Maine Winter

REEDSY DECEMBER 5TH WRITING CONTEST STORY

Maine Winter by Lynn Adler December 5, 2025

She had to get away from the reminders of her lack of accomplishment as she saw it and Todd reiterated almost daily lately. She had been here a week already trying to figure out her next steps. Resume building. Highlighting her college internship and volunteerism. She alternated between relief and anxiety. She wasn’t used to being alone.

The knock came in the quiet before midnight as snow continued to fall. Todd. That was the first thought after she jumped. No one knew she was here except Reed, her best friend, and the caretaker. The woods surrounding Reed’s luxury home offered comfort. The wind was soft against the snow and filled with old pine, fir, and spruce.She could almost taste the sap deep within the sugar maples. Reed had said you must go. It’s perfectly safe and I’ve been telling you the snow drifts are amazing. The larder is well stocked. You know the place. You can do whatever you want, read, write, watch TV, meditate, but no swimming! She laughed. Todd won’t even bother. You know he hates to shovel. Too much labor. Too far, too winter. He won’t think to come to Maine, but just in case we’ll get Rich to clear the drive, and remember, it’s not 1957. It’s 1987. We have phones. She giggled.

You know he’ll try to talk me out of it but I have to tell him anyway or he’ll be out calling the police. Okay. I’m doing it. Snow drifts, huh?

Nina had never been in Maine in winter. Like a new country. She’d heard the dam was opened in the winter and the lakes drained, the double lakes nicknamed little lake and big lake. What would that look like? On the bottom with no fish? She had to see. The north woods and lakes of summer were redolent of pine tar and grasses and sand. The men would fish for pike, pickerel, and bass before dawn and return by noon. Nina would sometimes tag along but mostly she’d hang out with mom in the mornings, whose first job was to bring in the logs stacked underneath the cabin and get the fire going in the pot bellied stove, then make breakfast. It was fun to watch her mother place the logs and arrange the newspapers and light the matches. It always took several tries to catch. The three primitive vacation rooms with rag rugs on cracked linoleum were cold at 6 a.m. on a July morning. The air was still. The air was crisp. The sky was mosly gray and smoky from all nine chimney cabins. The ground was damp until the late morning sun would burn it off. The beach was all gray, black, and pink rocks and pebbles and large pieces of driftwood scattered about that looked to Nina like antler horns.

Across the road the wealthier vacationers had started building impressive two story log homes with modern appliances and big picture windows on Green Lake, and that’s where Nina met Reed one morning when she wandered off. She was always exploring, but usually down to the end of her own lake where she would sit on a flat basalt rock within eyesight of mom with her little notebook and write poetry until the boats came in.

Nina was just getting acquainted with Reed, who seemed nonchalant and unsurprised to see a new girl her age. They suddenly stopped talking when they heard screaming. How did mom trail across the road like that in her green shabby nightgown and slippers? She stopped when she saw the girls. They all didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or angry, so they all started laughing. Mom never raised her voice, but this time in between laughing she was scolding and shaking, her finger strumming the air. I couldn’t find you she trembled. She got into a shrill piccolo. Don’t ever do that again. Reed’s mom heard and came outside and Rita instantly calmed at the smiling self assured other mom, Nancy.

You’re from New Jersey? We are too. Come in. Come in. You need coffee I think. Rita looked down at her damp nightgown hem. I can’t.I have a fire going already and Bill, my husband, is out there somewhere catching something. What was I doing, she fumbled? Nancy, did you say? I’m really sorry. We live across the road in the little cabins over there, she pointed.Nina looked back at Reed and Nancy with an uncertain expression as she trailed after her mother.

Reed called out. Come back tomorrow? What time? I don’t know. We don’t have a phone. We don’t either. Dad has a car.So does mine, but he isn’t here right now. Just try. They both laughed. We go out in the afternoons Nina explained.

Where to?

Just anywhere. Maybe stop at a white barn with a white house and antiques. They’re everywhere.

You like that sort of thing?

She hadn’t thought about it. Yeah. Sort of. Sometimes I get bored.

Well then don’t go.

But I like it. I like the surprises. Every road you find something. Like the bookstores and the pottery and even a submarine and a wildlife refuge where the owls hoot and stare at you if you stop by at night. And the best part are the lobsters and the church suppers and blueberry pie. And people remember us and tell us to come back next week and next year. Sometimes they invite us over too. Kind strangers.

Really? I guess I would like those things, but what about shopping?

No shopping. Dad hates shopping.

They have these outlets.

I don’t know about that. It sounds like New Jersey.

Not really, but I’ll come with you if you’ll come with us sometimes too.

It was a deal. For almost two decades the girls met and melded into each otheor’s summer. Reed was supposed to go to camp. That was the original plan, but the house on the lake suited her better. She was too independent minded and rebellious to follow rules and now there was Nina to pal around with. She it was settled. The parents were agreeable.

