She stood in a foot of snow. Her cheap winter boots etched black quotation marks on the winter whiteness. A set of tire tracks stretched into the distance. A pick-up truck hurried away. The sound of its motor died. The sun’s brightness on the snow hurt her eyes, made her feel dizzy. She swayed backward as if an invisible hand had pushed her.
She took a deep breath and righted herself. Her unease grew as the dizziness and confusion faded. She had no purse. A black cat carrier sat like discarded luggage at her feet. Inside the tiny enclosure Pooky meowed. She picked up her pet and started walking.
Slivers of pain ricocheted in her toes and feet; her knees buckled from the arthritis. Gusts of wind whipped against her and almost knocked her over. She walked into the whiteness.
Jim wondered if he had he driven his grandmother far enough into the woods. Would she stay lost? He brushed away those concerns. No way could she find her way back. No way would anyone find her until spring. Maybe they wouldn’t even find her then. The woods were deep. He’d left her among thousands of acres of woodland, miles from the nearest main road. The timber tracks and hunting trails were unplowed and unvisited until spring. Even if some yahoo hunter found her body, Jimmy was sure it would not be identified. Dental records? Did that work with dentures? He’d taken her dentures last night while she slept. He’d tossed them in the garbage.
He smiled at how easy it had been to get rid of the old woman. He wondered how long it would take her to die.
She stayed on the tracks Jimmy’s truck had left. Trees at the roadside towered above her like listening giants. After awhile she stopped walking. She put the cat carrier down, opened the doors. “I can’t carry you anymore, Pooky,” she said. “Stay with me, okay. Don’t go wandering off where I won’t be able to find you.”
She left the carrier in a snow bank. Pooky slowly edged her way out of the carrier. The cat stood frozen on the snowbank already missing the warmth inside the carrier. The old woman carefully removed the tiny blanket. “Come,” she said. “I don’t want to be alone.”
ALONE. The word scared her. She started walking again. When she came to a clearing, she lost track of the tire tracks and wondered into the whiteness. The snow looked like white sheets and fluffy pillows. She longed to lie down.
They’d never find her, never find her. Jimmy kept repeating the phrase over and over in his mind. They’d never find her.
He was a laid-off construction worker. No one was hiring. Not that he’d tried very hard to find work. Available jobs required too much effort for too little wages. His sister Stella, an unemployed divorcee, couldn’t find a job either. She had moved in with him after her husband disappeared.
“You gotta find a job,” he’d told Stella.
“Who died and left you boss?”
He wanted to grab her by her hair and kick her out the door. Stella wasn’t good for much, but she cleaned up after him and picked up his empty beer bottles. They were behind on the rent. Stella sure wasn’t helping with that. Soon they’d both be out on the street. He let her stay. Misery loves company. And one of these days someone might hire her.
“Maybe we can move in with Grandma,” she suggested.
“That old hag. She don’t like beer drinking. She don’t like cigarette smoke.”
The conversation had died there, but it planted a seed each sibling’s mind.
After awhile, Jimmy said, “We inherit her house when she dies. We’ll have a place to stay. We could be living there now.”
This time it was Stella who nixed the idea. “I’m allergic to that stinky old cat. There’s litter boxes all over the house. It’ll be worse than living with you.”
“So we get rid of the cat.”
“Grandma won’t let you take her cat. She loves that old stray.”
“We get rid of both of them.”
“How do you plan on doing that?”
“We could push her down the stairs.”
“What do you mean – We? I ain’t pushin’ no-one.”
“A fall would be messy,” he said thinking out loud. “How’d we get rid of the body?”
“Call 911.”
“And have bunch of firefighters and EMT’s asking questions? No way. If there ain’t a body, there’s no death certificate, and no one to stop the Social Security checks.”
“You’re going to kill her and cash her checks?”
“I don’t have to cash her checks. She’s got direct deposit. She’s got one of them there debit cards in her purse. She’s got the pin written in there too. That way she don’t forget it.”
“What are you goin’ do?” He was scaring her, but then again it would be nice to be rid of Grandma and live in her house. It was one story, three bedrooms, one bathroom, small kitchen, but it would be better than living in Jim’s pigsty apartment.
“What are you going to do with the cat?” she asked.
