Free The Haunted Igloo by Bonnie Turner Page A

He
wasn’t as cold as before. He looked around him in the dark igloo
and saw, instead of watching eyes, a soft, peaceful blackness.
Outside, the wind still roared. He listened, not daring to move.
Yes, the wolves were gone. They had crept away to the bottom of his
mind. Then he heard barking.
    “ Sasha?” he called softly. “Where are
you, Sasha?”
    Sasha’s excited voice
filled the igloo.
    Jean-Paul reached out
blindly, trying to feel where she was. “Come on, come here,
girl!”
    Sasha barked again and again, and in a
moment she was washing his face with her warm, wet tongue. She
whined and nuzzled against him as he threw his arms around her
neck. Her cold nose brushed against his cheek, then she wiggled
away from him again.
    Jean-Paul forced himself to
move. He was stiff, but still able to stand. His crippled leg and
foot ached, the cold having seeped right into his bones. “Sasha?
Where did you go?”
    From a short distance away
came excited yelps. And in his mind, Jean-Paul could almost see
Sasha’s tail wagging. Something was making that dog very happy! He
moved toward the sounds, his hands outstretched like those of a
blind person. He was surprised when Sasha bounded against him, her
front paws striking him in the chest. He staggered, but kept his
balance. He reached down and rubbed her head. “What are you doing
over here, Sasha?
    Wh—?” Strong wind blew
against Jean-Paul’s legs. He dropped to his knees, landing in a
pile of snow. “You dug us out!” he cried.
    Jean-Paul thrust his head
into the small opening. Cold air slapped him in the face as the
fierce wind blew in through the hole.
    Jean-Paul knew he had to
get home. He had no idea what time it was, but one thing was sure:
Chinook, Aiverk, and Nanuk hadn’t come back as they had promised.
How could he face them again? When they returned, he would already
be gone. At school they would call him a baby, for leaving the
igloo before the time was up. Now he would never be able to join
Ice Patrol.
    Pushing those thoughts from
his mind, he lay down on his stomach and inched through the small
opening, with Sasha following on her own belly. Outside at last, he
staggered against the force of the wind and driving snow. Jean-Paul
was shocked to see how the weather had changed while he was inside
the igloo. A blizzard had blown up and raged full force, battering
him from all sides. More than once he was thrown to his knees. But
each time, he gathered courage and got back up. He couldn’t see
where he was going. Which way was the trail? He knew where it
should have been, but in the storm there was no way to find it. All
around him lay frozen death. What normally was pure and beautiful
had now become ugly and cruel.
    Jean-Paul staggered hunched over, going, he
thought, in the direction of home. There were no stars or moon to
light the way. Sasha ran ahead through the deep snow. Jean-Paul
tried to follow in her tracks. He listened for her voice, moving
slowly against the wind.
    The snow came up past his
knees, and with one leg weaker than the other, it was too hard to
move. He would somehow manage to free himself, then sink again with
the very next step. It was like walking in a lake of soft ice
cream. His crippled foot hurt, the ankle turning inward more than
usual, making him lose his balance. He fell often, on hands and
knees and face. Then he got up and plodded on. There was but one
thought on his mind: Dogs don’t get lost.
Sasha will take me home.

    ____________

    C ordell wound the thongs of his fur boots firmly around his
calves as Lise watched nervously.
    “ It’s nearly nine!” she cried. “Where
is he, Cordell?”
    Cordell arose and yanked
his parka from the peg. He was angry and frustrated as he thrust
his long arms into the sleeves. No one has
any business outdoors on a night like this ! What fool would leave a cozy fire to
go out in a blizzard ? I must be crazy !
    Cordell was dressed for ten
blizzards. From the inside out were layered heavy