Finally, Sallie came to full consciousness, repeating Ola's name in a voice just above a whisper. Ola crawled from the quilt, picked up two lengths of cordwood, and pushed them into the fire. When she came back to Sallie, Sallie was holding the quilt open for her. They held each other and rocked until, lulled by the fire, exhausted by effort, they both fell asleep.

In the morning, they were embarrassed to wake up naked, Ola holding Sallie's back to her chest and stomach. Neither was willing to crawl from under the quilt to find clothing. Ola would start to get up, pulling the quilt with her, Sallie holding on to her side of the quilt, and then Ola would give up and lie back down, and they would laugh, embarrassed about being embarrassed.

Finally, Ola May slithered out from under the quilt and crawled on hands and knees to the woodbox to gather kindling for the few remaining embers of the fire. She crawled over to the trunk, where there was a thick flannel robe of Granny Jane's. Always she felt the eyes of Sallie on her, too bold and curious to look away.

Ola put water on to boil. “There's no other robe,” she said. “But I have a heavy coat you can wear.” Sallie was sitting upright now in front of the fire, the quilt pulled around her.

“I'm all right,” she said.

They sipped tea and looked at each other, neither quite sure what to say. “You gave me quite a scare,” Ola said at last.

Sallie smiled and reddened. “I didn't think it would be that bad. There was only some clouds when I set off, then a bit of snow. I didn't think much of it. I was over halfway into the canyon when the ice came. Here was the closest place. I sat under a tree for a while and tried to wait it out, but when I saw it wasn't letting up, I came on up.”

“Thank God for that.”

“No. Thank you for that. I would have died. I know that. I don't remember much. Seeing the cabin in the clearing. You talking to me, though I don't know what you said, only that you talked. And then the fire, and you holding me. I remember that.”

Ola May reddened further. “You were just ice.”

“And you were fire. And you saved me. You melted me.”

“I didn't know what to do. I was afraid to let you go. I was afraid you would die.”

“No. No. You wouldn't let me die. You kept me here.” Sallie rose from the chair she had been sitting in and took a step toward Ola, who rose, too, and tried to turn the other way, away from the fire, toward the open room when Sallie stepped in front of her. “You saved me. You're my true friend, you're my life.”