“Remember when we had that old dog Sheppie?” Jim asked.
“I loved that dog.”
“Remember what happened to it?”
“Dad got rid of it.”
“He took it in the woods and dropped it off.”
“Poor Sheppie never did find his way back.”
“She wasn’t supposed to, you idiot. That’s the idea. Drop the old mongrel off and leave her to fend for herself in the woods.”
“What’d he do it for? I loved that dog.”
“Shut up, you moron. There’s thousands of acres of trees in the Upper Peninsula. Dad and I used to go hunting up there. We could dump Grandma just like Dad dumped that old dog.”
“She’ll claw your eyes.”
“Not if we put sleeping pills in her tea, and keep her passed out until we dump her.”
“When you gonna do it?”
The old woman had come to in the back seat of Jimmy’s pick-up truck. She was bundled up in an old Battlestar Galactica sleeping bag. It had belonged to Jimmy when he was a boy. The rhythm of the truck’s motor and movement almost put her back to sleep, but she heard the radio, and it helped her stay awake. Jim Reeves sang “He’ll Have To Go.” and she heard Jimmy singing along, “She’ll have to go.” Was she dreaming?
“Jimmy,”she called out. “Jimmy.”
“Go back to sleep, Grandma. We’re almost there.”
She dozed off, but woke up when he stopped the car. She heard his footsteps crunching the frozen earth as he walked around to the truck.
“We’re here,” he opened the door, unzipped the sleeping bag and pulled her outside.
“Where are we?”
“Home, Grandma. Home.” He backed her away from his pick-up truck, tossed the cat carrier into a snow bank, and then he got in and drove off.
The old woman trudged on. She couldn’t guess how long she had been walking. Maybe ten minutes. Maybe an hour or more. Her legs had tired long ago. She looked behind her. Pooky wasn’t there anymore. Poor little guy, she thought. There was nothing to do but trudge onward. Yet she missed the small animal’s comfort. Song lyrics echoed in her mind. “We’ll be together again up yonder in a little while.”
Five women gathered around a table in a Michigan motel.
“Knife,” Michelle called out.
“Check,” Her four companions answered all at once.
“Water.”
“We ain’t gonna need much of that. There’s five inches of snow.” Debbie said.
“Don’t count on the snow being clean, and you won’t be able to scoop it out with your hand and drink it from between fingers. Fingers freeze in temperatures this low. Make sure you have a canteen filled with fresh water. You should be able to refill it, but always carry water.”
“Yes, Mother.” Jenna answered.
Michelle smiled. The girls weren’t related to her, but she was their natural leader. These were her girls. She had trained them. “Map,” she called out.
Each woman checked and made sure a map was safely tucked into a water-proof pouch and easily accessible.
Michelle pulled out an extra map. “Here’s the drop off spot.’” she pointed. “Our driver drops us off at intervals about two to three miles apart. We rendezvous here,” she pointed to the meeting spot on another road miles to the north. “We’ll each cover about 26 miles of wilderness.”
“Maybe we should have radios – just in case.”
“We have matches, flares and pistols,” Michelle reminded her. “There are ways to signal for help if we need it. and Jeanine will be there waiting for us. She’ll have the camper nice and warm.”
“We’ll have our cell phones,” Debbie said.
“And no coverage out here,” Alonda reminded her.
“I’d feel better if we weren’t spending the night out there.”
“You want to chicken out?”
“No, I’m in.” The other women nodded. They’d prepared for this test. They were ready.
The old woman trudged on. The wind picked up and rattled around her like a noisy child. “Why don’t I have my earmuffs?” she asked, cupping her mittens around her ears. The snow made no answer. Instead the shadows darkened and the the temperature dropped.
She thought of the old nursery rhyme about kittens and mittens. She looked around for Pooky. Maybe she should wait for the little cat. They could huddle together for warmth.
Her boot caught on a small hillock in the ground; she stumbled and then somehow righted herself. She looked up at the sky, but saw only the tall tops of pine trees. “When I was a child, I had a tree swing,” she told the pine trees. Looking upward made her dizzy. She fell backward and landed with a thud. The snow cushioned her fall. It felt good to rest. She closed her eyes. She felt Pooky’s small body press up against her. It provided some warmth and comfort. She felt so sleepy. So sleepy. “Pooky,” she said. The little animal made mewing sounds and snuggled up to her.
