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cold, Robby started to heat up with the effort. When the fence ended, Sam cut across Irwin’s yard. They saw a faint light coming from his living room window as they approached.
    They huddled on Irwin Dyer’s porch. Sam pounded on the door. When he didn’t get a response, Sam unzipped his hood and pressed his ear against the door. Paulie took down his hood as well.
    “Anything?” asked Paulie.
    “What?” asked Sam.
    “Did you hear anything?” Paulie yelled.
    “Nope," Sam said, shaking his head, “nothing.”
    He pounded again. This time the door knocker bounced with each blow.
    “See if you can see anything," Sam said. He pointed Paulie to the living room window. Paulie leaned out over the porch railing and cupped his hands up to the glass to peer inside.
    “Nothing," Paulie said.  
    “He won’t mind if we let ourselves in," Sam said.
    Sam cracked open the door a bit and yelled inside. "Irwin? Ya home? It’s Sam Pierce here.” He looked back to Paulie, shrugged, and then pushed the door open.
    Robby had never visited Mr. Dyer’s living room, and never entered the house through the front door. They usually came in through his mud room when they visited Irwin, because they were usually returning one of his wandering dogs. Mr. Dyer didn’t let the dogs in the living room either.
    They knocked the snow off their boots the best they could, but they dragged a lot in with them. The folds of their clothing held secret caches of powder that fell to the carpet as they entered.
    “Irwin?” yelled Sam.
    Paulie closed the door behind them. A single lantern, much like the one they’d left hanging in the kitchen with Sarah, lit the living room.  
    “Mr. Dyer?” yelled Paulie. “You here?”
    “Why didn’t I think to bring a flashlight?” asked Sam.
    “Here you go, dad,” Robby said. He fished a flashlight out of his jacket pocket.
    “And you didn’t want him to come,” Sam said to Paulie.
    “You know what I meant," Paulie said. He smiled at Robby.
    Sam crossed through to the dining room and clicked on the flashlight. “Well, where’s old Irwin? He’s probably just in the kitchen, getting his supper ready," Sam said. He pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen. He paused in the doorway and turned back to address Paulie and Robby. "You coming? I thought we were going to stick together.”
    “Hey," Paulie said, “do you think we should just go through his house like this? Seems strange just letting ourselves in to poke around.”
    “If Irwin turns up, I’ll apologize for all of us, don’t you worry. He went back a ways with my dad, your dad too. I think we owe it to him to make sure he’s okay, in light of the circumstances. At the very least, we’ve got a real bad storm that’s popped up and the power’s out.”
    Paulie nodded and followed.
    The kitchen was dark, cold, and empty. The door to the mudroom stood half open and a few inches of snow had drifted in. Sam walked through the room slowly, pointing his flashlight left and right, not wanting to miss any details. Robby found a battery-powered lantern on the table. It gave off a thin blue glow and a low buzz.
    “Back door’s open," Sam said. The kitchen featured a little mudroom off the back. The door to the outside stood wide open and the mudroom floor was covered with a fresh drift of snow.  
    Sam closed the outer door as far as it would go against the windrow.
    “Looks like someone left and didn’t intend to come back," Paulie said.
    “Maybe they were just raised in a barn," Sam said, smiling. “It has to happen sometimes. Everyone talks about it. Seriously though, he’s got to be around here somewhere. He wouldn’t just abandon his house and go out fucking around in a blizzard.”
    “And his dogs,” Robby said. “They must be around too.”
    “So where would he go, Robby?” Sam asked his son.
    “I’m sorry?” Robby asked. He stared at the little drift of snow, which now had a big clean arc drawn through it from the