A NEW YEAR... new beginnings? (Part 103b)

Under normal conditions it would probably take no more than five minutes to walk from the bank to Inez’s house. It took us twenty and that was to just be standing in the street in front of it. The street had been plowed but it had been a while and when they did they spread salt on it. That meant we were trudging through about two inches of slush. My feet were wet and VERY cold and my face felt like if I were to smile it might break. I tried to block the snow and wind from hitting Inez and held her arm as we walked. Stasia was on her other side and I guess we pretty much dragged her most of the way. It was snowing so hard that I could barely make out the house even though it was probably no more that 25 feet away from where we were standing. The problem we faced was the path the great grandson had dug from her porch to the street was now filled in with blowing snow. There was no way Inez could make it so I made my way to the porch to get the shovel. The snow was knee deep and it was very hard to make my way. As bad as it was for me I felt badly that Satsia and Inez were standing in the street being buffeted by the wind and snow.

It probably took as much as a half hour for us to be inside the house. My hands ached from the cold and I had no feeling in my feet. When Inez opened the door it was like a flashback for me. We were in a vestibule very much like in the house where I lived during my sophomore year at college. There was a very large piece of furniture that had a bench where Inez collapsed. Our faces were so cold it was almost impossible to talk. I could only remember being that cold once in my life.

There was so much snow still on us we had to take our coats off before going inside. Once there Inez told me where I could find blankets which we promptly wrapped around ourselves. Without exaggeration I was fearful about how cold we’d all become. My hands and feet were now burning. Right or wrong I decided that what we all needed was to drink something warm so went into the kitchen and warmed up some water for us to drink. I think this was the longest that Inez had been quiet all day.

It took about an hour to be reasonably warm. It was during this period of time I got a chance to look around. The furniture was definitely antique and similar to my grandfather’s. The layout of the rooms was a combination of my grandfather’s house and that of the German professor’s house I lived in at college. What I would call the living room was, to Inez, the parlor and there was another room right behind it separated by two sliding pocket doors. They were pulled together with an opening about the size of a normal door between them. I could see a bed in there and that reminded me of what my father had done for my grandfather.

Poor Inez was still shivering in spite of the blankets and warm water. When I’d reached that point I realized that none of us had eaten anything since breakfast. I had never cooked anything except to warm water and Stasia was about the same so it was up to Inez. We got her out to the kitchen and she scrambled some eggs for us. I was never a big fan of eggs cooked in any fashion but they sure tasted good about then. Stasia called her aunt and I called Elle. She was doing well but worried about me. I described how much snow we had and she said she didn’t think that there was that much at home.

Unfortunately, with the warming came a return of Inez’s voice and Stasia and I were trapped. There was some relief around the time it got dark as the grandson showed up with some bread, milk and eggs. He was able to tell us that about 16 or 17 inches of snow had fallen and that the main road had been blocked with multiple drifts during the afternoon. It was while he was there that I got the distinct impression that Inez lived on eggs.

I wasn’t far off as that was what we were offered for supper. At least we had toast to add to the eggs. More stories from Inez followed. At around 8pm she declared that she was going to bed and told us there were two bedrooms upstairs and indicated that she wanted us to leave. She said that one had a bed that was made up and the other didn’t but there were blankets. I looked at Stasia and rolled my eyes. It did get a slight smile.

There was no doubt about the age of the house. The doors to the rooms had thumb latches. The bathroom was at the head of the stairs and when I walked in it was somewhat reminiscent of the one at my grandfather’s. There was a footed bathtub, a pedestal sink and a toilet and one light bulb in the ceiling with a pull chain. It was broken and even with me being over 6 feet tall i had to stretch to reach it. The fixtures seemed lost because of the size of the room, probably 10’ by 10’. It had probably been another bedroom when the house was built and there was no indoor plumbing. From there we walked down the hall to the bedroom facing the street. There was a fireplace with the opening closed off and a double bed with a high headboard and footboard. In seeing it I thought I was back at my grandfather’s upstairs bedroom. As on the first floor there were pocket doors on rollers. These were pulled together. Like the bathroom there was a single light bulb in the middle of the ceiling. On the far side of the bed was a small Tiffany lamp. It was pretty spartan. The bed appeared to be made up so I told Stasia to take it and I retreated to the back bedroom.

It was a bit of a shock. The room was basically the same size as the front one but the only furniture in it was a single bed... nothing else. My guess was that the furniture had been moved to the first floor for Inez. I’d told Stasia to use the bathroom first and that when I was done I’d turn out the light. If there was any conversation between the two of us I don’t remember it.

To be continued...