A Time in Heaven (19 page)

Jesse took her in his arms. 
They made love with such tenderness they hadn’t experienced before.  They truly became one
that cold February morning
. 

Over the next few days, the lovers were inseparable.  Jesse wished that he had met Katie years ago.  He thought how different his life might have been if she had been at his side
from the beginning
.
He admittedly loved his first two wives but there had never been the feeling of being totally joined with them.  As time went by, each
one of them went their own way
which wasn’t in the same direction he was going. Jesse felt more connected with Katie.  Maybe it was wishful thinking, but he didn’t think they would ever go in different directions.

At breakfast
one frigid
morning
, Jesse checked his watch and noticed that
the calendar read February 13 - t
he day before
Valentine Day
.  He smiled think
ing about their love-making the past
couple of days. 
It seemed fitting that the day for lover
s would be
tomorrow.  He would make it a celebration of his love for Katie.

“What’s that grin all about?” Katie asked as she brought
a pot
of
coffee to the table.  “What are you up to?”

“Nothing, just thinking,” Jesse
innocently
answered, while he poured the coffee.

Katie knew better.  She had been thinking about the passion that they shared, too.  The past few days truly felt like they were in Heaven.  She knew it was important for them to remember the hard times they had endured since they arrive
d
, especially the loss of their son. It was time for them to move on, building the connection between them.

“
What can I do that will
just
blow her away
?’ Jesse pondered to himself
as he drank his coffee
.  “
Not much to do in a snow bound cabin, except what we have been doing
.”
Jesse smiled with a sparkle in his eyes
as he looked at Katie.

She smiled back.  She even thought she might be blushing.  “What are we goi
ng to do today?”  She
asked.  Jesse gave out a loud, somewhat dirty laugh. “Oh, you know what I mean, Jesse!”  They both laughed
somewhat embarrassed.

Katie tried to get the conversation to go in a different direction by saying, “I need to do some laundry today.  I think some of our clothes could probably stand up by themselves.  Do you want to help?”

“Sure.  It sounds like fun.
”  He took a deep breath. “
Do you think when the clothes are clean, Sadie could get a bath?”  He bent down from his chair to give her a pat on the head.  She gave him an unknowing tail wag.

They went about
the day
d
oing their chores.  All the while
, Jesse was trying to develop some kind of awesome Valentine’s Day plan.  By evening he had it all sorted out in his head.

As the dawn was breaking
the next morning
, Jesse silently left their bed.  After he showered, he took a look in the mirror scratching his scruffy beard. 
He couldn’t remember the last time that he had shaved.
He made the decision to shave it off this morning.

When he finished he took another look in the mirror.  Stroking his chin, and turning his head from side to side, he said, “Lookin’ good!”
He gave himself two thumbs up.

He put the coffee o
n to brew and took Sadie out for a walk
.  The sun was shining through the pines and dancing off the new
snow that had fallen during the
night.  Jesse was feeling pretty good this morning.  There was a distinct bounce in his step and a sparkle in his eyes. “Some fine day, hey Sadie?”  Even the fresh wolf tracks around the lodge didn’t shake him.

Heart-shaped pancakes were on the menu for this day for lovers.  It took Jesse a couple of tries to get the shape to resemble something that looked like a heart.  He finally got it right.  He had everything ready – the pancakes with strawberry jam, Canadian bacon and powdered eggs.  He made each one of them a plate and put it on a serving tray.  Two cups of freshly brewed coffee finished the menu. “Wait.  I saw canned fruit
.”  Jesse opened the can he had found in the store and put it in a bowl.  He put the bowl in the center of the serving tray as a center piece.

Jesse took the tray of food upstairs to serve his love a romantic breakfast in bed.  He pushed open the
bedroom
door with his shoulder.

Katie wa
s just waking.  “Good morning, my sweet l
ady,” Jesse announced.  “Ready for your Valentine Day breakfast?”

She sat up and tried to straighten her hair a bit.  “You’re so sweet.
” She took her first good look at him,
“I
see you shaved your beard off.
” She pondered for a second.
 
“
I like it.” 

Jesse brought their breakfast to the bed.
She
saw the shape of the pancakes.  She got a little emotional
to think that he went to all this trouble for her
.  Jesse put down the tray on the bed and went to her to kiss away the tear that ran down her cheek.

They ate what was probably the most romantic meal ever eaten at Heaven.  Jesse fed Katie the meal that he had made for her.  Each bite was followed by a kiss.  Katie really didn’t care what kind of food was going into her mouth. It was his kisses that were so
sweet, and
the look of love in his eye
s that gave her all
she needed.

Jesse ate part of his breakfast, but he was too focused on his lady to pay much attention to food.

When they were finished, Jesse put all the dishes on the tray and sat it off the bed onto the dresser.  “Time for coffee.”  He poured the two cups of coffee.  Katie started to get up. “No, stay there.  Just scootch up a bit.  He fluffed the pillows, picked up the cups of coffee and crawled back into bed.  He sat behind Katie, straddl
ing her.  “Lean back, Babe.”  As
she did, Jesse handed her a cup of coffee.

