the cruel signs of winter

Sheena was proud that Omaha had worked so hard to make the house a home.

Seriously, there was a lot she loved about the place...but as tight as all those new windows were, the building materials were old and ..damn..if a wind didn't get up and chill one to the bone.

"Can't, you turn the furnace on?" She'd put on her warm socks and wrapped up in fleece. She was looking for her earmuffs. Of course, Omaha walked around in just his flannel sleep pants and barefoot. The cold didn't bother him.

She swore he must have been raised in a meat locker.

He checked on the furnace in the basement. Something needed to be lit.

"Call someone." Sheena stood back as he explored the furnace. There was a number on it, but he said it wouldn't do much good. It was a number from the 1970's and it was past 9 p.m. at night.

"Call that guy who helped you before." She knew Taylor would be no help and Josh was working at the emergency room. He couldn't ask Minnie to come out in the cold.

"Ed?" He turned to her and scowled. She shot him a look that he needed to do something before she called 911.

He climbed back up the steep basement stairs. She followed, almost bumping into his bum, when he stopped to retrieve his cell from the nightstand. Sheena shivered. Omaha turned to look down at her and then made the call.

Of course, Ed would come and check it out.

He was there in no time and so was a teenage boy.

"Do you want some hot chocolate?" She asked the boy who stood in the kitchen while Omaha and Ed went to the basement.

He shrugged.

"Is he your husband?" The boy's solemn face looked her over as if it were forbidden to have such a lifestyle without marriage.

"Soon, very soon." Sheena told him as she went to heat up the hot chocolate in the microwave. "Is that your dad?"

"Yeah." His words sounded a little sad, as if he didn't like the fact very much.

"When did you guys move here?"

"We..we were in a hurricane," he then said and told her he was Ollie.

Sheena's eyes lit as she handed him the hot chocolate.

"Its just temporary." He told her. "I don't think my dad will be around for long."

Sheena nodded. She imagined Omaha saying the exact words when he was Ollie's age.

Just then the furnace kicked in. Warm air lifted from the floor vents.

Sheena smiled.

Ollie took another sip of the hot chocolate. He downed the whole thing before Ed and Omaha could get to the kitchen.

Ollie said a quick thank you and put the cup in the sink and they left.

"Who are they again?" There was something so familiar about them, but Sheena couldn't put her finger on it.

"They're staying at Betty's." Omaha shrugged with a yawn. He was still without a shirt and barefoot.

"Oh, well..well..you better pay him," Sheena said.

"Pay him? Why?" Omaha winced as he followed her to their bedroom after he shut off all the lights in the house.

"Who knows? They might be long lost relatives of yours." She told him when she was getting into bed.

"Relatives?" He squinted hard. "Yeah, right." He turned off the lamp. She snuggled up to his hot skin. Seriously, Omaha was really the only heater she needed.