Archie didn’t hear the doorbell ring because the wind was howling so loudly outside. There was also the fact that he had forgotten to wear his hearing aids today. It wasn’t until Harriet yelled from the kitchen where she was baking bread: “Answer the door,” that he looked up from the photo album containing graduation pictures of Brad on the dining room table. He saw a shadowy form standing between the partially open storm door and the main front door of the farmhouse, peering at him through the glass that covered much of it.

            Archie didn’t recognize the figure who was bundled up in a hooded parka covered with a layer of white. At first, he couldn’t tell whether the apparition was male or female, but from its size he judged it to be the latter. She looked more like a snow lady than a human being.  What the hell was she doing out in this storm?

            He sprang to his feet, showing rare agility for a man his age, and was at the door in three steps. A twist of the knob and the door blew open, almost knocking him off balance and hitting him with a cold wind that penetrated his body like a thousand needles. He recovered and stepped back, causing the woman to be blown into the room along with a small suitcase and a flurry of large snowflakes. It took some effort for him to close the door, but the result of that and the storm door closing on its own finally shut out the wind and the snow and some of the noise.

”I’m so sorry.”

The girl—for Archie classified any female under thirty as a girl—now had her hood off, revealing a young face that the elements had turned red. The snow covering her clothes was already starting to liquefy and would soon drop to the threadbare carpet in the warm room heated by a dependable oil furnace. The suitcase sat beside her.

She looked contrite and repeated, “I’m so sorry.”

Archie was tongue-tied, a condition that had affected him a number of times in his life, usually in the presence of pretty females, some of whom had given him the brushoff, but, fortunately, Harriet walked into the dining room from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

“You poor dear. You must be frozen. Let’s get you out of your wet things. Archie, fetch her a chair to sit on so she can take her boots and leggings off.” When Archie hesitated, she added, more loudly, “Chair. And then put your hearing aids on.”

***

The three of them sat at the dining room table, sipping hot cocoa. Archie had raced up the stairs two at a time, not wanting to miss anything—Harriet had a tendency to monopolize people unless someone stopped her—and put on his blasted hearing aids that made him look old. He returned and hung up the girl’s parka and snow pants in the utility room to drip dry, along with her boots, while Harriet made cocoa.

When asked her name by Harriet she hesitated slightly, and then said, “Susie. Susie White.”

She was now dressed in a red sweater and jeans. Her dark hair went down to her shoulders, and the redness in her face had started to fade. Archie, who wasn’t great at determining women’s ages, nevertheless realized that she couldn’t be older than middle twenties. Her skin was too clear.

Harriet finally asked the question. “What happened to you? Did your car get stuck?”

“I’m on a trip. Not a car. I couldn’t rent a car in Carter. I came by Greyhound, but by the time I got here the snow was already too deep and they’d stopped renting cars. I was able to get a snowmobile, but it must have run out of fuel. I’m sorry to barge in on you this way, but yours was the only house I could see.”

Harriet patted her shoulder. “Nonsense. Our house is your house. We’ll find a way to get fuel, but you can’t leave until it stops snowing. We have plenty of food. You won’t starve.”

One thing Archie credited Harriet with was a good heart. She would have tried to feed the world if asked, even if she didn’t have loaves and fishes.

He looked at Susie’s bag. “It has to be difficult, carrying that on a snowmobile.”

“You have no idea.”

“I heard on the radio that the powers that be are already calling this the great storm of 1977.  Biggest storm to hit Western New York in a century. Supposed to go on for several days. Where were you trying to get to?”

Susie hesitated. “The Fitzners.”

Archie and Harriet looked at each other.

Archie said, “No Fitzners on our road. There’s a Fitzner family west of here a couple of miles.”

“I must have gotten lost. I couldn’t tell one road from another. They must be the ones.”

“What road do they live on?”

“I-I can’t remember now. I guess I’m traumatized.”

Harriet picked up the phone book from the windowsill behind her. “I’ll call them and tell them you’re here so they won’t worry about you.”

“No. No, don’t bother. I didn’t tell them exactly when I was coming.” Her voice sounded edgy.

Harriet paid no attention to Susie. She leafed through the book. Archie knew that when she set her mind to something she was like a bulldozer and there was no stopping her.

She said, “There’s only one listing,” and then picked up the phone, also on the windowsill, and put it to her ear. “The phone’s dead.”

Archie said, “Phone lines must be down. I guess we’re really isolated now.”

He looked at Susie and thought she appeared to be relieved. He also saw her glance at the pictures of Brad in the photo album, still sitting open on the table. She’d done it several times. It was difficult for him, but he needed to tell her.

“That’s our grandson, Brad. He…well, he was killed several days ago.”

“Murdered,” Harriet said. “He was murdered.” Tears came to her eyes.

***

Archie had already taken his hearing aids off and turned off the light on the nightstand when Harriet started talking. He hated it when she did that. The wind almost drowned out her voice. After he said, “Huh?” several times she put her mouth to his ear and told him to put in his hearing aids, but not that politely. He reluctantly turned the light on and sat up in bed. When the hearing aids were back in his ears she started talking again.

“Jack won’t be able to call us to tell us about the funeral arrangements.”

Jack was their son and the father of Brad. As soon as he had heard of Brad’s death he had flown to Vermont from North Carolina. Brad had been working as a ski instructor at Stowe, one of the jobs he’d had since graduating from college. The last news they had heard from Jack was that he had arrived in Stowe and was talking to the police.

“We couldn’t go anywhere now anyway.”

Archie was hoping there would be a memorial service when the weather got better. He was broken up about the death of their only grandson and had a hard time talking about it.

“We haven’t received an update on the investigation either.”

The murder investigation. Archie grunted. Harriet kept on talking.

“I’m suspicious about Susie.”

Why had she saved all this until they were in bed? Well, for one thing they had been with Susie ever since she had arrived this afternoon. She had helped Harriet make dinner, and after Archie did the dishes they had played rummy. Susie said she was tired from her travels, and Harriet and he were early to bed early to rise type of people, so here they were. Harriet had put Susie in the small downstairs bedroom, which was in the corner past the stairs. Archie had given her a flashlight so she could find her way to the downstairs bathroom during the night, if necessary.

“She seems like a nice enough girl.”

Harriet frowned. “She’s barely told us anything about herself. She’s been very vague about where she lives and what she’s doing here in Carter in a snowstorm.”

“She doesn’t owe us any information.”

“Even her name. Susie White. She hesitated before telling us.”

“She was cold and wet at the time.”

“Even so. I swear she was looking out the dining room window when she gave us her last name.”

“So what?”

“Don’t you see? White. What was she looking at? The white snow down the lane.”

Something jogged Archie’s memory. “Karl Fitzner has a store on Main Street. He sells farm equipment. He also sells snowmobiles in the winter. I’ll bet he rents them too.”

“It makes sense. That’s where she got the name. When we asked where she was going, she gave us the first name she could think of.”

Archie had to admit that Harriet had a point. He also didn’t want to think about it now. It wasn’t as if they were in danger. After another five minutes of talk he finally convinced Harriet they should go to sleep. Once the light was out, Archie tried to mull over what they had just said, but thoughts of Brad interfered. He hadn’t slept much since they’d heard the news, but exhaustion set in and soon he was walking among corn stalks on a sunny day.

***

Archie was cleaning up the breakfast dishes in the kitchen when Harriet literally pulled him into the dining room. Susie was in the bathroom off the kitchen taking a bath. Harriet had first offered her the use of the bathtub last night, but she had said she was too tired. Harriet had been more insistent this morning, telling Susie she would feel better once she was cleaned up.

Archie wondered if the lack of a lock on the bathroom door was a problem for Susie, but apparently not because she was in there now and they could even hear her singing. When Archie and Harriet were well away from the bathroom Harriet started speaking in a low voice.

“Keep an eye on the bathroom door. If she comes out start whistling ‘Goodnight Irene.’”

Archie thought Harriet had gone crazy. He gave her a look that said as much.

Harriet said, “Don’t ask questions. Just do it.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Never mind.”

She gave him a look that said his ass was grass if he disobeyed her. Then she went around the corner by the stairs and into the downstairs bedroom where Susie had slept. Archie watched her go and wondered what she was up to. Was he supposed to stand in the kitchen staring at the bathroom door? That would look good if Susie came out. She’d think he was a voyeur. No, he couldn’t do that. He finally sat at the dining room table and looked out the back window down the white lane. He was close enough that he would hear the bathroom door open. He had been careful to put in his hearing aids this morning.

The wind was still blowing and the snow was still falling and drifting. From his vantage point he could also see through the front door. The snow was piled high on the stone and concrete porch. It would be impossible to go out that way now. The drifts near the kitchen door, visible as he looked down the lane, weren’t so high because that part of the house was the inside corner of an L and was more sheltered from the wind. It would be possible to go out that door, but getting somewhere would be another question. Wading through the snowdrifts wouldn’t be easy.

Archie contemplated what they would do if the electricity failed or the furnace stopped working. The telephone was still on the fritz. They did have wood for a fire in the fireplace in the adjacent living room. His thoughts were interrupted by Harriet coming back around the corner from the bedroom with a strange look on her face and a finger to her lips. Without saying a word she gestured for Archie to follow her.

He rose slowly from his chair, not being the type of person who automatically obeyed orders. She gestured again, went into the kitchen and turned left toward the bathroom. Was she going to open the door with Susie in there? Archie sped up to try to stop her, but she opened the door to the cellar, on the left, instead.

Archie followed her down the wooden steps, closing the door behind him, because the cellar wasn’t heated. At the bottom, Harriet turned to face him. She was obviously agitated.

“She has a picture of Brad in her suitcase.”

Archie stared at her, wondering if he had heard her correctly. His faulty ears often played tricks on him. Thinking that he hadn’t understood, she repeated her statement. This time Archie nodded, but he still didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t grasp the ramifications of this.

 Harriet said, “She killed Brad.”

That idea hadn’t occurred to Archie, and he immediately rejected it.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“She has a knife in her suitcase. Not just a pocket knife. The blade is long and sharp. She killed Brad and now she’s going to kill us.”

Brad had been killed with a knife. But Archie shook his head. “No. That couldn’t be. Is there blood on the blade?”

“Well, no. She wiped it off, probably washed it.”

“Why would she want to kill Brad. Why would she want to kill us?”

They stared at each other. Archie could think of only one reason. The stash of gold coins in the attic. They had kept it there for emergencies, even while gold was illegal to own in the U.S. Archie had showed the coins to Brad while he lived with them and attended college in Buffalo. Had Brad blabbed about them to Susie? He wouldn’t have done that. The idea was too farfetched.

Harriet said, “It doesn’t matter. We have to defend ourselves.”

“I don’t believe this. Even if it’s true , what can we do? We can’t call the police. We don’t have a story to tell them anyway. It wouldn’t be smart to interrogate her. We don’t want to make her suspicious. We can’t keep her tied up. We can’t take the knife. Should we confront her about Brad?”

“Too dangerous. We have to coexist with her. We can’t let on what we know.”

“So…business as usual?”

“We have to be on guard at all times.” Harriet glanced toward Archie’s workbench. “I think you should bring that pipe wrench upstairs and keep it handy.” Then her voice changed, sounding more like Harriet the housewife. “Go into the cold room and get a squash. We’ll have it for dinner.”

Harriet went up the stairs while Archie went into the cold room, adjacent to the rest of the cellar. He shivered as it lived up to its name. In addition to jars of fruit and vegetables canned by Harriet, they stored potatoes, apples, and squash here for use over the winter. He selected a nice yellow squash from over a hundred they had harvested from their garden, returned to the main basement, and started up the stairs. He didn’t bring the pipe wrench. How could he explain that to Susie? “This is to knock you on the head if you try to kill us.”

Archie was just closing the door to the cellar when the adjacent door to the bathroom opened and Susie came out wearing only a towel. It covered her inadequately, especially on top. She had a surprised look on her face and mumbled, “I thought you were Harriet” as she squeezed past him and disappeared around the corner. Archie blinked and had a quick flashback of being fifty years younger and crazy about girls. Although they were not usually crazy about him.

***

It was a good thing Harriet hadn’t seen Susie in her towel. Harriet didn’t like braless hippies and thought Woodstock had been an abomination. Her favorite quote about girls was, “If we’d had a daughter, I would have kept her locked up until she was thirty-five.”

Archie was afraid Susie would be mad at him about the towel incident, but after she got dressed and came out of the bedroom she gave him a smile, and he immediately knew she was not a murderer. She wasn’t like the girls who had been mean to him when he was young, and would just as soon see him dead as look at him.

However, Susie was hiding something. He had to find out what. He called Harriet and Susie to the dining room table for what he said was a planning session. He wanted to protect them from each other, if necessary, and figured that having the three of them in the same room would be the best way to accomplish this.

He addressed Susie in what he hoped was a paternal voice. “You’re not really here to visit the Fitzners, are you?”

She lowered her eyes and stared at the table, clasping and unclasping her hands.

Archie was encouraged and decided to dig deeper. “You knew Brad, didn’t you?”

Suddenly, Susie burst into tears. This caught Archie by surprise and he didn’t know what to do. Harriet showed compassion and took her hand.

Susie struggled to speak. “I was in love with Brad. He was in love with me.”

Archie tried to keep his voice gentle. “Why did you come here?”

It was a while before Susie could speak. Harriet offered her a tissue and she wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

“I know who killed Brad. It’s a guy he went to college with in Buffalo. The police in Stowe didn’t believe my story because he didn’t leave any tracks and had beat it out of town by the time Brad’s body was discovered, so I came here to gather evidence. When I got here the storm had started and I needed a place to stay. Brad had told me where you live and how nice you are, and since you’re a straight shot from the village of Carter I decided to come here because I knew I could find your house even in the snow.”

Harriet frowned.  “Why did you lie to us about who you are?”

“I…I knew that if I couldn’t find any evidence against Toby I would probably kill him. I wanted to be able to get away without you being able to identify me.”

Archie was shocked and didn’t know whether to believe her, but he spoke gently. “What’s your real name?”

“Ruth. Ruth Teller.”

Archie and Harriet looked at each other.

Harriet said, “Brad mentioned you in a couple of letters he wrote to us.”

***

The two-person snowmobile glided smoothly over the white surface with Susie—er, Ruth—at the controls and Archie in the seat behind her. It was apparently the only one available when she had rented it. Archie had never driven a snowmobile, and Ruth had lots of experience from working at the ski center in Stowe. It also had plenty of fuel, contrary to what Ruth had said. They had been able to walk through the drifts to where she had left the vehicle on the lee side of one of the farm’s outbuildings where it wasn’t buried too deeply in the snow, and they were able to dig it out.

Archie had insisted on going with her because she would never have found Toby’s house by herself. He also wanted to keep her safe and prevent her from doing anything stupid. Many houses were almost covered by snow drifts. It was a white world. The snow had stopped falling and the wind had abated somewhat, which made it easier for Archie to navigate, and he shouted instructions to Ruth as he recognized landmarks. They saw a few other snowmobiles in the distance, and one passed them on a road, but Archie didn’t recognize the driver who was quite young. It was the only mode of transportation available at the moment. Even the snow plows hadn’t been able to get through on the country roads.

Archie told Ruth to slow down when they found the road the house was on. He looked for numbers on the mailboxes beside the road that weren’t completely buried. They spotted one, read the number, and knew they were close. Two mailboxes later they found it. It was a small farm some distance from any other. The house was a brick, three-story affair, and had been around since the nineteenth century. Ruth parked the snowmobile beside the road and shut off the engine. There were no tracks of any kind going between the road and the house.

Archie said, “Maybe he’s in Florida.”

If so, there wouldn’t be any evidence here. Brad had told Ruth that the farm was owned by Toby’s parents who wintered in Florida. Toby supposedly had a job in Buffalo.

“It’s possible. Or maybe he’s just snowed in and couldn’t get to work.”

Their plan of action was sketchy at best. Ruth had never met Toby, so they would pretend they were checking on residents of the area to see if they were all right. They waded through the deep snow toward the house, sinking in past their knees at every step. Archie was glad he was in good physical shape. He led the way and Ruth followed in his footsteps. It was slow going.

A snowdrift completely covered the front entrance and climbed steeply to the second floor. Forget that one. Archie continued around the side of the house, looking for another door. He stopped to pant several times. Ruth had youth on her side but not size, and she appeared to be glad of the rest breaks.

Archie rounded another corner and saw that this side of the house didn’t have large drifts against it. There was also a door, up several snow-covered steps. Archie misjudged where the first step was, didn’t get his foot squarely on it, and fell back into a snowbank.

“Are you all right?” Ruth hovered over him, concern on her face.

Archie grinned up at her. “The snow is soft. You can’t keep an old man down.”

