Snow Storm_(0)

This affair started a few years ago. But as a prelude, there were troubling things happening inside me. I was 35. When we first met and in the early years of our marriage, my husband and I were like rabbits. Every opportunity, every place, every part of our bodies that could be used for pleasure. Yes, even there.

He’s a wonderful man and wonderful in bed, too. But lately, I’d found myself losing interest in sex, even avoiding it by finding other things to do, going to bed after him, and so on. I felt awful about this. I tried to overcome these feelings and show my love for him by having sex a couple times a month, but it just wasn’t there for me.

A huge wet snowstorm moved slowly up the east coast just before Halloween. With leaves still on the trees and a foot of snow heavily laden with moisture, trees were brought down across whole states and millions of people like me were out of power. My husband was away and couldn’t get home. Huge branches fell across our driveway during the night.

The next morning, as I pulled the emergency release and heaved up my garage door, I saw I was trapped. There wasn’t even room to pull the generator outside. Our one battery powered radio warned everybody that it would be days or weeks before power was back.

I made a few feeble attempts to shovel some of the snow and drag the smaller branches away, but all I managed was to exhaust myself. My neighbor across the back yard must have been watching me. Eventually, he came over and offered to help.

Paul is a tall man, 6 foot 4, very strong, and he even brought a chain saw. We labored for hours, shoveling snow, sawing branches and dragging heavy pieces off to the side. Actually, Paul did most of the work. This may sound trite, but there I was in the presence of a perfect male specimen demonstrating his prowess saving a damsel in distress. OK OK, so what if I wasn’t a damsel anymore; I WAS in distress.

And something was happening deep in my tummy. My old friend, lust, was coming back. It was so ironic. Why now? I kept pushing those feelings away. But every time I stood next to him, brushed against him helping to move a big branch, that electricity was there. Me and that big man, both of us covered in sawdust, dressed in ugly winter work clothes. Me and Paul. Me and Paul. No No NO!

When we had a path for the car to get out to the street – which wasn’t much use because the plows wouldn’t get there for two more days – Paul offered to help me with the generator. My husband had showed me all about the generator and where to run the extension cords so food wouldn’t spoil and we could have a few lights. He had even rigged a

way to hook up the gas furnace so it could turn on. So I should have said, I’ll handle it. But I didn’t. I didn’t.