He'd never taken them off. He was on his feet before the cabin stopped vibrating, before the light over the tiny kitchen table stopped swinging. He grabbed his coat from the rack by the door and was outside with a mega bright flashlight before I had even thrown off the afghan and started looking for my shoes. "Wait!" I shouted. Right. Because what I really wanted to do was run out into the freezing night after whatever had caused that. But that's what I did. Rick was outside laughing. OK, good. Great. Wonderful. My host had lost it. Something like a comet had just hit the cabin and he was laughing. "What was that?" I shouted. From where I stood, I could see a few other people from the circle of cabins coming out to investigate. For a few minutes the moonlit snow was full of was full of voices and shouted questions and answers. No one seemed upset like I was. My panic rode high in my throat, making me cough around it. The evident lack of concern from everybody else was just obnoxious. They were all acting like it was a party.
