It was a cold snowy Thursday afternoon while I was driving to the little town of Graeagle, CA. I was on my way to a little general store to restock their paper back books, which was a once a month occurrence. The snow was really coming down and I was only about 5 miles from the town when I noticed my gas gage was on empty. I was in hopes that I could make it to the little town before nightfall and I could buy gas there before checking into the little motel. My car started sputtering and I knew it was now just working on fumes. I was able to pull the car over to a clearing in the road. I had not seen any cars passing in either direction and knew I might be stranded in this freezing situation during this snowstorm.

I figured the 5 miles was really quite a distance to walk and there was a possibility that I might freeze before I could reach the town. But, I couldn't just sit there in the car, so I decided to start walking. It was starting to turn dark now and I must have walked at least a mile and a half and I could feel the cold was soaking into my clothes. I was so cold that my muscles started to ache. As I walked along side of the road, in the distance, about 200 feet off the road, I could see a dim light. I figured I must at least see if there is some form of life and warmth at the light. As I neared the light, I could see a small cabin, smoke coming out the chimney and the dim light was coming from a window. I trudged my way through the deep snow and got to the cabin. I was shaking so much from the cold; I could barely knock on the door.

I knocked and a moment later, the door opened. There stood a big man, in his late 20s, looking at me as though I had come from another planet. "Hey," he said. "What are you doing out in this cold?" I told him that I had run out of gas about a mile or so away and I was making my way towards Graeagle. He said for me to come in and warm myself by the fire. I was shaking so much that I could hardly talk. He led me over to the fireplace and tossed a blanket over my shoulders. He said he'd get me a cup of hot coffee to warm my insides.

As I stood there looking around, the cabin seemed to be one huge room. The kitchen was tucked in one corner and a card table with 2 chairs, plunked in the middle of the room. There were 2 easy chairs with a small TV tray between them and over in the other corner, was a double bed, a dresser, and a free standing closet. There was a door that led to a bathroom that was on the front porch side of the house.

The big guy was about 6 foot 2 inches and came over to me with a hot mug of coffee and said he had put a shot of brandy in it to help hasten the warmth. I must have looked pathetic, standing there in a puddle of water that had dripped from my clothes because he said, "You'd better get out of those wet clothes and dry off." With that, he walked over