Then there was Rich. Rick lived nearby and was Reed’s family fix it kid, but really it was the father. Rich went along and learned. His father owned land and built cabins and rented out boats and sometimes took people out to show them how to fish.Rich went to the public school. Rumor was that his brother was a delinquent and worse than that. He was out of prison now but no one ever saw him and the only time Rich ever mentioned him in explanation was that there probably wasn’t enough to do so he got into trouble, but if that was true why didn’t Rich get into trouble? The girls didn’t know. Thus, they became a trio of little buddies. By the time Rich was twelve he had his own truck and no one stopped to question a kid driving a truck without a driver’s license. They all knew him around there, the police and even the mayor.

When Nina wasn’t just hanging with Reed she saw Rich almost every day and he started coming to the nine cabins. They were the same age and had nothing in common, but the same poetry in their souls. They talked about everything and hung their thoughts out like test pilots examining a new idea before it got into the world. This is what the world can be like Rich would say. They were only 16 but they sounded reasonable to each other. You know Rich, Nina said, we have to get ready to leave this planet. It’s only going to sustain life for another 30 years. Maybe 50 he said, if we cultivate the right crops and stop pollution.There’s no pollution in Maine Nina spoke up. But there will be. Rich nodded his head.

They were sitting on a low stone wall close together. They had had these types of conversations for a long time. Nina felt the electricity radiating between them back and forth and she shivered. Rich bent closer to her. She suddenly felt somebody watching them and listening. They pulled apart. She never saw Rich after that day. Reed and she never spoke of it.

Nina went to college and married Todd. They were disappointed when no children came. Reed went to college and dropped out early in boredom. She married no one. She illustrated for local magazines and sold prints to shops, alternating between Maine and New Jersey and drifting around.

The air changed. Wind was hitting the trees and pounding the wood or what as that a pounding on the door?She didn’t see a gun here and wouldn’t know what to do with one. She suspected that Reed’s father still owned guns.

She went downstairs. Who is it? Rich.

What are you doing here? Didn’t Reed tell you I was coming? Yes, yes, of course, but it’s so late. What’s wrong? Why did no’ you call? I’ve been here a week and now? You better come in. It’s freezing. She felt his hands. He was breathtakingly handsome and looked muscular underneath his jacket. In a second she mentally counted the 20 years that had passed in a flash.

Sorry Nina. I did try to call but wires and cell towers are down or not functioning. I was worried sick when Reed told me you were driving up here in winter. You’re going to get buried in this new storm. I told Reed it’s too dangerous for you to come, but she said I’d look out for you. This was here reckless idea. He turned partly away.

Please Rich, please, don’t stand there. Let’s get you warm. No more explanation. It’s been a long time. She almost pecked his cheek but thought it would be too tacky. Let’s get you some food and a hot brandy. You know they have brandy. Of course. How many miles did you drive?

About 20 miles.

Yikes! Do you have work tomorrow?

Yes, maybe. Depends.But I work for myself, remember?

Nina remembered from 20 years ago but Reed had been sparse on the details of Rich’s life since then.

Rich suddenly wanted desperately to kiss her but he didn’t know her situation and he didn’t want to scare or disgust her, and he really did want to make sure she was safe in the storm. It had been a very long time. What were Reed’s motives and Nina’s and his own, if any in bringing her here?

Nina brought afghans to the sofas along with the brandy. It seemed like they talked for hours but it may have been only an hour. It was either that or something else that she wasn’t ready for and she didn’t offer him the spare bedroom or any bedroom. She felt churlish but she felt like she had no choice.

Rich, why didn’t you ever marry, she asked after a while? I was in love with two different women and I wanted them both and it was impossible. They both got away and I couldn’t get serious about anyone else after that. And then she knew what he was talking about. If she was surprised she had buried it, again, thinking, a long time ago.

As Rich spoke Nina pictured Reed’s face as if in a cinematic close up staring at them and smiling mischievously. Todd and she were finished but she didn’t want to get entangled in a new mess. She didn’t know if it was possible with the storm and all, but she would try to leave in the a.m. or as soon as the snow stopped. She didn’t say any of this.She saw that Rich would do the honorable thing and try to suggest sleeping in the garage or in his car. That was a non-starter and a death trap. He knew better.

He had something else to say. I was in prison for a couple of years.

Fear pricked inside.

I didn’t rob a bank or kill anybody. You know I’m not like that. I’m not my brother.

Nina didn’t know anything any more. She looked down.

I sold some of dad’s land. We needed money. I got framed. Some people said it wasn’t my land to sell and that I cheated the rightful owners.

Nina wondered how a smart guy like Rich got embroiled in something like that but she was afraid to ask and thought that maybe it could happen to anyone, especially if what he said was true and you didn’t have friends in high places.

Rich I am beyond tired and you are getting the spare bedroom. You know where it is and you know where the bathroom is. You know where everything is, but I’ll get you the linens. Then we’ll take a look at this winter wonderland tomorrow and have some pancakes. I have next steps to figure out and I need a good sounding board. Maybe you need one too. Where do I go from here?

Rich nodded and smiled. We’ll weather this safely. I know winter’s tricks. Nina wasn’t sure whether he meant safely applied to their renewed connection or the fickle storms but she nodded too.