Two Strangers Knocked During a Christmas Outage. The Moment They Gave Their Names, I Knew Something Was Wrong.

him back from somewhere distant. “Up the road,” he said, his voice rough. “A mile, maybe. Hard to tell in the snow.”

“A mile in this weather?” I glanced toward the door, toward the wind that hadn’t let up. “How long were you outside walking?”

Marian’s voice came out small and ashamed. “Too long. We didn’t realize how far it was until we were already continue reading …