FICTION

THE NEW ME

Jeanette IL-3-Z-FPE

It had been a long drive, long and tiring. Rain had been driving down for the last two hours forcing me to drive at a crawl. I was glad we had stopped at that truck stop for coffee, the break had allowed some of the cramp to drain from my body and driving was now considerably easier.

At last we were here, two whole weeks alone in a quiet mountain glen, just Dianne, my wife, and I. It would be good to relax a while and let the rest of the world go by.

As I stopped the car I handed Dianne the key to the cottage and said, "You open up and I'll grab the suitcases and follow you." At that I jumped out and ran to the rear of the car.

"Hey," I yelled, "the trunk's open and two of the suitcases are gone. It must have happened while we were stopped for coffee."

Dianne ran back to look. "Well," she said, "grab the other two and let's get inside, I'm soaked and so are you." With that I grabbed the luggage, slammed the trunk shut and ran for the door of the cabin.

Inside I set the suitcases down and stripped to the waist as I squished across the floor, in my wet shoes, to the fire place. "At least there's some dry wood for a fire here, I'll have a blaze up in two shakes." From the kitchen I heard Dianne say, "We have coffee and some canned things in here which will do till we can get to the store tomorrow. I'll make some coffee and unpack while you work on a fire.”

Soon a good blaze was going and warmth was beginning to seep into the room, soon it would be very cozy. All I needed now was a change to

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