The Cabin

"The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.".....The large grey wolf stared nervously at the old cabin sitting just across the frozen pond. He sniffed the air around him, and something rancid filled his nostrils. Right then and there his senses began to scream for him to just turn and run back into the desolate wilderness from which he had just came, but the hunger in his belly had other ideas. It had been nearly two weeks since his last real meal....For the wolf, desperate times called for desperate measures. He looked anxiously toward the cabin again searching for signs of life and other than the one burning candle, he saw none. There was no smoke coming out of the chimney, no movement or noise what so ever, and still the wolf felt uneasy.

He sniffed the air once more, the rancid smell was still there, however there was another smell too, one he knew well.... The sour sweet smell of rotting meat invaded his every sense, his belly rumbled and nudged him forward. Carefully the wolf stepped out onto the frozen pond, he takes one step and then two, and then stops. There is just a faint cracking noise just below his feet.... Behind him he can hear the dripping of icicles from the trees, the wolf quickly backs up off the ice. The pond has been frozen over solid for the last four months, however the weather had started to warm over the last two weeks and the wolf knew better than to just walk out onto weak ice, he was a large wolf after all. He would just have to take the long way around the edge of the pond, and the hunger in his belly was okay with that.

Sara Lynn Franklin opened her eye's to another cold morning inside the old cabin, no matter how much she stoked the fire the night before it was always out by morning, and she and Jack would wake up freezing. Sara Lynn looked over at her sleeping son with loving eyes.... and had to smile a little at his little body all curled up, his head poking slightly out from just under the covers. Jack had his own bed and room downstairs, but he had been sleeping with his mother ever since his father left them to hunt for food a week ago. Sara Lynn leaned over and gently kissed her son on his head before getting out of bed. Even though she was wearing her wool socks the cabin floor was still freezing cold and when she stepped on the hammer laying in the floor right beside the bed, she nearly howled in surprised pain. Why was the hammer in the floor again??? She would have to have another talk with Jack about playing with his fathers tools.

After getting dressed for the day, Sara Lynn went down stairs and started the arduous chore of lighting the daily fire. And even though it was a chore she had performed hundreds of times over the last year and a half, she still was not very good at it. It took her nearly an hour before she could finally get the flames from the kindling to take hold of the large split log.

Jack was still sleeping and that was okay, the cabin was still freezing and it would take at least another hour before she would have any food ready. She would let him sleep for now. The wood pile and the food were getting low again, and all the meat from her husbands previous hunt had gone bad and sat rotting out in the barn. There was still plenty of flour and various can goods, but no edible meat remained. On top of that, if Tom did not return soon, she would have to split some more wood herself. Being a woman of small stature, it was not a task she looked forward to. Sara Lynn looked out the window, out over the frozen pond and wondered where her husband was. Lately, she had began to leave a small candle burning in the window at night just in case Tom came home, he would be able to see the light from across the pond and it would guide him home to his family. She tapped the top of the burnt out candle with her finger and then looked back out the window.... How she longed to suddenly see him walking across that blackish frozen ice. Just then she heard a noise behind her, she turned to see her son standing on the bottom step staring at her with blank eyes.

"Jack are you okay baby, you don't look so good" she said as she walked across the room to where he stood.

"My head hurts Mommy" He said in a small weak voice.... Sara Lynn was immediately worried, there was no hospital with in two hundred miles of the cabin and the nearest rangers station was a twelve hour hike down the mountain. She touched Jacks head to check for fever, he wasn't warm at all, in fact he was ice cold.

"Oh my God, your freezing Jack, why don't you go get back in bed and cover up. Mommy will bring you up a hot plate of flapjacks as soon they get done," She told her son.

The boy only stood there, still looking blankly at his mother. Suddenly he began to cry, his little body began to to tremble uncontrollably...."My head hurts Mommy..." The boy repeated.

