As Sarah poled along in the night, she eyed the faint ridgeline of the serrated black hills cutting across the moonlit heavens. Underfoot, snow crunched and hiking poles clicked and clacked. Before long, she was plodding up a steep slope with no end in sight. As she fell into the rhythm of her steps, she watched Frank walk ahead within the beam of her head lantern.
Over the last few days he’d been sneaking away from their bed. Maybe he was keeping away because he didn’t want to pass the cold he was fighting. She’d been hearing him cough outside when he went out on his morning walks, but there was something more going on with him. Brooding on some slight? Had she said or done something? He shifted back and forth between a man she couldn’t get her arms around one moment and a man who clutch