Ruth gave him a gloved hand and helped him to his feet. She insisted on climbing the stairs, herself, made it to the door, and attempted to turn the handle.

“It’s locked. There’s no bell. Should we knock?”

Archie was getting into the spirit of their adventure. He hadn’t done anything like this for many years. “I suspect nobody’s here.” He was kicking the snow around beside the steps where it wasn’t deep.

“Aha.” He found what he was looking for, a cast iron turtle. It opened up and there was a key inside. “Everybody’s got a hidden key.”

He handed the key up to Ruth who took off her gloves, slid it into the lock, and opened the door. Archie followed in her footsteps and they went inside the house. Snow was falling off their clothes and they were leaving footprints, but he figured it would melt and evaporate before anybody found it.

“What are we looking for?”

Ruth’s question took Archie by surprise. He hadn’t given that a thought.

“Anything incriminating. Travel tickets, letters…a knife.”

They went through the first floor—keeping their gloves on to avoid leaving fingerprints—opening drawers and cupboards, checking a closet that turned out to have coats and boots in it—not recently used—and generally scoured the area, but came up empty. Archie started to feel antsy. What if Toby showed up? What if a neighbor saw the snowmobile and came to check out what was happening?

“Let’s try the second floor.”

They clambered up a flight of stairs, moving awkwardly in their snow clothes, and still leaving a wet trail behind them. Here were several bedrooms and a bathroom. They went through their routine, but found only things one would expect to find in closets and cabinets—linens, shaving equipment, pills. Archie was beginning to think they were on a fool’s errand, and he was becoming very anxious to leave. Still, shouldn’t they check the third floor? There was a stairway to it they discovered when Ruth opened a door.

At that moment a figure appeared at the top of the stairs. Ruth, who was in front, gave a gasp. Archie looked up and saw a young man, about Ruth’s age.

The man yelled, “Who are you?” and came thundering down the stairs.

Archie instinctively backed up and so did Ruth, backing into him. He pushed her aside and got in front of her, as the man, who was taller and broader than Archie, reached the bottom. He was wearing pajamas and slippers, and his blond hair was uncombed. His eyes looked as if he had just awakened, but the thing Archie noticed was that he was holding a knife.

Archie put his hands out in self-defense and remembered the spiel they had agreed on. “We’re checking on houses to make sure everyone is all right. I’m Archie and this is…Susie.”

That took a little of the air out of the man’s sails. He stopped a few feet from them.

“How did you get in?”

“The back door was open. Nobody answered our knock.”

The man didn’t challenge Archie’s lies. “I just woke up. I was watching the late show and old movies last night. Figured I wasn’t going to be able to get to work anyway. Why not? How are you two getting around?”

“Snowmobile.”

 “Makes sense. But I can’t take one all the way into Buffalo.”

It was time to consolidate and make a careful retreat.

Archie said, “It’s pretty cold in here. Have you got heat?”

“I’m just heating the third floor. That’s my room, anyway. My parents are in Florida. I’m fine. There’s plenty of food. I see the snow has stopped. I should be able to get out tomorrow.”

“Good show.” Archie managed a smile. “Glad you’re all right. Well, we’ll be getting on our way then.”

He turned to head toward the stairs to the first floor and placed a hand on Ruth’s back because she seemed to be more reluctant to go than he was.

“Wait!”

Something very cold slid down Archie’s spine. He stopped and slowly turned around. Ruth did too. Toby was looking at Ruth and moving his knife from hand to hand.

“Where have I seen you before?”

Ruth had taken her hood off when they came inside the house. Her cheeks were red from the wind and her hair was disheveled.

She looked at Toby and said, keeping her voice calm, “I don’t believe we’ve met. What’s your name?”

“Toby.”

“Hi, I’m Susie.”

She was wearing her gloves and didn’t offer to shake hands. Toby walked slowly toward her. Archie couldn’t take his eyes off Toby’s knife. He wondered about the best way to disarm the man. He hadn’t been in any fights since he was in high school, and they hadn’t involved knives. He and Ruth were wearing their heavy winter parkas, but they weren’t sufficient protection.

Toby stopped within a foot of Ruth, who met her gaze without flinching. Archie thought she was one brave girl.

Toby said, “You don’t live in Carter, do you?”

