Cabin Fever

Prompt: Write a story about being snowed in.



Overnight temperatures plummeted by forty degrees and a blizzard forcefully struck the remote farm.

Aware only of the power outage, Lizzie stoked the Franklin stove, pulled open the back door and stepped outside.  As soon as she turned the corner of the house, she couldn’t believe the wonderland that spread before her.  Huge drifts of snow were mounded against everything upright.  The hayfield was frosted with jellyrolls of wind-blown snow.

“Thank goodness, the door was on the leeward side,“ she muttered.  “Regardless, the animals have to be fed.”  Breathing heavily she pushed her way through chest-high levels to reach the barn.

After giving them each a measure of grain and tossing some hay into the mangers, she milked the Guernsey and trudged back her previous path.  At the doorstep, she stamped her booted feet before opening the door.

Inside, she shed her outerwear and shivered.  At least the gas is working. I won’t have to try cooking on the woodstove. She lit the burner and put on the coffeepot. 

While waiting for the coffee to perk, she picked up the phone to call her nearest neighbor, but the line was dead.

“Can’t talk to anyone, can’t go anywhere, might as well be the last person on earth,” she mumbled.


As day dragged after day, Lizzie became ever more depressed.  There was nothing to break the monotony of chores, chores and more chores.

“I feel like I’m going stark raving mad!  House to the barn and back; how much longer before they figure out I’m still out here?”

On the tenth day, she finally heard the snowplow.  Yanking on her coat and boots she ran outside and stood waving both arms in the air as he passed with a nod and a smile.

Word Count: 293