Seven miles.  Seven miles from the car.  Seven miles to a cabin we had never seen.

Allison had to pause.  “My hip hurts,” she whimpered.  The inky sky stained the tops of the trees.

“We may sleep outside tonight,” my mind raced.  I knew we were on the lake, but I didn’t know which cabin was ours.  The frozen cove we were snow shoeing across faced southwest toward the fleeting sun.  The prospect of checking the cabin numbers in the fading light filled me with dread. The good husband in me thought, “Say something positive.”

“We’re almost there.  This is definitely the lake.  We’ll just head to the point.”  I had no idea.

Snow machines were cruising back toward the road.  They were on the far side of the lake.  Their whine emasculated me.  I had hiked my wife into the wilderness to die.  But, one of them turned.

Chung, chung, chung, chung, mocked the engine.  “You two need help?” The good Samaritan’s coveralls and scarf betrayed kind eyes.  His snow machine drug the remains of an ice fishing stand.  I saw no fish.

“We are headed to cabin number two for the weekend.  I think it is one of those three on the shore,” I called out over the engine.

“Would anyone like a lift?”  Before I could calculate a response Allison get on board the machine.  I consented, “I will be very grateful if you take her to the cabin.”  And with that, they sped off four hundred yards to cabin number two.  I saw Allison unload and open the door.  The good Samaritan even unloaded the fire wood we were dragging on the door step.

Within twenty minutes, we had a fire going in the wood stove and water boiling for hot cider.  The wooden platform for our bedspreads slanted toward the wall.  Our toes were two inches higher than our heads.  I can’t sleep inverted so in the middle of the night I reversed my sleeping pad.  I shivered as I heard howls and yips over the lake.  But, I put my childish fears to sleep

I woke when the lazy sun crept through the windows. My eyes adjusted to the white lake.  There were dog sled teams racing a looping course.  The mushers were happy.  Everyone was very alive.