“Pretty impressive, Jess.” She took a sip of coffee.  “Good coffee, too.”

He kissed her neck which sent a wave of ecstasy through her entire body.
Jesse could feel the stirrings deep within her.
He took away her cup and sat the two of them on the night stand.  Wrapping his arms around her, he found that her breasts were softly on his arms.

The pair sat on the bed with Jesse holding Katie in his arms.  “Sing to me, Jesse,” Katie aske
d quietly.  He started humming.  Slowly he started adding the words.  Katie recognized the song as her favorite love song.  “
How did he know
?” s
he asked herself. She closed her eyes and flew
with
the words Jesse was singing to her.  The combination of his words and his voice was intoxicating.

Jesse sang a couple of songs,
and then
he went back to humming.  Katie fell asleep in his arms.  Before long he had fallen asleep too.

Several hours later, Sadie woke them by jumping onto the bed. “Poor dog,” Katie said realizing that the lab hadn’t eaten all day.  “I’ll take care of her,” Jesse said.

After he fed Sadie, he thought she probably needed to go out too.  As they went outside, Jesse saw that the sunny blue sky had been replaced by low
dark
clouds.  Some of them even covered the tops of the
Sitka
.  The air was filled with a thick drizzle. The snow from last night was
almost
gone.

The change in the weather hadn’t changed Jesse’s mood.  Not today.  But, since the snow was gone, he did have to change his plans for the day.  He wanted to take Katie for a walk in the snow.  He had seen snowshoes in the lobby and remembered what fun they were.

“OK Sadie, now what are we going to do for fun?”  He thought for a second.  “Fishing.  No the pond’s frozen.  OK then the bay.  I’ll take Katie fishing in the bay.”

Jesse and Sadie returned to the lodge to find Katie building a fire.  “Get
your coat. It’s time for part two
of
your
Valentine’s Day,” he
declared
to Katie.

He went upstairs and came back down with their fishing gear. 
“We’re goin’ fishin’
,” he announced. He handed Katie her pole and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

I
t
was getting dark when they headed back to the lodge
from the bay
.  They hadn’t caught a thing that day.  It didn’t matter much though.  They had laughed
all afternoon as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

When they turned the corner to the lodge, they saw the doors were open again.  “Wolves?” Katie asked.

“I don’t think so,” Jesse responded. “Look at Sadie.”

The lab had usually made
a fuss
when the wolves were around the lodge.  Today she was totally relaxed.  She had gone to the rug in front of the fireplace and had fallen asleep.

Ther
e
was some
thing out of the ordinary
in the lobby.
There were no wolf tracks, but human tracks.
  Suddenly, upstairs there was a crash as though a piece of furniture had fallen.  Sadie jumped up and growled.  Katie grabbed her collar
as Jesse ran to the stairs
.  Just as Jesse reach
ed the bottom step
, a man
started down toward him.  Another man appeared from the store.
Jesse took several steps backwards to where Katie was standing.

As glad as the pair
was to see another human being, they both
felt a sense of
distrust of the two men standing in front of them.
Katie quietly signaled for Sadie to go lay down.

“ДОБРЫЙ ВЕЧЕР”
The first man said in Russian.
  He was a tall, muscular guy of
3
0 or 35.  He was dressed
in winter
garb. On top of his shoulder length dark
brown hair, he wore a fur cap that matched his heavy beard that covered the rest of his face.
Without knowing what he said, Katie knew he was a Russian.

Jesse knew a few words of
Russian so he
responded;
“ПРИВЕТСТВОВАТЬ” The big man took a few steps forward with his hand extended.  He and Jesse shook hands.

“What did you say to him?” Katie asked.  “What do they want?”

“
He said good day and
I just said
‘Welcome
.
”  I don’t know what they want, but Katie, they’re our ticket home.”

Before they could get too
excited, the other man spoke
- this
time in English
. He was dressed in
more western
clothing
than his friend.
  His clothes looked like he had just come in from a Colorado ski trip.
“My comrade doesn’t speak English.” He may have dressed western, but his accent was definitely Russian
.

Katie was the first to notice the gu
n he wore in a shoulder holster under his coat.
 
The excitement of being rescued was gone.
She was getting
more and more
frightened of these two foreigners.

“What brings you here?” Jesse asked
he tried to sound pleasant even though he had become distrusting of these two
standing
before him
.  “We were just at the dock and didn’t see a plane land.”

Not answ
ering the question, the man said in a demanding voice
, “We need some food.  Can the woman make us something to eat?”  He hadn’t looked at Katie, but pointed at her.

“I’ll
heat
up some soup,” Katie told them nervously.  She wondered if Jesse had seen the gun.  He had.

“Make
you
rselves
comfortable
by the fire,” Jesse pointed toward the couch by the fireplace.

The English speaking visitor told the other one something in Russian,
and then
pointed toward the couch.
Jesse couldn’t tell what he had
s
aid.

“I will come with
you and the woman to make food.
”
He said as he herded Jesse and Katie toward the kitchen.

Jesse and Katie looked at each other and thought, “
This can’t be good
.”