Vetraelle

Vetraelle

By J.R. Kost

Luna and I watched as the storm ravaged outside the window. The white was impenetrable outside, but the coldness passed through the glass seemingly unimpeded, sending chills through our warm blood. The heat from the overworked furnace would last us for a few more days, but if the snow became too deep it could take several more before the next fuel truck could make it. I knew we would survive, but there were others that were not as self-sufficient. 

The package finally arrived that afternoon, before the so-called hundred year blizzard started writing its own dramatic story. The moisture had built up from a warmer Pacific ocean and moved east, building up unprecedented volumes of water over the mountains. Some would deny its link to climate change, but Luna even knew things were not the same.

We had to try. It was a matter of life or death, after all. I thought about waiting. Waiting for the morning light. But what would we wake up to? Would we even be able to get out the door, let alone drive the truck that couple of miles? Out here everyone had 4x4s, but that wasn't always a right of passage. 

I could see in her eyes that Luna was in. She would do whatever it took. Whatever I asked of her. What a loyal creature. My best friend.

I reminisced about when Linda and I first brought Luna home from the pound. A middle aged, yellow lab mix, she was not prime adoption material, but that's exactly why Linda wanted to adopt her. She was so happy to be at her new home that she ran laps around the farm’s gravel drive for an hour. Linda loved that dog, right up to her death almost three years ago now. If only we could have received her thyroid meds in time. The border had become bogged down with politics so time was lost. Lives were lost, including my Linda. After her death I vowed two things. To take care of Luna to the best of my ability and to make sure I did something to help others in need. Tonight, there was indeed someone in dire need.

We finally dug our way out the front door. I knew then that this was the right thing to do. There was no other way. It was a slow slog to the truck. My sixty year old body struggled through the snow. Even with the snowshoes it was difficult. With the snow drifting, the wind blinding, and the cold gnawing at the bone, I yearned for my younger self. Luna struggled to make it, but I pulled and carried her determined body toward the truck. We were a team, after all. 

A foot of snow already surrounded the Toyota 4-Runner by the time we got to her. I shoveled the snow, my mittened hands frozen to the shovels' handle, my old muscles aching. With Luna now at my side, we finally gained entrance. I turned the key. Luna dropped down on the seat, her eyes with that sad dog expression. The ignition groaned, groaned again, and then was silent. 

Time was of the essence, as the snow continued to pile up. My mind was beginning to go into hyperdrive. To panic. I could only think of the need to act. No matter the illogical state of the situation. 

I opened the duffle bag in the back seat and found the layers I was looking for. Luna looked at me, seemingly with a smile, as I pulled out her jacket as well.

“We're going to do this, dog. Or die trying.”

She only smiled and wagged her tail. She was not afraid, but I was.

Then, I remembered. The sled in the back of the truck for hauling game. A suitable mode of transportation for the dog in these impassable conditions. There was no other way she'd make the journey. I needed her. She was my support. The only friend I had.

With our layers on and buttoned up tight, we started out across the field. I hoped my headlamp was charged, but really had no idea. I chastised myself for not being better prepared. Luna knew her place and layed on the sled as I started what would be a long, slow slog to our destination. 

“One, step, at, a time,”  I kept telling myself, as I pulled Luna across the ever increasing depths of snow. The wind howled and the temperature plummeted as we continued our journey through the dark, frozen hell.

Then, I saw it. The porch light. We were getting close. We just needed to keep moving forward. Luna, now hunkered down on the sled, lifted her head and gazed toward our goal. She too knew we were getting close.

The light flickered. Off, and then back on. Then, darkness. The headlamp was dead. With only the intermittent, blizzard obscured porch light to direct us, we continued on.

So close. Then, the snowshoe broke through the meshing. I then had only one, which was really not half as good as one. The snow was so deep. I tread through it, with Luna in tow. She started to whimper as she realized our predicament. 

Like quick sand, but of snow, I pulled, but sank further into oblivion. The porch light dimmed in my sight as I slowly sank into the drifting abyss.

My eyes became distorted lenses into a world of shadows. Of white and dark. Of imagination and reality. That's the only way I can describe what I saw, laying there, near frozen death.

Her veil of white blended so well with the snow, but her form had shape, was real. She smiled at me as she swooped closer to my wide open eyes within my ever deepening tomb of ice and snow. 

“You have shown goodness and virtue. Go now and finish what is within the destiny set before you. Go now, and live so others may live.”

My mind wandered and drifted in and out of consciousness as I watched her drift back into the snow filled night sky. Then, as if to tease me with her beauty and mysticism, she swooped back upon me and hovered just above my face. Her eyes were of such a deep, powerful blue that it seemed as if they energized my inner soul. A quick kiss on my lips gave me a burst of life. My eyes opened wide just in time to see her disappear into the snow filled night.

I was awakened from my daze by another kiss. Luna, licking the snow from my frozen face, barked and became more and more excited. I used all my strength to turn. To turn and see that the porch light was only a hundred yards from our position.

Then, the sled began to move. It wasn't me pulling it, but rather it was Luna pulling me! Slowly, inch by inch, we moved closer to the light. Soon, I became energized and the snow became such that I could walk again. We reached the porch with a burst of energy. Luna and I celebrated, her in my arms as she licked my face.

After a few, feeble knocks, an old woman came to the door. Her surprised smile could not have brought more joy to my face and mind. She brushed her greying, long, braided hair aside as she cleared the doorway of snow. Her strength and tenacity were all too evident even at eighty. 

She could no longer afford what we had brought. Her government checks had dwindled and her savings had run dry. With Luna smiling beside me, I handed her the insulin. The package had come a long way, across difficult borders, but the effort, the near death experience, was worth more to Luna and I than she could know.

The old woman brought us into the house. Luna and I warmed our frozen bodies as we sat by the crackling fire. I couldn't help but think about the strange vision I had had. If I mentioned it to the old Icelandic woman, Katrin was her name, would she think me insane?

“You look like a troubled young man,” Katrin observed. “You and the dog had a frightful journey this evening. I can't express my gratitude enough for what you have done for me tonight and for the years since Linda passed.”

I stammered, but I couldn't help but say it. “There was something else. I saw something floating in the sky like some kind of ghost or angel.”

The woman's eyes opened wide with astonishment. “What did you see?” She asked with her Icelandic accent, her voice cracking.

“A young woman, I think. Her face was so white, but her eyes were a beautiful blue. I only saw her for an instant and then she was gone. She said I had a destiny to live so others would live.”

“I would say you have already fulfilled that destiny. You have saved my life tonight by once again delivering my insulin. I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate your goodness and virtue.”

“That's exactly what she said. Funny, that you'd use the same words.”

Just then the old woman moved toward me and kissed me on the cheek. I only then realized that she had the brightest, blue eyes.

“You met Vetraelle tonight. She was my sister who died some fifty years ago on a night not unlike tonight. She ran out into a blizzard to find her dog and was never seen again. We don't know what ever happened to her, but I always knew she was nearby. I can sometimes feel her presence. I know that she's out there.”

I sank back in my chair in disbelief. Could it have been? We sat by the fire for some time in silence after that. Eventually, Luna and I fell asleep on the couch. My dreams that night were so real. Of the blue eyed girl named Vetraelle.

The End

"vetra" (winter in Icelandic) with the feminine suffix "-elle." 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snow_Scene_at_Shipka_Pass_1.JP