Jenna was glad Michelle had insisted on daily jogs. At first, the five mile laps seemed too long, too tiring, but gradually she’d gotten used to it. The gym membership had been helpful too. Her legs were stronger than ever. After the attack, she thought she’d never run or hike again, but gradually she had gotten back in shape. The man who raped her was still out there somewhere. She hoped she’d run into him again. She was strong now. This time she’d be ready for him and for others like him.
Debbie had been on the gymnastics team in high school, but her body had softened after graduation. She’d gotten a job in a call center where she sat most of the day, and begun eating too much junk food. She had gained weight and then she’d gotten married. By the time her husband lost his job, and started drinking too much, she was not only out of shape physically, but she’d lost her self confidence. He described her as a loser, and she had believed him. Then he’d started beating her. One day he put her in the hospital. She had tried to leave him, but he kept coming after her. At one point he dragged her by her hair and pulled her out of a friend’s apartment. Not long after that, she met Michelle. She had gotten Debbie a new identity and a new place to live. Michelle said she had a dream of helping other women escape violence. Debbie met the other girls in Michelle’s team and trained with them every day. She remembered her days on the gymnastics team and her dream of entering the Olympics. I can do this, she told herself. She pushed herself hard, but it felt great.
Alonda, a former Northern Michigan University cheerleader and then a champion body builder, had been recruited after her sister was raped and killed. She was the youngest member of the group, and the best educated, having earned a law degree. Alonda was the only African-American in the group. She knew that women of all races needed protection. She wanted to protect them using the courts, but there were many other ways to serve. She helped Michelle train the others.
At 59, Susan was the oldest group member. She stayed in shape. She ran marathons and took kick boxing classes. When they began training, she was in as good physical shape as Alonda and Michelle. She and Alonda were the only members of the group who had not personally experienced abuse. She was married and she had a soldier son serving in the Middle East. She got involved with Michelle and the rest of the team when she started volunteering for a women’s shelter.
Debbie started the wilderness test at a fast pace. She knew she could do this. The cold barely penetrated her red snowmobile suit. Michelle had insisted all the girls buy red suits. That was because hunters often came to these woods even in the off season. Some Yoopers hunted illegally all year long. She came to an old logging road and ran along it until she came to a clearing. She found fresh tire marks. Michelle had been right. Hunters might be lurking in the works. She set off a flare. That would at least alert the yahoos of her presence and hopefully scare them away. It also alerted the other women of the possible danger.
When She saw a dark lump in the snow, she thought it might be an injured or dead animal. She approached slowly. A cat carrier. She looked inside. The door had been opened so, of course, no animal huddled inside. She saw foot prints and paw prints in the snow and decided to follow them. The tracks veered west. It would be a slight detour, and she hoped worth following. She sensed someone was in trouble. She proceeded at a comfortable jog. She almost stumbled over the the woman’s body.
Double flares. That meant trouble. She hoped her friends were good enough to find their way to her location. She bent and pressed her fingertips to the old woman’s neck. She took out her own sleeping bag, unzipped it and gently rolled the elderly woman into it. Alonda was first to arrive. “What did you find? Oh, my god.”
“I don’t think she’s been out here too long.”
“I saw tire tracks back there. No vehicle.”
“I don’t think she was the driver.” While Debbie stayed with the woman, Alonda searched for suitable pine tree branches. They’d tie the old woman to the branches and drag her through the snow.”
Susan arrived then. “Think she’ll be okay until we pull her out of this?” Alonda asked.
Debbie wasn’t sure.
“I saw a cabin about three miles west of here,” Susan said. “It’s deserted. Probably a hunting cabin.”
Let’s get her there. The other girls arrived. Debbie and Alonda pulled. Susan stayed close to the stretcher. The other women trudged along.
Stella paced in the living room of Grandma’s house. “You think Grandma’s dead yet?” she asked Jimmy.
“How the hell should I know?”
“You said she came to in the car.”
“So what?
“She knows what you did to her.”
Jimmy opened a can of beer. “Have to fumigate this place to get the smell of cat out.”
