Lynn, an ultimate communication

… Forecast for today, during the afternoon heavy snow showers will drift into our country from the northeast. It is expected that before midnight the entire country will be shrouded in snow showers, with heavy gusts of wind force 9 to 10 possible. The advice is to make sure you have enough fuel and food supplies, as it seems that this weather will last for at least a week...”

Lynn turned down the sound, which she had turned up after hearing the weather forecast had started. “As if I sensed it.” She laughed about herself. Yorrie, her husky, had walked himself out and she had fallen to her knees a few times, due to a mild form of MS, so she had chosen to go by car, instead of going for a walk, to do the grocery shopping. It was very convenient because now she could stock up for two weeks, while she was actually on the road for a few errands.

In her mind, Lynn went through the stockpile. Yesterday the pellets for her pellet stove and pellet oven were delivered... aleatory. In the barn there was still enough firewood for the fireplace and last week she had bought chicken feed, dog food, cat food and grit, so the animals were not short of anything. There was also plenty of wood chips for the chickens’ nests.

“Let’s think... jars of vegetables and frozen fruit and vegetables for my smoothies, fish and shrimp, stir-fry vegetables, delicious tea, coconut water and milk, ginger... I still have spices, salt too... um... I also had garlic I thought. Boy, what else? But just walk down the aisles and look at my list on my shopping app. Glad I have my phone with me. It makes me hungry, I’ll spoil myself. Oh yes, almonds for spice cake. I still have gingerbread spices,” talking aloud to herself. That’s what you’ve got when you live alone with only animals around you. The thought made her laugh.

Lynn enjoyed the thought of a warm scented house, fireplace burning, wind howling around the house. Closed shutters. She also had to fence off the outside part of the chicken enclosure, so that they could still go outside, provided it didn’t get too crazy.

In the meantime she had arrived at the store, it was not very busy yet so a parking space was quickly found. After an hour, she was able to load her car. All she had to do was to get fuel for the generator. Normally, she would pop by the old vet after shopping, but since he had hired a new vet and started enjoying his retirement himself, she hadn’t stopped by. When she had called to see if there were any new patients for her, she is an animal psychologist, communicating telepathically with animals, the assistant had told her that the new doctor didn’t feel for it. Too bad, because she had thought that she had left a good impression at the farewell party of the veterinarian, doctor Frits van Dieren. D.D as she always called him, they always joked about that.

Lost livelihood... Although there were still a few who had good experiences with her, the number of animals was more than halved.

Her grandmother had left her well, but it was so satisfying to help animals. She drove leisurely towards the only gas station in the village. It was a lot busier there than at the supermarket. The weather forecast was already starting to get through to the residents.

She parked her car, which wasn’t much of a problem since most people were queuing up to fill up their cars and jerry cans. Normally she did that too, filling up jerry cans she had brought with her, but now it was a bit unexpected and there was no point in going back, that also cost petrol, plus that by the time she got back, it would be very busy.

She walked in, grabbed a cart and gathered a few jerry cans of gasoline and stood in line at the cash register. “Hi Kristien, nice and busy, the approaching bad weather is starting to sink in?“, Lynn greeted the cashier.

“Yeah, only just now, about half an hour when it suddenly started to get crowded. To be honest, I didn’t hear anything. A customer started talking about it. I also put some petrol aside and called my mom to ask if she wanted to do some shopping, otherwise the shelves will be empty before I have time to go.”

“Did it succeed, otherwise I’d like to get some?”

“No, that’s not necessary, mom was about to go herself, so I called right on time.”

“Fortunately, because they had no idea how long this weather would last, they thought it would be at least a week. That’s a very long time to run out of food. If you live in the village you might be able to walk and buy some groceries, but I’m a bit afraid I’ll get snowed in, so remote.”

“Can’t you move in with your brother?”

“No, I don’t want to leave my critters alone, but I’m prepared for anything. It’s going to be fine.” Lynn smiled at the woman.

She put her wallet away, put the jerry cans in the cart and greeted Kristien: “Have a nice day and enjoy maybe a mandatory week off.” They both laughed and after a final “bye” Lynn walked to the car.

Quite strange because the sun was still shining brightly, although it seemed to feel colder than when she left home.

After putting her car in the garage, Lynn immediately grabbed the wooden frame with the clear plastic for the chicken coop. She had saved that after the previous snow period. She walked through the garage to the space where the chickens’ indoor coop was and where Yorrie, her husky, slept, to the back door, to the chickens’ outdoor area. It was a bit of a hassle because the frame was quite large and therefore very oaf. She managed to maneuver it diagonally against the rock wall and the fence.

“It doesn’t really help, Yorrie, that you’re running around me like that, jeez, watch out! I’m about to break my neck.”

“I’m sorry, I’m already going,” he grumbled. Yorrie darted away across the large lawn that surrounded the house towards the forest.

“Not too far away, stay on the path. I don’t want to pull you out of a trap.” She had already rescued several rabbits from traps. The police couldn’t figure out who set those traps.

Now that Yorrie no longer got in the way, attaching the screen went a little easier. There were screws with rings screwed in the wood so that she could attach it to the fence with a hook and tie it to the rock wall with a rope at the top. Her brother had turned a pair of rings in there also.

On spec, hopefully it wouldn’t storm too hard. For now, it was okay. And otherwise they only had to stay inside for a few days, they didn’t get none of it .

Lynn walked back to the garage to get the jerry cans out of the car and brought them to the generator. She would have preferred a battery that could be charged with solar energy or a windmill so that she did not need oil and gasoline, but unfortunately and after all it was only for emergencies. She refilled the generator in advance, so she didn’t have to worry about it anymore when needed.

Lynn grabbed the rest of the groceries from the car and walked to her cozy kitchen. She loved different styles, lots of plants and this kitchen and the rest of the house was industrial and a bit rural decorated. The kitchen had a concrete countertop and matt gray wooden cupboard doors. The walls were painted in petrol. Between the living room and the kitchen was an iron sliding door that was usually open.

Lynn put on water for the tea and in the meantime she cleaned up her groceries, stuffing the freezer up to his neck. “A bit exaggerated I think. Fortunately, it doesn’t rot.” It came naturally, that talking out loud, of course it was also because she knew that her pets understood. She didn’t just speak out loud, she immediately thought in pictures, so the animals knew what she was talking about. In the meantime, thinking in pictures was also automatic.

The cauldron began to whistle. Lynn quickly turned off the stove, grabbed a cozy, large mug from the cupboard and made a cup of tea with warming winter herbs, took off her coat and shoes - she hadn’t taken time for that yet - crawled on the couch with her three cats, two brothers and a sister, Onyx, Crumble and Moon who had already found a lovely spot, after she pressed down on the pellet stove. “I should have done that first.”

She pulled a Scottish plaid to her and snuggled up under it, enjoying the smell of the tea and the view through the large front window over the sea. “Well, I’m having such a good time. When it starts to snow, I’ll close the shutters. I’ll keep the horizontal slats open, I can always shut them from the inside if I open the window a bit,” she mused, also talking a bit to the cats and tickling them between their ears in turn.

Slowly it started to get dark and the first flakes were already falling. Lynn got up from the couch, went to call Yorrie and give the chickens their food for the next day. They were sometimes up so early, although that became later and later in the winter. Yor came running when she opened the back door. “Will you walk with me to close the shutters?” While Lynn walked on the covered porch to close the shutters of the six high windows and checked the screen door of the hornet-locked part of the porch to make sure it was properly closed, Yorrie frolicked along and had walked the house from left to right no less than four times, gasping for the snowflakes. before she was done. “Come on in, it’s only very warm in the living room, just see what you want. Are you hungry?” As Lynn asked, she grabbed the food bowl and filled it with kibble. Yorrie swooped in as if he hadn’t eaten in a week.

Lynn walked back to the living room and closed the room door behind her. Yorrie was able to open the door herself, but unfortunately he couldn’t close it. Lynn couldn’t help but smile at that thought. Soon she was sitting comfortably and a moment later she had to get up because Yorrie had opened the door and came into the room. Oh well, that’s good for the movement. Lynn heard the wind rising and decided to close the shutters from the inside. It was so dark that she couldn’t really see outside. As she walked to the window, she was startled by a terribly loud, metallic, goosebump-inducing sound. At the same time, lamps shone into her room. Her heart stopped for a moment, shot into her head, and then continued to pound hard in fright.

Lynn peered outside and saw with difficulty through the snow what she already suspected: a car crashed into the tree of her garden. As if in a reflex, she grabbed her mobile phone to call her brother who she suspected was in that car, who else could it be? She lived at the very tip of the island and the only one who would drive here in this crazy weather was her brother.

While she waited for him to pick up the phone, she ran to the garage to put on her boots and coat, leash her dog, and drag the sled outside. She also brought a rope that she could attach to a hook in the wall, so that she could not get lost in the terrible snowstorm. To her surprise, her brother answered very cheerfully: “Hey little sister, do you think it’s getting a little too scary at the end of the world?“, Ian joked.

