing

a bra, and I felt a jolt of guilty pleasure when I saw her small,

round breasts.

"I'm going to share my body heat with you now," I said

brightly. "Got to get your temperature up!" I sounded like a

nurse cajoling a balky Alzheimer's patent.

I lay down next to her on the couch and pulled her up

against me, face-to-face.

"Holy shit!"

It was like hugging a block of ice. On the plus side, I no

longer felt quite so guilty - this was going to be an ordeal

after all. Gritting my teeth, I pulled a thick blanket over us

and maximized our flesh-on-flesh contact.

Well, it was an ordeal for the first hour or so. Then, as

our body temperatures equilibrated and the living room warmed up,

I finally fell asleep, lulled by the crackling fire and tired

from the tense drive.

******

"Excuse me..."

I found myself looking into a big brown pair of female eyes

just a few inches away from my own. My patient appeared to have

pulled through. I had my left arm encircled around her slim

body, and I could feel her breasts pressed against my chest, skin

on skin. Pretty cozy for a couple of strangers.

"Oh, you're awake," I said. Nice opener.

"Yeah, finally." She smiled at me, and my heart did a

little flip-flop. She had a great smile. "Thanks for rescuing

me, Alan."

"You're very welcome. How're you feeling?"

"I was shivering like crazy for over an hour - I'm surprised

that didn't wake you up. But I feel fine now."

"You certainly feel a lot warmer than before." As I came

fully awake I realized that not only were our torsos in contact,

but our legs were intertwined as well, and that I had an

erection. Embarrassed, I tried to subtly shift my hips to keep

from poking her.

"You saved my life, Alan. Thank you." She kissed me on the

cheek.

I realized what had been nagging at me. "I don't remember

telling you my name..."

"It is Alan, isn't it?"

"Yep. But when did I tell you?"

"I guess you didn't." She paused for a second, and then

said "I'm psychic. Just so we're even, my name is Dee."

She didn't seem to be kidding.

"Um, psychic? Really? You read my mind to get my name?"

"You don't believe me." She didn't seem offended.

"Well...I'm a scientist. We don't believe in that sort of

thing," I said carefully.

"I know."

"Uh-huh, I guess you would. So tell me, Dee, what else have

you figured out about me?"

She looked at me seriously. "Well, let's see. You're very

nice and very intelligent. But lately you've been under a lot of

pressure, and you haven't quite been yourself. You feel like

you're at a crossroads in your life - and you have a very

important decision to make."

Not bad, actually. "That's true as far as it goes," I said.

"But that's pretty vague. Could just be good guesses based on

observation."

She wrinkled her nose playfully. "You science types are the

toughest to convince." She put her hand on the side of my face

and closed her eyes. "Let's see..."

The movement caused the blanket to fall away from her

shoulder, and I could see her right breast, firm and round like a

young girl's, a tan areola and a small brown nipple. I gave up

on controlling my erection.

After a few seconds she gave me a funny look and said "I'm

not really getting anything else right now."

"Well, let me know if you come up with anything."

"I will. Oh wait...now I'm getting something..." Her

other hand closed around my cock through the thin cotton of my

underwear, and I gasped and froze, taken completely by surprise.

"You're attracted to me!" She giggled like a little girl,

her whole face contorted with mischievous delight. Her smile was

so infectious that I was smiling back at her without even

realizing it.

"Brilliant deduction, Ms. Holmes."

"Thank you." Her hand left my cock, and I felt a flash of

disappointment, but it was only to slip it under the waistband

and touch me directly.

"This is moving rather quickly, isn't it?" I regretted it

as soon as I said it. One of my many faults is a tendency to be

overcautious and analytical. Why couldn't I just react like a

man and let nature take its course?