“Maybe we should have taken Pooky to a shelter.”
“Shut up.”
Someone had been to this cabin in the last few months. Most likely hunters stayed here during the hunting season which ended just last month. Michelle’s team carried the woman inside. They found bunk beds and bedding. They kept the woman cocooned in Debbie’s sleeping bag and piled the extra blankets on top. The hunters had thoughtfully left piles of cut-up wood. Michelle started fire.
The old woman opened her eyes and saw a red clothed woman bending over her. “Riding Hood,” she said.
Susan smiled. “We should have brought an extra snowmobile suit along. We didn’t know you’d be joining us.
The toothless old woman smiled back. “Red Riding Hood.”
“That’s us. Five riding hoods. What’s your name, honey?”
The woman appeared lost in thought for a few minutes. Then she said, “Riding Hood.”
“You rest awhile. We’ve got some hot coffee made cowboy style. You want some?”
The old woman nodded.
Michelle had searched the cupboards. She had found the coffee and and old coffee pot that needed cleaning. No problem. Each girl had her own pot. The cans of soup and beans looked old and dented. “I don’t know how ancient these are. Better not to try them.”
“Dump ’em,” her companions all told her.
The girls had carried protein bars and extra emergency food packs. “Chicken and gravy coming right up,” Jenna said pulling out one of her own packs. “I hope she likes it. We could have packed more variety. I’m not much of a chicken eater myself.” She took a small collapsible pan from her backpack, and she moved toward the fire.
“Make sure you get it soft. She doesn’t have any teeth.”
“I’ll heat some soup too. She’ll need it.”
Debbie got the old woman to sit up in the old bunk bed. The girls had the cook stove and the fire blazing.
“Honey,” are you comfortable?” Susan asked the old woman after the woman had eaten.
Alonda the best athlete was sent ahead to the rendezvous spot. She and Jeanine, the driver, would get an ambulance in here. But in the meantime the girls and their guest were on their own.
“You’re going to be okay,” Michelle told the old woman. “I don’t think you were stranded too long. We got to you in time.”
The old woman began crying.
“Can you tell us your name?”
“Pookie.”
“Pookie. Is that your last name?
”
“Cat.”
“She’s fine. She followed us here.” Jenna brought the tiny cat to the old woman’s bedside. The woman gently hugged the cat and cried into its fur.
“We’ve got the cat carrier too, so don’t worry. We’ll get you both out.”
“What’s your name, Honey?” Michelle asked.
The old woman didn’t answer.
Debbie motioned Michelle over to the corner of the room, and showed her a tiny piece of paper. “It was taped to the carrier. Whoever dumped her off forgot to look. Vet professionals often tape the owner’s name and address to the pet carriers. That way they don’t get the carriers mixed up.”
“Lucille Graham, nice name. Let’s go introduce ourselves. She thinks we are five Little Red Riding Hoods.”
“Not so Little.” Jenna joked.
“She murmured something about missing her dentures.”
Susan said, “I think she and the cat were dumped. Whoever dumped her took her teeth, probably so she wouldn’t be identified.”
“Can people be identified by dentures?”
“They sure can. Denture makers often stencil the owner’s name on the dental plate.”
Back at the woman’s bedside, Michelle’s team introduced themselves to Mrs. Graham.They told her they knew she had most likely been abandoned on purpose.
“Please don’t get my grandson in trouble,” the woman begged.
February brought fresh snow and colder temperatures. Morning brought a water bill. “Shit,” Jimmy tossed the bill aside.”How are we going to pay for this?”
“You said you had Grandma’s bank card. When do her Social Security checks arrive?”
“The damned government took a hundred dollars off for Medicare. Like she needs that anymore.”
“Cancel the Medicare.”
“Yeah. I could do that.”
The doorbell rang, sending a high pitched sound through the house. “I gotta get that fixed,” Jimmy said.
“Grandma was hard of hearing. She liked the doorbell loud.”
“Loud enough to wake the dead,” he said, and then remembering where he had left Grandma he laughed. “Not loud enough.”
The doorbell rang again the awful high pitched sound again filled the house. “Coming. Coming.” Jimmy mumbled.