“I moved here recently. We have a lot of houses to cover. It’s been nice meeting you.”

She started to turn, and Toby caught her by the wrist with his hand that didn’t hold the knife.

“Let me go.”

Ruth tried to squirm out of his grip and Archie took a step toward them. Toby raised the knife with his right hand and pointed it at Archie while keeping an iron grip on Ruth with his left.

Archie stopped and decided to play dumb. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but my wife is expecting us for lunch. She knows where we were going and will call the police if we don’t show up.”

Toby moved his head back and forth between them and spoke to Archie. “I don’t know what your relationship is, but this girl is trouble. And her name isn’t Susie. She’s playing you.”

Archie said, “I think you’ve mistaken her for someone else.”

Toby shook his head. “I saw her picture. You’re the only girl I know of with an eye that is half blue and half brown.”

Ruth jerked her arm and almost got free, but Toby managed to stop her by encircling her body with his right arm and holding her until he could get a better grip on her wrist with his left hand. Archie thought he was going to stab her and made a move to grab his right arm. Toby quickly raised it and held the knife in a threatening position. They stood that way for several seconds without moving, like fighting figures in a Greek sculpture.

Ruth broke the silence. “That proves you murdered Brad. I saw your letter to him, threatening him.”

 She had told Archie and Harriet that the letter was about some imagined wrong in college. Stealing his girlfriend or something. Brad had told her it was just a misunderstanding.

Toby said, “I didn’t kill Brad. I just talked to him. He was alive when I left.”

“All right then.” Archie tried to sound reasonable. “Let’s go to the police and you can explain what happened. Or better yet, just let us go.”

It was obvious from Toby’s expression that these weren’t options. Archie had to find a way to get Ruth and himself out of here.

Ruth spoke to Toby. “I’ll make this easier for you.”

She worked her glove off her left wrist and let Toby get a better grip on her. He appeared slightly puzzled but allowed her to do it. The glove dropped to the floor. Then, before he could speak, she worked her other glove off.

Archie started talking, partly to distract Toby.

“Look. We don’t have any proof that you did anything. We’ll make an agreement not to go to the police. How does that sound?””

While he spoke, Toby was looking at him. Ruth made a motion with her head that Archie should move to the left, where, he realized, Toby wouldn’t be able to watch both of them at the same time. He took what he hoped was a casual step while reaching out for the railing of the stairway to the third floor, as if he were infirm and needed assistance.

 As he took a second step, Ruth punched Toby hard in the face with her free, ungloved hand, taking him by surprise and breaking his grip on her other wrist. She was only a few strides from the stairway to the first floor. She covered that ground and then raced down the steps. It took Toby a few seconds to regain his equilibrium, and then he went after her. Archie followed them. His old legs couldn’t move as fast as theirs, and both of them reached the bottom and disappeared from his view.

A few seconds later he heard a scream. His blood curdled as he figured that Toby had stabbed Ruth. He got to the bottom of the stairway and turned into what was the living room of the house. In the next room he saw Toby bent over and clutching his middle. Archie realized that he was the one who had been stabbed.

Ruth was several steps from Toby, and she was holding a knife. A different knife. She had brought her own knife in her parka and surprised Toby. Archie went toward them as fast as he could move. He was almost to Toby when that man gave a roar and charged Ruth. Before she could react he tackled her.

Archie had to save her. He was about to attempt to pull Toby off Ruth when he saw a knife lying on the floor. It was Toby’s knife. Archie ripped off his glove so he could grasp it better, picked up the knife, and rammed it into the back of Toby’s pajama top. Toby gasped and collapsed on top of Ruth. Horrified at what he had done, Archie grabbed Toby by the arm and rolled him off her. His eyes were closed and he was bleeding badly.

Ruth got slowly to her feet and said, “We have to get out of here.”

***

As they followed their snowmobile tracks home, Ruth was wearing Archie’s gloves so that her hands wouldn’t freeze as she drove. They had left hers on the second floor. Archie held on as well as he could with his bare hands that were rapidly becoming numb. Ruth was driving fast and nobody should get close enough to them to see the blood on her parka. It had started snowing again. Hard. Soon their tracks would be completely covered.

Archie wondered how he would tell Harriet what had happened. He needed to think, but all his brain could do was register the never-ending white fields in front of them.

END