"Thanks for the ride," said Rainie.

"Nice to meet you," said Dougie.

"Nice to meet you," echoed the girl.

Rainie stood in the door and leaned in. "I never caught yourname," she said to the girl.

"I'm Rose. Never Rosie. Grandpa Spaulding picked the name,after his aunt who never married. I personally think the name suckspond scum, but it's better than Ida, don't you agree?"

"Definitely," said Rainie.

"Rosie," said Mr. Spaulding, in his warning voice.

"Good-night, Mr. Spaulding," said Rainie. "And thanks for theride."

He gave a snappy little salute in the air, as if he were touchingthe brim of a non-existent hat. "Any time," he said. She closed thedoor of the car and watched them drive away. Up in her room sheturned the heater on.

During the night the snow piled up a foot and a half deep andthe temperature got to ten below zero, but she was warm all night. Inthe morning she wondered if she should go to work. She knew Minniewould be there and Rainie wasn't about to have Minnie decide that her"new girl" was soft. She almost left the apartment with only her jacketfor warmth, but then she thought better and put on a sweater under it. She still froze, what with the wind blowing ground snow in her face.

At the cafe the talk was that four people died between Chicagoand St. Louis that night, the storm was so bad. But the cafe was openand the coffee was hot, and standing there looking out the window atthe occasional car passing by on the freshly plowed road, Rainierealized that in Louisiana and California she had never felt as warm asthis, to be in a cafe with coffee steaming and eggs sizzling on the grilland deadly winter outside, trying but failing to get at her.

When Mr. Spaulding came into the cafe for his lunch just afterone o'clock, Rainie thanked him again.

"For what?"

"For saving my life yesterday."