Chapter 2: Chapter 2
“Which room is yours?”
Oh no, had he given her the wrong idea? She might be pretty in a cartoony way but…“I’m queer.”
“Good for you, now where do you belong?”
He pursed his lips. Belong?He didn’t belong anywhere. He had nothing left.
She made a sound of frustration and searched for where she’d noted his room number earlier. Silently, or as silently as he could, he slipped away.
* * * *
Otho Newcomer started the lathe and reached for the spindle gouge. The air was nippy. More than nippy, it was freezing. Not the best day to do outdoors work, but the snow was glistening, and he had the entire day off. He might not build his porch in the middle of the winter, but he would have the poles ready for when the snow melted.
Moving up here had been the best decision he’d ever made. Not that it had been his idea. He and Joslyn had been friends since kindergarten, and a little while after she’d moved here for a bartender job, the resort advertised for a maintenance man. It might not be the kind of future he’d seen for himself, but Joslyn had begged him to apply, and he didn’t regret his decision.
Living next door to his workplace had its pros and cons, but he loved his little cabin and once spring arrived, he’d build himself a cozy little porch.
He adjusted the safety glasses and brought the tool up to the spinning wood. Wood chips rained over his arms and he did nothing to stop the grin forming on his lips. Wood, he loved wood. The texture, the smell, the—what the hell?
Looking up from his work, he saw something move—a man walking out on the ice on the river. Was he insane? The currents were too strong there; the ice wasn’t thick enough to walk on. It had closed over yesterday when the temperature had dropped, but it broke open now and then, a constant struggle between the current and the ice.
Before Otho’s brain caught up with what he was doing, he’d dropped the gouge on the ground and ran out from under the carport.
“Hey!” He waved his arms, but the man didn’t look in his direction. “Hey! You, hello!” He ran, his heavy boots sinking into the snow. He jumped over the snowdrift on the other side of the narrow gravel road passing by his cabin. The reeds buried underneath the snow tangled around his ankles, but he kept going.
“Hey, you!” He waved more, but the man didn’t so much as glance in his direction. Shit. When Otho stepped onto the ice, he slowed down. This close to the land it shouldn’t be any danger, but Otho feared he weighed more than the man. It was a grown man, though, not some teen who didn’t know better.
“Come on, man! Come back here!” Otho took one slow step after the other, and in that moment, the man turned around to face him. Otho blew out a breath and waved.
The sound of the ice breaking shouldn’t have been so loud, but it was. It was as if it was moaning a protest before opening its jaws to swallow the man. Otho’s heart stopped. “No!”
For half a second, he stood immobilized, then he dug into his pocket for his phone and called the emergency service center. He slid down on his stomach and crawled over the ice while waiting for the call to connect.
A sharp intake of air was all he heard from the man as he hurried the best he could. A woman talking in a clear, calm voice answered.
“A man has gone through the ice of the river.” Otho almost hung up before adding, “By River Cove on Lakeside Lane in Snowmelt.” He disconnected. He probably should have said more, but the man was freezing to death or drowning. With the pulse drumming in his ears, he pictured the man sliding in under the ice. His breath froze, and he pushed himself forward.
The edge of the hole came closer. The black water looked alive, angry, and threatening as it tried to pull the man under. Only his head and part of his shoulders remained above the surface. His skin was white, not pale, white. His lips blue, his eyes wide, and his body stiff. Otho dragged himself forward, spreading his weight over as large an area as possible.
“Easy.” He was talking to himself as much as to the man. “Can you grab the edge?”
He still had about four feet to go to where the water lapped at the ice, but he didn’t know how much closer he dared move. The man’s wide eyes latched on to his, and Otho forced a calm expression to his face. “Good.”
The man had done nothing, but Otho figured he couldn’t go wrong with praise. “Now can you try to swim?”
He didn’t move, did nothing but stare at Otho.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone