Written for Steemit: A love story occurs during a time anomaly. A woman from today somehow steps into an anomaly and meets a cowboy asleep on his ranch, in his bed, in the 1850's. ©Jeff Kubitz 2016 - All Rights Reserved.

Song of Angels - Chapter 11

Mindy Woczlewski courtesy of Nastya Muratokova

Please read and vote for the previous chapters:

Song of Angels - Chapter 1

Song of Angels - Chapter 2

Song of Angels - Chapter 3

Song of Angels - Chapter 4

Song of Angels - Chapter 5

Song of Angels - Chapter 6

Song of Angels - Chapter 7

Song of Angels - Chapter 8

Song of Angels - Chapter 9

Song of Angels - Chapter 10

Mindy awoke like the morning before. She was alone and wrapped in the blankets just like she woke yesterday. The temperature was colder outside the bed, colder than the day before and she shivered. Instead of grabbing her clothes to warm them she jumped out of the bed and ran to the chair next to the potbelly stove. The parlor was warm and any chill she took was quickly replaced with warmth. She checked the stove and added wood. While she left her clothes on the over stuffed chair to warm, she walked to the table and saw Cyrus had left another note,

WENT TO FIND GEAP – LOVE CY.

The coffee pot sat ready on the table, so Mindy carried it to the stove and set it on top. Her clothes were no longer frozen so she dressed.

Remembering the biscuits from yesterday she walked over to the counter and lifted the towel, which hid the pan. Though she was hungry, she decided to wait until the coffee perked before eating. Perhaps she was becoming used to living in a colder environment but it felt so warm in the house. She decided to wash herself while the coffee waited to brew.

Cleaned, hair brushed and pulled back, she decided to have a look outside so she donned her parka. When she exited the door, she was surprised to feel how warm it was outside in comparison to the cold in the bedroom. The sky was clear and the sun stood at about ten o’clock in the morning up in the sky. She had not slept that late, not as late as yesterday. And she was not nearly so sore. She felt like she was getting used to Cyrus loving her and was amazed at her recovery and acceptance of the situation.

The snow melted quickly, almost as if she could see it recede before her eyes. Only last night there had been snow everywhere. The desert dirt greedily drew the melting snow into the ground and except for where drifts formed; the snow was no more than an inch deep with bare patches showing dirt or brown dead grass wherever Cyrus had stepped or Cutter. She could see horse hoof tracks circling around the house from somewhere out back then headed off east to where she had abandoned her jeep.

The cattle lowed from the back of the house and Mindy decided to investigate, see what was back there by following the sounds of the cattle.

Photograph by @jeff-kubitz

In a depression of the earth Mindy saw a small barn only one story high. A pile of hay sat next to the barn. Snow covered most of the hay. The she saw the pond formed by the spring. Part of the pond had a fence running through it and behind the fence was cattle of white and black and white and brown but not like the Holsteins she knew as a girl.

Photograph by @jeff-kubitz

Parts of the ground were muddy but if she took her steps on the snow she found that beneath the snow the dirt was hard. She walked to the pond and put in her hand because there was no ice on the water, no snow around the edge of the pond. The water felt a little less than lukewarm but the water was certainly not frigid cold, as she would have expected. She saw that her hands were dirtier than she thought they had been though she had just washed them in the basin inside the house. She scrubbed her hands and face with the water from the pond until she was sure her hands looked clean. There was no wind, no breeze at all and she felt warm so she took off her parka.

She washed her arms with the pond water and it felt so good, she was completely awake in spite of having had no coffee yet. With wet arms, she discovered that the air was not as warm as she had thought. When Mindy stood to put on her jacket the water of the pond calmed and she could see her reflection very clearly. And she thought my hair is usually a little bit blonder than that. I need to wash it immediately or Cyrus may not want to follow through with his promise. She trotted back to the house.

Photograph by @jeff-kubitz

The coffee pot perked so Mindy moved it to the edge of the stove.
One of the buckets Cyrus had brought last night was still full of water. Mindy stripped herself bare. She walked into the bedroom expecting a chill to hit her nude body but in the day, the room had warmed to a comfortable temperature. She decided it would be better to bathe her body in the bedroom instead of in the parlor. She quickly retrieved the buckets and set to thoroughly washing her body clean of all dirt. The water in the buckets was not warm and the coldness of the water increased her speed.
Cold water or not, she thoroughly washed her hair and all with the cloth and the bar of soap. She rinsed her hair into the empty bucket. She was satisfied that she was clean and rinsed. She dried. As Mindy started to put on her pants she saw that the bottoms of her feet were dirty as were her knees. She sat on the bed, so as not to touch the dirt of the floor and cleaned those parts again. She thought she had lost some weight, though she was not absolutely certain of it. She dressed on the bed.

Cleaned and dressed, her hair loose, drying, she entered the parlor and proceeded to eat breakfast. She had just drained the last cup of her coffee, finished the last buttered biscuit when she heard what she thought was the sound of her jeep approaching the house. Excited Cyrus had found and retrieved the jeep; she jumped up to exit the house and to greet her man. Then she realized that the keys to the jeep should still be in her purse. Maybe Cyrus had taken the keys from her purse she thought as she exited the house.

When she was outside, she could hear a vehicle but she saw nothing. It was so quiet out here, every bird that sang, she could hear even over the sound of the vehicle that must be far away in the distance. She waited for Cyrus to appear but no one did. A light breeze began to blow and soon the sound of the vehicle was drowned out, or it had pulled away. All she could hear was the sounds of birds and cattle. Maybe Cyrus had stolen her jeep and left her. Mindy decided to check her purse for the keys to the jeep.

She ran into the house and her purse was still there. She opened the purse, really a shoulder bag and there were her keys. Oh bless him she thought and I must be a lot more trusting of Cyrus. But Mindy wondered why he had not taken the keys with him. She asked herself, did Cyrus know about keys? Except he did say it would be difficult to go that way, toward the jeep. Yes, she remembered, Cyrus said the snow would pile up much deeper on that side of the dell in the valley. She took out her phone.

Mindy opened the cell phone and saw the battery was getting low. There was no signal. She left her purse on the table and took her phone with her holding out the phone as she walked around the ranch. She could see the snow was deep in the dry creek and just as deep on the opposite slope up to the road.

Mindy saw the tracks of a horse, Cutter head up the slope to the south of the house; the snow was at least two feet deep. Cyrus would be having some trouble just like he had said. No wonder he stayed here until spring.

Mindy’s phone said ‘Searching for Service’ no matter where she walked. The phone beeped that the battery was low so she shut it off. Already, her shoes were wet, no soaked. Her feet cold, starting to freeze.

Mindy almost screamed out loud and called herself an idiot for being stranded out here except she smiled to herself and thought, for the very first time in my life I now have a fiancée. Mindy smiled and it was a deep satisfied smile. Then out loud she said, "I will do what I have to to keep him, strange as he is to me."

She looked around the house and saw many things she had not noticed before, things that looked fairly new but she knew had to be antiques. She saw Cyrus needed a woman's help in this little house very badly.

"This cannot be 1856. If it turns out that it really is 1856 and I really am out in the middle of the old Utah Territory, I have no choice but to stay with Cyrus anyways. There might not be a way to get back and there is nowhere else to go. But I am not sure I want to go back even if I somehow can." And again she smiled to herself and smiled deeply satisfied.

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