Sara Lynn was really worried now, she had never seen her son act this way, this was not good. She bent down on one knee and looked him directly in the eyes, and then she pulled her son close to her and just held the boy for a minute.... Slowly she began running her fingers through his soft blond hair doing her best to will his pain away. She bent forward and and kissed him on the forehead, again surprised by coolness of his skin to the touch. "Go on back up stairs and get back in bed and cover up Jack, Mommy will bring up a glass of water and some aspirin in a minute...." She told him in her best Mommy soothing voice.

Jack stood there a moment longer, but finally turned and made his way back up the steps. Sara Lynn's heart filled with a deep sadness as she watched her son trudge slowly up the stairs. Many times she had felt alone and helpless in the old cabin while her husband was away, but never this alone and helpless. Sara Lynn walked through the kitchen and into the pantry, there was a large wooden shelf on the back wall....The aspirin were right there in middle of the shelf....right next to the hammer.... She made her way back to the window and stared out across the frozen pond once more. "Please come home Tom, Please." she quietly said to herself.

Tom Franklin got the last of his camping supplies packed onto the old pack mule just as the sun appeared over the horizon. He had been tracking a large mule deer he had shot two days ago and he hoped to find it today. Tom was eager to get back to his wife and son. He prayed this would be the last time he would have to leave them alone in that damned old cabin. As soon as the weather warmed enough for the snow to melt.... he and his family would leave this mountain for good.

He and his wife had bought the cabin two years ago and originally they had planned to grow old there. But living out in the great outdoors was a lot tougher than he or Sara Lynn thought it would be. The summer months were great, there were fish to catch in the pond, mule deer were plentiful right around the cabin, and they even managed to grow a small garden with some beans, cucumbers, and squash.

However the winter months were not just terrible, they were nearly unbearable. The snow set in by early November, and the one road down the mountain was impassable until Mid-March. The pond would freeze completely over during this time, and twice they had been without water because the well froze over too.... During the winter he would have to go further and further up the mountain to hunt for mule deer. This last time he had left home, Tom had spotted some large wolf tracks just over the ridge from the cabin, and this worried him immensely.

He was also beginning to worry about his wife's mental well being. Twice he had walked in and caught her talking to people who weren't there, and there were other times when she would just stand at the window and stare out over the frozen pond for hours at a time.

Tom looked around and found the mule deer's tracks in the snow, the blood splatters were getting smaller, which meant the mule deer was probably finally getting close to bleeding out. He would be close, no doubt about it. Tom decided to leave the pack mule hitched to the tree, he could move faster and more quietly without the mule. He had not gone more than half a mile or so when he heard some rustling noises just on the other side of a large oak tree.... He eased his way around the tree and then stopped dead in his tracks.... There was the mule deer alright, and with it there were three grizzly bear cubs happily feasting on its entrails.

Tom knew he had made a bad mistake, he had to get out of there right then. He turned around just as the mother grizzly directly behind him stood up on her hind legs.... Tom never even had time to see the massive grizzly paw coming at his head, Tom Franklin never saw anything again.

Sara Lynn awoke suddenly, and the cabin was freezing again, why couldn't that fire burn all night damn it. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, trying to rub the sleep out of them. She got out of bed and started for her dresser when she stepped on something cold and hard, she looked down and there was the hammer, why was it in the floor again??? She reached down and picked the hammer up, it was wet and sticky. Then she noticed her nightgown was covered in blood, she slowly turned and looked down at the bed, blood was everywhere.... Her son lay there under the covers, all curled up, his little head slightly poking out from under the covers, completely bashed in.... Sara Lynn dropped the hammer to the floor and began to scream.

The wolf stood staring intently at the cabin door, it was open, but just by a crack. He could smell that rancid smell stronger than ever, and he did not want to go into the cabin, but the smell of of rotting meat was strong as well, and his belly urged him forward.

He put his nose against the cabin door and pushed it open. There hanging by the chandelier was the rotting meat that had drawn the wolf to the cabin. The wolf reached up underneath Sara Lynn's nightgown and grabbed her rotting leg at the knee, all it took was one good pull and the whole leg came off at the hip, he was a large wolf after all. The wolf took the leg and quickly left the old cabin. Something bad had happened there, something bad was still happing there, and the wolf did not want any part of it.