"I want to give you a reward," she said. Under the blanket

her touch was feathery and just slightly cool, making my cock

twitch and strain. Although I had engaged in my share of casual

sex over the years, I had never slept with what could fairly be

described as a complete stranger. But something about Dee made

it seem natural and right. Maybe it was the utter lack of self-

consciousness on her part - her uncomplicated delight in the

prospect of sharing physical pleasure. Or maybe it was the

crackling firelight and the blanket of snow that insulated us

from the rest of the world. And on some level I probably felt

that I did deserve a reward, according to a sort of caveman code

of ethics that predated the age of chivalry by thousands of

years.

I brushed my hand across her breasts, playing with the

nipples that I had been feeling against my chest, making them

grow and harden. She wriggled out of her panties, and helped me

out of my underwear, and then she lay on top me, her body seeming

to conform itself against mine. My cock was an anxious pole

between her thighs, and she slowly slid herself back against it,

aligning herself by feel, until I felt the head pressing against

her warm sex.

When I was fully inside her she sat up, and we squirmed

against each other, my cock never sliding very far out of her

tight, warm embrace, until, sensing my impending climax, she

reached around and massaged by balls as they emptied themselves

inside her.

"Now that we have that out of the way," she said a little

while later, as we were eating peanut butter sandwiches and

drinking hot cider, "I have a little confession to make."

"What's that?"

"Before, when I said I wasn't getting a reading from

you...that wasn't true. I actually sensed something troubling

you deeply. But I wanted to give you your reward before I

mentioned it."

"Well I can certainly forgive you for that," I said, meaning

every word. "I'm not surprised you got some negative vibes -

I've got to really put my nose to the grindstone to get my

dissertation finished." I explained to her about my graduate

research, and about the recent job offer with an expiration date

shorter than ground beef.

She daintily licked a smudge of peanut butter off her finger

and took a sip of cider. "Maybe it's none of my business, but I

sensed something else besides your worry about finishing your

thesis. Something darker...more sinister."

"Sinister?" I tried to keep my voice light, but I couldn't

seem to look her in the eye. I kept having to remind myself that

I didn't believe in psychic abilities. How the hell had she

known my name, anyway?

"I sensed a deep moral ambiguity about something to do with

your research. And when a scientist has a deep moral ambiguity,

that to me is sinister. Tell me about your research - what

exactly are you doing?"

"I study the replication of viruses. My research is aimed

at developing ways to synthesize large amounts of a virus in a

laboratory. It should help in the search for vaccinations, cures

for deadly viral infections - any research involving viruses."

"Sounds like messing with mother Nature to me."

I shrugged. "In a way, that's true. Messing with mother

Nature has given us modern medicine."

"And the atomic bomb."

I decided to change the subject. "Your turn to tell me

something about yourself. All I know about you is that you're

generous and warmhearted, but a lousy driver. Oh yes, and

psychic."

"Not so fast...we're not finished with you yet." She rubbed

her bare foot along the inside of my leg. "I still want to know

what's troubling you. Tell me about this job you're going to

take."

I sighed, not really wanting to get into it. "It's a

prestigious research lab outside Washington. They've developed

hundreds of patents and made several major breakthroughs in

genetic research. They get hundreds of applications from

scientists to work there; I was lucky to get an offer."

"What do they do with viruses?"

I didn't answer for a few seconds. What, indeed, did

GenTech want with a viral researcher? "To learn how to design

new types of viruses," I said. Had I ever really thought this

through?

"Why would anyone want to do that? What benefit would new

viruses have?"

"It's not that simple...viruses are the most basic form of

life, and we need to understand how to manipulate them, to lay

the groundwork for future advances in genetics."

"But couldn't someone use this research to design deadly

viruses that could be used against people?"

"Theoretically, that would be possible, I guess. But that's

not what it will be used for, believe me."

"I wish I could believe you," she said softly, looking very

sad. "But you don't believe it yourself. This is what's

creating all the negative psychic energy that I'm sensing."

I marshalled my thoughts, preparing to defend myself with

rational arguments, but she let out a huge yawn and leaned her

head on my shoulder, and I realized she was completely exhausted.

"Let's go to sleep," I said, kissing the top of her head.

