Frozen Stiff Read Online Free PDF Page A

trying to warm him up,” Sherri told them. “They said they have to start from the inside, then go out. They can’t go too fast or he might die. What’s going to happen?”
    “We wait and see.” Deputy Watkins told her. “It’s a slow process.”
    Sherri sat down, but found it hard to stay sitting. She needed to call Danielle, but she wasn’t looking forward to the conversation. As much as she had tried to like Danielle, to get the young woman to like her, they had never hit it off. She alwayshad the feeling that Danielle was jealous of her. For the short time they had lived together, Sherri felt like the two of them were always vying for Dan’s attention and affection. The situation had been quite unnerving.
    “I’m going to step out and make a phone call,” Sherri said. “I have to call Dan’s daughter.”
    Amy stood up and said, “I’ll go with you.”
    This comment startled Sherri, then she realized they didn’t trust her. They felt they had to keep an eye on her. How could this get any worse?
    “Fine.” She didn’t really care. She hadn’t done anything wrong. When Dan revived, when he came back from the frozen depths, he would tell them that she hadn’t even been at the house over New Year’s. She didn’t need to worry. If he came back from the dead.
    She dug through her purse and pulled out her telephone book. It was a sign of how distant she and Danielle were that she hadn’t even taken the time to program it into her cell phone.
    The phone rang five times. Sherri was almost ready to hang up, not wanting to leave a message—what could she say—when it picked up.
    “Hey,” Danielle’s sleepy voice said.
    “Danielle, it’s Sherri.”
    “Yeah, what’s up?”
    “Listen, I’m sorry to be calling you like this but it’s your dad.”
    “What about my dad?” Danielle’s voice sounded more awake. Then Sherri heard another voice, a male voice asking a question.
    “There’s been an accident,” she might as well call it that until they knew more. It didn’t sound as dire.
    “With my dad? A car accident? What happened?” Danielle’s voice was lifting up, growing thinner.
    “I’m here at the hospital. It seems he got locked outside last night.”
    “What?”
    “Yes, well, he was taking a sauna and he went outside to cool off I guess and the door locked and he couldn’t get back in. He got hypothermia.”
    “What does that mean?”
    Sherri tried to think of how best to put it. “His body temperature dropped and he got so cold that he went into a coma.”
    “You mean like he froze?”
    “Yes. They’re trying to warm him up right now.”
    “He’s still alive?”
    “Yes, but I think it would be good if you came to the hospital.”
    “Where? Where is he?”
    “Durand. He’s in good hands.”
    The phone clicked off and then the empty line buzzed in her ear.
    Sherri leaned against the wall and cried. So like Danielle, she gets what she wants and then she hangs up. Even in this, her father in such a dreadful situation, Sherri would find no comfort from his daughter. If anything, the young woman would blame her somehow. Like Sherri should have been there, taking care of him. Then this wouldn’t have happened.
    Which was true.
    New Year’s Day: 1 pm
    A soft voice whispered in his ear, “The baby’s breathing on his own.”
    Clyde woke to find his wife Sara shaking him. He had fallen asleep sitting up in the hospital chair next to his daughter’s bed. He hadn’t heard his wife’s voice in a couple days. What a relief.
    “What?”
    “They’ve taken him off the ventilator. He’s breathing.”
    Being in the hospital always made him feel like he was swimming through water, everything moved at a different tempo, voices were muffled, the walls gave off an odd light. Clyde sat up and tried to come into the world. “That’s great.”
    “I think he’s going to make it. This little boy. Now if only Bonnie...”
    “She will,” he said, giving his wife the reassurance she