Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

CHAPTER 56

Damn! Oh, course the phone went dead at the same time, thank God for cell phones.

“Ginny, stay where you are. I've got a light by the door, let me get it.”

I walked slowly to the back door, grabbed my Kel-light. “Let there be light!” I said as I turned it on. Revealing Ginny in the recliner in the corner.

“You had no intention of moving,” I accused. “You let me wander around in the dark, didn't you.”

She laughed, “You're the big fan of the movie 'Wait until Dark', I figured you'd just copy Audrey Hepburn and move around in the dark, no problem.”

“Thanks a lot honey. Rather than cuddle up in that chair, go to the hall closet. On the shelf are two battery powered lanterns. They will give me enough light to fill a couple of oil lamps.”

Under the sink was a quart of red and a quart of green paraffin oil I kept around for sexy mood lighting. Boy! This will be wasted on Ginny.

I had some blown glass hurricane lamps on the fireplace mantle, which I filled. These were copies of lamps used in the 1800's for real. They really provided light!

“Okay, we'll save the battery lanterns for visits to the ladies room, I don't have too many extra batteries.”

Ginny walked to the kitchen sink and checked the outside temperature, “18 F and dropping. It'll get cold tonight, Ellen what do we do?”

“What we do is bring a lot of logs in from the garage to keep the fire going, and I have two sleeping bags that can be zipped together.”

Ginny started to jump around, “We get to sleep together again, just like the trip to Colorado!”

My face turned red again. “I wish you didn't act so excited about that, you minx.”

To change the subject, I asked her if she had her phone setup to receive television broadcasts.

She said 'no', but ran into her bedroom and came out with a tiny, portable TV that ran on AA batteries. “This gets digital broadcasts, we can watch over 20 different channels!”

She quickly set it up on the coffee table, and presto! 'Storm Team Five' was describing the damage the storm was causing. The two reporters were almost panting in excitement, they both had a sheen of sweat on their foreheads as they went back and forth between in-studio weather people and those lucky reporters out in the storm.

“This just in,” said one. “It is reported that sections of the North Shore have lost power, Lynn, Nahant, Swampscott, and part of Salem have gone dark. We have been told the problem is located in a power station in Lynn, and they expect the repairs will be done soon.”

Ginny looked at me, smiled, and said, “Nice to see we're not alone. I feel so much better now.”

I just chuckled, picked up my Kindle and went back to reading how Lieutenant Bolitho was going to get saved after wrecking his brig on a reef during a hurricane. I'm so glad I bought the Kindle Fire model. This is great to read in the dark.

Ginny changed channels and started to watch an old “Big Valley” western.

“Ginny, before we fall asleep, the sleeping bags are in the same closet the lights were in, do you mind getting them?” I asked.

I unzipped mine, and laid it open on the sofa. I sat on top of it, tucking my toes in the bottom. This way, if I got cold, all I had to do was flip it over me.

Before dozing off, Ginny put two more logs on the fire, and zipped herself in the bag.

I woke up several times, twice to feed the fire, and another to make a trip to the loo. The battery lantern worked great, just enough light.

Around 6 AM, the power came back on, but I let Ginny sleep, and I just turned over in my bag. I had forgotten how great these were to snuggle in.

I woke up at 8.30 with Ginny shaking my shoulder and saying “Wake up, Steve's on the phone, he wants to talk to you!”

I raised the phone stuffed into my hands, dropping it once before croaking “Hello?”

Steve chuckled, “Hey, wake up girly. It's your boss on the phone, not some lounge lizard.”

“Did you say 'long blizzard?'” I asked, “What's up Steve?”

“Forget about coming in tomorrow sweetie, I'm going to need a big loader to even open the gate, you should see the drifts down here. One goes over the end of the office trailer. You can't see out of your windows.”

“We just got our power back a while ago Steve. I'll get Ginny to turn on the TV, I bet the video is something.”

“Yeah, the causeway to Nahant is still closed, and only one lane out of three is open on the Lynnway. I busted through the snowbank to the sidewalk, but that's as far as I can go with the F250.”

We chatted a bit about the storm, and just before hanging up, Steve shouts, “Wait, wait. I've been thinking about changing Ginny's name and called my pal Peter, the lawyer. He suggested waiting until she goes for surgery. What the hell, I got her the funny ID's so she should be okay for now. Oh, and Peter knows about the phony ID, it was his brother that made them!”

“I'll call and let you know when it's time for you and Ginny to come in. Until then, relax, dig out the cars, shovel the walk, and watch the co coos try to drive.”

We hung up. Well that saved me a possibly uncomfortable phone call to a stranger about Ginny's situation.

Coming into the kitchen fully dressed, Ginny asked what was so important the Steve had to speak with me.

“Ginny, you forget, I'm the minor deity in charge of everyone on that jobsite, except Steve, he's the major deity. I'm the BOSS.”

She looked at me and laughed,”Okay Boss, what did BOSS want?”

“He said stay home until he says it's okay to come in. The road's almost closed, and he will need the Cat 950 to remove the snow. “Oh, he spoke with his attorney about you and the idea of an official name change.”

I started to walk away to turn on the wide-screen TV. “STOP RIGHT THERE!” Ginny ordered. “Tell me what was said, or do I have to call Steve and act blonde.”

I had got her back at last! I explained, “The lawyer, Pete, felt the ID Steve got for you is sufficient for now. He felt it would be better to do the name change after your surgery, and remember to stay out of North Carolina in the meantime.”

“Well, that is good news,” she said. “How long did he think it would take to open the site?”

“He didn't, but he has to shovel his way to the machine, get it started in this cold, and then fuel it up. All that before a bucket of snow is moved. He also needs to be careful not to dig up or damage anything. My guess, two days with luck, maybe three.”

She made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. No melon, so we had make do with pink grapefruit pieces. Actually, pretty good.

After eating, we dressed warmly and attacked our own snow removal.

To be continued.