Chapter 13

As the weeks slowly passed by, summer months progressing towards crisp fall days, Clara found herself up before the sun and often eating her supper by lamplight and nursing sore muscles before climbing into bed. With no wood at the cabin originally to speak of, she had to start from scratch to put in a supply for the winter. There was plenty of deadfall that had accumulated within the vicinity of the cabin over the past eight years so she didn't need to go far to find trees ready for cutting. But it was still back breaking, labor intensive work.

Jesse had shown her how to hitch up her two horses with pull harnesses and use them to drag the large cut logs back to the cabin for cutting and splitting later. The brush she'd cleared from branches and underbrush he had made sure she saw how to use it to create places where rabbits and other wildlife could use to nest or den in safely, thus ensuring the continued population of rabbits to keep birds of prey around and as well as put food on Clara's table.

When the weather wouldn't cooperate enough to let her get in the yard to saw or split wood, Jesse had taken her hunting in those times, teaching her how to kill, skin and can wild game meat. This had been another lesson of 'hard knocks' for Clara who had never killed or skinned anything in her life. After the first few rabbits though she'd managed to handle what needed to be done, knowing she had to do this or starve during the winter. She couldn't keep relying on anyone else to put food on her table and the pittance that she had left would only go so far.

As the garden continued to produce vegetables, she used recipes she'd found in her Uncles kitchen books to make sauces and canned everything she didn't consume. The days began to blur into one another. The only thing that brought a pause to the continual cycle of cutting wood or canning meat and vegetables was when one of the Rangers, Matt or Cody came by to visit. Most of the time it was just in passing as they were heading through the area but she tried to be 'neighborly' and offer a meal or something to drink at least.

This was the busy season for the Rangers and though Clara knew Matt was usually very busy, she silently wished he'd come visit a little more often. But from the chatter on the radio and scanner that Jaime's dad had fixed for her, this year was busier than usual for the Rangers. So she kept to herself and enjoyed his company when he managed to spare a minute to come by.

It was at times like that though when she was wishing for his company that made her acutely aware of how 'alone' she was, no longer surrounded by the press of humanity like she had been in the big city. She was alone, truly alone for the first time in her entire life and on the nights when she found it hard to sleep, those thoughts kept her awake, feeling small and insignificant. Was her freedom from the world she'd escaped from worth the ache of seeing a friendly face, the wish for conveniences of electricity, gas furnaces and the supermarket just down the street? But then her thoughts would turn to what she had run from and she couldn't help but remind herself that, yes…it had been worth it. She knew she wouldn't be alone forever.

She knew that this first year would be the worst and that if she could just get through this first winter, she'd be able to figure out something for next year, something that could help put some money in her pocket to offset the need for canning so much and pinching every little penny. If she could make it through this winter, she'd have all of next year to get in her wood supply in and not just a few short months. She wouldn't have to work so hard at it and would have more time to do things other than get herself 'situated'.

But those lonely nights when the wolves would howl mournfully to one another down in the valley, those were the hardest to bear. Those were the nights when her doubts would return and she would have to fight her demons once again so she could face another day in the hopes of having a better life…tomorrow.

"Hey Cody!" called Jim from the back door of the station as Cody entered through the front.

Cody grinned and nodded, "Hey. Where's Matt?" he asked before Jim could head outside.

"He just took off with Avila and Robin in the chopper. Had to go rescue a couple of climbers that got stuck," called Jim as he shut the door behind him, obviously heading out to the barn to saddle up to go on a rescue.

Izzy came down from the upstairs and grinned as he saw Cody. "Thought Jimmy was just talking to his imaginary friend again," Izzy joked, "Glad to see he wasn't."

Cody chuckled, "No. Just thought I'd come down to see what Matt was up to but seems I just missed him…again," said the young man with a slight frown.

"Yeah, we've been so busy this summer Matt's been tempted to hire a temporary to do some of the basic jobs around the station. But just when he thinks we should, it slacks off just enough that we get caught up…," Izzy said with a shrug.

Looking around, Cody noticed something different about the TV sitting in the corner, "What's that?" he asked pointing to a large box underneath the TV set.

"Cable TV. Matt splurged a little on us. Not that we've had much chance to watch anything since we've been so busy lately but it'll be nice to have this winter when things are slow again." Izzy saw Cody's interest. "Go ahead and turn it on. It's pretty cool. Just use the remote and push the channel buttons up or down to go through the channels. Tahoe doesn't have many stations yet but I hear in some of the bigger cities, they've got as many as thirty. I think we get about eleven. The coolest channel that Jimmy loves so far is the one for Music Television called MTV. Been on the air for a several years but this is the first we've had a chance to actually watch it."

Cody wandered over to the TV and picked up the remote, pushed the button that said 'power' and watched as the TV sprang to life. He sat down on the couch and looked over the remote with interest. After taking in all of the buttons he began to push the ones marked 'channel', flipping from one to another, pausing on one, watching awhile then going to the next one.

Izzy took several calls and dispatched the Rangers in the field to another set of emergencies. Cody finally came upon the MTV station and watched with startling curiosity the strange and bizarre music videos that played across the screen. When the video set came to an end the next thing that came on was a program called MTV News.

Izzy watched from a distance as Cody seemed to take an interest in the last video that had played and even more interest in the MTV news as it rolled through something on the latest bands and stars. The phone rang again and Izzy couldn't hear what was being said on the TV as he focused on the newest 'emergency' that had just arisen. As he took down the information, he saw Cody stand up and turn the TV off and put down the remote. When he turned and looked at Izzy, there was a distant look in his eyes as if he were lost in thought.

"You ok Cody?" he asked as he hung up the phone.

"Huh?" he said as if coming back to himself. "Oh, yeah. You guys are busy and I think I'm going to head out. With my luck Matt will get back here and get called right back out. I can catch up with him later," he said as he headed towards the door, that distant look still in his eyes.

Izzy raised an eyebrow, "Ok. I'll let him know you were here. Say hi to your dad for me."

Cody nodded absently and shut the station door behind him…his mind on something else. He got into Cooper's saddle and pointed the horses head towards town, deciding to head to the library to do a little research on something that had just sparked a memory…and possibly had just solved a mystery.