Although the sky was clear, the snow was three feet deep on the ground when Samuel returned from his Saturday grocery shopping expedition. He had purchased seven TV dinners, a loaf of bread, a package of lunchmeat, a box of cereal, and a quart of milk. After putting away his groceries, he went to his bed and sat down. He stared at the wall without moving.
The elderly woman stopped her car in front of the entrance to the apartment complex. She looked down at a sheet of paper and checked the address. She turned into the parking lot and drove around looking for a specific apartment number. She finally parked next to a white pickup truck.
Rather than immediately getting out of her car, the woman sat there staring at the apartment door trying to work up her nerve to approach it. She almost drove off, but didn't. She finally got out of the car and approached the apartment door. It was the only walk that was completely cleared of snow. She shivered when a frigidly cold gust of wind hit her.
Samuel had been staring at the distant wall for thirty minutes when there was a knock on the door. He slowly rose and went to the door. He opened the door and looked at the woman standing there. She was bundled up in a heavy coat. Her gray hair was cut short in a utilitarian fashion and was nearly covered by a little knit cap. He didn't say a word; he just stared at her.
After looking into Samuel's eyes for a second, the woman took a step back. She had expected to see anger, but not that dead expression. In a quivering voice, she said, "Sammy."
"Leave," Samuel said and then closed the door. He returned to his bed and stared at the wall.
The woman knocked on the door and shouted, "Sammy!"
When he didn't open the door, she sat down on the ground crying. Plaintively, she said, "Sammy. It's me. Open the door. I'm your mother."
The woman sat outside his apartment knocking on the door and calling out his name to no effect. The arctic blasts of wind finally drove her to seek shelter from the freezing cold. It was a defeated woman who made her way back to her car. She sat in it with the engine running for half an hour. She cried uncontrollably throughout that time. After getting control over her tears, she took one last look at the apartment door and then drove away.
Several hours later, Samuel ate a TV dinner and drank a glass of milk. He washed the dishes and then sat at the table. Breaking from his normal routine, he picked up a pen and started writing in the notebook.
When it seemed that the temperature could not get any colder, it just got colder. The thermometer registered temperatures near zero degrees with a wind that was gusting up to thirty miles per hour. The walls of the apartment complex did not seem up to the task of keeping the cold out of the building. The occupants huddled under blankets and crowded around space heaters trying to keep warm.
In one of the apartments, a woman with dirty blond hair went to the bathroom leaving her young son alone in the living room watching a cartoon on the television. It was one of his favorites and would distract him for a good thirty minutes. Despite the chill in the room she took a shower. This was going to be a special night with her boyfriend and she had to get ready for her date before the baby sitter arrived. She hoped that something a little more permanent would emerge from the evening with her lover. It was hard being a single mother.
Thinking that his stuffed animal was cold, the little boy put it on the space heater. He made several trips upstairs to get his other stuffed animals and piled them on the heater. On the last trip upstairs, he found a toy car that he hadn't played with in ages. Sitting down on the floor he pushed the toy car around making little car noises.
The woman ended her shower and dried off. She left the bathroom and went into her bedroom to dress in her date clothes. She was going all out for this date. She put on her best lacy undergarments. She debated for a moment and then decided to wear real stockings rather than panty hose. She covered the sexy package with a slinky black dress.
She was modeling her dress in the mirror when she smelled something. It took her several seconds to recognize the odor. Looking around, she tried to figure out what was burning. She opened her bedroom door and saw smoke coming up the stairs.
Frantic, she ran to the top of the stairs and looked down. Thick dark waves of smoke billowed up the stairwell. Barely visible through the smoke were flames. It looked like the entire lower floor was on fire.
"Baby!" she screamed heading down the stairs where she believed her son was watching television. She ran through the flames getting serious burns on her legs. In the thick smoke, she frantically tried to find her son. She stumbled across the front door and went outside hoping that her son had fled the burning room.
The little boy heard his mother screaming and looked up from his toy car. He saw the smoke. Scared, he headed under the bed to hide from the fire.
Samuel heard cries of fire from outside his apartment. He put on a coat and went outside. A crowd was gathered in front of an apartment that was near the mailboxes. Two men were holding a woman who was struggling to escape their grasp. More people came out of their apartments to see what was happening.