She reaches for the counter, and I duck out of the kitchen just in time to avoid being hit by the box of crackers she chucks at me.
“You’re sleeping on the floor!” she calls after me.
“I’m doing you a massive favor by coming on this trip, soyou’resleeping on the floor. I’m going to get more wood.” I grin when I hear her irritated growl from the kitchen. If she wants to invent problems where there are none, she can deal with them herself.
The sun is below the horizon now, and it’ll be dark in a few minutes. I grab another cord of wood and turn to bring it in when a light winks on up the hill. The Egberts. This is good.
“Tay?” I call, stepping back inside. “A light went on at the neighbors’ house. Want to go over with me?”
She comes out of the kitchen. She doesn’t say anything, but she elbows me in the stomach as she walks past me, pulling on her coat.
“Oof.”
“Baby.”
I follow her back out, and we walk up to the Egbert place. The lights could be on timers, but since I see an interior light too, I doubt it. “I wonder why they have power and we don’t,” I say, as another light comes on upstairs.
“Generator?” Taylor guesses.
We knock and Jon Egbert opens the door. “Hey, Levi. I didn’t expect to see y’all until New Year’s Eve.”
“Hey, Jon.” He’s about ten years older than me, and I don’t know him well even though they’ve lived in their place since I started college. “This is a surprise visit. We were heading near Morgantown, but we’re staying at the cabin tonight so we don’t get caught in the storm.”
“Good thinking.” His gaze lands on Taylor, his face curious.
“This is my friend, Taylor,” I tell him.
“Oh, I remember meeting you a couple of times,” he says, his face clearing.
“Me too,” she says. “Probably at a few of the summer cookouts.”
“Probably right,” he says. “Y’all need some supper. Why don’t you come on in?”
“That’s okay,” I tell him. Jon himself isn’t super talkative, but his wife, Tammy, could talk your ear off. “I guess my dad didn’t call?”
“Recently?” He shakes his head.
“The power is out at our place. I’ve checked the circuit box, but I can’t figure out the problem.”
“Need somewhere to stay?” he asks.
“No, wondered if you might have any ideas on how to fix it.”
“No. It’s strange we have power and you don’t, but I can’t say why that would be. Happy to come down and take a look.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I tell him. “We’ve got firewood and a generator, and it’s more than enough to hold us over until morning.”
He scratches his head. “I feel kinda bad though. Sure there’s nothing we can do to help? I can send you home with a three-gallon can of gas.”
“We’ll be all right,” I say.
“How about fresh eggs and a camping stove?”
“Yes,” Taylor says before I can decline. “It runs on propane?”
“Yep. Come on around to the shed.”
“I can make something way better if I have heat,” she tells me.