A pretty woman stood outside. She was tall and brown-haired. She looked like a fashion model, but she wasn’t slender. Instead, she had the build of an athlete. “Hi. My name’s Michelle. I’m a friend of your grandmother’s.”
“She ain’t here.” Jimmy started to close the door, but Michelle blocked the closing door with her foot.
“The question is, why are you here?”
“Ain’t none of your business, but I manage the house for Grandma. She’s senile. She needs help.”
“Is that a fact?”
“Look, lady, no one invited you here.”
“Actually somebody did.” Michelle looked behind her and signaled the women who surrounded her car. Jimmy’s mouth opened and closed as he watched them open the car’s back door and help his grandmother out of the car. Jenna grabbed the cat carrier. Debbie and Alonda assisted Jimmy’s grandmother as she slowly made her way back to her house.
Stella stood at the kitchen entrance, but she could see what was happening. “Grandma, we didn’t expect you back so soon. Jimmy said you’d be gone for a while.”
“Is that what Jimmy said?” Michelle asked. “How long have you two lived here?”
Jimmy ignored her. “Grandma,” he said. “This is a surprise.”
Their grandmother, slowly entered the house. Her companions wanted to move her the couch where she could rest, but she preferred to face Jimmy. “Why?” she asked.
Jimmy didn’t answer. He just stared in disbelief.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Jimmy.” Michelle observed.
“Do you like my new teeth?” Grandma asked. “You stole my dentures, didn’t you? Why?”
He didn’t answer.
“We’ll help you pack,” Michelle said to Jimmy.
“We were just… We were just…” Stella couldn’t finish the sentence.
“What did you put in my tea?” her grandmother asked her.
Stella started crying. “Jimmy made me do it.”
Michelle drove Jimmy’s pickup deep into the woods. Handcuffed and blindfolded, Jimmy and Stella huddled together in the back seat. Jenna drove Michelle’s car, with the other women inside. Michelle stopped the truck and opened the back door. She undid the blind folds and unlocked the handcuffs on her prisoners. She didn’t help Jimmy and Stella out. But she’d pull them out if she had to. Instead the two obediently stepped out of the truck.
The other women piled put of the backup car and surrounded the brother and sister.
“Here’s the title to the truck,” Michelle said. “Sign it.”
Jimmy obeyed. The girls would sell the old truck for parts to pay for his grandmother’s new teeth.
“Were you paying attention?” Michelle asked Jimmy. “Maybe you counted the turns? Did you try to keep track of the miles?”
“I know these woods,” Jimmy insisted. “I used to hunt here.”
“What makes you think these are the same woods where you abandoned your grandmother? These woods are different. But you aren’t more than a few miles from civilization. A fit man or woman could find his or her way back. Just don’t take any wrong turns. That would be fatal out here. And don’t work your way back to your grandmother. If you do, we’ll be waiting for you.”
“You ain’t gonna leave us here,” Jimmy insisted.
“We don’t have a choice. Your grandmother doesn’t want you two arrested. She just asked that we take you someplace where you won’t be a threat to her.”
The women drove away with Michelle at the wheel of Jimmy’s truck. They headed back the way they had come.
“I’ll just follow your tire tracks, you dumb bitches,” Jimmy called after them.
Jimmy and Stella did follow the tire tracks. They walked for hours. “I think they drove in a circle.” Jimmy said. “Damn. They’re leading us in the wrong direction”
His sister collapsed in the snow.”I can’t go any further.”
Back at grandma’s house, the women gathered, eating pasties they’d bought in a shop in the U.P. on their way back. They’d brought extras so Lucile Graham could freeze them and she’d have some easy meals.
“We never finished our wilderness test,” Debbie reminded the others.
“I’d say we all passed,” Alonda answered.
Michelle nodded. “We did.”
Snow fell. Shadows surrounded Jimmy and Stella. They had walked for miles, but the logging road never ended. It didn’t seem to go anywhere. Before Stella fell asleep she was sure she saw an old dog watching from beyond the trees, a dog just like the one she and Jimmy had played with when they were children. ”Sheppie,” she called out remembering the mut her father had abandoned in the woods so long ago. The dog glared at her for a full minute and then it disappeared into the woods. “Sheppie come back,” Stella screamed. She continued to scream the old dog’s name until exhaustion overtook her.
