Chapter 1
With the excitement of the holidays over, the cold settling in on a planned month of quiet seemed to deepen the usual January chill. My grocery lists were much shorter, meal planning only taking a few hours a day, and prep was fast and easy. The manor was on winter break, as my boss Zach Frank, called it. No classes, no guests, just a few weeks of quiet after the stress of the holidays.
I had to admit that a break was nice. The handful of small holiday parties and last minute craft classes that turned into a gift exchange, had been sort of crazy. My days had become endless, dawn to dusk, cooking, planning, and even serving when the parties got too busy. The one thing I still took time for each week was taking food to the local food bank.
Once a week, the two local groceries closest to the house loaded up my little Matrix and sent me to the food bank. It was always canned goods and processed foods, but necessary. Often, I brought bread baskets of freshly made loaves, and these past few weeks, a mix of cookies and pies. The handful of families needing the food often waited for me on Wednesdays to get first dibs. A few of the other volunteers drove stuff out to those without transportation and the elderly who didn’t drive. People didn’t like to think their quiet towns or pockets of wealth housed those with food insecurity, but I’d found that it was a reality everywhere. Even in upstate New York, buried in a small tourist area with large plots of land. I always made sure there was enough for everyone. Those with nothing, and those with only a little.
Today one face had been absent. In fact, I hadn’t seen him in a few weeks. Rio wasn’t always at the food bank. I knew he lived in a trailer on a tiny piece of land that didn’t even have a road leading to it. He had a car, but it didn’t always work. In the nicer months he’d hike down and catch a ride. But with the heavy snow, and brutal wave of cold that had dropped over the weekend, maybe he hadn’t been able to come down. That worried me.
“Has anyone seen Rio?” I asked Diana as she helped unload the last of the boxes of canned goods from my car. The small crowd had already chosen their pies and cookies from my stash.
“Hey, Montana,” Jim called as he reached for the stack Diana brought to him. “Everyone has been gushing about how amazing your pies were for the holidays. How grateful they were to have them.”
I felt heat rise into my face. The compliments shouldn’t have embarrassed me. I was a trained chef. Pastries were a hobby to my cooking passion, and the holidays gave me opportunities to share my skills. The manor had even been open to the locals for a holiday dinner I’d prepared. That way everyone had a chance to have turkey, ham, and all the trimmings. We had to schedule times so we hadn’t been overcrowded, but the day had gone smoothly and the joy filled faces had made my holiday.
Sean, Zach’s fiancé, had helped create small gift baskets for everyone local filled with baked goods, small crafts like handkerchiefs, safety masks designed to be almost medical grade while still fun and cute, and wooden puzzle toys. I’d never met anyone more skilled at making things than Sean. He’d even helped me perfect a few recipes of some Chinese pastries and steamed buns that had become a favorite at the manor. I’d brought a couple dozen to the food bank this week and had been hoping to push a dozen or so off on Rio so I knew he was eating more than beans and ramen.
“Thank you,” I told Jim. “Have you seen Rio?”
“Not since Christmas at the manor,” Jim said.
Diana shook her head. “He hasn’t been in at all. I’ve been a bit worried. After we had that big drop in temperature, and he’s out so far… I know his car hasn’t been working for a while.”
I gnawed at my lip a bit in worry as I helped them stock the shelves. “I could drive up; it’s not that far past the manor, right?” I tried to recall the gravel trail that veered into the woods, but I had only ever driven past it. Would it be lost in the snow? He was only a mile or so from the main road; though far enough that he had no actual address. I wasn’t even sure he had power, and now that I thought about it, that worried me too. We’d hit single digits in the last week, dropping overnight below zero.
“It’s a bit of a hike from the road. You won’t be able to drive close at all,” Jim said. “Trees are too thick even when there isn’t snow. He’s probably hunkered down for the winter like he usually is.”
I tried to think back to last year, but I’d been new to the area, and hadn’t started the food bank runs yet. With the manor on holiday, and my new kitchen already stocked full, it wasn’t like I had a lot to do. I had a cooler full of food for the manor in the car, but it was just stuff I’d gotten on sale or in bulk to refill basics like flour, sugar, salt, a few pounds of steak, and a giant bag of rice. Taking the time to check on Rio wouldn’t set me back at all, and if it would stop the anxiety welling up in my stomach, that would be a bonus.
Of course, the thought that he might have gotten sick crossed my mind. Our small town has been very strict about mask guidelines, especially after a visitor showed up just before Thanksgiving bringing the virus with them. After a half dozen were infected, with the entire town up in arms and contract tracing, we’d shut it down fast. But maybe Rio hadn’t been so lucky. Maybe he had visitors over the holidays we didn’t know about. Which of course made me think back to our holiday party and how many people might have been exposed. The tables had been ten feet apart, windows open for ventilation, and masks required while people weren’t eating. Everything disinfected and sanitized to death. Zach worked hard to follow health guidelines to ensure the staff was safe even while feeding the community. The gift baskets we’d given out had provided at least a week’s worth of food. And since the staff had all been tested before and after the event, I hoped no one had it.
Though since it had been several weeks since Christmas, I thought it unlikely someone wouldn’t have displayed symptoms. Maybe Rio had been the unlucky one. That thought worried me even more.
“He doesn’t come down much in the winter,” Diana agreed. “It’s why we always let him take a little extra. He stocks up for the worst few months of the year. Poor guy still comes down in the spring looking like a skeleton.”
Rio hadn’t looked like a skeleton when he’d come to the holiday feast. He looked good. Wide through the shoulder, hair a bit long and wild, but clean and bright eyed. He looked of Greek or Italian ancestry but I didn’t know for sure. He had mentioned once to Zach that he’d been in the military, and used some sort of disability pay as his income. He’d grown up in New York City, that much I knew. I had tried not to be nosy, but couldn’t help watching him. He was pretty in a rugged way, like Zach was in a bear sort of way.
I’d probably made a fool of myself flirting. Being small, pretty, and the definition of a twink, I’d sort of naturally fallen into the fem boy habits I’d picked up working in the big city. Being flirty and cute used to bring in the guys like bees to honey. Didn’t work so well out here in the middle of nowhere. And I had to admit I was lonely.
Rio always smiled and nodded, at least appearing to listen. We’d never had long conversations, especially now that the virus scared most of us away from social situations. But I did try to make him feel like he wasn’t so alone.