“Jeez, I thought you had taken it in your stupid head to drive here, a car just hit the tree in the garden, who the hell is that, but I’ll quickly end our call, so I can see what’s going on. You hear me soon, bye!” Ian looked at his mobile in bewilderment. He wanted to call her back right away, but decided to give Lynn some time. But not too much time, worried as he always was about her.

Lynn grabbed Yorrie by the rig and hooked him to the sled. She braced herself as she opened the large garage door, against the cold and wind, and was greeted by the shrill sound of a horn. The driver had apparently hit his horn or it was because of the impact against the tree, but in any case it was a lot of noise outside. The sound of the horn mingled with the howling wind that had suddenly come up. Fifteen minutes ago she didn’t notice anything. How quickly the weather could change.

Despite her wonderfully thick coat, warm hat and scarf, the cold wind cut right through it. Together with Yorrie, they walked slowly but steadily towards the car. It was only a short distance to the edge of her garden, but it seemed to take half an hour before they finally arrived. Lynn tied the rope around the tree and briefly put her hands against the tree for a few seconds to impart love and healing powers to the tree, hoping it would be enough to mitigate the damage the car had done. If necessary, she would do the rest later. They walked around the car and pulled open the door.

Lynn saw beads of sweat on the man’s head and a large bump. The airbag had popped out, but could not prevent his face from being somewhat damaged. She felt his heartbeat and immediately felt that he was boiling hot. Phew, he was still alive. A load of her heart. “We’ve got to pull him out, Yor and put him on the sled, because he can’t do much himself, he’s unconscious.” Lynn leaned over to unbuckle his belt and slid her arm behind his body and around his arms. “Come a little closer with the sled.”

She let go of the man to set the sled properly and then went back behind him, under his armpits to the front, grabbed him by the arm again and began to pull him out of the car. Sighing and groaning, she pulled him towards the sled and managed to maneuver him onto it. “If I hadn’t been detained, I would have helped,” Yorrie said, “I could have helped you.”

“Yes, I know, but I also need you badly, because you have to pull the sled inside.”

“That’s not much of a problem,” Yorrie said, “I’ve been pulling heavier loads.”

Back towards home, she couldn’t see anything in front of her and was glad she had tightened the rope. Although she could have trusted Yorrie’s nose very well, it was still a safe idea. The wind cut into her face, had picked up even more in those few minutes at the car, it was freezing cold and they could only move forward step by step. A long time later, they finally came into the lee of the house and were able to walk a little faster. Lynn regretted that she hadn’t thought of a blanket to put over the man. Luckily he was well dressed, because he was completely buried under snow. Finally they were at the garage door. Yorrie gave himself a good shake and was as good as dry, the advantage of being a Husky, while Lynn gently patted the man and pulled the door open. They quickly went inside and Lynn let Yorrie walk towards the living room. “Wait a minute Yor, I’ll take off his scarf and hat and my boots then you can walk a bit with the sleigh to the bedroom behind the fireplace…” she took off what she could take off, “yes, go ahead.”

Lynn flinched when she heard the sound of the sleigh on her beautiful wooden floor. Well, people go before a wooden floor. “You can stop. We can tow from here.” She unfastened his coat, tried to pull his arms out of the sleeves as she partially erected him and she crawled back behind him, put her arms around him, grabbed him under his arms and dragged him off the sled into the bedroom. “Gosh, how am I going to get him on that bed? Yorrie, pull that wooden chair to the bed.” With a lot of noise, Yorrie pulled on the chair leg until the chair was against the bed. Lynn maneuvered the man onto the chair, holding him for a moment, while she could take a breather and think about what to do next. She put his legs onto the bed with the help of Yorrie, who made sure the man didn’t move off the chair, then sat down with one leg on the bed and the other on the floor, grabbed the man and pulled him onto the bed with a lot of fiddling. How she managed, how she did it... She couldn’t tell, but the man was lying on the bed. Hallelujah! Now it was a matter of taking off his long trousers, tucking him warm, and lighting the fireplace, because the chimney of which ran through this bedroom and the bedroom above. Lynn only used that fireplace and room when it was very, very cold. Or in summer, it was also nice and cool because it was built into the rocks.

The man, despite his temperature and his state of unconsciousness, was shivering. She put an extra duvet from the closet over him. Then she quickly walked out of the room, luckily she had left the door open so it wasn’t freezing cold in that room, but a nice warm fireplace was not a luxury. She quickly lit the fireplace, turned off the pallet stove, since she would be sleeping in the living room that night, she didn’t need to lie in a sauna. “I’m going to lie against him for a while so that he warms up quickly,” Yorrie said.

