Page 6 of Frozen Play

There it was. Would it start without power? Or would I have to find a match to light the pilot? I flicked the switch on the wall and almost collapsed when the flames lit up. With light and heat, we could survive. I wasn’t sure how much the gas fireplace could warm up a room this big, but we could camp out on the couches here to be as warm as possible.

“This place is huge,” Skye commented from behind me.

I turned, making sure to keep the phone flashlight down. “Yeah. I don’t know if this fireplace can warm up everything, but we can hang out here for tonight, right?”

She nodded slowly.

“I’ll see if I can find some matches. There should be candles around.”

I headed for the kitchen and started pulling out drawers. Wasn’t there anything like a junk drawer? I finally found one with flashlights, lighters, matches and some candles, as well as a first aid kit and batteries.

Skye spoke from behind me. “Someone is prepared.”

“Fortunately for us.” I pulled out a flashlight and passed it to her. She flicked it on and thankfully the damn thing lit up.

I grabbed one for myself. “There’s a bathroom by the front door, and one near the glass doors for the pool. Pick whatever one you want.”

“Water for the toilets?” she asked.

I looked at the two jugs I’d brought. I’d only expected me to be using the water. “We’ll have to be careful.”

“Do you know where there would be buckets?”

“No idea. Why?”

“We can melt some snow for non-drinking water.”

Right. “I’ll look.”

She shook her head. “No, you need to warm up. I’ve got Oscar’s old work jacket so I’m not as cold. You don’t mind if I look around for anything useful?”

Because I was not prepared. I felt like an idiot. “Go ahead, take what you want.”

“Family motto?” she asked.

“What?”

“Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

No, I wasn’t going to, but I’d wait. Time was apparently the one commodity we had an excess of. “I’m going to look around upstairs—there’s gotta be a linen closet or something with blankets and I’ll grab a couple of pillows.” She frowned, but I wasn’t going to sit and let her do everything. “Meet you back here.”

I turned off the phone to save battery and followed the flashlight upstairs. There were five bedrooms, I counted, all with their own bathrooms. The beds had been stripped for the winter, but I found a walk-in linen closet with blankets, sheets and pillows all packed in plastic storage bags. I grabbed enough for the two of us and even found a spare toothbrush still in the packaging in the bathroom of the room I’d stayed in last time.

I headed downstairs, finding the air marginally warmer. Skye was in the kitchen with a couple of buckets of snow at her feet.

“This place have a can opener?”

“No idea. Why do you need one?”

“I found some soup and beans. Also diced tomatoes and tuna. Sound like a good meal?”

I dropped the bedding on the ground in front of the fire. “I brought better than that. We might as well eat the fresh stuff first and save the canned goods in case we’re here for a while.”

She came back. “You found blankets.”

“There’s more, if this won’t keep us warm. And bonus, I got this.” I held out the toothbrush.

“Just one?”

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