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path in the snow.  Sarah started up the hill and the others
followed her, with Nick taking up the rear.  He glanced one final time down the
road and saw no tiny points of light.
    "Shit,"
Nick mumbled to himself.  He shook his head then continued up the path.
    The cabin was warm
and what had once been a roaring fire was now just glowing embers in the 1889
cast iron stove.  Kicking the snow from their boots, they each in turn came in
the front door that had apparently been left unlocked for them.  The big main
room was empty and Nick figured that his uncle had gone to bed.
    He looked around
the room and embraced its warmth and charm.  His uncle had designed and built
it.  The main room contained the kitchen and living room.  The kitchen was
immediately to the left as you entered the doorway.  It was separated from the
living room by a large butcher block table with barstools along the side that
faced the living room.  It was a nice kitchen with a lot of counter space and
cabinets.  It also had a microwave and dishwasher---some cabin.
    In the living
room, along the wall that was the stairway to the loft, sat the antique stove
with its chimney disappearing out the high, angular room.  A couch sat along
the far wall next to the T.V. (satellite dish of course) and another one
against the wall directly to your right as you stood in the doorway.  This wall
was in fact a pair of giant sliding glass doors that led out onto a deck that
faced the road.  Snow on the deck stood five feet deep with a little path cut
through it to get to the firewood stacked out there.
    The loft was a big
room half the length of the cabin with only a railing separating it from the
rest of the room.  It contained three beds, two twins and one king size that
Nick and Marty shared since they were the tallest ones there.  Behind the
stairwell sat a washer and dryer.  Past them was the bathroom.  In the very
back of the cabin sat two bedrooms next to each other, across from the washer
and dryer.
    The entire
interior of the cabin had been done with smooth interlocking strips of cedar in
different widths.  Some were six inches wide.  Some were two or three.  They
went in one direction for a while, then changed and went in another.  Some were
diagonal.  Some went straight up and down, then diagonally the opposite
direction.  The lines were all very pleasing to the eye.  The wood was broken
up by a white ceiling under the loft, and wallpaper in the kitchen.  Nick
thought it had taken his uncle an incredible amount of patience to put up this
interior.
    The cabin was
heated with electric baseboard heat in addition to the stove.  Not very
efficient, Nick thought.  But, it had been built over twelve years ago.  This
however, was the first time that Nick had ever been there.  His sister had come
up several times before with their family but Nick had never managed it.  He
never thought he would have fun up here.  And the thought of spending that much
time around his mother was repugnant.  He had declined by making excuses.  Nick
didn't get along very well with his mother.  She was an acrimonious woman.  He
often times wondered if she hated all men the way it seemed she hated Nick and
his father.  She was the main reason he had moved to Memphis four years
earlier.
    He had managed to
move back to Albuquerque this past summer and was very happy about it.  He was
getting along so much better with his mother.  She still tended to harp on his
life, but Nick didn't mind so much anymore.  Nick had done a lot of growing up
in Memphis and his mother had changed as well since he'd been gone.  Of course,
she said that she hadn't, that she'd always been this way.  But Nick knew
better.  Nick looked around the cabin and was truly glad to be there.  He told
himself how stupid he had been for not coming up here sooner.
    Nick considered
his sister.  He and Sarah had always been close, more so than either of them
had been with their older