"We can talk about it more in the morning."

We climbed into the big oak bed and she fell asleep

instantly. It wasn't quite so easy for me, and when I did

finally fall asleep I was plagued by strange dreams.

******

I woke up with bright sunshine in my eyes and the sound of

flowing water gurgling in my ears. I lay motionless for a few

moments, warm and comfortable under the goosedown comforter, yet

strangely disoriented. Eventually I figured out that the slim,

brown-haired girl snoring gently next to me was my grateful ward,

and that the sound was melting snow from the roof dripping into

the gutters.

I slipped out of bed and looked out the window. Last

night's dark, suffocating landscape, glimpsed occasionally

through flickering artificial light, had been transformed into a

brilliant, sparkling wonderland. The virgin snow lay perched in

thick, improbably-balanced piles on every vertical surface,

giving a comical appearance to the surrounding forest.

I slipped back into bed and Dee opened her eyes and smiled

sleepily at me.

"Merry Christmas," I said, smiling back. "Or whatever you

like to celebrate this time of year."

"Happy Winter Solstice, Alan."

"No offense, but that doesn't have much of a ring to it.

How does one celebrate the winter solstice?"

"I was hoping you would ask me that..."

She proceeded to explain to me, with extensive physical

demonstrations, how ancient peoples had long held uninhibited

celebrations and performed acts of fertility to mark the shortest

day of the year and to ensure the return of spring and another

growing season.

When I finished pumping my last ounce of semen into her

warm, inviting loins, we threw our clothes on and ventured

outside. The temperature was well into the forties, a true

winter thaw directly on the heels of the worst snowstorm I had

experienced. The snow, although still several feet thick, had

compacted into a firm, glistening carpet that we could walk on

easily.

"It's so beautiful!" she gasped. She turned around

completely, almost losing her balance, her mouth open with

childlike wonder. "This day is like a gift. Or maybe it's a

sign."

I looked at the section of woods that I had been

tramping around in all my life, that had been in my family for

generations. Squinting against the glare, I tried to see it

through her eyes. To my surprise, I was successful - it looked

like a magical land out of a fairy tale. For a moment I felt the

beauty and complexity of nature all around me, and I had a sense

of my own place in the greater scheme of life. I suddenly felt

as if a great weight had been lifted off me.

"I've been thinking," I said. "Maybe I won't take that job

after all. Let some other schmuck figure out how to wipe out the

human race."

"Oh, Alan..." She jumped into my arms, almost knocking me

over, and gave me a long kiss. "I'm so happy...for your sake."

We wandered around the property for an hour or so, laughing

and joking, and I showed her the first tree I had ever climbed,

the place where owls had been nesting for as long as anyone could

remember, and the little clearing where deer gathered early in

the morning.

After a while we began to feel cold despite the sunshine,

and we went back inside, holding hands. Dee went into bathroom

to take a shower, and I put on a pot of coffee and sat down on

the couch to try to sort out my thoughts, which were spinning

wildly in a hundred different directions.

As the coffee finished perking I noticed a low-pitched

whining sound, faint but steadily growing louder. I looked out

the window and saw a man on a snowmobile approaching. He stopped

and dismounted a good hundred yards away, and proceeded to

inspect the cabin carefully through a pair of binoculars. There

was something vaguely familiar about him, particularly the odd,

turned-up style of his fur hat, and I realized it was the local

sheriff, whom my family had known for years.

I opened the front door, waved, and called out "Sheriff

Braxton, hello."

He dropped his binoculars in surprise and then waved back.

"Why hello, Alan, I didn't expect to find you here."

"I drove up from Cornell last night to work on my Ph.D.

thesis. Thought I would be more productive if I got away from

the campus. I guess I should have checked the weather forecast

first."

He came up and shook my hand, breathing heavily, a red-faced

man in his late fifties who looked more like a banker or a lawyer

than a cop.

"That was a hell of blizzard wasn't it? Almost a record

breaker. And now today it's more like Easter than Christmas.

