“I got to see your dick one time, when you got out of the shower and the door wasn’t shut tight,” I said. “It was a year ago.”

“Oh, and you been dreaming about it ever since,” he said hopefully.

“Well, actually…yes. But don’t get a swelled head.”

“That’s not the head that’s swelling.”

“So I feel.” I licked my thumb and ran it over the lower head.

“Oh, God.”

I did it again.

He just drew in his breath this time. “Keep doing that,” he said.

So I did, and then he found something to do to me that I liked, and we traded like that until we were ready to join again. This time was even better, and we reached the climax at the same time. I thought we would pound each other into pieces. This time he fell asleep almost as soon as we were through, and after I’d used his sweatshirt again, I did, too.

I was so deeply asleep the huge crash came as a complete surprise to me. In fact, it scared me so much I almost started screaming.

“Tree came down,” said Tolliver. “It was a tree. Hold on, baby, it wasn’t on us.”

We scrambled into all our clothes. Tolliver rejected the sweatshirt with the simple remark “Damp,” and found his suitcase by patting the area where it was supposed to be. He fished out another one, he told me, and I heard him fumbling around further. I’d gotten out of the bed on the other side and I was feeling the floor for my boots.

With lots of “Oops” and “Where are you? I found the flashlight,” we finally connected and went to the window. Tolliver switched the flash on, and we looked outside. It was one of the big searchlight kind, and he’d gotten it at Wal-Mart that afternoon. It showed us that the pine tree the Hamiltons had been so worried about had indeed fallen under the weight of the ice. But due to some force we couldn’t fathom, it had fallen at an angle and blocked the Hamiltons’ driveway instead. I had an awful feeling their car was under it.

“Does their roof look okay?” I asked. But we couldn’t tell.

“I guess I have to go to over and check on them,” Tolliver said.

“I’ll come,” I said.

“No, you won’t. Not with a broken arm, you’re not getting out there to walk around on slick ice. If there’s something wrong over there, I’ll come back and get you,” he said. “Hey, how’s your arm feeling? We didn’t bump it too much?”

“No, it’s pretty good.”

“So I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I really couldn’t argue with his reasons for wanting me to stay behind. It made sense.