“Oh, that would be great. If he wakes up for a moment, can you also warn me? I can make him tea or something like that.” Lynn went into the barn to put back the sleigh and hang up coats and scarves. She came back inside and plopped down on the couch. “Oh my goodness, I’m so tired. I’m ready for a cup of tea myself.” She grabbed her mug with the tea she had made earlier, it became cold. When she got up to walk to the kitchen for a fresh mug, she saw her phone blinking.

“Oh, my brother, of course.” She picked up the phone and saw that her brother had called a dozen times. “I’ll call them back first.”

As she walked to the kitchen, she pressed his number. “Lynn jeez, what have you been doing, I’m worried to death, I’ve already put on my coat to come to you, you called me 1.5 hours ago and then nothing.”

“Oh, sorry, a car had crashed into my tree. And the man was unconscious, I somehow think now he’s kind of asleep, overtired or something, I hoisted him on the sled with Yorrie and now he’s just in bed. So unfortunately there was no time to make a phone call.”

“Should I come?”

“No, of course not, the weather is too bad, don’t do that. It will be fine. I have plenty of food in the house so that will be fine. I just hope he gets rid of that fever. I think he was very sick when he got into the car.” While on the phone with her brother, it was noticed that the shutters were still not closed, so with the phone clamped between her ear and her shoulder, she opened the window a little bit to close the blinds. In the meantime, saying yes or no at the right time... she hoped. “What are you doing now? It sounds like you’re outside.”

“The shutters still have to be closed, I was working on that when I heard that bang.”

“Lynn, are you going to think about yourself now? Tomorrow you’ll be completely broken. And then you also have to take care of that man. Who is it?”

“I don’t know, although he looks familiar to me. I’ll search through his pockets and I’ll send you a text. Yorrie lies with him and he warns me when something changes. I actually have no idea if I’m doing it right. He only had a scratch om his face from the airbag I think, but otherwise no visible injuries from the collision. He breathes regularly. I now automatically assume that he has the flu because he has such a high fever. You know how to act as a firefighter or should I call Colin or Shannae, is it enough to keep him warm because he’s shivering while his skin glows or are we overheating him?”

“We?”

“Yes, Yor is keeping him warm now and I’ve put an extra blanket over him. Too much, perhaps?”

“I would take the extra blanket off him. Otherwise, he won’t be able to get rid of the heat. But sweating is good, so keep warm. Try to get him to drink a lot.”

“That’s going to be a thing.”

“If he hasn’t woken up by tomorrow, I would call Colin or Shannae. He wasn’t looking weird, was he? Strange crack in his neck or something?”

“No, not at all, gosh I shouldn’t have moved him, should I? I think he had crashed into it in slow motion. Just hard enough to pop that airbag out. I hadn’t even heard a car.”

“If you don’t trust it, call right away.”

“I do, thanks Ian. I’m going to make a cup of tea now. And make soup, I guess. I haven’t eaten yet and when that man wakes up, he might like something too. If he wakes up. Oh Ian, I didn’t bring any blankets so he lay in the snow for an hour with that feverish body.”

“Didn’t he wear a coat?”

“Yes, and a scarf and hat.”

“Well, at least his body hasn’t overheated from the fever.”

“Not funny.”

“No, I’m not kidding, plus you couldn’t help it that he put his car against your tree in this weather and a sick body, could you? But then you have to remove that extra blanket from him now, otherwise he will still overheat”

“Yes, okay. Is true. Oh shit.”

“What’s it?”

“I’ve got to get that blanket off quick.”

“Well, hurry up then and go make your tea and your soup. Keep me posted. Goodbye sister.”

“Bye, brother.” She hung up. What a sweetheart he was.

The blanket was taken of, at least pushed aside because Yor was lying on it. Now she was finally going to make the tea and soup. Mushroom soup. She took the ingredients from the fridge, grabbed a pan from the cupboard and a cutting board and started to cut mushrooms, leeks, onions and carrots. She filled the kettle with hot water and put some oil in the pan. When it was hot enough, she threw in the onions. After they were caramelized, she added the rest of the vegetables. She also took Some forest mushrooms from the fridge and tore them into pieces over the pan and dropped it in. Just let it bake, add some spices, she wouldn’t make it too spicy because if you have a fever it can’t be good, she thought, to get it even hotter. Or maybe it’s good to sweat out the fever. Pfff she didn’t know. A bit in between then. And add garlic for blood purification. So musn’t forget to put dried blackberry leaves in his tea to detoxify. She was so busy with the soup, sautéing the vegetables that she didn’t hear Yorrie calling her. He suddenly got through to her and she was terribly frightened. Something wrong with the man? “What’s wrong, where are you?”

“Still with the man, but he’s starting to be delirious, I think it’s getting too hot now that we’re all on the bed.”