That El Nino thing, no doubt. Anyway, I saw the smoke from your

chimney this morning and thought maybe I had myself an escapee."

"What?"

"Somebody escaped from the Van Sigel complex last night.

They had a power outage during the storm and when they got things

sorted out they were one short on the head count and a staff

vehicle was missing."

I smiled. "Must be a pretty low security prison if the guy

could just drive off."

"No, no, it's not a prison, it's more of a, how should I

say, a mental health facility. A loony bin, if you'll pardon the

expression. And it wasn't a man, it was a woman, if you can

believe that."

"A woman...?" My knees suddenly felt weak, and my heart

turned over heavily in my chest. Behind me, through the open

front door, I could hear the faint sound of the shower running.

"Ayup. Caucasian female, aged twenty-seven, presumed to be

driving a white Jeep Cherokee. Your place is one of the few

turnoffs before the roadblock we had set up, so when I saw

someone was here..."

So she's the same age as me - that's funny, she seems

younger, I thought to myself. I wanted very badly to sit down.

The sheriff had a polite, expectant look on his face, and

I realized he had asked me something. Had I seen a woman

driving a white Jeep last night?

"Um, no, I didn't see much of anything last night -

visibility was close to zero. Almost didn't make it up here -

truck got stuck on the driveway, had to walk the rest of the

way."

He nodded sympathetically. "Didn't think so. Oh well,

she'll turn up soon, I'm sure, once her medication wears off,

unless she wandered off into the woods and got herself froze to

death."

I swallowed hard, and said "These patients...are they

dangerous?"

He shrugged. "Wouldn't think so, no. They aren't violent,

I don't think, they just aren't in touch with reality.

Psychotic, I guess is the term. You know..." He twirled his

finger next to his head and winked at me.

I gave him a weak smile in return. "Sorry you wasted a

trip."

"Oh, no, that's all right. It was nice to see you again,

Alan. Give your folks my best."

He trudged back to the snowmobile, but before he reached it

he turned and took a few steps back toward me.

"Oh, Alan, one more thing - I almost forgot..."

He wants to come inside, I thought, with absolute

certainty. He wants to use the phone, or maybe the bathroom.

Part of me was relieved, part of me tried to think of an excuse

to send him away.

"Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas to you too, sir."

He climbed awkwardly onto the snowmobile, gunned it to life,

and followed his own tracks back into the woods and out of sight.

Dee came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, wrapped in

a big, fluffy towel, her hair still damp. "Your turn," she said

gaily. "Hurry up and get clean, so we can go into the bedroom

and get all messy again." She poured herself a cup of coffee

while I just stood and watched her.

"Aren't you expected somewhere? Isn't someone going to be

worried about you?"

She shook her head. "Not really. I wasn't going to arrive

at my aunt's house until late today. I can just call her and

explain the situation. Why, is something wrong?"

"You just haven't told me very much about yourself, that's

all. I'm not psychic, remember? Or maybe I am...wait, lets

see..." I put my fingers to my forehead. "Yes, I'm getting

something...you're twenty-seven years old. Not much of an

insight, I know, but I'm new at this." My voice was dripping

with sarcasm.

"What a strange thing to say...what's going on, why are you

acting like this all of a sudden?"

"You didn't tell me if I was right."

"For your information, I'm only twenty-three, so don't quit

your day job. I'd show you my driver's license, but my purse is

still in the car." She was getting agitated now.

"Right, I guess I forgot to grab it when I was dragging you

out - sorry."

"I didn't say you should have grabbed it - that's

ridiculous! Alan, I told you how grateful I am for saving my

life - why are you so hostile all of a sudden?"

I opened my mouth to tell her about Sheriff Braxton's visit,

to tell her that I knew the truth. But I took a deep breath

instead, and then said "I'm sorry, Dee. This has been a very

confusing twenty-four hours for me. I need to do some thinking."

She nodded wordlessly, her eyes glistening with tears.

