The thoughts came more clearly to him now as he woke up. It was a safe house, a chalet near one of the ski slopes. Seth felt his muscles relax as it all came back to him.

Zoe made a small mewing sound in her sleep and snuggled closer to him. He looked at her face and wondered what she was dreaming about. It didn’t matter, he thought, as long as it wasn’t a nightmare.

She looked so vulnerable, he thought. So fragile. Yet he knew how tough she had had to be to survive her ordeal. Had it changed her? Of course it had, he told himself. Would it change them?

He thought about that one for a long while and finally conceded that the experiences of the past six months couldn’t fail to have changed their relationship. He consoled himself with the thought that changes didn’t have to be bad.

Gently he touched her; he caressed the outlines of her face, softly ran his hand along her shoulder and up the soft vulnerable curve of her neck where wisps of hair curled in provocative disarray. It was as if by touching her he could retrace the memories and put himself back into the past. He heard her voice from the previous night:

It’s a miracle!

Was it? He wondered. Did God have some purpose here, or was there just no damn God and they were being jerked around by chance in a random world? He wanted to thank God, but the sentiment wouldn’t come.

Zoe awakened slowly.

She drifted upward through layers of sleep like a diver in no hurry to reach the surface. She caught the world a fragment at a time: first the light gentle touches like kisses on her shoulders and neck, then the bright morning light of the new day.

She stirred and threw her leg across Seth’s flat belly, nuzzling closer to him. She felt his hands along her back, caressing, exploring. His touch lingered at the small of her back and then moved lower. She felt herself growing moist. And she felt him growing hard against the back of the leg she had thrown across his belly.

She opened her eyes when he kissed her just behind her left ear. And in her left ear. She quivered.

“Good morning,” she said, her voice fuzzy with sleep.

“It sure is,” he said.

They kissed, exploring with their tongues like first-time lovers. And then all control vanished.

They made love as if it were the first time… or the last. The sun rose in the sky and turned its faint rosy tint into the glaring brilliance of a clear alpine day. But neither of them noticed the passage of time. They were in a place where time could not touch them. It was a place where people never grew old, never suffered, never died. Only a fool would ever trade this place for heaven.

And finally, they slept again, warmed and exhausted and refreshed. Zoe slept as she always had, with her head on Seth’s right shoulder, her body pressed into the hard angles of his body. He held her with his right arm and fell asleep with his head resting against hers.