Charlotte Boyett-Compo - In the Heart of the Wind

Terror was beginning to build in him as the orderlies pushed the gurney through a set of double doors and he realized he was in some kind of treatment room. He lifted his head and looked around, confused. There were strange-looking pieces of equipment in the room and a large circular operating room light hanging over a stationary operating table. As he was rolled toward the table, his heart began to lurch.

What are you going to do? He was aware that his voice was filled with primal terror.

The men simply began to unbuckle the straps on the gurney, their eyes boring into him, daring him to give them trouble. He knew if he did, the retaliation would be swift and exacting. He began to tremble violently as they lifted him to the table. A low moan of abject terror welled up in his throat and he whimpered. The white orderly laughed.

Dr. Lassiters going to give you something to groan about, pal. The man buckled another strap tightly across Jamies forehead.

And you aint gonna like it, one of the black men said and chuckled as he tugged on the strap that ran across Jamies chest.

Instant recognition flooded Jamies mind and his eyes flew wide. He stared with terror-stricken shock at the black man who had spoken. He had heard that voice before. A long time ago. On a rainy night in 1986.

No, Jamie whispered, his voice quivering with fright. Oh, God, no.

The black man glanced across Jamie to the white orderly and grinned. I think his memory aint all that bad.

It will be when the Doc gets through with him!

There was crisp white snow piled high to either side of Gabe and Annie James driveway. A white arc of powder flew from the curving sidewalk as the snowblower munched its way to the front door. Nine inches of fresh snow had fallen during the night, adding to the four already on the ground, and the front yard of the James two-story home looked like a winter wonderland. Drifts along the northern side of the house were up almost to the bay window in the dining room, and had swept back a good five feet to the left of the garage. The air was crisp with a biting northwesterly wind blowing, even though the sun was shining down beneath a sky almost totally devoid of clouds.

Gabe was out in the arctic twenty-degree weather of Kellogg, Iowas second snowfall of the season, having fun with his brand new snower-thrower, as he called it. Watching him from their cozy bedroom, Annie felt a twinge of guilt as she sat on their bed, their little dog curled up asleep in herlap. After all, Gabe had been born and bred in the Deep South, somewhere near a place called, ironically enough, Frostproof, and had spent his college years in Gainesville at the University of Florida. Upon graduation, hed taken a job in the Panhandle of that state, although he had never really explained to her what that job had been. He was used to a warmer clime, a less frigid winter. And he bitterly detested snow.

Shed met him through a friend at the college in Grinnell, Iowa, at the start of the September classes where she had been taking some courses toward her Masters in education. His big brown eyes, dark complexion, and shock of thick, curly brown hair had made female eyes stray his way often as they sat in Hardees that morning. His six-foot, two-inch frame and thickly-muscled physique had even turned the heads of a few strapping farm boys who happened into the fast food restaurant. No doubt theyd thought him one of their own. One or two had nodded his way, sizing him up as men do other men, obviously approving of what they saw, sensing no threat from him, no intrusion on their territory, for theyd ignored him from then on.

Shed studied his face: full and round, his nose a bit too broad, but bold and hinting at a sensuality she could actually feel emanating from him. His thick brows peaked at the center and met over the bridge of his nose. His lower lip was thin with a wavering boyhood scar running parallel to it. His teeth were white and perfectly straight and even; a movie stars teeth, she had thought.

What do you do here, Gabe? she had asked, pleased with the dimples in his cheeks, the cleft in his chin, and the way a lock of his dark hair couldnt seem to keep from falling over his right eye.

I work for Iowa Southern. Hed smiled, looking down at his biscuit and gravy. His eyes had lifted to hers as he raised his coffee cup and grinned as he began to sing off-key, I am a lineman for the county...

Shed been fascinated with his soft, Southern accent, his polite, gentlemanly ways. Hed looked absolutely mouth-watering in his gray stone-washed jeans which had hugged his lean flanks like a second skin; pale brown shirt rolled up to the elbows to expose the thick furring of hair on his forearms and hands; and his very white, and very large, tennis shoes.

Unlike most of the men shed known all her life, hed been very solicitous of her, asking if shed like more coffee, sugar, cream. His manners were impeccable and his face was not only handsome, but honest and open, and just a touch boyish. He had the tendency to blush often, lower his eyes as he spoke. She found his mannerisms refreshing compared to the too-direct, bulldozing mystique that is the Iowa male.

Have you been in Grinnell long? shed asked, holding her breath for his answer, not even aware his answer was very, very important to her.

Since May. Hed ducked his head, looked up with a sheepish grin on his face. Im not sure I can drive in the snow up here. He had, true to form, blushed.

Piece of cake, shed assured him, instinctively reaching out to touch his hand where it lay on the table between them. Shed looked into those remarkable brown eyes and felt lost.

Six months later, they were married. A month after that, theyd moved to Kellogg. Shed taken a teaching position at the high school in neighboring Newton and he had gotten a job as a cable installer with the local cable company out of Gilman.

Jack of all trades, hed told her when she questioned his choice of jobs. Laying cable, running service calls, didnt seem like much of a job for a man with a college degree.

Dont worry, darlin, hed assured her. I can still support us on an installers pay.

It hadnt been that that had worried her, but at the time, Annie couldnt put her finger on what it was that nagged at her about Gabes reluctance to get a job commensurate with his education.

Gabes still a little boy, her friend Helen had commented. He likes playing at working.

Now, two years later, he had changed jobs again. For the third time. Now, he was working at the local super store, managing the automotive department.

I just got tired of being out in the cold, hed explained to her when she wondered about the change of job from electrician to retail sales.

He wasnt accustomed to snow and sleet and freezing rainsthe legacy every Iowan had learned from cradle to grave. Even though hed been north two winters, his blood still had not thickened and he complained about the cold every winter.

Do you have trouble feeling your toes in the winter, Annie? hed grumbled.