"Why don't you get dressed and have some breakfast," I said.

"I'm going to go see if I can get my truck the rest of the way up

here now that the snow is melting. My computer and all my

supplies are still in the back."

"OK." She turned and walked into the bedroom. I felt

hollow and deflated, like I had just come down from a wonderful

high. Whatever magic we had shared was gone.

I grabbed a shovel and headed down the driveway, filled with

anger and confusion. I do something good, save someone's life,

and now I'm the one who's going to be in trouble for harboring a

fugitive. I thought about Dee's evasive answers regarding her

past, and her ridiculous claims to be psychic. Just add two

letters to psychic and you get psychotic. I thought about

GenTech, a perfectly respectable company with no plans whatsoever

to destroy mankind. And I though about how right it had felt

when Dee and I made love that first time on the couch.

The truck was stuck on the outside edge of a sharp right

turn, at the top of an embankment. I had been lucky not to go

right off the driveway. It looked like it would be pretty easy

to get it moving - I just needed to dig out around the wheels. I

went to work, glad to have something physical to do, but the snow

was heavy and slippery, and the digging was harder than I had

expected.

"Damn her and her stupid psychic intuitions," I said,

slamming the shovel into the snow.

"Damn my stupid research project." I yanked out a heaping

shovel-full.

"And God-damn this fucking snow..." I turned and hurled the

snow down the embankment, almost wrenching my back. It landed on

a big mound of snow at the base of a tree with a strange, wet

thud. Then, like a miniature avalanche, a big pile of snow slid

off the side of the mound, revealing the back end of a white Jeep

Cherokee.

Time stood still for a few seconds, and then my mind slowly

began working again. I remembered Sheriff Braxton saying that

our turnoff was one of the last ones before the roadblock. I

also remembered how the drive had been easier than I expected,

until I reached this particular curve. Because someone had

already been this way, clearing a path through the snow.

I stumbled down to the Jeep and looked in the back window,

feeling a sense of deja vu. But this truck was empty.

"I'm such a fucking idiot!" I shouted. The words echoed

mockingly through the woods. I clawed my way back up the

embankment and started running back up the driveway, my feet

sliding around on the slick wet snow and my breath rasping in my

ears.

When I was within sight of the cabin I started shouting her

name, and she came to the front door as I approached.

"Alan, what is it?"

I was so out of breath that all I could do was look at her

and pant. Finally I gasped "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

She walked out into the snow in her bare feet and put her

arms around me, and held me patiently as my gasps turned into

sobs. Eventually I was able to explain the situation to her, and

she turned pale and held me even closer.

******

Dee's Aunt Carmen lived in a comfortable Victorian house

with a wooden sign out front that read "Psychic Readings, Dream

Interpretations, Past-Life Regressions."

Carmen turned out to be an attractive woman in her middle

forties with smooth, light-olive skin and a friendly smile. If

she was surprised or dismayed to see her niece show up for dinner

escorted by a strange man, she didn't show it. She welcomed me

inside her home with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks, and I

embarked on my next research project, which was to learn all

there was to know about Deanna Frazier, my Christmas angel.

They found the frozen body of the runaway mental patient the

day after Christmas, in the woods about a mile from the Jeep,

just as Sheriff Braxton had predicted.

The End, "Snow Flake"

©1997 by DG. All rights reserved.

Author's notes:

1) "Jeep" is a trademark of the Chrysler Corporation. Jeeps

have a nasty tendency to hurtle off the road into snowbanks.

Just kidding.

2) The Adirondacks are a mountain range in northern New York

State, which give their name to the surrounding region.

Adirondack State Park is the largest state park in the US.

3) I took the sign in front of Aunt Carmen's house from an

Elmore Leonard book. In fact, several of my stories have

something from an Elmore Leonard book in them. Somehow I doubt

Dutch will ever find out.

4) Thanks to Baird Allen, I have a nice web page with all my

stories on it. Please drop by and check it out some time:

http://baird.pair.com/dg.htm