“All? Did the kittens come to lie with you too?”

“Yes, they asked if they could help.”

“I’ll run upstairs to get some wet washcloths. Be there in a minute.” Lynn ran up the stairs to the cozy bathroom and pulled open the drawer under the sink to grab four washcloths. She wet two of them and squeezed them well. On the way to the stairs, she was suddenly on her knees. Pff not the right moment. She got up again and held onto the banister as she walked down. The spiral staircase was in the kitchen, where she put the other two washcloths for later, in case they were needed. She didn’t know.

“How is he doing now?” she asked as she walked into the bedroom. “Well, he sweats a lot and mumbles all the time.”

“Sweating is good, right? They say you have to sweat it out, don’t they?”

“I don’t know,” Yorrie muttered. Lynn put a cold washcloth on the man’s head and a jolt went through him.

“Oh dear, could it be too cold?” With the other washcloth, she dabbed his neck and neck as best she could. “Jeez, he’s all wet. I’ll have to take off his jersey too.” The kettle began to scream. “Oh that too”.

She ran to the kitchen and turned off the fire. Just in time to save the vegetables she was baking. She sighed... I really can’t do anything at the same time. I’m not a real woman, she grimaced. While she was there, she made the herbal tea with the blackberry leaf, chamomile, to relax, and cinnamon, to support his liver. After steeping, she added a little cold water and honey as natural antibiotics. And a glass of lukewarm water to cool his body down a bit. Hopefully she could wake him up enough to swallow. She took the dry washcloths and moistened them. With the washcloths, the tea and the water, Lynn carefully walked to the bedroom. “Thank you, my dears,” she said to the kittens, “I think you can go now, can I count on your help again if necessary?”

“Sure, the bed is comfortable,” Moon joked.

“I’m going to cool off in the barn,” Yorrie said.

“I’ll walk with you, otherwise it will be so cold inside.” Lynn let Yorrie out and went back to take of the sweater and try to feed the man water and tea. Luckily he swallowed, but she couldn’t get more than a few sips down.

Then she went back to the kitchen to finish the soup. She squeezed in the garlic, salt, pepper, pinch of cayenne pepper, turmeric, sautéed a few tablespoons of buckwheat flour for binding and filling, and added hot water from the cauldron. Just fifteen minutes of steeping and finally eating. “We like something too.” Lynn watched the cats look up at her at their empty food bowls.

“Oh, I forgot you all. Sorry, it turned out to be such a totally different evening than I thought it would be.”

“Doesn’t matter, we’re just asking for it. But after that you have to eat yourself, otherwise you’ll get the bill tomorrow and you’ll have to take care of that man too.”

“You mustn’t parrot Ian,” Lynn grumbled. She grabbed the cat kibble and figured that she would first have to look in the man’s jacket pocket for an ID. Or in his trousers because men usually had their wallets in their back pockets. “Please, bon appetit, I’m going to see if I can find his ID.”

She walked to his bedroom first, not feeling like the cold of the garage, grabbed his pants from the chair, searched the pockets and what she thought, his wallet was in his back pocket. Then it suddenly occurred to her that the coat, which seemed quite expensive, was lying on the sled like a rag. Now she still had to go out into the cold . First, she would try to give the man a drink. Carefully she lifted him up a little, reached for the glass, now cold, tea, next to the bed on the table and gently held it to his lips. He seemed a little more awake than half an hour ago and drank quite greedily. Fortunately, there was already some life in him. Later she would try it again.

Now she went to the garage to hang up the coat. To her surprise, the coat hung neatly next to hers. Well, let’s live more consciously from now on. She became busy and forgetful. The chickens sang softly sleepy sounds. She always thought it sounded like the sounds of Gizmo from the Gremlins movie. So sweet.

She immediately put the sled back in its place and then walked on to the kitchen, where it smelled delicious, to pour a nice cup of soup. With the soup and a gluten-free cracker with hummus and cucumber, she walked to the couch. First eat and then turn the bench towards the fire... winter mode. That’s really it, all of a sudden. It had been quite mild up to that point with even occasional warm days. An Indian Summer feeling. The relaxarmchair in front of the window so she could also look outside. With those shutters closed, she felt very trapped and vulnerable: she couldn’t see outside. Normally she left the slats open, but because of the storm she had closed them too. Nobody came here, but she still wanted to see it for herself. Keep an eye on it. Maybe she would open the shutters a little bit on the side where the wind was a little less. Later, when she finished her soup. Take a breath. Zennnn. She folded her feet next to her on the couch. Pff just breathe in and out. Just a moment to calm down. Hey nice soup…